Unexpected good news for oldschool comic fans – Steve Skeates is writing new comics:

“Although Steve is an industry legend, he’s very approachable and still absolutely loves comic books,” says Surprising Publisher Mark F. Davis. “Hiring Steve Skeates turned out to be an excellent choice, as he hasn’t lost even a hint of a step in his ability to script fantastic comic book adventures.”

Surprising’s All Surprising Comics issue 1, featuring one of the stories, is available now from the company, and the other two stories will see print later this year, Davis says.

Skeates now is working on an online weekly comic strip for Big Bang Comics featuring the Knight Watchman, “sort of like a Batman-type character but done in almost a Golden Age style, like a ’40s comic book,” Skeates says. “I’m enjoying that.”

“When I got thes job to do Depthon, I was surprised how much I was enjoying writing those stories. ‘Oh boy, this is fun.’ So there’s something I do miss (about comics).

“We just started this Watchman thing. So maybe that will work out too.”

Skeates is one of those almost-entirely unsung heroes of the late ’60s and 1970s; he wrote for Marvel, Warren, Carlton and a lot of classic DC books, including what might be the greatest Aquaman run of all – Sorry, Geoff and Ivan – with artist Jim Aparo (One that included a secret DC/Marvel crossover). While other writers from the era have become more well-known in recent years – I think we can all agree that Bob Haney is a genius now, right? – Skeates remains under-appreciated, I think; while we wait for the collected editions of classic work that he’s due, maybe it’s time to go search out his Surprising Comics work…

This entry was posted on Monday, August 20th, 2012 at 7:30 am and is filed under Creators, Independent, News & Views. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.