Tony Isabella

Tony Isabella was born in Cleveland, Ohio.[2] He discovered comics at the age of four, when his mother began bringing him I. W. Publications titles she bought at Woolworth.[2] Early influences from the comic book world included Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Roy Thomas, Robert Kanigher, and Len Wein; Isabella was also influenced by writers such as William Shakespeare, Harlan Ellison, Ed McBain, Neil Simon, Mel Brooks, Lester Dent, Dave Barry, Max Allan Collins, Don Pendleton, and Studs Terkel.[2]

As a teenager, Isabella had many letters published in comic book letter columns,[3] primarily in the pages of Marvel titles. He was active in comics fandom as well, a member of CAPA-alpha, and a regular contributor to comics fanzines.[2]

Isabella's work in comics fandom attracted the attention of Marvel editor Roy Thomas[2] (whose professional career began in similar fashion), and in 1972 Thomas hired Isabella as an editorial assistant at Marvel. With Marvel's establishment of Marvel UK that year, Isabella was assigned the task of overseeing the reprints used in Marvel UK's nascent comics line.[4] He also served for a time as an editor for Marvel's black-and-white magazine line.[5]

As a writer, Isabella scripted Ghost Rider; the characters It, the Living Colossus, in Astonishing Tales; Luke Cage in Hero for Hire and Power Man; and Tigra in Marvel Chillers; Daredevil;[6] and Captain America.[7] While writing the "Iron Fist" feature in Marvel Premiere, he co-created the supporting character Misty Knight with artist Arvell Jones.[8] Isabella developed the concept of The Champions series[9] and wrote the first several issues.[10]

During his mid-1970s run on Ghost Rider, Isabella wrote a two-year story arc in which Johnny Blaze occasionally encountered an unnamed character referred to as "the Friend" who helped Blaze stay protected from Satan, who had granted Blaze supernatural power and created the Ghost Rider. Isabella said in 2007,

Getting prior approval from editor Roy Thomas, as I would from later editors Len Wein and Marv Wolfman, I introduced "The Friend" into the series. He looked sort of like a hippie Jesus Christ and that's exactly who He was, though I never actually called Him that.... It allowed me to address a disparity that had long bothered me about the Marvel Universe. Though we had no end of Hell(s) and Satan surrogates in our comics, we had nothing of Heaven.... [After two years] I'd written a story wherein, couched in mildly subtle terms, Blaze accepted Jesus as his savior and freed himself from Satan's power forever. Had I remained on Ghost Rider, which was my intent at the time, the title's religious elements would have faded into the background. Blaze would be a Christian, but he'd express this in the way he led his life. ... Unfortunately, an assistant editor took offense at my story. The issue was ready to go to the printer when he pulled it back and ripped it to pieces. He had some of the art redrawn and a lot of the copy rewritten to change the ending of a story two years in the making. "The Friend" was revealed to be, not Jesus, but a demon in disguise. To this day, I consider what he did to my story one of the three most arrogant and wrongheaded actions I've ever seen from an editor.[11]

Isabella later said the assistant editor referenced was Jim Shooter.[12][13] In 2020, Shooter said he had been concerned that this "basically established the Marvel universe is a Christian universe" and could alienate some portion of the readership by suggesting "that all other religions are false." He said after consulting with editor Marv Wolfman, he made the changes.[14]

For DC Comics, Isabella worked as a writer and story editor[5] but is mainly known for his creation of Black Lightning,[15] writing both the character's short-lived 1970s and 1990s series.[16] After reaching an agreement with DC,[17] Isabella returned to the character in 2017 with the publication of the Black Lightning: Cold Dead Hands limited series.[18][19]

Isabella and artist Richard Howell produced the Shadow War of Hawkman mini-series in 1985, involving the characters of Hawkman and Hawkwoman.[20] An ongoing series was launched the following year.[21]

In 1987, Isabella began writing the Justice Machine series for Comico, co-plotting with series creator and penciller Mike Gustovich. The new series picked up from the end of the Bill Willingham/Gustovich written limited series Justice Machine featuring the Elementals, which re-booted the series' continuity from the older Noble Comics/Texas Comics-published original series. The ongoing book became one of Comico's best-selling series, selling upwards of 70,000 copies of each issue at its peak. Isabella wrote the first 11 issues of the Comico series before moving on to other projects.[22]

In 1990, Isabella returned to the characters and wrote the series for Innovation Comics, with Gustovich pencilling once more.

Isabella wrote the Comics Buyer's Guide column "Tony's Tips" for over a decade. The last column was June 22, 2010.[23] Starting in 2013, he continued "Tony's Tips" online at Tales of Wonder.[24][25] He also regularly writes about comics and his work on his personal blog.[26]

Isabella is the co-author with his fellow Comics Buyer's Guide columnist Bob Ingersoll of the short story "If Wishes Were Horses..." which was published in The Ultimate Super-Villains: New Stories Featuring Marvel's Deadliest Villains (1996),[27] and the novels Captain America: Liberty's Torch (1998)[28] and Star Trek: The Case Of The Colonist's Corpse (2003).[29] In 2009, his non-fiction book 1000 Comics You Must Read was published by Krause Publications.[30]

During the 1980s, Isabella operated Cosmic Comics, a comic book shop in the Colonial Arcade in Downtown Cleveland.[31]

He has also worked on translating foreign-language Disney comics and revising the wording for the U.S. market.

• Grim Ghost #3 (1975)
• Tales of Evil #3 (1975)

• Grim Ghost vol. 2 #1–6 (with Stephen Susco) (2010–2011)

• Negative Burn #46 (1997)

• Justice Machine #1–6, 8–11 (1987)

• Harlan Ellison's Dream Corridor Quarterly #1 (with Harlan Ellison) (1996)

• Geeksville #3 (2000)

• Justice Machine vol. 3 #5–7 (1990–1991)
• Sentry Special #1 (with Bob Ingersoll) (1991)

• Jack Kirby's Secret City Saga #0 (1993)
• Satan's Six #1–4 (1993)

• Vampirella #26 (ghostwriter for Len Wein) (1973)