Joseph Samachson (October 13, 1906 – June 2, 1980) was an American scientist and writer, primarily of science fiction and

comic a Media (communication), medium used to express ideas with images, often combined with text or other visual information. It typically the form of a sequence of Panel (comics), panels of images. Textual devices such as speech balloons, Glo ...

books.

Biography

Joseph Samachson was born on October 13, 1906 in

Trenton, New Jersey Trenton is the capital city of the U.S. state of New Jersey and the county seat of Mercer County. It was the capital of the United States from November 1 to December 24, 1784.Biography by Joe Desris, in ''Batman Archives'', Volume 3 (

DC Comics DC Comics, Inc. (doing business as DC) is an American comic book publisher and the flagship unit of DC Entertainment, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery. DC Comics is one of the largest and oldest American comic book companies, with thei ...

, 1994), p. 224 Samachson died of complications from

Parkinson's disease Parkinson's disease (PD), or simply Parkinson's, is a long-term degenerative disorder of the central nervous system that mainly affects the motor system. The symptoms usually emerge slowly, and as the disease worsens, non-motor symptoms becom ...

on June 2, 1980 in

Chicago, Illinois (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

. He was survived by his wife, now deceased, a son, Michael Samachson, and a daughter, the photographer Miriam Berkley.

Career

Biochemist

A graduate of

Rutgers University Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a Public university, public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's ...

, he earned a Ph.D. in chemistry from

Yale Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wor ...

at the age of 23. He was an assistant professor at the College of Medicine, University of Illinois. He also headed a laboratory in metabolic research at the Veterans Administration Hospital in

Hines, Illinois Hines is an unincorporated community in Cook County, Illinois, United States. It is located in Proviso Township next to the villages of Broadview, Maywood, Forest Park, and North Riverside. Government and infrastructure The United States Post ...

, a research unit dealing with diseases that affect the skeleton. Comics historian

Jerry Bails Jerry Gwin Bails (June 26, 1933 – November 23, 2006) was an American popular culturist. Known as the "Father of Comic Book Fandom," he was one of the first to approach the comic book field as a subject worthy of academic study, and was a primar ...

wrote that Samachson worked as a research chemist for the American Molasses Company until 1938, leaving to become a "freelance technical writer".

Author

As a writer, Samachson translated a number of scientific papers. He also wrote science fiction and comics.

Science fiction and pulps

He wrote a number of science fiction works (under the pseudonym William Morrison), including two novels published in ''

Startling Stories ''Startling Stories'' was an American pulp science fiction magazine, published from 1939 to 1955 by publisher Ned Pines' Standard Magazines. It was initially edited by Mort Weisinger, who was also the editor of ''Thrilling Wonder Stories'', S ...

'', the 1937 pulp title ''Murder of a Professor'' and short stories for a number of magazines, including ''Money from Heaven'' (1942). He also penned a couple of ''

Captain Future Captain Future is a pulp science fiction hero — a space-traveling scientist and adventurer —originally published in his namesake pulp magazine from 1940 to 1944. The character was created by editors Mort Weisinger and Leo Margulies. The maj ...

pulp novels Pulp magazines (also referred to as "the pulps") were inexpensive fiction magazines that were published from 1896 to the late 1950s. The term "pulp" derives from the cheap wood pulp paper on which the magazines were printed. In contrast, magazine ...

c.1941–1942 (under the house name "Brett Sterling"), and had work appear in the

science fiction magazine A science fiction magazine is a publication that offers primarily science fiction, either in a hard-copy periodical format or on the Internet. Science fiction magazines traditionally featured speculative fiction in short story, novelette, nov ...

Galaxy A galaxy is a system of stars, stellar remnants, interstellar gas, dust, dark matter, bound together by gravity. The word is derived from the Greek ' (), literally 'milky', a reference to the Milky Way galaxy that contains the Solar System. ...

''. His young adult novel '' Mel Oliver and Space Rover on Mars'' was published by Gnome Press in 1954. and was also published in a Dutch translation.

Comics

He is believed to have begun working for

in late 1942, working on comics scripts for characters notably including

Batman Batman is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character was created by artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger, and debuted in Detective Comics 27, the 27th issue of the comic book ''Detective Comics'' on ...

. He also wrote scripts for comics and characters including

Sandman The Sandman is a mythical character in European folklore who puts people to sleep and encourages and inspires beautiful dreams by sprinkling magical sand onto their eyes. Representation in traditional folklore The Sandman is a traditional charact ...

Green Arrow Green Arrow is a superhero who appears in American comic books published by DC Comics. Created by Mort Weisinger and designed by George Papp, he first appeared in ''More Fun Comics'' #73 in November 1941. His secret identity, real name is Olive ...

, Airwave and Robotman, as well as "a string of 17 science-fiction stories in 1955 and 1956".Who's Who in American Comic Books: Joe Samachson
Accessed May 8, 2008 In 1955, he created (with artist Joe Certa) the

Martian Manhunter The Martian Manhunter (J'onn J'onzz) is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. Created by writer Joseph Samachson and designed by artist Joe Certa, the character first appeared in the story "The Manhunter from Mars" ...

in the pages of ''

Detective Comics ''Detective Comics'' is an American comic book series published by Detective Comics, later shortened to DC Comics. The first volume, published from 1937 to 2011 (and later continued in 2016), is best known for introducing the superhero Batman i ...

'' #225. Usually credited as author on the initial strip, some commentators believe that he may have produced the plot, but that writer Jack Miller (who most believe succeeded Samachson in writing the character with the next issue), may have produced the first script.

Don Markstein's Toonopedia Don Markstein's Toonopedia (subtitled A Vast Repository of Toonological Knowledge) is an online encyclopedia of print cartoons, comic strips and animation, initiated February 13, 2001. Donald D. Markstein, the sole writer and editor of Toonopedi ...

also suggests that Samachson wrote "many subsequent" appearances of J'Onn J'Onzz rather than just the first. Jerry Bails also lists Samachson as having co-created the historical DC character

Tomahawk A tomahawk is a type of single-handed axe used by the many Indigenous peoples and nations of North America. It traditionally resembles a hatchet with a straight shaft. In pre-colonial times the head was made of stone, bone, or antler, and Europ ...

. In 1943 Samachson also created the character Two-Gun Percy, which first appeared under the

imprint All Funny Comics and was drawn by Bernard Baily. In 1975, DC Comics adapted an unused story he wrote in the 1940s featuring the

Seven Soldiers of Victory The Seven Soldiers of Victory (also known as Law's Legionnaires) is a team of fictional comic book superheroes in the DC Comics universe. They first appeared in ''Leading Comics'' #1 (Winter 1941), and were created by Mort Weisinger and Mort Mesk ...

into a six-part serial in

Adventure Comics ''Adventure Comics'' is an American comic book series published by DC Comics from 1938 to 1983 and revived from 2009 to 2011. In its first era, the series ran for 503 issues (472 of those after the title changed from ''New Adventure Comics''), ...

#438-443.

Television

Samachson also wrote scripts for

Captain Video and His Video Rangers ''Captain Video and His Video Rangers'' is an American science fiction television series that aired on the DuMont Television Network and was the first series of its genre on American television. The series aired between June 27, 1949, and Apri ...

.Samachson obituary, p. 61 of the June 5, 1980 ''Trenton Evening Times''

Other work

With his wife Dorothy Samachson, he wrote about theater ("Let's Meet the Theatre" and "The Dramatic Story of the Theatre"), music ("Masters of Music" and ''The Fabulous World of Opera''), ballet, archeology (''Good Digging'') and a number of other titles, including ''Rome'', a

Rand McNally Rand McNally is an American technology and publishing company that provides mapping, software and hardware for consumer electronics, commercial transportation and education markets. The company is headquartered in Chicago, with a distribution c ...

"Cities of the World" title. In addition, Samachson was a frequent contributor to scientific journals and the author of ''The Armor Within Us: The Story of Bone.''

References

External links

* (pseudonym) * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Samachson, Joseph 1906 births 1980 deaths 20th-century American novelists American biochemists American comics writers American people of Russian-Jewish descent American male novelists American science fiction writers Neurological disease deaths in Illinois Deaths from Parkinson's disease American male short story writers 20th-century American short story writers 20th-century American male writers