Gerry Conway

Gerard Francis Conway (born September 10, 1952) is an American comic book writer, comic book editor, screenwriter, television writer, and television producer. He is known for co-creating the Marvel Comics vigilante antihero the Punisher as well as the Scarlet Spider (Ben Reilly), and the first Ms. Marvel, and also writing the death of the character Gwen Stacy during his long run on The Amazing Spider-Man in the story arc, "The Night Gwen Stacy Died". He published his first professional comic book work at 16, with the 61⁄2-page horror story "Aaron Philips' Photo Finish" in DC Comics' House of Secrets #81 (Sept. 1969). He continued selling such anthological stories for that series and for Marvel's Chamber of Darkness and Tower of Shadows through the end of 1970, by which time he had also published one-page text short stories in DC's All-Star Western #1 (Sept. 1970) and Super DC Giant #S-14 (Oct. 1970). He published his first continuing-character story in DC's semi-anthological occult comic The Phantom Stranger #10 (Dec. 1970). Conway recalled breaking into Marvel Comics through Marvel editor Roy Thomas: I'd been writing for DC Comics for two or three years...but to paraphrase the joke about the actor's ambitions to be a director, what I really wanted to do was write superheroes – specifically Marvel heroes. Through friends I'd become acquainted with Roy Thomas, who was Stan Lee's right-hand man at the time, and Roy offered me a shot at the Marvel 'writing test.' Stan wasn't impressed, but Roy liked what I did, and began throwing some short assignments my way, including scripting over his plot on an early Ka-Zar. Following his first continuing-character story for Marvel, with his script for the jungle lord Ka-Zar in Astonishing Tales #3 (Dec. 1970), Conway began writing superhero stories with Daredevil #72 (Jan. 1971). He quickly went on to assignments on Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, and both "The Inhumans" and "The Black Widow" features in the split book Amazing Adventures. He scripted the first Man-Thing story, in 1971, sharing co-creation credit with Stan Lee and Roy Thomas. Conway eventually scripted virtually every major Marvel title, and co-created (with writers Roy & Jean Thomas and artist Mike Ploog) the lycanthropic lead character of the feature "Werewolf by Night", in Marvel Spotlight #2 (Feb. 1972); he also wrote the premiere issue of Marvel's The Tomb of Dracula, introducing the longstanding literary vampire into the Marvel universe.At DC Comics, he is known for co-creating the superheroes Firestorm, Power Girl, Jason Todd, and the villain Killer Croc, and for writing the Justice League of America for eight years. Conway wrote the first major, modern-day intercompany crossover, Superman vs. the Amazing Spider-Man.