Steve Skeates, one of the best "new" writers of comic books in the sixties, died last night at the age of 80. Steve broke into comics in 1965 as an assistant to Stan Lee at Marvel. The job didn't work out and he was soon replaced by Roy Thomas but Steve went to write not only for Marvel but, in the following years, for Charlton, DC, Warren, Gold Key, Tower Comics and many other companies. Among the comics that featured his work were Aquaman, THUNDER Agents, Creepy, Eerie, Vampirella, Underdog, Plop!, The Many Ghosts of Doctor Graves, Abbott & Costello, The Hawk and the Dove and Hercules. That is a very partial list.
His stories were usually very fresh and, even when it might not have been appropriate, very funny. I did not meet Steve until 2012 when I called him to tell him he'd won that year's Bill Finger Award for Excellence in Comic Book Writing and he brought him out to Comic-Con to present him with the trophy. But I could tell him quite honestly that I always admired his work. That was not the only award he ever received because an awful lot of people shared my opinion that his work always stood out from the pack. We could use more writers like that.