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years in a wide variety of roles. At DC Comics, started in the Fanzines in 1971, assistant to Joe Orlando, working under Carmine Infantino then Jenette Kahn as Publisher, and Freelance writer, to full time Editor and writer in 1976, working on All Star Comics with Wally Wood, Stalker with Steve Ditko, and promotion to upper management, writing and editing Batman in 1978, working with Julius Schwartz, Vice President in the 1980s with a lengthy run on the Legion of Superheroes and co-creating many characters like Huntress, the changes in the 1980s that he and Jenette Kahn brought to DC Comics, Jim Shooter's effect on both companies, the payment of royalties to artists and creators, publishing Will Eisner's work, the effect of the DC Movies on DC Comic's corporate identity, growth of the Direct Market, hiring Frank Miller, John Byrne, Alan Moore, Karen Berger's Vertigo, his role as President and his new project for Valiant Comics, The Visitor. 🎬 Edited & Produced by Alex Grand, ©2021 Comic Book Historians Sound FX - Standard License. Images used in artwork ©Their Respective Copyright holders. Images used for academic purposes only. Paul Levitz Biographical Interview 2019 by Alex Grand & Jim Thompson 📜 Video chapters 00:00:00 Welcoming Paul Levitz 00:00:29 Family background 00:01:42 Reading comics 00:04:29 Mort Weisinger - Superman, Legion of Superheroes 00:06:16 Reading Marvel comics 00:07:27 Steve Ditko 00:08:08 Proto fanzines 00:09:18 Etcetera, a news magazine ~1971 | Paul Kupperberg 00:10:58 What a fan meant, back in ’71? 00:13:33 Legion fandoms 00:15:21 Jack Kirby to DC, New Gods | Carol Fein 00:16:53 ...weren’t really focused on mythology 00:20:27 The Comic Reader 00:22:01 Etcetera and The Comic Reader | Paul Kupperberg 00:24:14 Attract artists to work on the covers? 00:25:59 Tom Fagan 00:26:20 Phil Seuling, program book for 1973 Comic Art Convention 00:28:34 Sold TCR in 1973 to Street Enterprises 00:29:46 Freelance work at DC 00:31:38 Assistant editor under Joe Orlando 00:33:18 Gerry Conway 00:35:36 DC environment at that time 00:37:52 Siegel and Shuster lawsuit ~1975 00:40:02 Neal Adams, Dick Giordano - Continuity 00:40:50 Carmine Infantino 00:44:24 Stalker | Working with Steve Ditko, Wally Wood 00:45:44 Conan, Sword-and-sorcery 00:46:26 Lucien the Librarian, Tales of Ghost Castle ~1975 00:47:32 Weird Mystery Tales 00:49:54 Filipinos on mystery and war books 00:53:18 Negative older artists’ negotiations 00:54:21 Aquaman | Aparo 00:56:04 Learn to be a better writer? 00:58:27 All-Star Comics ~1976 01:00:07 Bringing Wally Wood to DC 01:05:07 Favorite characters, 01:06:24 Huntress, co-creation Staton and Layton 01:07:10 Earth-2 01:08:29 Legion of Superheroes 01:10:40 Karate Kid 01:12:20 Full-time editor and writer ~1976 | There is hope now 01:18:42 Jenette Kahn 01:20:53 Writing drafts of contracts | Bob Stein 01:23:01 Sol Harrison president, Jenette Kahn as the publisher 01:28:08 Editor of Batman comics 01:29:58 Julius Schwartz 01:32:21 Industry changes in the late 70s | Jim Shooter 01:38:03 Multiple title changes 01:41:38 Transition in the industry | The direct market starts to take off 01:45:18 Direct market success and shift of industry? 01:46:27 Frank Miller 01:48:36 Alan Moore 01:50:06 DC bought the rights to the Charlton Characters, Watchmen 01:51:47 Trade paperbacks with Dark Knight 01:53:52 John Byrne Superman in ‘85-86 01:55:13 Will Eisner 01:56:15 Launch Marketing Department for the first in comics 01:58:49 Legion of Superheroes 02:00:42 Most proud LSH mythos moment? 02:01:21 Decisions with characters 02:05:43 Crisis is a huge challenge 02:08:21 Keith Giffen 02:10:21 Collaboration with Steve Ditko 02:14:49 Time & Warner merged, DC is part of Warner Bros, 1989 02:17:00 Titles start to change again 02:18:29 Image comics, Marvel bankruptcy ~1990s 02:21:10 Karen Berger, Creation of Vertigo ~1993 02:23:20 Becoming President and Publisher 02:25:07 Chris Nolan-Batman film, Zack Snyder films 02:25:51 Animated films with Bruce Timm 02:27:44 DC Comics goes under DC Entertainment ~2009 02:29:45 Coming to strong women... 02:32:07 Dorothy Woolfolk 02:34:39 Milestone Media 02:36:36 52, Comic book series 02:39:50 Comics done after 2009 02:41:20 DC History Book, Will Eisner: Champion of the Graphic Novel 02:43:13 Jules Feiffer 02:44:19 Academic career, post-DC 02:47:36 Visitor, Book by Paul Levitz | Valiant Comics 02:51:06 Ever wrote a story for Marvel? 02:51:52 Talk about that Poker night 02:54:28 Boom, The CBLDF, Clarion Foundation 02:56:47 Awards received 02:58:05 Concluding words #PaulLevitz #DCComics #ComicHistorian #ComicBookHistorians #CBHInterviews #CBHPodcast #CBH 🌐 Website 🔗 https://comicbookhistorians.com ✊ Patreon 🔗 https://www.patreon.com/comicbookhistorians