Maddie Blaustein

**Maddie Blaustein** was an intersex, transgender comics author and editor who worked for Marvel Comics, DC Comics, and Milestone Media.

## Biography

Maddie Blaustein was an intersex and transgender comics editor, writer, and artist. During her time in comics, Maddie came out in the letter pages of her Milestone Media mini-series "Deathwish" where she stated "Good writers write what they know. While I am by no means a police officer, it can certainly be argued that Dwayne McDuffie is not a super-hero (so far as I know). Dwayne is, however, an African-American male living in the latter part of the twentieth century, and that is an experience that must color his writing. Characters like Icon and Hardware are reflective of his experience. Marisa Rahm is reflective of mine."

Outside of comics, Maddie was a prolific voice over artist most notable for being the original english language actress for Pokemon's Meowth. She passed away in 2008 at the age of 48 after suffering multiple weeks from an untreated stomach virus.

### Marvel Comics

Prior to working in the comics industry, Maddie Blaustein was an art school graduate doing custom framing at an art supply store/gallery a few blocks from Marvel Comics' company offices. There she met Christopher Priest (at the time credited as Jim Owsley), who would drop in on occasion to get things framed for his office. In mid-late 1985, following the loss of Priest's previous assistant (Keith Williams), Owsley voiced his frustrations about having to replace him to Blaustein. Quickly, she suggested herself for the job. Believing his lack of popularity in the office may invite undue hostility towards Maddie, Priest unsuccessfully tried to talk Blaustein down from her interest. Maddie took the job that August, and her presence at Marvel was announced when Marvel Age Magazine #33 hit stands on September 10th of that year.

As assistant editor in the Spider-Man office, it was Maddie's job to help Christopher Priest coordinate the production of "*Peter Parker: The Spectacular Spider-Man*", "*The Amazing Spider-Man*", and "*Web of Spider-Man*" as well as maintaining "The Spider's Web" letter column. Additionally, she would serve as a consulting editor for "*Marvel Age Magazine*" with the responsibility of making sure the magazine's info regarding the titles she oversaw was accurate at time of printing.

On January 20th, 1986, the first ever Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Christopher Priest decided that since Marvel wouldn't recognize the holiday that he would write Maddie a check for her daily salary and close the Spider-Man office. In solidarity with his decision, Maddie drew a "a defiant Spider-Man 'black power' fist" and placed it in the office window.

July that year, Maddie and Christopher would have a hand in the printing of "*Little Wars!*" in Web of Spider-Man #20. Receiving national attention for it's story about the IRA and politics of Ireland, Marvel would end up receiving a bomb threat over it's publication. Along with a list of other factors, Priest has claimed this incident had a hand in his outing from the Spider-Man office. While initial reports stated that Priest would continue on as editor of "Mark Hazzard: Merc", he was off the title by issue #5, which Maddie provided editorial services for along with Pat Redding. By September, Jim Salicrup took over the office, with Maddie now serving as his assistant editor.

This new arrangement was short lived as, reportedly, Maddie wasn't fond of her new boss. As early as March 1987, Maddie was reassigned to serve as Marvel's Submissions editor,  and took over editing duties for Marvel Saga. Around this time, she began writing assorted fill-in issues for smaller titles, with one of her first credited works being an issue of "Defenders of the Earth" that was intended to ship March 3rd 1987, but ultimately remained unpublished.

Later that year, in December, it was announced that Maddie accepted a promotion from Marvel's assistant editor in the Special Projects department and would now be working in production as the company's liaison with Chemical Color, the company in charge of color separations.

### Milestone Media

While living in California, Maddie went through a messy divorce and was desperately looking for work when Dwayne McDuffie called her looking to wrangle talent for Milestone Media. Asking if she had any ideas for a mini-series, she told him "I'd like to write my own take on Silence of the Lambs using Deathwish, but I want the police detective to be a pre-operative transsexual." Immediately, Dwayne told her to do it. In June 1994 the mini-series was announced.

In August 1994 it was announced that Maddie relocated from Encino California and was hired as Production Manager for Milestone Media in New York City. She held that position until February of 1995 when she was promoted to Editorial Services Manager, and later became the company's Creative Services Editor.

In November 1995, Milestone's "Company Line" newsletter announced Maddie Blaustein was signing on to be the regular writer of Static, accompanied by writing partner Yves Fezzani, starting with Milestone's "200th on-time comic", Static #31.

Later on in her career, Maddie joined DC Comics as a production artist/photographer. She stayed with the company until 2006.

### Personal life

Maddie Blaustein moved to Encino California in 1991.

While Maddie wouldn't publicly come out as transgender until January 10th, 1995 in the letter pages of Deathwish #3, Christopher Priest has stated that she was open with him about her gender identity long prior, presumably while the two were working at Marvel together in the 80s.

## Bibliography

### Writer

June 24, 1986
Spider-Man: The Amazing Web of Peter Parker the Spectacular Spider-Man
Marvel ComicsMay 5, 1987
Kickers Inc.: "Deadly Force"
Marvel ComicsJune 23, 1987
"The Marvel Saga"
Marvel ComicsApril 5, 1988
Conan the Barbarian: "Heku Book Three - Triad"
(plot assist)
Marvel ComicsJuly 26, 1988
"The You Universe"
Marvel ComicsAugust 23, 1988
Spider-Man: "Death from Above!"
Marvel ComicsNovember 22, 1988
Conan the King: "Conn, Son of the Barbarian King"
Marvel ComicsJanuary 24, 1989
Conan the King: "Kirakhan"
Marvel ComicsMarch 28, 1989
Conan the King: "Tsinje-Nushan"
Marvel ComicsMay 23, 1989
Conan the King: "Genjis"
Marvel ComicsJuly 25, 1989
Conan the King: "The Sword of the Elder Gods"
Marvel ComicsMarch 19, 1991
DragonLance: "The Sword of the Kinslayer" (Part One)
DC Comics' TSR imprintJune 1991
DragonLance: "The Sword of the Kinslayer" (Part Two of Three)
DC Comics' TSR imprintMay 21, 1991
DragonLance: "The Sword of the Kinslayer" (Part III)
DC Comics' TSR imprintMay 28, 1991
SpellJammer: "Serious Trouble!" (dialogue)
DC Comics' TSR imprintAugust 1991
SpellJammer: "Alone"
DC Comics' TSR imprintSeptember 1991
SpellJammer: "The Armada"
DC Comics' TSR imprintWinter 1991
The Question: "Waiting for Phil"
DC ComicsApril 3, 1992
Legend of the Shield: "Warlocks & Warriors"
DC Comics' Impact imprintApril 30, 1992
Legend of the Shield: "Trick or Treat"
DC Comics' Impact imprintMay 7, 1992
Legend of the Shield: "Legend of the Shield"
DC Comics' Impact imprintJuly 1992
Legend of the Shield: "The Glory Machine"
(dialogue)
DC Comics' Impact imprintAugust 1992
Legend of the Shield: "The Oblivion Factor"
(dialogue)
DC Comics' Impact imprintSeptember 1992
Legend of the Shield: "The Children of Lazarus"
(dialogue)
DC Comics' Impact imprintOctober 1992
Legend of the Shield: "Icons"
(dialogue)
DC Comics' Impact imprintMay 1993
Spider-Man: "Field of Screams!"
MarvelAugust 18, 1994
Hardware: "These Little Town Blues"
Milestone MediaAugust 23, 1994
Icon: "The Last Temptation of Icon"
Milestone MediaSeptember 15, 1994
Hardware: "Take the A Train"
Milestone MediaNovember 8, 1994
Deathwish: "This Ain't No Cryin' Game"
Milestone MediaDecember 6, 1994
Deathwish: "Some Like it... NOT!"
Milestone MediaJanuary 10, 1995
Deathwish:"Dakota is Burning"
Milestone MediaFebruary 7, 1995
Deathwish:"Silence of the Rahm"
Milestone MediaFebruary 14, 1995
Hardware: "The Hunt For Deathwish Part 1 - Welcome to the Machine"
Milestone MediaMarch 16, 1995
Hardware: "Prometheus Unwound"
Milestone MediaApril 13, 1995
Hardware: "The Hunt for Deathwish Conclusion: The Pain, The Dark and Other Things..."
Milestone MediaMay 1995
Justice League Task Force: "Chok II"
(plot assist)
DC ComicsSeptember 7, 1995
Hardware: "Hephaestus"
Milestone MediaOctober 24, 1995
Static: "Shadow of Time, Shadow of Blood"
Milestone MediaDecember 6, 1995
Static: "Cape Fear"
Milestone MediaDecember 27, 1995
Static: "Full Yellow Jacket"
Milestone MediaJanuary 17, 1996
Static: "Bee, My Love"
Milestone MediaFebruary 14, 1996
Static: "Blame it on Picasso"
Milestone MediaMarch 13, 1996
Static: "Grounded"
Milestone Media

### Artist

* September 1989 - "Power Pachyderms" (Penciler/Creator)
* January 1990 - "Sore Wants A Haircut" (Penciler)
* February 18, 1998 - Superman Transformed! (Cover Artist)
* February 2000 - Superman: They Saved Luthor's Brain! (Cover Colorist)
* April 2000 - Scene of the Crime: A Little Piece of Goodnight (Cover Colorist)

### Editor

* Blood Syndicate #26-30 (Editorial Services Manager)
* Deathwish #4
* Hardware #26-30 (Editorial Services Manager)
* Icon #24-28 (Editorial Services Manager)
* Long Hot Summer #1-2 (Editorial Services Manager)
* My Name is Holocaust #1, 3-5 (Editorial Services Manager)
* Shadow Cabinet #11-15 (Editorial Services Manager)
* Static #22-26 (Editorial Services Manager)
* Xombi #12-15 (Editorial Services Manager)
* Blood Syndicate #32-35 (Creative Services Editor)
* Hardware #33-37, 39 (Creative Services Editor)
* Heroes #1 (Creative Services Editor)
* Icon #31-34 (Creative Services Editor)
* Static #29-34 (Creative Services Editor)
* Xombi #18-21 (Creative Services Editor)

### Production Manager

* Blood Syndicate #19-25
* Deathwish #1-3
* Hardware #20-25
* Icon #18-23
* Kobalt #7, 10
* My Name is Holocaust #2
* Shadow Cabinet #5-10
* Static #16-21
* Xombi #6-11

## Trivia

* According to Margaret Clark's profile printed in Marvel publications with a November 1989 cover date, Maddie believed Lily Tomlin would be a good pick to play Clark in a film about her life.
* Rubberband Man was renamed in the Static Shock cartoon as an homage to his creators, Maddie Blaustein and her writing partner Yves Fezzani.

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Blaustein, M. (2008). *Maddie - 35 - Female - Brooklyn, US - www.myspace.com/maddiejoan*. MySpace.com. Retrieved July 9, 2023, from http://web.archive.org/web/20090104112708/http://www.myspace.com:80/maddiejoan
2. ↑ Darato. (2008, August 24). *Q&A with Maddie Blaustein*. BlogSpot. http://qawithmaddieblaustein.blogspot.com/2008/08/dubbing-q-why-are-you-sometimes.html
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Priest, Christopher. “Life According to Maddie (According to Me).” *According to Me: The Official Website of Christopher Priest*, 18 Dec. 2008, www.phonogram.us/blogs2/dpdc/2008/12/maddie.html.
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Slavicsek, B. S. (1985). Newswatch. *Marvel Age Magazine*, *#33*, 8.
5. ↑ Salicrup, J. S. (1985). Salicrup’s Section. *Marvel Age Magazine*, *#33*.
6. ↑ Grand, A., & Thompson, J. (2023). Jim Shooter Biographical Interview by Alex Grand & Jim Thompson. *Comic Book Historians - an Online Fanzine*. https://comicbookhistorians.com/jim-shooter-biographical-interview-by-alex-grand-jim-thompson/
7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Salicrup, J. S. (1986). Salicrup’s Section. *Marvel Age Magazine*, *#47*.
8. ↑ Priest, C. P. (2002, May). *DigitalPriest.Com: Why I never discuss Spider-Man*. https://lamerciepark.com/legacy/comics/spidey.html
9. ↑ *Peter Parker: The Spectacular Spider-Man #122: “Spectacular Spider-Mail.”* (1986). Marvel Comics.
10. ↑ Aushenker, M. (2010). Not Amazing, But Spectacular. *Back Issue*, *44*.
11. ↑ *The New Mutants #53: Bullpen Bulletins*. (1987). Marvel Comics.
12. ↑ (1987). News Watch. *Marvel Age Magazine*, *#52*, 8.
13. ↑ (1987). Coming Attractions. *Marvel Age Magazine*, *#51*, 2.
14. ↑ *The New Mutants #62: Bullpen Bulletins*. (1987). Marvel Comics.
15. ↑ Trans-Ponder Podcast (original) [mr\_nobody\_000 (archived by)]. (2021, October 24). *Old Maddie Blaustein interview* [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8bi5KPPC8c
16. ↑ Wizard News: Company Updates. (1994). *Wizard Magazine*, *#34*, 26.
17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 McDuffie, D. (1994). *Icon (1993-1997) #18: The Company Line*. DC Comics.
18. ↑ Blaustein, M., & Fezzani, Y. (1995). *Hardware (1993-1997) #26: The Company Line*. DC Comics.
19. ↑ Velez, I., Jr. (1995b). *Blood Syndicate (1993-1995) #34: The Company Line*. DC Comics.
20. ↑ Greenberger, R. (2008). Maddie Blaustein, 1960-2008. *ComicMix*. https://www.comicmix.com/2008/12/18/maddie-blaustein-1960-2008/
21. ↑ McDuffie, D. (n.d.). *Dwayne McDuffie Quotes*. DCAU Resource. Retrieved July 9, 2023, from https://dcauresource.com/dwaynemcduffiequotes.php