Mark Evanier and CBR reported that comic book writer Steve Skeates passed away on Thursday, March 30. Skeates, who was 80 years old, was known for his work on various DC, Marvel, Tower, Warren, Archie and Charlton titles, including writing “Aquaman” from 1968 to 1971, and creating the DC heroes Hawk and Dove with artist Steve Ditko.
Stephen Skeates was born in Rochester, New York, on January 29, 1943. Although he loved comics and cartoons from a young age, he initially chose to study maths at Alfred University when he turned 18; after a year, he went back on his “truly silly idea,” and changed to English Literature. In 1965, he was hired by Marvel Comics as Stan Lee’s assistant editor, but his lack of proofreading skills soon led him to be replaced by the newly hired Roy Thomas. Skeates was assigned to write the publisher’s westerns instead, and began freelancing too, scripting Tower Comics’ flagship series, “T.H.U.N.D.E.R.Agents,” and a couple of other titles in 1966.
It was at Tower that Skeates first worked with Steve Ditko, and the two reunited at Charlton for a Question back-up story in “Blue Beetle” #4, as well as the mystery anthology “The Many Ghosts of Doctor Graves” from 1967 to 1969. They introduced Hawk and Dove in DC’s “Showcase” #75 (cover date: June 1968), which led to the characters’ own series, “The Hawk and the Dove.” Creative disputes with Ditko and editor Dick Giordano led Ditko to leave after the second issue, and Skeates after the fourth, causing the series to be canceled after only a couple of more issues by Gil Kane.
Regardless, Skeates found steady work with DC over the next decade, penning “Aquaman,” “Plastic Man,” “House of Mystery,” “House of Secrets,” and many more. In 1973, Skeates launched the dark humor anthology “Plop!” at DC; although the series only lasted three years due to low sales, and a conflict with editor Joe Orlando, it was critically well received. During the ’70s, Skeates also wrote for Warren on “Creepy,” “Eerie” and “Vampirella,” and for Gold Key on “Underdog,” “The Twilight Zone,” and “Yosemite Sam and Bugs Bunny.”
He returned to Marvel in 1980, penning the Howard the Duck stories in “Crazy Magazine,” and “Peter Porker, the Spectacular Spider-Ham,” while contributing to Marvel Productions cartoons like The Transformers, G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero, and Jem (although he was only credited on The Transformers‘ “The Face of the Nijika”). By the late ’80s, Skeates had grown tired of monthly comics, and launched a shortlived newspaper strip, “The Adventures of Stew Ben and Alec Gainey,” in 1989. In the early ’90s, he moved back home to Rochester to help care for his father, who had developed Parkinson’s disease. Skeates continued to write fiction and non-fiction over the years, including indie revivals of “The Charlton Arrow,” before passing away.
Skeates was recognized during his lifetime with three Shazam Awards, including two for Best Humor Story, from 1972 to 1973, as well as a Warren Award for Best All Around Writer. He received the Bill Finger Award for Excellence in Comic Book Writing in 2012. Evanier commented Skeates was “one of the best ‘new’ writers of comic books in the sixties,” adding “his stories were usually very fresh and, even when it might not have been appropriate, very funny.” He concludes saying, “His work always stood out from the pack. We could use more writers like that.”
