Donald F. Glut
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Donald F. Glut (; born February 19, 1944) is an American writer, motion picture film director, and
screenwriter A screenplay writer (also called screenwriter, scriptwriter, scribe or scenarist) is a writer who practices the craft of screenwriting, writing screenplays on which mass media, such as films, television programs and video games, are based. ...
. He is best known for writing the novelization of the second ''
Star Wars ''Star Wars'' is an American epic film, epic space opera multimedia franchise created by George Lucas, which began with the Star Wars (film), eponymous 1977 film and quickly became a worldwide popular culture, pop-culture Cultural impact of S ...
'' film, '' The Empire Strikes Back''.


Filmmaker


Amateur career

From 1953 to 1969, Glut made a total of 41 amateur films, on subjects ranging from dinosaurs, to unauthorized adaptations of such characters as
Superman Superman is a superhero who appears in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character was created by writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster, and debuted in the comic book ''Action Comics'' #1 (cover-dated June 1938 and publi ...
,
The Spirit The Spirit is a fictional masked crimefighter created by cartoonist Will Eisner. He first appeared June 2, 1940, as the main feature of a 16-page, tabloid (paper size), tabloid-sized, newsprint comic book insert distributed in the Sunday editio ...
, and
Spider-Man Spider-Man is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer-editor Stan Lee and artist Steve Ditko, he first appeared in the anthology comic book '' Amazing Fantasy'' #15 (August 1962) in the ...
. Due to publicity he received in the pages of Forrest J Ackerman's magazine '' Famous Monsters of Filmland'', Glut was able to achieve a degree of notoriety based on his work. This allowed him to increase the visibility of his films by obtaining the services of known actors such as Kenne Duncan and
Glenn Strange George Glenn Strange (August 16, 1899 – September 20, 1973) was an American actor who mostly appeared in Western films and was billed as Glenn Strange. He is best remembered for playing Frankenstein's monster in three Universal films d ...
, who reprised his most famous role as the Frankenstein Monster for Glut. His final amateur film was 1969's ''Spider-Man'', after which he moved into professional work full-time. On October 3, 2006, Epoch Cinema released a two-DVD set of all 41 of Glut's amateur films titled ''I Was A Teenage Moviemaker.'' The total running time of both DVDs is 480 minutes, and includes a documentary about the making of those films, with interviews with Forrest J Ackerman,
Randal Kleiser John Randal Kleiser (born July 20, 1946) is an American film and television director, producer, screenwriter and actor, best known for directing the 1978 musical romantic-comedy film '' Grease''. Biography John Randal Kleiser was born in Lebanon ...
, Bob Burns, Jim Harmon, Scott Shaw,
Paul Davids Paul Davids is an American independent filmmaker and writer, especially in the area of science fiction. Often collaborating with his wife Hollace, Davids has written and directed several films. He has also written episodes for the television seri ...
, Bill Warren, and others.


Professional career

Over the next decades, Glut pursued a variety of professions in the entertainment field. He worked heavily as a screenwriter, mostly in children's television on shows such as ''
Shazam! Shazam () may refer to: Comic book franchise * Captain Marvel (DC Comics), also known as Shazam, a superhero character published by Fawcett Comics and DC Comics ** Shazam (wizard), a character from the ''Shazam!/Captain Marvel'' comics, who give ...
'', ''
Land of the Lost Land of the Lost may refer to: * Land of the Lost (1974 TV series), ''Land of the Lost'' (1974 TV series), the original 1974 children's television series * Land of the Lost (1991 TV series), ''Land of the Lost'' (1991 TV series), the 1991 remake of ...
'', ''
Spider-Man Spider-Man is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer-editor Stan Lee and artist Steve Ditko, he first appeared in the anthology comic book '' Amazing Fantasy'' #15 (August 1962) in the ...
'', ''
Transformers ''Transformers'' is a media franchise produced by American toy company Hasbro and Japanese toy company Takara Tomy. It primarily follows the Autobots and the Decepticons, two alien robot factions at war that can transform into other forms, suc ...
'', ''
Challenge of the GoBots ''Challenge of the GoBots'' (or ''GoBots'' for short) is an American animated series produced by Hanna-Barbera, based on the GoBots toyline released from Tonka. The show was first broadcast in syndication on September 8, 1984, then the show joine ...
'', ''
Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends may refer to the following shows: * ''Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends'' (1981 TV series), a 1981 cartoon series * ''Spidey and His Amazing Friends'' (2021 TV series), a 2021 Disney Junior cartoon {{Disam ...
'', '' DuckTales'', ''
Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle ''Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle'' is an American animated series created by the Filmation studio for Saturday mornings on CBS, starting in 1976. This was the first animated series about the jungle hero. There are 36 episodes produced over four seas ...
'', '' The Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians'', '' G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero'', ''
X-Men The X-Men are a superhero team appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics, first appearing in Uncanny X-Men, ''The X-Men'' #1 by artist/co-plotter Jack Kirby and writer/editor Stan Lee in 1963. Although initially cancelled in ...
'', and many more. He also claimed to have created some of the characters and much of the back story for the ''
Masters of the Universe ''Masters of the Universe'' (sometimes referred to as the ''He-Man'' or ''She-Ra'' series) is a sword and planet-themed media franchise created by Mattel. The main premise revolves around the conflict between He-Man (the alter ego of Prince Ada ...
'' toy line, which served as the basis for the TV show. With the release of 1996's ''Dinosaur Valley Girls'', Glut began a professional directing career that has seen him helm several exploitation-style films, such as ''The Erotic Rites of Countess Dracula'' (2001), ''The Mummy's Kiss'' (2003), ''Countess Dracula's Orgy of Blood'' (2004), ''The Mummy's Kiss: 2nd Dynasty'' (2006), and ''Blood Scarab'' (2007). More recently he wrote and directed ''Dances with Werewolves'' (2017) and ''Tales of Frankenstein'' (2018).


Writer

Having been a classmate of
George Lucas George Walton Lucas Jr. (born May 14, 1944) is an American filmmaker. Lucas is best known for creating the ''Star Wars'' and ''Indiana Jones'' franchises and founding Lucasfilm, LucasArts, Industrial Light & Magic and THX. He served as chairm ...
at the
University of Southern California The University of Southern California (USC, SC, or Southern Cal) is a Private university, private research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1880 by Robert M. Widney, it is the oldest private research university in C ...
, Glut wrote the novelization of ''The Empire Strikes Back'' (1980). Glut has written approximately 65 published books, both novels and nonfiction, plus numerous children's books based on franchises. Many of his nonfiction books have been about dinosaurs, including ''Dinosaur Dictionary'' and the ''Dinosaurs: The Encyclopedia'' series of reference works. Glut created and wrote several series for Western Publishing's line of Gold Key Comics including ''
The Occult Files of Dr. Spektor ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the ...
'', '' Dagar the Invincible'', and '' Tragg and the Sky Gods''. At
Marvel Comics Marvel Comics is an American comic book publishing, publisher and the flagship property of Marvel Entertainment, a divsion of The Walt Disney Company since September 1, 2009. Evolving from Timely Comics in 1939, ''Magazine Management/Atlas Co ...
, he wrote ''
Captain America Captain America is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by cartoonists Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, the character First appearance, first appeared in ''#Golden Age, Captain America Comics'' #1 (cover ...
'', ''The
Invaders ''InVader'' is the fourth album by Finnish glam metal band Reckless Love, released on 4 March 2016 through Spinefarm Records. Track listing All songs written by Olli Herman, Pepe Reckless, and Ikka Wirtanen, unless otherwise noted. Reception Wr ...
'', '' Kull the Destroyer'', ''
Solomon Kane Solomon Kane is a fictional character created by the pulp magazine, pulp-era writer Robert E. Howard. A late-16th-to-early-17th century Puritan, Solomon Kane is a somber-looking man who wanders the world with no apparent goal other than to vanqu ...
,'' ''
Star Wars ''Star Wars'' is an American epic film, epic space opera multimedia franchise created by George Lucas, which began with the Star Wars (film), eponymous 1977 film and quickly became a worldwide popular culture, pop-culture Cultural impact of S ...
'', and '' What If...?''. His work for Warren Publishing included '' Creepy'', '' Eerie'', and '' Vampirella''. More recently, Glut has been working for Warrant Publishing Company, a company that is publishing magazines as an homage to Warren Publishing's past work using similar layouts and artwork. Glut is working as an associate editor and writer on some of Warrant's homage titles such as ''The Creeps'' and ''Vampiress Carmarilla''.'http://www.thecreepsmagazine.com


Musician

1967–1968 Glut played bass for The Penny Arkade. They recorded only one album, produced by Michael Nesmith of the Monkees. The album was not released until 2004 as a limited
Record Store Day Record Store Day is an annual event inaugurated in 2007 and held on one Saturday (typically the third) every April and every Black Friday in November to "celebrate the culture of the independently owned record store". The day brings together fa ...
LP/CD by Sundazed Records.


Selected bibliography


Books

*''The Dinosaur Dictionary'' (1972) *''The Frankenstein Legend: A Tribute to Mary Shelley and Boris Karloff'' (1973) *''The Dracula Book'' (1975) *''Spawn'' (#43) (1976) *''The Great Television Heroes'' (1975) *''The Dinosaur Scrapbook'' (1980) *''The Empire Strikes Back'' (1980) (novelization) *''The New Dinosaur Dictionary'' (1982) *''Classic Movie Monsters'' (1991) *''The Complete Dinosaur Dictionary'' (1992) *''Chomper'' (''Dinotopia'' No. 11) (2000) *''Jurassic Classics: A Collection of Saurian Essays and Mesozoic Musings'' (2000) *''The Frankenstein Archive: Essays on the Monster, the Myth, the Movies, and More'' (2002) *''True Vampires of History'' (1971) *''True Werewolves of History'' (2004) *''Shock Theatre, Chicago Style: WBKB-TV's Late Night Horror Showcase, 1957-1959'' (2012)


Comics bibliography


Archie Comics

* ''
Chilling Adventures in Sorcery In computing, CHILL (an acronym for CCITT High Level Language) is a procedural programming language designed for use in telecommunication switches (the hardware used inside telephone exchanges). The language is still used for legacy systems in ...
'' #4 (1973) * '' Mad House'' #95 (1974) * ''Red Circle Sorcery'' #8, 11 (1974–1975)


Charlton Comics

* ''
Ghost Manor ''Ghost Manor'' is a horror video game that was released by Xonox in 1983 for the Atari 2600 and VIC-20. It was generally packaged in a double ended cartridge and a cassette tape along with one of three other games in an effort to appeal to ...
'' #29 (1976) * ''
Ghostly Haunts ''Ghostly Haunts'' was an American horror-suspense anthology comic book series published by Charlton Comics from 1971 to 1978. The book was "hosted" by Winnie the Witch, a " moddish" blue-skinned witch. ''Ghostly Haunts'' was part of a wave of ne ...
'' #50 (1976) * ''
Ghostly Tales ''Ghostly Tales'' was a horror-suspense anthology comic book series published by Charlton Comics from 1966 to 1984 (though it was primarily a reprint title from 1978 onward). The book was "hosted" by Mr. L. Dedd (later changed to I. M. Dedd), a m ...
'' #125, 163 (1977–1983)


DC Comics

* ''
House of Mystery ''The House of Mystery'' is the name of several horror, fantasy, and mystery Comics anthologies published by DC Comics. It had a companion series, ''The House of Secrets''. It is also the name of the titular setting of the series. First serie ...
'' #227, 259, 290 (1974–1981) * '' House of Secrets'' #121 (1974)


Gold Key Comics/Western Publishing

* ''Dr. Spektor Presents Spine-Tingling Tales'' #1–4 (1975–1976) * ''Gold Key Spotlight'' #6, 8–9 (1977) * ''Grimm's Ghost Stories'' #24, 35, 38 (1975–1977) * ''The Little Monsters'' #27, 36, 38, 43–44 (1974–1978) * ''
Mystery Comics Digest ''Mystery Comics Digest'' was one of three digest size comics published by Gold Key Comics in the early 1970s. The other two were ''Golden Comics Digest'' and ''Walt Disney Comics Digest''. ''Mystery Comics Digest'' was published for 26 issues, fr ...
'' #1–21, 23–26 (1972–1975) * ''
The Occult Files of Dr. Spektor ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the ...
'' #1–25 (1973–1982) * ''Tales of Sword and Sorcery: Dagar the Invincible'' #1–19 (1972–1982) * '' Tragg and the Sky Gods'' #1–9 (1975–1982)


Marvel Comics

* ''Arrgh'' #3 (1975) * ''
Captain America Captain America is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by cartoonists Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, the character First appearance, first appeared in ''#Golden Age, Captain America Comics'' #1 (cover ...
'' #217–221 (1978) * '' Ghost Rider'' (vol. 2) #22 (1977) * ''
Invaders ''InVader'' is the fourth album by Finnish glam metal band Reckless Love, released on 4 March 2016 through Spinefarm Records. Track listing All songs written by Olli Herman, Pepe Reckless, and Ikka Wirtanen, unless otherwise noted. Reception Wr ...
'' #29–31, 34, 37–41 (1978–1979) * '' Kull the Destroyer'' #21–29 (1977–1978) * '' Marvel Premiere'' #36–37 (
3-D Man 3-D Man is the name of two fictional superheroes appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The first superhero to use the name 3-D Man is a composite of two brothers, Charles and Hal Chandler, and the second is Delroy Garrett. T ...
) (1977) * '' Marvel Preview'' #19 (1979) * ''
Savage Sword of Conan ''The Savage Sword of Conan'' was a black-and-white magazine-format comic book series published beginning in 1974 by Curtis Magazines, an imprint of American company Marvel Comics, and then later by Marvel itself. ''Savage Sword of Conan'' starred ...
'' #19, 22, 25–26, 33–34, 37, 39, 46, 49, 53–54 (
Solomon Kane Solomon Kane is a fictional character created by the pulp magazine, pulp-era writer Robert E. Howard. A late-16th-to-early-17th century Puritan, Solomon Kane is a somber-looking man who wanders the world with no apparent goal other than to vanqu ...
backup stories) (1977–1980) * ''
Star Wars ''Star Wars'' is an American epic film, epic space opera multimedia franchise created by George Lucas, which began with the Star Wars (film), eponymous 1977 film and quickly became a worldwide popular culture, pop-culture Cultural impact of S ...
'' #10 (1978) * ''
Thor Thor (; from non, Þórr ) is a prominent god in Germanic paganism. In Norse mythology, he is a hammer-wielding æsir, god associated with lightning, thunder, storms, sacred trees and groves in Germanic paganism and mythology, sacred groves ...
'' #279 (1979) * ''
Unknown Worlds of Science Fiction ''Unknown Worlds of Science Fiction'' was a 1970s American black-and-white, science fiction comics magazine published by Marvel Comics' parent company, Magazine Management. The anthology title featured original stories and literary adaptations b ...
'' #5–6, ''Annual'' #1 (1975–1976) * ''
Vampire Tales ''Vampire Tales'' was an American black-and-white horror comics magazine published by Magazine Management, a corporate sibling of Marvel Comics. The series ran 11 issues and one annual publication from 1973 to 1975, and featuring vampires as both ...
'' #5 (text article) (1974) * '' What If...?'' #5, 7–10, 12, 14, 22 (1977–1980) * ''
X-Men Adventures ''X-Men'', also known as ''X-Men: The Animated Series'', is an animated television series, animated superhero fiction, superhero television series which debuted on October 31, 1992, in the United States on the Fox Kids, Fox Kids Network. ''X-Men' ...
'' #4 (1993)


Now Comics

* ''
The Twilight Zone ''The Twilight Zone'' is an American media franchise based on the anthology television series created by Rod Serling. The episodes are in various genres, including fantasy, science fiction, absurdism, dystopian fiction, suspense, horror, su ...
'' #1 (1990)


Skywald Publications

* ''Psycho'' #8 (1972)


Warren Publishing

* '' Creepy'' #29–32, 42 (1969–1971) * '' Eerie'' #25, 30, 32, 36, 39–41, 51, 125 (1969–1981) * '' Vampirella'' #1–5, 8–9, 16, 18–19, 23, 37, 90, ''Annual'' #1 (1969–1980)


Television credits

*''
Shazam! Shazam () may refer to: Comic book franchise * Captain Marvel (DC Comics), also known as Shazam, a superhero character published by Fawcett Comics and DC Comics ** Shazam (wizard), a character from the ''Shazam!/Captain Marvel'' comics, who give ...
'' (1974) *''
Land of the Lost Land of the Lost may refer to: * Land of the Lost (1974 TV series), ''Land of the Lost'' (1974 TV series), the original 1974 children's television series * Land of the Lost (1991 TV series), ''Land of the Lost'' (1991 TV series), the 1991 remake of ...
'' (1975) *''
Space Sentinels ''Space Sentinels'' (originally titled ''Young Sentinels'' and renamed midway through its only season) is a Saturday morning animated series produced by Filmation which debuted on the American NBC network on September 10, 1977 and ran for thirtee ...
'' (1977) *''
Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels ''Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels'' is an American animated mystery comedy series created by Joe Ruby and Ken Spears and produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions for ABC. The series aired during the network's Saturday morning schedule from Sep ...
'' (1977-1980) *''
The New Shmoo ''The New Shmoo'' is an American animated television series based on the character from the ''Li'l Abner'' comic strip created by Al Capp, produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions and broadcast on NBC from September 22, 1979 to November 15, 1980. ' ...
'' (1979) *''
Spider-Man Spider-Man is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer-editor Stan Lee and artist Steve Ditko, he first appeared in the anthology comic book '' Amazing Fantasy'' #15 (August 1962) in the ...
'' (1981-1982) *''
The Biskitts ''The Biskitts'' is an American animated television series produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions from 1983 to 1984 and aired on CBS. The series lasted for only one season; only 13 episodes were produced. ''Shirt Tales'' replaced the show in its t ...
'' (1983) *''
Monchhichis is a line of Japanese stuffed monkey toys from the Sekiguchi Corporation, first released in 1974. They were licensed by Mattel in the United States until 1985, and later distributed worldwide directly by Sekiguchi. Four television series were pr ...
'' (1983) *''
Mighty Orbots is a 1984 Super robot animated series created in a joint collaboration of TMS Entertainment and Intermedia Entertainment in association with MGM/UA Television. It was directed by veteran anime director Osamu Dezaki and features character desi ...
'' (1984) *'' The Transformers'' (1984-1986) *''
Challenge of the GoBots ''Challenge of the GoBots'' (or ''GoBots'' for short) is an American animated series produced by Hanna-Barbera, based on the GoBots toyline released from Tonka. The show was first broadcast in syndication on September 8, 1984, then the show joine ...
'' (1985) *'' G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero'' (1985) *'' Foofur'' (1986) *'' The Centurions'' (1986) *'' DuckTales'' (1987) *'' Sky Commanders'' (1987) *'' Dino-Riders'' (1988) *''
RoboCop ''RoboCop'' is a 1987 American science fiction action film directed by Paul Verhoeven and written by Edward Neumeier and Michael Miner. The film stars Peter Weller, Nancy Allen, Daniel O'Herlihy, Ronny Cox, Kurtwood Smith, and Miguel Ferre ...
'' (1988) *'' Transformers: Generation 2'' (1993) *''
X-Men The X-Men are a superhero team appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics, first appearing in Uncanny X-Men, ''The X-Men'' #1 by artist/co-plotter Jack Kirby and writer/editor Stan Lee in 1963. Although initially cancelled in ...
'' (1993) *''
Bureau of Alien Detectors ''Bureau of Alien Detectors'' (commonly initialized as ''BAD'') is a 1996 American animated series by Saban Entertainment that aired on the UPN network's weekend-morning cartoon block UPN Kids. It was touted as " X-Files meets the A-Team," and onl ...
'' (1996)


Discography


The Penny Arkade

* ''Not the Freeze'' ('' Sundazed'', 2004)


References


Further reading

* "The Occult Files of Donald F. Glut: An Interview with the Creator of Dr. Spektor". Interview by Scott Aaron Stine. ''Trashfiend'' vol. 1, no. 3 (Jan.-March 2003) pp. 20–23.


External links

* *
Frontline Entertainment
Glut's production company website.
I Was A Teenage Movie Maker
Website devoted to Glut's amateur films. {{DEFAULTSORT:Glut, Donald F. 1944 births 20th-century American writers 21st-century American writers American comics writers American male screenwriters Inkpot Award winners Living people People from Pecos, Texas Screenwriters from Texas