Len Strazewski passes away at 71

The Columbia Chronicle of Chicago announced that Len Strazewski, a professor and news writer for the AMA who wrote several comics in the 1990s, and co-created Jesse Quick as the teen daughter for the Golden Age Johnny Quick and Liberty Belle with the late artist Mike Parobeck, passed away at 71 years of age:

Len Strazewski, a Columbia College professor emeritus and comic book writer known for his work on “The Flash,” died Monday, April 27, at 71.

Strazewski died peacefully in an Evanston nursing home following months of infections and hospital stays, Kevin O’Reilly, the son of his longtime partner, shared in a Facebook post.

Strazewski spent more than two decades at Columbia where he became a defining figure in the journalism program as a professor, mentor and administrator. He also built a career in comics, writing for DC and contributing to titles including “The Flash,” “Starman” and “Justice Society of America.”

When it comes to Flash and Starman, yes, he wrote at least one story for both, though it should be noted that the latter was the 1988-92 series primarily written by Roger Stern, starring a newer character named Will Payton, coming several years before the pretentious James Robinson was allowed to make mockery of everything with his overrated take, which starred a son of the Golden Age character Ted Knight, named Jack. Stern's series has yet to be reprinted, from what I know, and while it may not be perfect, I'd sooner read all of that specific Starman series than what Robinson wrote during 1994-2001; a post-Zero Hour concoction as it was. I don't think any of the forced replacement characters that came along in the wake of that shoddy crossover worked out well, because, simply put, they weren't introduced organically.

Outside the newsroom and classroom, Strazewski wrote for DC Comics and was part of projects spanning dozens of titles.

In 2013, he told Chicago Talks that he estimated he had written between 160 and 200 comics. Part of his work was on display at Columbia’s campus at the time.

He said he got into journalism because of Superman. “The job of reporter and journalist seemed to be a suitable profession for a young man because Clark Kent did it,” he said.

Yes, but for many years, there's just far too many journalists influenced by J. Jonah Jameson and Bethany Snow. Maybe Strazewski had a great idea working as a contributor to medical news, rather than political per se. Something that rather unsurprisingly isn't explored here is that back in 1993, the DC editor Mike Carlin cancelled Strazewski's Justice Society series after 10 issues because he didn't think they should be writing stories starring older heroes, and possibly despised Strazewski's writing and Parobeck's artwork too. And this was at a time when Marvel had been publishing Doctor Strange, easily the oldest protagonist in their universe, for many years as a series. Reed Richards of the Fantastic Four could easily come 2nd in terms of age at Marvel for "field warriors", and I'm sure there's more (Wolverine, anyone?). Carlin was also an editor on the repellent Identity Crisis in 2004, and that certainly doesn't speak well for his reputation. Let's also recall at least a few of the Justice Society characters who appeared in Strazewski's series were wiped out in Zero Hour soon after, and that was kept canon for many years.

Surely one of the most important lessons to learn in the debacle involving Strazewski's Justice Society series is that editors/publishers like Carlin weren't marketing on merit. One silver lining is that Strazewski/Parobeck's creation there, Jesse Quick, went on during the following decade to become a recurring co-star in the Flash as a resident lady speedster. But of course, all that went downhill after Mark Waid stopped writing, and terrible writers like Geoff Johns made things worse.

If there were any mistakes Strazewski made during his career in comicdom, it would have to have been when he wrote 2 items for the now defunct Malibu. One was the 1993 Street Fighter comic, the earliest USA adaptation of the video game franchise I know of, when, in the 3rd and last issue, he wrote Ken Masters being slain at the hands of Sagat, as though this were Mortal Kombat rather than SF. Capcom management and the fandom found that objectionable, and it was put to an end as a result, and only several years later when the Canadian Udon Entertainment took up a license did SF adaptations get better traction. Another far worse mistake was when Strazewski and the late artist Norm Breyfogle co-wrote Malibu's Prime with the disgraced Gerard Jones. I wouldn't be surprised if both Len and Norm disowned that comic later on, and stuff like that definitely tarnishes the entire Malibu output, which Marvel bought out at least a few years later, in what was obviously a huge mistake.

Apart from those errors, Strazewski's resume, though small it may be, looks okay, and his contributions to DC are to be admired. Exactly why it's a terrible shame later writers and editors took repellent directions with some of the characters he worked on. So Strazewski's a writer who can be appreciated - certainly a lot more than some of the other figures he worked with, and it's to be hoped that someday, more sensible creators will be able to do justice for his writings as much as previous generations of the past century.