It was my extraordinary good fortune and pleasure to work for a few decades with a delightful man named Dan Spiegle. I don't know what percentage of the comic book scripts I've written were illustrated by Dan but I'll bet it's high and I wish it was higher. Here's a note from Joe Cabrera…
If you haven't answered this already, how did you get involved with Dan Spiegle? Your work with him on Blackhawk and Crossfire has to be some of my favorite book runs ever.
I was a fan of Dan Spiegle's work for…well, almost from the age I started reading comic books, which was in the womb. As I've related many times in many places, the first movie I remember seeing in a theater was Don't Give Up The Ship starring Jerry Lewis, and the next day I happened to be reading the Dell comic book adaptation of it when I met Jerry Lewis. It was 1959, I was seven years old and that comic was drawn by Dan Spiegle.
Flash ahead to the early seventies. Western Publishing (AKA Gold Key Comics) was producing a Scooby Doo comic book based on the then-sorta-new Saturday morning TV show from Hanna-Barbera. The first issue of it was drawn by Phil DeLara. #2 thru #5 were drawn by Jack Manning. 6 thru 13 were drawn by Warren Tufts and then Warren asked off the assignment so someone else was needed. The editor, Chase Craig, assigned the book to Dan Spiegle.
There were many reasons why Dan was a great choice. For one thing, he was one of the best artists Chase had ever had in his stable…and easily the most reliable. As I would learn, if you told Dan the assignment was due on Wednesday at 3:30 PM, it was there Wednesday at 3:30 PM — and usually before. He never cut corners. If you'd told him to draw the 3rd Marine Division in every panel, he'd have drawn the 3rd Marine Division in every panel and all of their uniforms would have been precisely accurate.
But Dan was not that adept (yet) in the kind of semi-cartoony style necessary for Scooby Doo. He drew more realistic comics. Trouble was, Chase didn't have very many of those on his schedule just then. Dan needed work…Chase needed someone to draw Scooby…so he took a chance. The results were passable but they could have been better.
So now it's 1972 and I'm writing scripts for Chase…scripts for the Disney comics and I think I'd just done a few for the Road Runner and Bugs Bunny comics. I'm in one day and he asks me if I'd like to take a crack at Scooby Doo. My first thought is no; I'd seen the TV show and wasn't a particular fan. But before I can decline, Chase says, "Dan Spiegle is drawing the book now and I think the two of you would work well together."
I thought, "Dan Spiegle?" I said, "Sure." Like I said, I'd always loved his work.
I wrote one. Dan drew it. I happened to be at the office the day the package came in and everyone who'd thought Dan didn't quite have a feel for this kind of material was looking in the pages and sounding like Henry Higgins singing "The Rain in Spain!"
It was like, "He's got it! By george, he's got it!"
I got more credit for the change than I deserved but I loved the art so much, I said yes immediately when Chase said, "I'd like you to write this book from now on."
We also became good friends through another artist friend named Dan — this one a then-young gent named Dan Gheno, who may have been the first person to ever send me any kind of fan letter about my work. Gheno was a beginning artist then and has since become one of top portrait painters and art instructors in this country.
Gheno lived near Spiegle and they'd met with the older Dan coaching the younger Dan. Shortly after that first Scooby Doo job, I drove up to Carpinteria for a day and met both of them. Here's a photo that Mr. Gheno took that day with my camera. It's me and Spiegle in his studio…
We did Scooby Doo for Western until the company lost the rights. There was one inventory story by another writer but aside from that, I wrote the rest of the run until Western dropped or lost the rights to Scooby. The divorce was one of those "You can't fire me, I quit" arguments. Thereafter, whenever I had a comic book job that was even remotely in Dan's wheelhouse, I tried to get him on board as artist. When he was offered something and there was no writer attached yet, he asked them to get me.
We did lots of comics for different publishers — including more Scooby Doo for two other publishers…or was it three? — and never had an argument of any sort. He was never late. I was never unhappy with anything he drew. He was one of my favorite people on the planet and the fact that he drew so well was just a happy bonus. Thank you for asking about him, Joe, because I really enjoyed writing this and remembering Dan.
