Comic book writer Gary Friedrich, the co-creator of Marvel Comics’s Ghost Rider and Daimon Hellstrom, the Son of Satan, has died at the age of 75. In a statement posted on Tony Isabella’s Facebook page (via CBR) by his longtime friend and co-writer Roy Thomas, Friedrich died of Parkison’s, which he had been battling for several years.
Friedrich was born in Jackson, Missouri, on August 21, 1943. He attended Jackson High School, where he was editor of the high school newspaper, and became friends with future Marvel writer and editor-in-chief Roy Thomas, who was in college at the time. Friedrich graduated in 1961, and worked at the city’s local papers, which he described as a troubling time as, “I wrote, edited, and laid out the entire newspaper. I was the whole editorial staff without any help. It was driving me crazy.” After the papers closed in 1965, Friedrich, at Thomas’s suggestion, moved to New York to work freelance in the city’s comic book industry.
He began writing romance stories for Charlton Comics, and scripted a few superhero series too, including the Blue Beetle’s debut in 1967’s “Captain Atom” #83–86 (plotted and penciled by Steve Ditko). He also worked for Marvel, writing Westerns like “Kid Colt, Outlaw,” “Two-Gun Kid,” and “Rawhide Kid,” as well as “Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos” from #42 (May 1967) with artist and co-scripter Dick Ayers. Friedrich, Thomas and Ayers also co-created the original “Ghost Rider” (now retroactively renamed “Phantom Rider”) that year.
In 1972, Friedrich, Thomas and artist Mike Ploog reinvented Ghost Rider as cursed modern bike rider Johnny Blaze in “Marvel Spotlight” #5, which spun off into a solo title written by Friedrich and illustrated by Tom Sutton the following year. He also wrote other Marvel titles in transition or facing cancellation from the late ’60s to the ’70s, like “The Incredible Hulk,” “X-Men,” and “Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.,” as well many horror titles for Skywald Publications and the short-lived Atlas/Seaboard Comics.
Friedrich retired from comics in 1978, and returned to Missouri, where he spent many years as a driver/courier in the St. Louis area. He briefly returned to the medium in 1993, scripting the Topps Comics and Jack Kirby title “Bombast” #1 (April 1993), collaborating once again with Roy Thomas and Dick Ayers. In more recent years, Friedrich became best known for his lawsuit against Marvel claiming ownership of Ghost Rider, which reportedly ended “amicably” in 2013.
Friedrich is survived by his second wife, Jean, and their daughter, Leslie.
