Writing for the Newark, N.J., Star-Ledger, Joyce Kaffel recalls her childhood with her father, legendary comics writer and editor Mort Weisinger:

I would eagerly listen as my dad plotted stories about zany, menacing stunts for Bizarro, the super-oaf from planet Htrae where everything worked backwards by Earth’s standards.

We worried about what would happen to Superman if Lex Luthor exposed him to red kryptonite. Uncontrollable hair and nail growth were two of the more unpleasant effects. It always amused my dad and me that Clark Kent kept his identity secret from Lois Lane simply by wearing a pair of horn-rimmed glasses.

I learned how our family life influenced my dad’s creative decisions by the way he used his everyday observations in comics. Sometimes his choices were based on sentiment. When Supergirl’s character was being developed for her first appearance in 1959, my father asked me to help select the color of her hair. We chose blonde to match my shade — at least, that’s the way the story went. I was thrilled that a super-heroine was modeled after me.

Weisinger, who died in 1978, is credited with co-creating Aquaman, Green Arrow, and some of the more memorable Silver Age elements of the Superman comics, including Supergirl, Krypto, the Phantom Zone and the Legion of Super-Heroes.

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