RIP MARTIN NODELL

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This is a "reprint" from Comicon.com/Pulse,
by JENNIFER M. CONTINO:
http://www.comicon.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php/ubb/get_topic/f/36/t/005812.html


THE PULSE is sad to report the passing of Green Lantern creator, Martin Nodell. Nodell was a staple on the convention circuit and always thrilled to greet new and old fans. His enthusiasm and love of this industry was infectious and we are all saddened by the loss.

Mr. Nodell had just turned 91 years old died Saturday morning according to Mark Evanier. Those who had the pleasure of spending some time with Mr. Nodell at comic conventions know how he would regale us with stories of the Golden Age of comics, and the struggles for comic creators during that time. Several times at the Pittsburgh Comic-Con, where I would regularly see Mr. Nodell, he would tell me stories about his alter ego "Mart Dellon," a name used when he was working in the advertising industry to sign his comic books. He said at that time, comic creators weren't looked upon with respect as they are now, so he used the pen name so his peers wouldn't know about his sequential art.

Although best known for his work with Alan Scott, Green Lantern, who he originally wanted to call "Alan Ladd," but said he couldn't because an actor by that name had appeared on the scene at the same time; Nodell worked with several major publishers on recognizable icons like Captain America, the Human Torch, and the Sub-Mariner, to name a few.

It was while he was working in advertising that Mr. Nodell was a part of the group who came up with one of the most famous and recognizable mascots of any food producing company, the Pillsbury Doughboy. At conventions, Mr. Nodell seemed like everyone's grandfather and, when his wife Carrie was still by his side, she was everyone's grandmother. Mrs. Nodell passed away in 2004. Now she and Mr. Nodell are together again.

THE PULSE will miss this smiling face and offers our deepest sympathies and condolences to the family of Mr. Martin Nodell.

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Presented below is a past PULSE piece with Martin Nodell about his life in comic books.

BY A DAVID LEWIS
Real men do not wear galactic ring-weapons of impossible power – certainly not on a daily basis, at least. And real men, to the best of my knowledge, are seldom ever find mystic, jade meteors, serve as red-and-green clad vigilantes, or draw energy from lanterns. Rather, I do know one man who has accomplished the latter: absorbed the power

Moreover, this very real man has also taken a fictional element – the potency of willpower – and made it factual as well. He is 89 years old. He spent 25 years working in ad agencies, resulting in one of the best-recognized company icons of all time. And, 64 years ago, he created another icon, a member of the Justice Society of America, Justice League of America, and the cosmic elite. The character was Alan Scott, the original Green Lantern. But the man is Mart Nodell, our living connection to the Golden Age of comics and a flesh-and-blood testimony to its roots.

Rather than being some kind of human artifact, though, Mr. Nodell proved a wholly genuine, very approachable gentleman when I encountered him at the Rosement Convention Center in August. Perhaps he is not the spry inkmonkey he may have been back in, say, the nineteen-thirties, he still took time away from his work and fans for a few of my questions at this year’s annual WizardWorld Chicago convention.

Sitting beside his wheelchair, I started by asking Mr. Nodell whether it is more important that a successful artist – certainly one whose career looks to last not just years but decades – be lucky or skilled, fortunate or talented. His finger shot up almost immediately, right on the last word of my question:

“First of all, and absolutely, you have to be skilled. It's not possible to do this and not be skilled.” This essential baseline of ability is so fundamental, in fact, that it is not limited to the comic book medium. “It's the same thing as might occur in any kind of field, like movies.”

Yes, fair reminder: foresight is a skill, certainly. The finger stays in the air, however ... silently but strongly noting a forthcoming however, one that applies as widely to multimedia talents.

“However,” says Mr. Nodell, finally letting the digit fall, “being fortunate is a skill, too – folks who are aware of what's coming along exhibit a talent, as well.”

So, let’s call this the Nodell axiom: Luck is a skill, and being skilled is luck. Of course, this is not just an observation by Mr. Nodell; it’s his history. His own skill was combined with serendipity over sixty years ago to produce one of the preeminent superhero molds of our time.

Mr. Nodell’s son, Spence, explains that “National Periodicals was looking for a third character” to round out its stable of heroes. “Dad was simply told they were looking. If someone hadn’t told him on that given day...”

Spence’s words trail off, and he just gives a shrug; Mr. Nodell, too, gives a small laugh. The unspoken result, of course, would not only have been the absence of Green Lantern – be he Alan Scott, Hal Jorden, Kyle Rayner or any of the rest – from the pantheon of modern heroes. It would have meant an entirely different life for the Nodell family.

“That’s luck!” finishes Spence.

"Green Lantern," says Mr. Nodell humbly, was just “the right idea at the right time. I had several ideas of my own. The Green Lantern came from those lanterns such that appeared on subway stations. Wave a red lantern,” he illustrates with a light pass of his palm in front of me, “and trains wouldn’t come in. A green lantern, though,” he smiles, “trains come in.”

(Is it too obvious a metaphor to note here that, indeed, with this Green Lantern, Mr. Nodell’s train did indeed come in? Perhaps so.)

This everyday subway image merged with several other, more esoteric elements in the mind of Mart Nodell. “Willpower, yes, in the ideas that I had. But also – Wagner’s opera of the rings, the Cycle. The ring! That was a large, large inspiration.”

Opera and subway transportation, therefore, meshed to make Green Lantern at exactly the right moment. “Same as with Superman or Batman. They were terrific ideas, each at the right time.”

Ah. So, Mr. Nodell – you, Jerry Siegel, Joe Shuster, Bob Kane, and so forth: All just lightning-bottlers, eh? All luck-struck and real-life Alan Scotts, finding that incredible powersource. It sounds too modest to me, frankly, especially for a man who went on to create further successes in other fields. Mart Nodell would be just as much remembered for the creation of the Pillsbury Dough Boy from his advertising days as for the Emerald Avenger. But not all of those touched by talent have been blessed with fortune.

Who is the Forgotten Artist, Mr. Nodell? I ask him, in his years of working with big names (and having raw talents grow large on Green Lantern), who does fandom forget to honor?

“I have to go back a way. There's more to your question than you think. If we think back to how we started and worked generally,” he said, speaking of the Golden Age comic creators, “it was mainly like being on a desert island. We didn't know if it would be acceptable or unacceptable [to the masses.]”

Much of it was more than acceptable, of course. Much of it became legendary. But, as for those who missed out on the annals of history, those who should merit more than a footnote? “All the guys who worked in the shadow of Bob Kane – Jerry Robinson, Bill Finger, Sheldon Moldoff...All Bob Kane’s assistants. Robinson created a number of the characters, like the Joker; Jerry doesn't care about the credit, though,” mulls Mr. Nodell, casting his eyes downward slightly. Then, perhaps not even to me, not for this interview, but just to himself, he says, “...I wonder if it hurts him in a way...”

He pauses a moment, then cued by his son mentioning “the bullpen guys,” Mr. Nodell resumes. “Also, I worked for Stan Lee in [nineteen] forty-seven through fifty, and many guys in the bullpen weren't recognized. Syd Shores is not remembered, Pierce Rice as well. John Buscema was there,” he notes, bringing back mental snapshots from over two-scores ago. Then, to allay any misunderstanding, he lightens the mood, citing the equal successes of Lee’s colleagues. “Some became well-known. Like Gene Colan and Buscema.”

And Mart Nodell. He gets recognized with wonder (even if it initially takes the sign “Creator of the Green Lantern!” to clue the young attendees in) on the current convention scene. Largely, though, these appearances are the result of his late wife’s urgings, the loving Mrs. Carrie Nodell. When asked about his visibility at the cons – particularly rare of a Golden Age artist and creator – he instantly credits Mrs. Nodell who passed earlier this year. “It begins with my wife. She wanted us to go to various shows.” A smile trembles on his lips. “She liked the idea of exposing me and Green Lantern.”

Spence agrees readily, “She loved coming, because she got to see the adulation and the love from the fans for my dad.” She didn’t just share in his fame; she loved seeing him loved.

What’s the best reaction that she witnessed, that he received? “A lot of the reactions are from 'Who's that?' to making very good friends along the way –” Then Spence stops short in his response and looks to Mr. Nodell. He just grins. “When I write the book, you'll know...”

Very funny, Mr. Nodell. But, in fact, it’s true; a book of his convention experiences is coming. “I'll get to it. My wife already had three chapters written. Sometime in the winter, maybe.”

In a bittersweet way, the thought of it is touching: Even posthumously, the husband and wife continue to collaborate. He even sweetly phrases his work in the plural.

“We're one of just a few Golden Age people who are still around [doing the conventions], again thanks to my wife.” Returning perhaps to his thoughts about the Forgotten Artists, he adds, “Not to be critical – because they
still have people like Gene Colan, and maybe DC's a little bit better with how kind they've been – but they don't always look to their roots as much as they could.”

I don’t know if “they” refers to DC, comic publishers in general, the overall readership, or the entire industry. But I don’t ask. Any and all of those answers seems fitting.

I try to deliver the delicate question of how Mr. Nodell would like to be remembered, but it’s quickly intercepted by his humility and obvious affection.

“My wife's efforts should be remembered.”

He adds no qualifier. Simply, he wishes, in being remembered himself, for his partner’s own efforts to be noted. He manages to hold back any tears, even if I cannot help my eyes watering slightly. For what is itself a largely collaborative medium, there’s something rather perfect to me about his sentiment.

It isn’t solely about his wife, though. For Mr. Nodell, credit belongs to not only the woman who stood beside him, but also those who have followed after him, taking the medium – and his renown character – even further.

“In everything that we said here, there’s this: Even as we worked on the Green Lantern early on, there have been so many changes. It's become more of a development with many writers and artists -- very good people who have done a very good job...It’s not only ourselves, but so many other people who have done a great job. Such that whatever we've done, [Green Lantern] has been a group development.”

But someone started it. Someone first put placed the ring on the hero’s finger.

And that man, Mart Nodell, has these closing words to the future artists who might look to his influence for guidance. As he did in that fortuitous moment at National, deserving ideas will be recognized, so “bring them to the front, and they will be received well. That's the only real way.”