the
(March 1, 1924 – March 12, 2007)
Arnold Drake was the third child of Max Druckman, a
Manhattan furniture dealer who died in June 1966 at his home in
Forest Hills, Queens, New York City,
[3] and Pearl Cohen. His eldest brother,
Ervin Drake, born Ervin Maurice Druckman, and the middle brother, Milton, both became notable songwriters.
[4] His family was Jewish.
[5]
In the late 1960s, Drake freelanced for
Marvel Comics, beginning with
Captain Savage #5 (Aug. 1968), starring a
World War IIMarines squadron; he would additionally script some later issues of that series, plus a single issue of the WWII series
Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos. Drake wrote the run of
X-Men #47–54 (Aug. 1968 – March 1969, co-writing his initial issue with
Gary Friedrich), which included two rare circumstances of stories drawn but not written by the noted comics writer-artist
Jim Steranko. Drake introduced several new characters to the series including
Mesmero,
[23] Lorna Dane,
[24] and
Havok.
[25]Drake as well wrote issues of the space-alien
superhero Captain Marvel, stories for the superhero satire comic
Not Brand Echh, and a story of the jungle lord
Ka-Zar. In
Marvel Super-Heroes #18 (Jan. 1969), Drake and editor
Stan Lee co-created the
Guardians of the Galaxy,
[26][27] a far-future team of freedom-fighters gathered from different planets of our
solar system. The characters would star in a 62-issue series in the 1990s, and inspire a
new team of that name in the 2000s.
By mid-1969, however, Drake had left Marvel. His next new comics work to be published was a supernatural anthology story in
Gold Key Comics'
Grimm's Ghost Stories #1 (Jan. 1972) – the first of many stories for that company, including for the series
Boris Karloff Tales of Mystery, and the licensed TV-series titles
Dark Shadows,
Star Trek, and
Twilight Zone, among others.
[8]His Gold Key work included what comics historian
Mark Evanier called "a particularly long and delightful stint on
Little Lulu",
[2]beginning with issue #232 (May 1976). In 1973, Drake began freelancing again for DC occasionally, writing stories for series as varied as
Weird War Tales and
Supergirl.
[8] Beginning in 1977, Drake contributed stories to several issues of
Charlton Comics' black-and-white
satirical-humor magazine,
Sick.
Drake contributed to all four issues of
Starstream, a 68-page anthology series with cardboard covers that adapted classic science-fiction stories. That series was published by
Whitman Comics, the rights-holder to several properties it licensed to Gold Key, and Drake would continue with Whitman when it began distributing
Little Lulu and its other properties itself in 1980.
[8] By 1981, Drake was executive director of the Veteran's Bedside Network, an organization through which actors, actresses and
sound engineers would perform scripted material to entertain patients in
Veterans Administration hospitals in the New York City area.
Drake's last known original comics story for nearly 20 years was the six-page "G.I. Samurai" in DC's
G.I. Combat #276 (April 1985). He resurfaced two decades later with the 12-page "Tripping Out!", illustrated by
Luis Dominguez, in the mature-audience comics magazine
Heavy Metal vol. 26, #6 (Jan. 2003). This story was accompanied by a one-page biography of the two creators.
[8]
Drake wrote the foreword, introduction, preface and afterword of DC's 2002 hardcover reprint collection
The Doom Patrol Archives #1. He was also working on a new Doom Patrol
graphic novel, a prequel story, at the time of his death.
[29] He as well wrote a five-page afterword, "The Graphic Novel – And How It Grew", in
Dark Horse Books' March 2007 reprint of his and collaborators
Leslie Waller and
Matt Baker's pioneering, 1950 proto-graphic novel
It Rhymes with Lust.
[8]
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