Jack C. Harris

Early life and career

Jack C. Harris attended the Philadelphia College of Art and graduated with a BFA. He served in the Signal Corps while in the United States Army and was stationed in Germany. He was hired by DC Comics as part of the company's "Junior Woodchuck" program and became the assistant to editor Murray Boltinoff before being promoted to the post of editor himself.^[2] Harris wrote text articles and letters columns for various series and his first published comics story was "Political Rally Panic" in Isis #3 (February–March 1977).^[3]

Harris wrote several issues of Kamandi, an assignment he considered a personal favorite.^[4] As writer of the Wonder Woman comic book, he returned the series to a contemporary setting to reflect the timeframe change made from the World War II era to the present day in the television series.^[5] Harris was briefly writing every DC feature starring a female character.^[6] He and artist Trevor Von Eeden proposed an all-female superteam named the "Power Squad" to DC but the idea was not approved for publication.^[7]

In 1992, Harris and artist Joe Quesada co-created an updated version of the Golden Age character the Ray.^[8] At Marvel Comics, Harris co-created the character Annex in The Amazing Spider-Man Annual #27^[9] and wrote a limited series featuring the new character the following year.^[4] In 1994, Harris wrote the graphic novel Batman: Castle of the Bat, painted by artist Bo Hampton. A Hulk and the Human Torch story written by Harris and drawn by Ditko in the 1980s was published by Marvel as Incredible Hulk and the Human Torch: From the Marvel Vault #1 in August 2011.^[3][10][11] Two Kamandi stories written by Harris and drawn by Dick Ayers and Danny Bulanadi in 1978 were finally published in 2017 in Kamandi Challenge Special #1.^[12]

Editor

Harris edited the first appearances of several new characters in their own eponymous series including Black Lightning, Shade, the Changing Man, and Firestorm.^[13] As editor of the Legion of Super-Heroes title, Harris hired Steve Ditko to draw several issues, a decision which garnered a mixed reaction from the title's readership.^[14] Harris edited the Madame Xanadu one-shot in 1981,^[13] which was DC's first attempt at marketing comics specifically to the "direct market" of fans and collectors.^[15]

Among the new talent Harris helped to enter the comics industry was the writing team of Dan Mishkin and Gary Cohn^[16][17] and artists Trevor Von Eeden,^[18] John Workman, and Bob Smith.^[19] On the advice of artist Joe Staton, Harris gave British artist Brian Bolland his first assignment for a U.S. comics publisher, the cover for Green Lantern #127 (April 1980).^[20]

Educator

Harris was on the faculty of the School of Visual Arts in New York City in the BFA Cartooning Program.^[21]

DC Comics

HM Communications

• Heavy Metal #v6 #9, 11 (1982–1983)

Marvel Comics

Nintendo Picture Books

• The Legend of Zelda: Molblin's Magic Spear (1990) Molblin's Magic Spear is a children's picture book based on the Legend of Zelda series. It takes place during the storyline of the original game. It was written by Jack C. Harris and illustrated by Arthur Ellis and Kim Ellis. It was published by the Golden Books division of Western Publishing on February 1, 1990.^[22]