Roger Stern

Roger Stern (born September 17, 1950) is an American comic book author and novelist.

Biography

Early career

In the early 1970s, Stern and Bob Layton published the fanzine ''CPL'' (''Contemporary Pictorial Literature''), one of the first platforms for the work of John Byrne. ''CPL'' rapidly became a popular fan publication, and led to the two forming an alliance with Charlton Comics to produce and publish "the now-famous '' Charlton Bullseye'' magazine". During the mid-1970s, both Marvel and DC were publishing in-house "fan" publications (''FOOM'' and ''The Amazing World of DC Comics'' respectively), and Charlton wished to make inroads into the superhero market, as well as "establish a fan presence," leading to the alliance with CPL to produce the ''Charlton Bullseye''. This led to Charlton giving Layton and Stern "access to unpublished material from their vaults by the likes of Steve Ditko, Jeff Jones and a host of others."

Comics

Stern broke into the industry as a writer in 1975 as part of the Marvel Comics "third wave" of creators, which included artists John Byrne and Frank Miller, and writers Jo Duffy, Mark Gruenwald and Ralph Macchio. Stern worked as an editor from 1976 to 1980. Jim Shooter claims that Stern co-plotted (as a ghostwriter) his last few stories for DC Comics in 1976. Stern wrote the "Guardians of the Galaxy" feature in ''Marvel Presents'' #10-12 in 1977. He briefly collaborated with Byrne on ''Captain America''. The two produced a story wherein Captain America considered running for the office of President of the United States, an idea originally developed by Roger McKenzie and Don Perlin. Stern, in his capacity as editor of the title, had originally rejected the idea but later changed his mind about the concept. McKenzie and Perlin received credit for the idea on the letters page at Stern's insistence. His first regular monthly book was as staff writer for The Incredible Hulk taking over for departing Len Wein in 1978. Stern later became the writer of ''The Spectacular Spider-Man'' with issue #43 (June 1980). He then took over ''The Amazing Spider-Man'' with issue #224 (January 1982). In addition to his Spider-Man work, Stern is known for his lengthy stints on ''Doctor Strange,'' and '' The Avengers''. In 1982, he co-created Marvel's second Captain Marvel and the Hobgoblin, both with artist John Romita Jr. Stern wrote "The Kid Who Collects Spider-Man" in ''The Amazing Spider-Man'' #248 (January 1984), a story which ranks among his most popular. Stern ended his run with ''Amazing Spider-Man'' #250 (March 1984), chiefly due to his difficulty working with new Spider-Man editor Danny Fingeroth. Later that same year, he co-created the Avengers spin-off ''The West Coast Avengers'', with artist Bob Hall.

In 1987, after a dispute with editor Mark Gruenwald over upcoming storylines, Stern was fired from ''The Avengers''. He began freelancing for DC Comics, where he was one of the core Superman writers for almost a decade, working on '' Superman (vol. 2)'', ''Action Comics'', and '' Superman: The Man of Tomorrow''. He contributed to such storylines as "Panic in the Sky" and "The Death of Superman" which revived interest in the character in the early 1990s. He created the Eradicator in ''Action Comics Annual'' #2 and later incorporated the character into the "Reign of the Supermen" story arc beginning in ''The Adventures of Superman'' #500. Stern wrote the 1991 story wherein Clark Kent finally revealed his identity as Superman to Lois Lane. In Summer 1995, Stern and artist Tom Grummett created a new quarterly series, '' Superman: The Man of Tomorrow''. Additionally, Stern was one of the many creators who worked on the '' Superman: The Wedding Album'' one-shot in 1996 which featured the title character's marriage to Lois Lane. Besides his work on Superman, Stern (with co-plotter Tom McCraw) wrote ''Legionnaires'' from 1996 to 1999. Other work for DC included a relaunched ''Atom'' series, drawn by Dwayne Turner

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