Way back when I first began reading comics, the men who made them were often as mysterious as anything in the books themselves. One of the reasons for this was that young readers seldom make the connection that actual people write and draw the comics that they read. The other reason was that this was before the days of the professional fan magazine. There was no Wizard Magazine on the rack of your local comics shop. There was no comic shop either, but that is another story. We very seldom paid any attention to who drew or wrote the book, unlike today where a superstar artist can drive the sales of a particular title.

The first glimpse that I had "behind the curtain" of comic book production was a magazine produced in house by DC Comics. You couldn't find it on any newsstand, but if you clipped the coupon out of a DC comic and sent $1.50 to them, they would send you a copy of The Amazing World Of DC Comics. The magazine had features on the history of DC characters, information about upcoming comics and interviews with some of the creators responsible for their books. Back in the mid 70's, comic books cost 25-30 cents, so $1.50 was a pretty pricey sum. But there was so little information available about the world of comics that I still found the idea so attractive that I trudged to the post office, bought a money order and sent it away with my coupon scrawled with my name and address. Understand, back in those days, we had no way of knowing if our favorite comic book had been canceled. We were at the mercy of whoever stocked the comic rack at the local drugstore and might never see an important issue of a series.

When the book finally arrived, I was not disappointed. It was thick. Kids love thick books. Part of this was not because of an overabundance of pages, but that they used fairly heavy paper stock. No matter. The issue had an unpublished comic story, articles and information galore. It was the third issue of Amazing World and on the cover was a bald man that I have never before heard of. His name was Julius Schwartz. The main article in that issue was on the life and career of Schwartz. It talked of his early life in science fiction fandom and his entry into the comics industry. I learned that he was the man behind the reintroduction of a number of my favorite characters, such as the Flash, Green Lantern and others. I learned that it was he that assembled the Justice League of America.

All of this was pretty impressive stuff to a 12 year old living in a small town. Up to that point, for all I knew, comics were made by elves in a hollowed out tree. To actually learn about the people making these books seemed like privileged knowledge indeed. Julius Schwartz was still the editor of a great number of books for DC at this time, so his name appeared in tiny print at the bottom of the page of these comics. Being able to put a face and history with that name added a sense of familiarity and community to the DC books for me. That is certainly appropriate, because I think that is part of what Schwartz brought to the DC books. He was the man instrumental in adding a page to print fan letters in the books that he edited. In those days he would even send a page of original art from some of the books to the fan who sent the best letter for that particular month. Of course, this was in the days before anyone thought that the original art would be worth anything.

I finally met Julius Schwartz at a convention in Dallas a few years back. I really don't have any clever stories to tell about that meeting. I simply went to him and had him sign a couple of books. I told him about the Amazing World of DC Comics issue that featured him and how I wished that I had been able to find it so that he could have signed it for me. He smiled and said that if I did find it, just get it to him and he'd be happy to sign it for me. He was warm and friendly in a familiar way, like the man who cut your hair as a child or that uncle that you had known as long as your own parents.

Julius Schwartz didn't have the name recognition that Stan Lee has, but I think that he was every bit as important to the development of comics in the Silver Age. Even my mother knows who Stan Lee is, and she knows and cares little about comic books. But Julius Schwartz? Only fans with an understanding of comics past have any understanding of his significance.

Back in the 60's and 70's, fans loved to argue Marvel Vs. DC. Marvel fans claimed that DC books were stuffy and "un-hip". They might have been right. DC books not only weren't "hip", when the tried to appear "hip" they seemed laughably trite. However, DC books of that era, and especially those under the control of Schwartz, had a genuine warmth about them that made reading them a comfortable pleasure. Like so many things of that era, they have been replaced by flashier, slicker, more calculated product. Those of us who remember such a simpler time reading comics feel a sense of loss at their passing. Now the absence of Julius Schwartz is added to that loss. But like all things that change, there is still a rich legacy left behind to enjoy and appreciate. I don't know about the rest of you, but I have a date with a fairly large stack of comics this weekend.

And I'm going to dig out my old copies of Amazing World Of DC Comics.