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Gary Friedrich was born Aug. 21, 1943 in
Jackson, Missouri, the son of Jerry and Elsie
Friedrich. He attended Jackson public schools and
graduated from Jackson High School in 1961. He
was editor of the high school newspaper and a
member of the marching band.
He met future Marvel Comics editor Roy Thomas
while both worked at the Palace Theatre in Jackson
while they attended high school. They shared
interests in rock and roll music, movies, books
and of course, comics. They began reading DC
superhero comics during the superhero revival of
the late fifties and discovered the new Marvel
comics of Stan Lee in the early sixties.
Friedrich also helped Thomas with early issues of
his fanzine Alter Ego.
Also while in high school, Friedrich and
Thomas began performing in rock and roll bands,
first as Evetz Pretzel and the Transjordanaires
and later as members of the Galaxies. Friedrich
played drums and Thomas was vocalist.
In 1964, Friedrich became managing editor of
the Jackson Pioneer, a twice-weekly newpaper and
continued in that capacity until late 1965 at
which time he moved to New York at the invitation
of Thomas, who'd moved there in the summer of that
year and gone to work as Stan Lee's associate
editor at Marvel. They roomed together for a time
in late 1965 and 1966 on Bleecker St. in Greenwich
Village and shared the apartment for several
months with Sub-Mariner creator Bill Everett.
In New York, Friedrich worked for a few
months for a record store in Queens, then began to
write romance comics for Dick Giordano at Charlton
Comics. He also wrote some superhero scripts for
Charlton including Blue Beetle with Steve Ditko
and The Sentinels with fan artist Sam Grainger.
In the spring and summe of 1966, he worked as
an assistant to Woody Gelman and Len Brown at
Topps Chewing gum where he also met teenaged
writer/artist-to-be Art Spiegleman. While at
Topps he authored a series of Superman in the
Jungle bubblegum cards.
A staff opening occurred at Marvel Comics in
the fall of 1966, and Friedrich was hired as
assistant editor under Lee and Thomas. He
continued to work for Marvel both on staff and as
a freelance writer until 1978.
At Marvel, Friedrich began by scripting
Millie the Model and various western comics like
Kid Colt, the Rawhide Kid, and in 1967 the
reincarnation of the western Ghost Rider with
artist Dick Ayers. He also teamed with Ayers on
numerous issues of Marvel's "War Mag for People
Who Hate War Mags" Sgt. Fury and His Howling
Commandos. In writing FURY, Friedrich included a
series of stories whose titles began with "The"
such as "The War Lover" and "The Peacemonger"
which carried a strong anti-war message.
He also scripted superhero titles like The
Hulk, Daredevil, Captain America, The X-Men and a
Marvel Team-Up issue featuring Spider-Man as well
as an adaptation of Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein"
and several issues of "Monster of Frankenstein.
With the demise of the western Ghost Rider,
Friedrich began work on an idea he'd first had as
a youngster on viewing the movie "The Wild One," a
motorcycle-riding superhero who'd be called the
Ghost Rider and would somehow be connected with
Satan. He continued to work on this idea in his
spare time over the next few years and took it to
Stan Lee in the summer of 1971 when he'd finally
fleshed out the look and origin of the character.
His new creation, the Ghost Rider, first
appeared in 1972 in Marvel Spotlight #5, drawn by
Mike Ploog who would later work with Friedrich on
the Marvel Frankenstein adaptation as well.
The character has continued to be popular over the
years, culminating in a hit movie version in
2007. Friedrich currently owns the copyright to
Marvel Spotlight #5 and the Ghost Rider origin and
has filed suit against Marvel Comics, Columbia
Pictures, and others.
He left the comics field in 1978 and worked
for many years as a pioneer in the movie rental
business in St. Louis, Missouri. He has worked
for the past 13 years as a driver/courier in the
St. Louis area.
Friedrich recently started his own company,
Gary Friedrich Enterprises LLC, to utilize his
Ghost Rider copyright for marketing puposes and to
arrange personal appearances at comics stores,
conventions, etc.
He lives in Jefferson County, Missouri with
his wife, Jean, and daughter, Leslie. |
