20 Facts About Arnold Drake

1.

Arnold Drake was an American comic book writer and screenwriter best known for co-creating the DC Comics characters Deadman and the Doom Patrol, and the Marvel Comics characters the Guardians of the Galaxy, among others.

2.

Arnold Drake was the third child of Max Druckman, a Manhattan furniture dealer who died in June 1966 at his home in Forest Hills, Queens, New York City, and Pearl Cohen.

3.

Arnold Drake's eldest brother, Ervin Drake, born Ervin Maurice Druckman, and the middle brother, Milton, both became notable songwriters.

4.

At age 12, Arnold Drake contracted scarlet fever, confining him to bed for a year, a time he spent drawing his own comic strip creations.

5.

In 1963, as Arnold Drake had warned, Marvel's increasingly profitable circulation increased enough to force Independent News to allow it to publish more titles.

6.

Meanwhile, editor Murray Boltinoff asked Arnold Drake to develop a feature to run in the anthology series My Greatest Adventure.

7.

Meanwhile, Arnold Drake noticed that Marvel Comics published a series of their own, The Uncanny X-Men, barely a few months later that seemed to mirror his own series' concepts in many respects.

8.

However, Arnold Drake found no support for his complaints from National's editorial staff until Arnold Drake was forced to concede at that time that it could have been a coincidence.

9.

Premiani and Boltinoff appeared as themselves in the final story, discussing the impending demise of the team, but Arnold Drake, who had included himself in the script as well, did not.

10.

Arnold Drake said he consented to complete the script because of his friendship with Boltinoff.

11.

Arnold Drake additionally scripted the following issue's story, miscredited in several reprints as written by Jack Miller.

12.

Arnold Drake introduced several new characters to the series including Mesmero, Lorna Dane, and Havok.

13.

In 1973, Arnold Drake began freelancing again for DC occasionally, writing stories for series as varied as Weird War Tales and Supergirl.

14.

Arnold Drake contributed to all four issues of Starstream, a 68-page anthology series with cardboard covers that adapted classic science-fiction stories.

15.

That series was published by Whitman Comics, the rights-holder to several properties it licensed to Gold Key, and Arnold Drake would continue with Whitman when it began distributing Little Lulu and its other properties itself in 1980.

16.

Arnold Drake was working on a new Doom Patrol graphic novel, a prequel story, at the time of his death.

17.

Arnold Drake received several awards for his comics work, including the 1967 Alley Award for Best Full-Length Story, the 1967 Alley Award for Best New Strip, and a 1999 Inkpot Award.

18.

In 2005, Arnold Drake received the first annual Bill Finger Award for Excellence in Comics Writing.

19.

Arnold Drake wrote the screenplay for the 1964 horror film The Flesh Eaters, which he produced.

20.

Arnold Drake wrote the screenplay for Who Killed Teddy Bear, a 1965 release starring Sal Mineo and Juliet Prowse, as well as the title song for the 1970 film Ils sont nus.