Paul Levitz
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Paul Levitz (born 21 October 1956) is an American comic book writer, editor and executive. Currently the President of DC Comics, the oldest comics company in the United States, he has previously served as a writer, editor, vice president, and executive vice president at DC.
Levitz was born in Brooklyn, New York to Hannah and Alfred Levitz. He attended Stuyvesant High School during which time he co-wrote and published a popular comic fan magazine, "The Comic Reader." He later enrolled at New York University but left before graduating to work full time at DC Comics, where he had begun working during high school.
Since the mid 1970s, Levitz has been an integral part of DC. Along with publisher Jenette Kahn and managing editor Dick Giordano, he was responsible for the 1980s revitalizing of the company's entire line of heroes—such as Superman, Batman, Flash, Wonder Woman, the Justice League and Green Lantern. Others who played vital roles in the process were writers Marv Wolfman, John Byrne and Alan Moore, artists George Perez and Keith Giffen, and editor Karen Berger. Also, Marvel Comics' then editor-in-chief Jim Shooter, played an inadvertent role in the revitalization when he fired or alienated many important Marvel creators whom DC was delighted to pick up.
Levitz has also worked as an editor, most notably on the Batman line of comics. As a writer he is best-known for his work on the title The Legion of Super-Heroes, which he wrote off and on from 1974 until 1989. Of particular note are his collaborations with artists Michael Nasser (Netzer), James Sherman and Keith Giffen. He also wrote the Justice Society series in All Star Comics during the late 70's after Gerry Conway left the book. He was the co-creator of the Earth-2 Huntress with artist Joe Staton and of Lucien the Librarian with artist Nestor Redondo. Levitz recently returned to writing the JSA with issue #82 of JSA.
While he has sometimes provoked controversy — for example, an attempt to tone down sexual references in the title The Authority spawned a public fight with its then writer, Mark Millar — Levitz's reign at DC helped the company weather steeply declining sales for superhero comics in the late 1990s. Levitz was also instrumental in the push towards graphic novels and trade paperback collections, which could be sold in bookstores and have a longer shelf life than the traditional monthly pamphlet format.
Levitz married Jeanette Cusimano in 1980 and has three children, Nicole, Philip, and Garret. One of the characters he introduced to the Legion in his second run on the book, GiGi Cusimano, was named after his wife. He currently resides in Chappaqua, New York.
