Happy Birthday "Rascally" Roy Thomas!!!

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It has sometimes been opined that while Stan Lee, Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko created the majority of the building blocks of
the modern Marvel universe, it was Roy Thomas, along with Steve Englehart, who structured them into a cohesive whole.
Thomas was often the writer who was chosen by Stan Lee to take over on various
Marvel series as the editor-in-chief’s workload increased and the line of titles expanded.

He chronicled the adventures of Avengers: Earth’s mightiest heroes from issue #35 (Dec 1966) thru #104 (Oct 1972).
During this six year period Thomas, often working with penciler John Buscema, introduced
the Vision, Ultron, the Grim Reaper, the Black Knight, Yellowjacket,
Arkon, Red Wolf, the Squadron Supreme and the Zodiac.

From Avengers #89 to #97, Thomas, paired with artists Neal Adams, Sal Buscema, John Buscema and Tom Palmer,
crafted a lengthy storyline of intergalactic warfare & intrigue that came to be known as “The Kree-Skrull War.”
In addition to establishing ties between two extraterrestrial races first devised by Lee & Kirby,
this story arc set the groundwork for the lengthy relationship between the Vision and the Scarlet Witch.

Looking back on Thomas’ work on Avengers, one can see that he devised characters and stories that
numerous other writers at Marvel would continue to utilize and built upon for decades to come.

Thomas was instrumental in convincing Lee and Marvel publisher Martin Goodman to approve
a comic book starring Conan, the barbarian adventurer created by Robert E. Howard.
Conan the Barbarian #1 debuted in 1970, written by Thomas,
with pencils by a young Barry Windsor-Smith.
Within a year and a half Thomas’ old collaborator John Buscema took over as penciler.
Thomas also wrote Marvel’s black & white magazine Savage Sword of Conan,
which began in 1974, as well as a newspaper strip that ran from 1978 to 1981.

By encouraging Marvel to publish the Conan the Barbarian comic book, and then writing so many epic, memorable
stories featuring the character, Thomas played a major role in making Conan a well-known, popular character.

Another landmark in Thomas’ career was the World War II superhero series The Invaders.
Thomas worked with veteran artist Frank Robbins on this book. The Invaders was Thomas’ love letter to the
Golden Age of superhero comics which he had grown up reading and for which he possesses a deep fondness.

Initially a team-up of Timely Comics big three Captain America, Namor the Sub-Mariner, and the Human Torch,
Thomas would gradually introduce an entire cast of costumed heroes. These were both of the genuine Golden Age
variety, such as the Whizzer and Miss America, and of brand new characters he created to
retcon back into the Marvel universe of the early 1940s, such as Spitfire and Union Jack.

Another aspect of The Invaders was that Thomas, Robbins and their collaborators devised a number of Axis villains.
If you look back at the actual Timely comic books of the early 1940s, aside from the Red Skull
there really were no major super-villains who made a lasting impact,
just a number of oddball menaces who were all-but-forgotten a couple decades later.
To rectify that, Thomas and Robbins introduced Master Man, Warrior Woman,
U-Man, and Baron Blood as arch-foes for their heroes to fight.

Although the original run of The Invaders lasted less than five years, from 1975 to 1979,
the various characters have been the subject of numerous revivals in the decades since.
Thomas himself has been involved in a few of these, returning to Marvel
at various points to write new adventures of his Nazi-smashing heroes.

The length and breadth of Thomas’ five decade involvement in comic books is something that I cannot even begin to do justice.
For an in-depth look at his career, however, you need look no further than the magazine Alter Ego.
Edited by Thomas, this excellent magazine has been published by TwoMorrows Publishing since 1999.

Happy birthday Roy Thomas. Here’s hoping for many, many more years to come.

[stingray]

Happy Birthday Roy! Loved his stuff from back in the day.

[Shalla Bal]

Great write-up and scans, 616.

Love Roy's comic book work, and his Alter Ego is a great read/resource. Happy (belated) birthday, Mr. T!

[Nomads1]

Avengers really only started to become one of my favorite titles after he came on board. And his run on WCA is still my favorite part of one of my favorite books. But, IMHO, nothing surpasses his All-Star Squadron for DC.

Peace

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http://www.comicsreporter.com/index....ay_roy_thomas/

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https://13thdimension.com/13-covers-...y-celebration/

[DrNewGod]

Avengers really only started to become one of my favorite titles after he came on board. And his run on WCA is still my favorite part of one of my favorite books. But, IMHO, nothing surpasses his All-Star Squadron for DC.

Peace

Agreed. Happy Birthday

[Phoenixx9]

Happy Birthday to Roy Thomas!

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Avengers West Coast #60 was the start of Thomas' run on that series...

Man, the unintentional hilarious scene with those tourists and the comicbook character U.S. Agent is to appear in the Falcon and the Winter Soldier disney+ series. Always a treat seeing the comicbook character Hawkeye sporting the cowl mask look IMO the character is to lead the MCU Avengers West Coast while sporting said look.

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Great write-up and scans, 616.

You're welcome.

[C_Miller]

Hugh Roy Thomas fan. His Avengers run is my favorite on the title. If he just wrote that it would still put him high on my list, but he also has Conan, The Invaders, Namor, surprisingly good Pre-Claremont X-Men, did I mention Conan? He also wrote one of my favorite comics in the entire medium in All-Star Squadron. His work with Earth-2 solidified me as a fan of the Golden Age.

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Happy Birthday Roy! Loved his stuff from back in the day.

His first assignment for marvel comics was for the series Modeling with Millie.

[Englehart Humperdinck]

Conan the Barbarian #1 debuted in 1970, written by Thomas, with pencils by a young Barry Windsor-Smith. Within a year and a half Thomas’ old collaborator John Buscema took over as penciler.

Buscema didn't replace Smith until Conan the Barbarian #25, which was published around two and a half years after #1.