Mike Friedrich

Mike Friedrich
Mike Friedrich, 1982
Born	(1949-03-27) March 27, 1949 (age 67)
Nationality	American
Area(s)	Writer, Publisher
Notable works	Iron Man Justice League of America Star*Reach
Awards	Inkpot Award 1980

Mike Friedrich (born March 27, 1949) is an American comic book writer and publisher best known for his work at Marvel and DC Comics, and for publishing the anthology series Star*Reach, one of the first independent comics. He is also an artists representative.

His notable works include runs as the regular writer of DC's Justice League of America and Marvel's Iron Man.

Mike Friedrich, who is unrelated to fellow Silver Age of Comics writer Gary Friedrich, entered comics professionally after years of writing to DC letter columns in the 1960s and developing a mail acquaintanceship with the famously responsive editor Julius Schwartz. "My letter-writing began around the time the 'new look' Batman was introduced, though I'd been a fan of Julie's for two or three years before then. A couple of years later it turned into a bit of correspondence as Julie began to send short replies," Friedrich recalled. Schwartz, after rejecting an Elongated Man story Friedrich submitted, bought Friedrich's first professional script on May 10, 1967, a 10-page Robin backup story ("Menace of the Motorcycle Marauders", drawn by penciler Chic Stone and inker Joe Giella) and eventually published in Batman #202 (cover-dated June 1968) as Friedrich's third published comics story.

Friedrich used the $10-per-page payment to visit New York City the following month, after his high school graduation, and took a DC Comics tour in order to meet Schwartz in person. "That first summer," Friedrich recalled, "he worked with me on a handful of scripts, including the one that was first to be published, The Spectre #3" (April 1968; reprinted in Adventure Comics Digest #496, Feb. 1983), in which Friedrich teamed with artist Neal Adams on the 25-page supernatural superhero story, "Menace of the Mystic Mastermind". Almost immediately afterward, the same month, Friedrich published the full-length Batman story "The Man Who Radiated Fear", penciled by Stone ghosting for Bob Kane, in Batman #200 (March 1968).