Mark Evanier

Early life

Evanier identifies as Jewish. His father was Jewish and his mother was Catholic. He chose to be a writer after witnessing the misery his father felt from working for the Internal Revenue Service and contrasting that with the portrayal of a writer's life on The Dick Van Dyke Show. He graduated from University High School in 1969.

Career

Evanier was president of a Los Angeles comic book club from 1966–69. In 1967, he suggested the titles of the officers of the Merry Marvel Marching Society. He made his first professional sale in 1969. The same year, through a mutual association with a Marvel Comics mail-order firm, he was taken on as a production assistant to Jack Kirby. Several years later Evanier began writing foreign comic books for the Walt Disney Studio Program, then from 1972 to 1976 wrote scripts for Gold Key Comics, including one memorable story, "The Greatest of E's", where he revealed that the E in Wile E. Coyote stands for "Ethelbert," along with comics for the Edgar Rice Burroughs estate.

In 1974 he teamed with writer Dennis Palumbo and wrote for a number of television series, including The Nancy Walker Show, The McLean Stevenson Show, and Welcome Back, Kotter.

After the cancellation of Kotter in 1979, on which he was one of the story editors, Evanier and Palumbo amicably ended their partnership. He subsequently wrote for the Hanna-Barbera comic book division and a number of variety shows and specials, and he began writing for animated cartoon shows, including Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo, The Plastic Man Comedy/Adventure Show, Thundarr the Barbarian, The ABC Weekend Special, Richie Rich, The Wuzzles, and Dungeons & Dragons. But he is most noted in animation for his work on Garfield and Friends, a seven-season series for which Evanier wrote or co-wrote nearly every episode and acted as voice recording director. Since 2008, Evanier has been the co-writer and voice director of The Garfield Show, which went on to win a Daytime Emmy Award for June Foray.

Evanier credits himself with convincing Jack Kirby to stop using Vince Colletta as an inker, and considers himself one of the "main vilifiers" of Colletta.

He wrote a script and provided "'technical advice' about comic books" for Bob, Bob Newhart's unsuccessful third sitcom for CBS.

He has produced a number of comic books, including Blackhawk, Crossfire and Hollywood Superstars (with Dan Spiegle), Groo the Wanderer (with Sergio Aragonés), and The DNAgents (with Will Meugniot). For the Spiegle comics, Evanier contributed lengthy essays on the entertainment industry. In 1985, he launched the DC Challenge limited series with artist Gene Colan. He wrote the New Gods series of 1989–1991. Evanier collaborated with Joe Staton on the Superman & Bugs Bunny mini-series in 2000.

For many years, Evanier wrote a regular column, "Point of View", for Comics Buyer's Guide.

Evanier's illustrated Jack Kirby biography, Kirby: King of Comics, was published in February 2008 by Abrams Books. It won the 2009 Eisner Award for Best Comics-Related Book. Evanier collaborated with Aragonés and Thomas Yeates on the Groo vs. Conan crossover for Dark Horse Comics in 2014.

Personal life

On May 26, 2006, Evanier underwent gastric bypass surgery at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. Having peaked at around 344 pounds (156 kg) by then, he subsequently lost nearly 99 pounds (45 kg) by June 2007.

Awards