Paul Kupperberg

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Paul Kupperberg is a former editor for DC Comics, and a prolific writer of comic books and newspaper strips. Kupperberg entered the comics field from comics fandom where he, along with Paul Levitz, did the comics fanzine The Comic Reader (1971-1973) and Etcetera (1972-1973).

Since then he has written an estimated 600 comic book stories, primarily at DC Comics, for the Julius Schwartz edited Superman, Action Comics, Supergirl, and Superboy titles as well as The New Doom Patrol, Vigilante, Green Lantern, The Brave & The Bold, Showcase, Superman Family, House of Mystery, Weird War Tales, Justice league of America, Ghosts, Star Trek, Aquaman, Adventure Comics, Savage Sword of Conan, and many others. Kupperberg created the comic book series Arion Lord of Atlantis (1981-1985), Checkmate! (1988-1992), and Takion (1996). He wrote the syndicated Superman newspaper comic strip (with Jose Delbo) from 1981-1985 and the Tom & Jerry newspaper strip from 1990-1991.

He wrote the first comic book miniseries, The World of Krypton (1979); his other miniseries include The Phantom Stranger (with Mike Mignola and P. Craig Russell), Power Girl, Peacemaker, Super Powers (with Jack Kirby) and the first comic book adaptation of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, considered by many fans the best and most faithful of the comic adaptations of that popular toy line. He has also written movie parodies and humor for Marvel’s Crazy Magazine (1977-1983), the series Trash for Britain’s 2000 AD with artist Nigel Dobbyn, The Online Multipath Adventures of Superman web-animation (1998). Most of his current comic book writing appears in the DC published Cartoon Network licensed comics on such characters as Johnny Bravo, I.M. Weasel, Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi and Scooby Doo.

Kupperberg’s prose credits include The Atlas to the DC Universe (Mayfair Games, 1992), The Doom Patrol Sourcebook (Mayfair Games, 1993), and the Spider-Man novels Crime Campaign (Pocket Books, 1979) and Murdermoon (Pocket Books, 1979). He has had short stories published in the anthologies The Further Adventures of Batman Featuring Catwoman (Bantam Books, 1993), Fear Itself (Warner Books, 1995), Superheroes (Ace Books, 1995, edited by John Varley) and Oceans of Magic (DAW Books, 2001). His adult novel, JSA: Ragnarok, was scheduled to be published in 2006 but has been indefinitely delayed due to the bankruptcy of its publisher, iBooks.

His other published work includes the young adult novel Wishbone Mysteries: The Sirian Conspiracy (co-written with Michael Jan Friedman, Big Red Chair Books, 1999), as well as color and activity books featuring Firehouse Tales. In 2005, Kupperberg began writing for the weekly satiric and humor tabloid, Weekly World News.

From 1981-1982 Kupperberg was assistant editor on Video Action Magazine, one of the first newsstand magazines to focus on the then burgeoning home video market. He also wrote numerous articles for the magazine. Among his other non-fiction work are many introductions and historic prefaces to various DC collected editions and Archives (The Essential Showcase, The Flash Archives Volume 1, Action Comics Archives Volume 2, etc.), as well as essays for the anthology You Did What?: Mad Plans And Great Historical Disasters (Harper Paperbacks, 2004). Since 2003, Kupperberg has written numerous non-fiction books for young adults, including: Spy Satellites, The Tragedy Of The Titanic, Astronaut Biographies: John Glenn (a Society Of School Librarians International Honor Book, 2004), Critical Perspectives On The Great Depression, The Nature Of Disease, Edwin Hubble And The Big Bang, The History Of The New York Colony, Rodeo Clowns, Origins Of The Action Heroes: Spider-Man, Cutting Edge Careers In Robotics, and In The News: Hurricanes for Rosen Publishing.

From 1991-2006, Kupperberg was on staff at DC Comics, editing such DC Universe titles as The Flash, Wonder Woman, Jack Kirby’s Fourth World, Impulse, Peter Cannon Thunderbolt and others. He also edited in DC’s Licensed Publishing department, overseeing such titles as MADvertising: A MAD Look at 50 Years of MADison Avenue by David Shayne, Marv Wolfman’s novelization of his Crisis On Infinite Earths, a trilogy of Green Lantern novels by Christopher Priest, Mike Baron and Mike Ahn, and dozens of MAD reprints, kids storybooks, young adult novels and children’s color and activity books based on DC Comics properties.

On February 27, 2006, Kupperberg left DC Comics to become Senior Editor at the Weekly World News.