'Leaping tall buildings'

 

“Take something you love, tell people about it, bring together people who share your love, and help make it better. Ultimately, you'll have more of whatever you love for yourself, and for the world.” – Julius Schwartz

 

Perhaps few people even know Schwartz’s name, but he left readers with a lasting legacy by helping develop some of our most iconic comic book “superheroes.”  Schwartz also came up with the concept (and title) of the Justice League of America.

 

Born on this date in 1915, Schwartz (who died in 2004) was DC Comics’ primary editor in the development of the publisher's flagship superheroes Superman and Batman.  Also a literary agent, he co-founded the Solar Sales Service Literary Agency, where he represented such writers as Robert Bloch, Ray Bradbury and H. P. Lovecraft, placing some of Bradbury's first published works and Lovecraft's last.  

 

And, he is credited with helping organize the first World Science Fiction Convention in 1939.  The organization, which is now known as WorldCon, presents the annual Hugo Awards for best science fiction and fantasy.    

 

Schwartz is one of just a few editors to be inducted into both the Comic Industry’s Jack Kirby Hall of Fame and the Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame, something he found almost unbelievable.   

 

 “Not too many people,” he said,  “ever know who the editor is.”