Siegel, Drake To Receive First Bill Finger Award

[Mysterious Benefactor]

This is interesting because, well, let's face it, to say that most of the storylines in the DS comics pretty much sucked (particularly when compared to the writing in the actual series) would be putting things kindly:


SIEGEL, DRAKE TO RECEIVE FIRST BILL FINGER AWARD
by Jonah Weiland, Executive Producer
Posted: May 26, 2005

Official Press Release

Jerry Siegel and Arnold Drake have been chosen as the first recipients of the Bill Finger Award for Excellence in Comic Book Writing. They were chosen by a blue-ribbon committee chaired by Jerry Robinson. The committee decided to give two awards, to honor both a deceased and a living writer who exemplify the award's criteria.

...

Arnold Drake's comics writing career spanned the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. His credits include Doom Patrol (creator), Deadman (creator), Batman, Superman, Plastic Man, X-Men, Captain Marvel, Star Trek, Twilight Zone, Mighty Mouse, Bugs Bunny, Bullwinkle and Rocky, Stanley and His Monster (creator), Little Lulu, Space Ranger, House of Mystery, and Dark Shadows. His It Rhymes with Lust, with art by Matt Baker and Ray Osrin, published by St. John Publishing in 1950, was one of the very first graphic novels.

...

The awards will be presented during the Eisner Awards ceremony at this summer's Comic-Con International: San Diego. Joanne Siegel will be present to accept the award for her late husband. Arnold Drake will be on hand to receive his award.


One can only hope that Drake's writing for the other comics listed was far more compelling and that's why he's being given the award.

Anyone interested can read the entire article by clicking here.

[CyrusL]

I liked some of Drake's writing at DC comics, actually a lot of his humor books were very funny, although moreso when I was a kid. This would be on his Jerry Lewis and Bob Hope comics. The "Deadman" and "Doom Patrol" series were very good tho, great concepts. "Doom Patrol" is rarely given the credit it deserves as the forerunner of "The X-Men." I didn't know he did Dark Shadows comics as unlike DC, their creators were uncredited. Anyone know how many issues he did? Both Dark Shadows and the Star Trek comics (especially early issues) are problematic as the writers and artists aren't very familiar with the material, and apparently got only a few plot synopsises and a few still photos to go on. Interestingly, Gold Key I think didn't run their comics past the Comics Code which banned vampires, werewolves and zombies into the early '70s, so Dark Shadows could not have been done at either DC or Marvel or even Charlton!    

Michael

[Gothick]

... and those of us of a certain generation (sometimes called the Ancient Blood, haha) wonder whether this is any relation to the Flying Fickle Finger of Fate award bestowed weekly on "Laugh-In."

G.