He graduated from Southeast Missouri State University in 1961 with a BS in Education, having majored in history and social science. As an adult, Thomas is 'not religious' and has been described as a 'lapsed Lutheran'. He was enrolled at a parochial Lutheran school and attended St. The first of these was All-Giant Comics, which he recalls as having featured such characters as Elephant Giant. As a child, he was a devoted comic book fan, and in grade school he wrote and drew his own comics for distribution to friends and family. Thomas was born in Jackson, Missouri, United States. Thomas was inducted into the Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame in 2011 and into the Harvey Awards Hall of Fame in 2022. Thomas is also known for his championing of Golden Age comic-book heroes – particularly the 1940s superhero team the Justice Society of America – and for lengthy writing stints on Marvel's X-Men and The Avengers, and DC Comics' All-Star Squadron, among other titles.Īmong the comics characters he co-created are Wolverine, Vision, Doc Samson, Carol Danvers, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, Ultron, Yellowjacket, Defenders, Man-Thing, Red Sonja, Adam Warlock, Morbius, Ghost Rider, Squadron Supreme, Invaders, Black Knight (Dane Whitman), Nighthawk, Havok, Banshee, Sunfire, Thundra, Arkon, Killraven, Wendell Vaughn, Red Wolf, Red Guardian, Daimon Hellstrom, Brother Voodoo and Valkyrie.

Howard's character and helped launch a sword and sorcery trend in comics.

He is possibly best known for introducing the pulp magazine hero Conan the Barbarian to American comics, with a series that added to the storyline of Robert E. (born November 22, 1940) is an American comic book writer and editor, who was Stan Lee's first successor as editor-in-chief of Marvel Comics.

WHAT IF? CLASSIC by Roy Thomas