Bob Rozakis is a thirty-year veteran of the comic book industry, having spent the first twenty-five at DC Comics.
As a writer, Bob is perhaps best known as the co-creator of 'Mazing Man, but his credits include more than four hundred stories featuring Superman, Batman and virtually every other DC character. In addition to a few stories for Archie Comics, he has done a number of "custom comics" projects for the U.S. Postal Service, Six Flags, Con Edison, OnStar, and the San Francisco Giants. Outside the comic book business, he has written storybooks for educational publishing projects and co-authored The Complete Idiot's Guide to Office Politics with his wife, Dr. Laurie Rozakis.
Bob was DC's Answer Man for several years, using his vast knowledge of the company's history and characters to respond to all sorts of readers' questions. Adapting to the technology, Bob utilized his credentials as a master of comic book history by hosting a weekly trivia chatroom on America Online for more than six years. His daily Anything Goes Trivia Quiz appears online at World Famous Comics and his weekly It's BobRo... The Answer Man! column can be found here at Silver Bullet Comics.
During his seventeen years as head of DC's Production Department, Bob guided his staff into previously unexplored areas of computerized color separations and typesetting, electronic page preparation, and computer-to-plate printing. These efforts earned DC Comics over one hundred awards for printing excellence and resulted in Bob twice being profiled and cover - featured in PUBLISHING & PRODUCTION EXECUTIVE.
In the "real world" Bob is an accountant for Preload, Inc., a firm that designs and builds concrete water tanks and reservoirs around the U.S. He teaches creative writing courses for the Johns Hopkins University / Center for Talented Youth summer program for gifted students and has taught similar courses for the Farmingdale (NY) Youth Council and Sylvan Learning Centers. He plays softball and volleyball, works out at the gym four times a week, donates blood and/or platelets as often as they'll let him, and even sleeps occasionally.
Just prior to the infamous “DC Implosion” which resulted in numerous books being canceled and the publication, albeit in photocopy form, of CANCELLED COMICS CAVALCADE, every writer and editor working at DC was pressing for new books and features.
I had been working on SECRET SOCIETY OF SUPER-VILLAINS and also wrote a DC SPECIAL, DANGER: DINOSAURS AT LARGE, using Captain Comet in both. Since no one else was using him, I came up with a proposal to revamp the character. Editor Jack C. Harris was enthusiastic, and even provided a design for Comet’s new costume.
Here, more than two decades after the fact, is part one of the proposal for a new Captain Comet series…
THE CHARACTER: Captain Comet has been around for quite awhile and has gained a large number of fans. (He placed second in a recent Justice League poll of who should be voted into the JLA.) We propose to revamp his powers somewhat and have redesigned his costume as well. Further, we have established a secret identity for him (something that was all but ignored in his SECRET SOCIETY OF SUPER-VILLAINS adventures) and developed a supporting cast as well.
HIS POWERS: Captain Comet has tremendous strength, but is nowhere near as powerful as Superman. He can fly and leaves a blazing “comet’s tail” behind him when he goes. He does not need sleep or rest. He has seven senses – the normal five plus 6) a “sense of strength” which tells him whether or not he is stronger than an opponent and whether or not he can complete a task facing him; 7) a “vibro-sense,” with which he can pick up moods and emotions of the people around him. (This is a base sense and replaces his mind-reading ability, which is eliminated.)
In addition, Comet has his Omni-Blaster, a weapon designed by the people of another world, an ultimate weapon designed to end combat. It can do virtually anything, but whatever it does to the person it is fired at, it also does to the person firing the weapon – making it an excellent deterrent to using its power.
HIS WEAKNESS: Comet’s body is a continual source of energy, some of which is burned off as he flies, resulting in his “comet’s tail.” However, with the change in his powers, his body is producing more energy which must be periodically released through a mental process which shoots it out from his forehead, creating a spectacular “fireworks” display.
HIS SECRET IDENTITY: Adam Blake was born in 1928. He first appeared as Captain Comet when he was 25 or so, in the early 1950s. Since that time, Captain Comet has not aged… but according to all records, Adam Blake is now fifty years old. To maintain his Adam Blake identity, Comet is able to make his alter ego appear to be fifty… giving us a hero whose secret identity is all but undetectable because it is twice his age.
HIS JOB: Through his contacts with the JLA, Adam is able to secure a job at S.T.A.R. Laboratories, working as co-director of their Energy Research and Development program. The current site, in the desert outside Las Vegas, is Project Verne, wherein the S.T.A.R. team is working on tapping magma below the Earth’s surface as a source of energy.
HIS SUPPORTING CAST: The first people we will meet include the 30-year-old co-director of Project Verne, a real go-getter who has pushed for everything he has gotten and really wants to make a name for himself. He resents Adam getting the job with him, particularly because he feels that the S.T.A.R. directors have chosen “an old guy” to keep an eye on “us kids.”
The 30-year-old director has a 25-year-old female assistant who has the hots for him... until she sees Captain Comet. The girl is a gold-digger and has been hanging on to the director simply to get herself moved up the S.T.A.R. ladder.
Finally, there is Blake’s assistant, a 45-year-old widow whose husband was one of the founders of S.T.A.R. She admits that she was once very much like the 25-year-old, but soon learned that she would have to pull her own weight to get anywhere in the world. She has since become a top-notch scientist in her own right and has contented herself with working on those S.T.A.R. projects that interest her. Her husband was killed a few years ago on an expedition. She says that Blake reminds her of her husband.
VILLAINS: The first villain Comet will meet is Magmus, the molten man. Magmus is a member of the Project Verne team who is dying of some disease and sees “thermogenics” as just as logical a theory as cryogenics. He intends to expose himself to the magma and be placed into suspended animation until sometime in the future when he can be cured. Instead, the exposure turns him into a molten man who battles Comet, stopping Comet, who is trying to save him.
THE FUTURE: Comet (and Blake) will be free to move on to other energy-related S.T.A.R. projects, giving us a world-wide scope for locale and adventures. His wide array of powers makes him equally at home against costumed super-villains, “scientific” menaces, and everyday crooks. Similarly, he fits into any locale, on Earth or in space.
Next week, plot synopses…
BOBRO’S TRIVIA QUIZ: This is part one of a two-part theme… 1. Wasp and Ant-Man were among the founding members of what team? 2. Her father was the Greek ambassador and she attended Columbia; who is she? 3. On TV, who was known for shouting, "Jeepers, Mr. Kent"? 4. South African Mbulaze became what member of the Global Guardians? 5. In BATMAN FAMILY, who teamed up with Killer Moth to battle Batgirl? 6. Not till #5 of his book, did who become an outlaw, at least according to the title? 7. The !mpact version of which character turned him into a Brazilian student? 8. "Hey, Booboo, let's get that pic-a-nic basket" before who shows up? 9. Ebony was the sidekick to what character? 10. During the 250th anniversary celebration of what's founding, Superman made his debut?
BOBRO'S FUN FACTS TO KNOW & TELL: 1. Salem Massachusetts was the site of the first autopsy in September, 1639. 2. An adult dragonfly has a lifespan of 24 hours. 3. In the 1940s, the FCC assigned television's Channel 1 to mobile services (two-way radios in taxicabs, for instance) but did not renumber the other channel assignments. That is why a TV had no channel 1. As you read this, I’m in the fifth week of my six-week teaching stint in Maryland. The columns appearing during this time have been prepared in advance, so I won’t be answering any Answer Man questions for a couple more weeks. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t send them… using the handy box in the column on the left. TRIVIA ANSWERS 1. The Avengers 2. Elektra 3. Jimmy Olsen 4. Impala 5. The Cavalier 6. Kid Colt 7. The Jaguar 8. Ranger Smith 9. The Spirit 10. Metropolis
