Louise Simonson
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Cover to House of Secrets #92 (June-July 1971). The blonde woman in the foreground was modelled on the then Louise Jones. Art by Bernie Wrightson. |
Louise Simonson (born
Mary Louise Alexander,
September 26,
1946 in
Atlanta, Georgia, formerly
Louise Jones) is an
American comic book writer and editor. She is best known for her work on comic book titles such as
Power Pack,
X-Factor,
New Mutants,
Superman, and
Steel.
In 1971 Simonson (then Louise Jones) modelled for artist
Berni Wrightson's cover of
DC Comics House of Secrets #92 (June-July, 1971), a comic which later became famous as the first appearance of
Swamp Thing.[
1]
Three years later in 1974, Jones started her professional comic book career at
Warren Publishing. She went from assistant to senior editor of the comics line (
Creepy,
Eerie, and
Vampirella) before leaving the company at the end of 1979.
In January, 1980, she joined
Marvel Comics, where she initially worked again as an editor, most notably on
Uncanny X-Men, which she edited for almost four years (#137–182).
Louise Jones met the comic book writer and artist
Walt Simonson in 1973. The two were married in 1980. At the end of 1983, she quit her editing job at Marvel to try her hand at freelance writing. As "Louise Simonson", she became a freelance writer with multiple assignments at her former employer Marvel. Louise also helped her husband color his 1983 Marvel
graphic novel Star Slammers.
In August 1984, Simonson and artist
June Brigman created
Power Pack. The title featured the adventures of four pre-teen superheroes and was an immediate sales and critical success. Simonson would write the majority of the title's first forty issues, even coloring one issue (#18).
In 1986, Simonson returned to the X-books to begin a long stint as writer of X-Men spin-off
X-Factor with #6. In that issue, she and artist
Jackson Guice introduced
Apocalypse, a character who would go on to play a major role in the X-Men franchise. From #10 of the title, she was joined by her husband, Walt Simonson, on pencils. In #25, the creators gave the character
Angel blue skin and metal wings in a process which would lead to his being renamed as
Archangel. She ended her run on the title with #64 in 1991.
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X-Factor #37 (1989), written by Louise Simonson, art by husband Walter. |
Simonson (as Louise Jones) had edited another X-Men spin-off,
The New Mutants, at its debut in 1983. Subsequently, with #55 in 1987 she became the title's writer, writing it for 3 1/2 years until #87 in 1991. It was during this run that she and artist
Rob Liefeld introduced
Cable, another important character in the X-Men franchise.
In 1990, Simonson began writing for Marvel's rivals, DC Comics. She, artist
Jon Bogdanove, and editor
Mike Carlin launched a new
Superman title,
Superman: Man of Steel â€" a title she would write for eight years until #86 in 1999. During this run, Simonson (along with Carlin,
Dan Jurgens,
Roger Stern and others) was one of the chief architects of the
The Death of Superman storyline, in which Superman died and was resurrected. It was during that story, in
Superman: Man of Steel #19, that Simonson and Bogdanove introduced their character
Steel, who graduated to his own title in 1993, with Simonson as writer until #31. The character went on to feature in an eponymous
feature film starring
Shaquille O'Neal in 1997.
In 1999, Simonson returned to Marvel to write a
Warlock series, which featured a character from her previous
New Mutants run. Also at Marvel that year, she wrote a miniseries,
Galactus the Devourer, in which Galactus died temporarily.
In 2002 and 2003, Simonson wrote two books for teens based on the
Justice League cartoon:
Wonder Woman (The Gauntlet) and
Wild at Heart published by
Bantam Books.
More recently she has been involved with writing new stories featuring
Magnus Robot Fighter for the publisher
ibooks.
Simonson made frequent in-class appearances when her husband Walt Simonson taught a Graphic Storytelling course at Manhattan's
School of Visual Arts in the 1990s.
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The Unofficial Handbook of Marvel Comics Creators
