Julius Schwartz

When I was 16 at my first Worldcon one of the first pros I ever met was Julius Schwartz. This was the guy who for years had to come up with stuff for Superman to do. At Worldcon, Julie gave his slide show on the Man of Steel which was a thorough history of the character and his place in American culture. After the show he was kind enough to sign my souvenir book and talk for a bit. That show impressed me so much that to me the correct way of pronouncing Luthor is with a New York accent. I later found out Julie was responsible for creating my favorite version of the Green Lantern (the version which is still the most popular). Julie also revived a lot of the DC characters for what would become the Silver Age of comics. Julie was a great source of information on the history of comics and science fiction which he graciously share at conventions. At DragonCon an award was named after him, the Julie for outstanding lifelong contribution to the field. A true giant has left us.

Kurt Busiek’s Astro City21 ©Juke Box Productions

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