Before he was writing them, however, he made a living playing in rock and roll bands by night, and doing freelance journalism for rock and roll magazines by day, Rolling Stone among them.
J.M.'s first comic book work was for editor Paul Levitz at DC Comics, on a slew of offbeat horror anthology books such as House of Mystery, Weird War Tales, and Mystery in Space. Eventually Len Wein, J.M.'s mentor, led him to super heroes. He wrote some of DC's flagship characters, including Hawkman, Aquaman, and Batman. His first full-length comic story was a Batman/Hawkman team-up in The Brave and the Bold.
J.M. soon brought his talents to Marvel Comics, which had actually been the company that gave him his first paid work, a piece in Crazy, Marvel's long-running humor magazine. J.M. reluctantly admits that his first comic book work for Marvel was an adaptation of the movie Xanadu, which included, he believes "the only comic book appearance of Gene Kelly!" J.M. would move onto greater milestones at Marvel, however. His first regular series was Conan the Barbarian with artists John Buscema and Gil Kane. Then came memorable stints on Defenders, Marvel Team-Up, and Captain America. Though he feels he did "some truly, truly, truly awful stories" before hitting his stride, he looks back fondly, as do many fans, on many issues of these runs. More Marvel projects followed, including Ghost Rider and three projects which he considers personal favourites: the Gargoyle limited series with artist Mark Badger, Moonshadow, for Epic, with John J Muth, and Greenberg the Vampire, with Badger again. "These are the projects," J.M. recalls, "where I found my voice."
One of J.M.'s most memorable contributions to the Spider-Man mythos was the critically acclaimed "Kraven's Last Hunt" storyline, teamed with Cap collaborator, artist Mike Zeck. The ramifications of this tale reverberate through the Spider-Man titles to this day. Interested in new projects, J.M. worked with Keith Giffen on the new Justice League for DC, giving that book a distinctive humourous touch that became its trademark. Spinning off from J.L. came another personal favourite, Dr. Fate. He's also exploring new frontiers with projects like The Last One for DC's Vertigo line, and Brooklyn Dreams for Paradox Press.
