Roy Thomas
Artist

Roy Thomas is an American comic book writer and editor. He was the first editor-in-chief to succeed to Stan Lee at Marvel Comics. He became a fan of comic books at an early age and first wrote and drew his own comics when in grade school. After graduating in history and social science in 1961, he worked as a teacher for four years.

Thomas became a regular contributor to Alter Ego, a fanzine created by Dr. Jerry Bails who was a major fan of the rebirth of the super hero genre in America. He took over as editor in 1964. At the time, it was quite frequent to find letters written by Thomas in magazines published by Marvel and DC.

In 1965 Thomas took a job at DC Comics, as assistant to Superman editor Mort Weisinger. He stayed there only for a few days and was hired by Marvel Comics to be a staff writer. Instead, because of his large knowledge of continuity, he quickly became and editorial assistant.

Thomas' first writing gig for Marvel was in a romantic comic book, Modeling With Millie #44. The following month, his first super hero story would be published, an Iron Man story in Tales Of Suspense #73. Thomas kept writing a few stories here and there before his big break: Patsy and Hedy and Strange Tales' Doctor Strange for Marvel, and Son Of Vulcan and Blue Beetle for Charlton.

Thomas's first ongoing work would come next in Sgt. Fury And His Howling Commandos, starting with issue #29. He also took over the X-Men twice in the 60s. It is, however, on Avengers that Thomas would sign his longest early run on a super hero title from 1966 to 1972. In the early 70s Thomas also launched what originally was a low selling title that would launch many spin-off titles, Conan The Barbarian.

In 1972, Stan Lee became published of Marvel Comics and chose Thomas as a successor for the editor-in-chief mantle. Under his reign, Marvel launched numerous new concepts such as the non-team The Defenders, the alternate realities series What If? and the World-War II series The Invaders. Thomas would also be a key factor to bring the Star Wars franchise to Marvel Comics.

In 1981 Thomas, unsatisfied with the new Marvel regime, signed a three-year exclusivity deal with DC Comics. Among his first works, Thomas took over Wonder Woman with illustrator Gene Colan and created two new series, sword and sorcery Arak Son Of Thunder and funny animal Captain Carrot And His Amazing Zoo Crew.

Finally Thomas revived the Golden Age group Justice Society Of America and, pretty much like he did with Invaders, wrote new World War II adventures for the team in All-Star Squadron. With illustrator Jerry Ordway, Thomas launched a spin-off series called Infinity, Inc. that focused on the children of the original Justice Society members.

In 1985 Thomas returned to Marvel and wrote or co-wrote numerous projects for the company such as Doctor Strange: Sorcerer Supreme, Thor, West Coast Avengers or Fantastic Four Unlimited. In the 1990s Thomas worked mostly for independent publishers such as Topps.

Nowadays, Thomas is the co-chairman of the comic book industry charity The Hero Initiative. He was also the editor of Alter Ego, a magazine published by Twomorrows. He also launched a brand new branch of titles for Marvel, Marvel Illustrated, where he adapts works of literature in comic book form.

Thomas's work on Conan The Barbarian is showcased in Adventures Into Digital Comics.