CBR reports that comic book writer Pat McGreal has died, aged only 68. A prolific Disney Comics contributor with his wife, Carol, McGreal also wrote several Vertigo books, like “Veils,” “I, Paparazzi,” and “Chiaroscuro: The Private Lives of Leonardo Da Vinci,” which was nominated for the Eisner Award for Best Limited Series in 1996.
Patrick McGeal was born in 1953, and made his debut at Disney in 1992 with The Little Mermaid spinoff “Walt Disney’s Sebastian;” he also debuted at DC that year with “The Black Hood Annual.” McGreal wrote his Disney work at Egmont Comic Creations, which translated his output for publication around the world. After contributing ideas to Pat’s scripts over the years, Carol officially became his co-writer in 1997, and the pair created characters like the “Mickey Mouse” parody of Batman and Robin, Blotman and Rodent. Their work has been released in the US by various Disney rights holders over the years, including Gladstone, Gemstone, and IDW Publishing.
McGreal and “Chiaroscuro” co-writer Dave Rawson also penned the 1994 miniseries “Indiana Jones and the Golden Fleece.” In 1999, he and Norm Breyfogle created the 1999 ‘Elseworlds’ series “Flashpoint” (long before Geoff Johns and Andy Kubert’s book of the same name), which imagined a world where Barry Allen became a quadriplegic during the Space Race. Outside of writing, McGreal served as president of the Comic Art Professional Society. His most recent work included several “Simpsons” stories for Bongo Comics in the early 2010s.
David Gerstein, who worked with McGreal as a story editor at Egmont in the late ’90s, said he “was struck foremost” by McGreal’s “curiosity. He was always asking me about Disney comics characters he hadn’t used yet — so that I might send him references and he might get into their heads. He was forever reading about Japanese and other Asian mythology and incorporating it into his stories. He was a pop-culture vulture, always looking for new or legendary fads, movies, or musical trends to spoof. He was never content with the same old plots or casts of characters.”
Former Vertigo executive editor Karen Berger tweeted, “Pat was a smart, inventive writer of Vertigo’s Chiaroscuro series (w/Dave Rawson) & the Veils and I,Paparazzi graphic novels. He was a great storyteller, kind, gracious & fun to be around. I will miss him. R.I.P, Pat.”
