Legendary American comic book editor (1915-2004). Known to almost everyone as "
Julie."
Julie started his career in 1930 as the co-editor and co-publisher (along with another future DC editor,
Mort Weisinger) of the first-ever
science fiction fanzine, a
magazine called "
The Time Traveler." He later worked as a
literary agent for science fiction and
fantasy pulp writers, including
Ray Bradbury,
Alfred Bester, and
H.P. Lovecraft.
Julie's first experience with comic books came in 1944; he was on his way to a
job interview at
All American Comics and stopped to buy a few comics so he'd have a
clue what the job was actually about. He was hired to create
plots and review
scripts at All American and later at
DC Comics, when the two companies
merged. In fact, Julie nearly never even saw the
artwork before the comic was actually printed. By the late-
1940s, he was the official editor of
comics like
Green Lantern and the
Justice Society of America, and by the
'50s, he was also editing books like "
Rex the Wonder Dog," "
All Star Western," "
Strange Adventures," and "
Mystery in Space."
After an anti-comics
backlash, Julie was assigned to
edit a revamped version of a WWII-era superspeedster called
the Flash - -the result kickstarted comics'
Silver Age and was quickly
imitated by everyone in the comics industry. In the
1960s, when sales of the
Batman comics slipped, DC had Julie take over editing duties to re-energize the character. In 1970, Julie was named
Superman's editor, and in 1973, when DC bought the license for
Captain Marvel, Julie became the editor for that book, too. Also in the
1970s, he was named DC's senior editor. He began easing his way into
retirement during the
1980s, though he also found time to edit some
graphic novels based on stories by authors like
Ray Bradbury,
Harlan Ellison,
Robert Bloch, and
Larry Niven. For his 70th
birthday, DC surprised Julie by
transforming one issue of "Superman" into "A
Tribute to Julius Schwartz," with Julie co-starring with the Man of Steel.
In his retirement, Julie enjoyed attending
comic book conventions; he often hosted one-man
panel discussions called "
Strange Schwartz Stories," where he told
funny anecdotes about the creators and personalities of the
Golden and
Silver Ages.
Julie died on the morning of
February 9, 2004. He was
mourned and
celebrated by many professionals who wrote
science fiction or worked in the
comic book industry. Many who worked with him loved him, and he was hailed as one of the finest editors a writer could have --
supportive and
helpful of new writers, a guiding
influence for more experienced scribes, and always dedicated, first and foremost, to the
story first, the
story last, the
story above all else. However, it was also revealed that he had a bad habit of groping and attempting to sexually assault young women he was working with, including creators like Colleen Doran, Jo Duffy, and Jill Thompson.
Research: http://www.toonopedia.com/schwartz.htm