Gerry Conway

**Gerard F. "Gerry" Conway** is an American writer of comic books and television shows. He is known for co-creating the Marvel Comics' vigilante the Punisher and scripting the death of the character Gwen Stacy during his long run on the comics book series The Amazing Spider-Man. At DC Comics he is known for creating the superhero Firestorm and for his eight year stint on the Justice League of America comic book series.

## Biography

### Early career

Gerry Conway was born in Brooklyn, New York City on September 10, 1952. Conway grew up a comic book fan and when he was fourteen letter written by him was published was published in Fantastic Four #50 (May 1966). He published his first comic when at the age of sixteen. It was a 6½-page horror story called Aaron Philips' Photo Finish in DC's House of Secrets #81 (September 1969). He continued to sell horror stories through the end of 1970. Conway eventually became friends with Roy Thomas who at the time was Stan Lee's right hand man. After seeing his work Thomas offered him a job at Marvel which he accepted. In 1971, Conway wrote the first Man-Thing story for Marvel and shared creation credits with Stan Lee and Roy Thomas. Conway would eventually script every major Marvel title.

### Spider-Man

At 19, Conway began scripting the Amazing Spider-Man, succeeding Stan Lee as writer as one of Marvel's flagship titles. His run from issues #111 - 149 (August 1972 - October 1975) included the landmark Death of Gewn Stacy story which appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man #121 (June 1973). Eihght issues later Conway introduced the anti-hero the Pnisher as an antagonist for Spider-Man as well as the Jackal. Punisher eventually became very popular and got his own comic book series.

### Working for DC Comics

In 1975, Conway returned to DC Comics and wrote a revival of the golden Age series All Star Comics which introduced the hero Power Girl. Shortly afterward, he was chosen by Marvel and DC editors to script the historic crossover Superman vs. the Amazing Spider-Man.

### Return to Marvel

In March 1976, Gerry Conway returned to Marvel where he succeeded Marv Wolfman as editor-in-chief but held the job for only a month-and-a-half.

### Return to DC

After leaving Marvel's editorship he again worked exclusively for DC over the next decade. In 1978 Conway began to write for the Justice League of America comics and wrote for the series for eight years which ended in 1986. That same year in 1978 Conway also created the hero Commander Steel and in 1981 Gerry Conway created the hero, Vixen. In 1984 Conway created the heroes Vibe and Gypsy which introduced into the Justice League series. Two years later in 1983 Conway began to write for the Batman comics and introduced Killer Croc and Jason Todd who would later become the second Robin.

### Return to Marvel "again"

In 1980's Conway once again returned to Marvel Comics and served as a regular writer on both The Spectacular Spider-Man and Web of Spider-Man from 1988 to 1990. During this time Conway created the villain Tombstone.

### Work outside of comics

Outside of his comic book work Gerry Conway has also written two science-fiction novels and has worked on screenplays for various television series. He has also produced various television episodes.

### Personal life

Gerry Conway married Karen Britten, a psychologist who works with autistic children, in 1992. As of 2009 they reside in the San Fernando Valley near Los Angeles, California. Conway is the father of two daughters, Cara and Rachel, the former from his first wife Carla Conway.

Conway's ancestral background is Irish.

He was raised Christian, but stated in a 2013 interview that he does not "have any religious belief at this point."