One more memory of Bob Haney. In early 1963, DC added a super-hero strip to an anthology comic called My Greatest Adventure. It was called The Doom Patrol and the feature bore an uncanny resemblance in many ways to Marvel's concurrently-introduced comic, The X-Men. My conclusion is that the similarities were just coincidence, but it certainly brought to DC Comics a bit of the freshness and depth that fans were then discovering in Marvel's books. Personally, I preferred The Doom Patrol, a fine strip which eventually took over the entirety of My Greatest Adventure. While Drake was clearly the strip's guiding hand, he got some aid on that first story from Haney and, as mentioned here before, the two of them established themselves as the DC writers of the day who best understood that super-hero comics could and should have more personality and depth.
Upon hearing of Haney's passing, Drake sent the following as an e-mail to someone else who, with Arnold's permission, forwarded it to several other folks, including me. I just phoned Arnold (who I'll be interviewing at next year's Wondercon, by the way) and got his okay to post it here for everyone…
Dreadful news. Bob was a very talented and decent man. We were extremely close for several years. Spent the summer of '65 (I think it was) working on a thriller-satire called The Assassinator. (The word didn't really exist. But we were turned on by its freshness.)
In the Spring of '62, I think it was, [editor] Murray Boltinoff asked me to come up with a new superhero to try and save My Greatest Adventure. Overnight, I had most of The Doom Patrol shaped up: a scientific genius in a wheelchair leads a pair of superheroes who don't like being "freaks." He cajoles/ taunts them into shaking off their self-pity and using their fantastic qualities to build a better world. When I brought the concept to Murray, Elastigirl and Robotman were well developed. Murray flipped over it and said, "Write it!" But I was convinced I needed one more character. And I had only a weekend in which to find the character and write a 16 page origin story.
Coming out of Murray's office, I met Bob in the hall and told him a bit about the DP. He also loved the concept. He had no weekend assignment so he asked if he could help find the third superhero. He was always a pleasure to work with and time was breathing down my neck. I said, "Okay!" So we sat down and began the search that eventually produced Negative Man. He was, I think, the most unique of the trio. And when I later developed that ghastly glowing figure under the bandages, he really became something else. But Bob was there when we midwifed Neg Man into being.
We wrote a storyline, "tore" it in half and went to our respective homes to write the script. I did the first half and he the second. Back in the city (he lived in Woodstock) we performed minor surgery to make the pieces fit neatly together. I wrote every story on my own after that. But Bob was there on day one and I've spoken of that countless times.
This is a great loss. There was no one I was closer to in the field. Though we saw each other only once ( '99 San Diego ComCon) after he moved to Mexico, I am going to miss him. This has been a bitch of a year for me. And it doesn't help much to say, "It comes with the territory!"
I think Arnold may be a bit off with Spring of 1962. It was probably later that year. Also, I believe Haney said he also co-authored the second Doom Patrol story…but from there on, it was definitely all Arnold's and he did a superb job. Maybe at the Wondercon, I'll get him to talk more about Bob Haney.