E.Nelson Bridwell
(1931–1987)
Writer/Editor, Sapulpa
2005 Inductee Oklahoma Cartoonists Hall of Fame
E. Nelson Bridwell was one of the first and few comic book fans to rise to the job of editor and principal writer at a major comic book publisher. He was born in Sapulpa, Oklahoma.
He sold his first published work to the American Comics Group’s Adventures into the Unknown in 1949. Many other stories in various publications led to a full-time editorial position at DC Comics, where he served over twenty years.
He was well-known as caretaker of the Superman legend. His encyclopedic knowledge of the history of comic books led him to become editor of the DC 100 Page Super Spectacular series as well as many hardback and paperback anthologies including Superman from the 1930s to the 1970s, Batman from the 1930s to the 1970s, The Greatest Superman Stories Ever Told, The Greatest Joker Stories Ever Told, and Shazam!: From the Forties to the Seventies, among others.
At DC, he wrote Shazam! (the original Captain Marvel), Super Friends, and many others, and co-created Angel and the Ape, The Secret Six and the Inferior Five, among many others. He also wrote the syndicated strip Batman for two years in the 1970s.
Biography courtesy of The Toy & Action Figure Museum, Pauls Valley, Oklahoma