Roger Stern

Roger Stern
Stern photographed at Ithacon 35, Part II in 2010
Born	(1950-09-17) September 17, 1950 (age 66) Noblesville, Indiana
Nationality	American
Area(s)	Writer
Notable works	Action Comics The Amazing Spider-Man Avengers Captain America Power of the Atom Starman Superman vol. 2

Roger Stern (born September 17, 1950 in Noblesville, Indiana) is an American comic book author and novelist.

In the early 1970s, Stern and Bob Layton published the fanzine CPL (Contemporary Pictorial Literature), one of the first platforms for the work of John Byrne.CPL rapidly became a popular fan publication, and led to the two forming an alliance with Charlton Comics to produce and publish "the now-famous Charlton Bullseye magazine". During the mid-1970s, both Marvel and DC were publishing in-house "fan" publications (FOOM and The Amazing World of DC Comics respectively), and Charlton wished to make inroads into the superhero market, as well as "establish a fan presence," leading to the alliance with CPL to produce the Charlton Bullseye. This led to Charlton giving Layton and Stern "access to unpublished material from their vaults by the likes of Steve Ditko, Jeff Jones and a host of others."

Stern broke into the industry as a writer in 1975 as part of the Marvel Comics "third wave" of creators, which included artists John Byrne and Frank Miller, and writers Jo Duffy, Mark Gruenwald and Ralph Macchio. Stern worked as an editor from 1976 to 1980.Jim Shooter claims that Stern co-plotted (as a ghostwriter) his last few stories for DC Comics in 1976. Stern wrote the "Guardians of the Galaxy" feature in Marvel Presents #10-12 in 1977. He briefly collaborated with Byrne on Captain America. The two produced a story wherein Captain America considered running for the office of President of the United States, an idea originally developed by Roger McKenzie and Don Perlin. Stern, in his capacity as editor of the title, had originally rejected the idea but later changed his mind about the concept. McKenzie and Perlin received credit for the idea on the letters page at Stern's insistence. Stern became the writer of The Spectacular Spider-Man with issue #43 (June 1980). He then took over The Amazing Spider-Man with issue #224 (January 1982). In addition to his Spider-Man work, Stern is known for his lengthy stints on Doctor Strange, and The Avengers. In 1982, he co-created Marvel's second Captain Marvel and the Hobgoblin, both with artist John Romita Jr.. Stern wrote "The Kid Who Collects Spider-Man" in The Amazing Spider-Man #248 (January 1984), a story which ranks among his most popular. Stern ended his run with Amazing Spider-Man #250 (March 1984), chiefly due to his difficulty working with new Spider-Man editor Danny Fingeroth. Later that same year, he co-created the Avengers spin-off The West Coast Avengers, with artist Bob Hall.