John Broome (writer)

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John Broome

Born	1913
Died	March, 1999 Thailand
Nationality	American
Pseudonym(s)	John Osgood Edgar Ray Meritt
Notable works	Elongated Man
Awards	Alley Award Best Short Story (1964)

John Broome, (1913 - 1999) who was frequently credited as John Osgood and Edgar Ray Meritt, was an American writer-contributor to DC Comics. Broome began his career as a writer of a dozen published science-fiction stories. Believing that he was not a first-rate science fiction writer, he switched to writing comic books for his friend and former agent DC editor Julius Schwartz. According to writer Mark Evanier, Broome's work for DC appeared from 1946 to 1970, and included the Silver Age Green Lantern and Flash series, as well as several Justice Society of America stories.

Broome is regarded by Evanier as one of DC's three best writers. Broome created many DC characters and institutions, including the 1940s Detective Chimp, Per Degaton, the Atomic Knights, the Silver-Age Flash Rogues Gallery of super-villains, the (Green Lantern) Guardians of the Universe, and the ductile detective known as the Elongated Man. In his career, Broome received recognition including a 1964 Alley Award for Best Short Story: "Doorway to the Unknown!" in Flash #148 with Carmine Infantino.

According to his own account, Broome loved to travel the world and wrote for money. Gradually losing his enthusiasm for comic books, he diminished his production of scripts and retired from comic book scripting entirely in 1970. Broome spent many years teaching English in Tokyo, Japan. He returned to the United States in 1998, attending his first comic book convention, the San Diego ComicCon, with his long-term friend Julius Schwartz. There he was feted by a panel of admiring comic-book writers.

Broome died in Thailand in March, 1999.

[edit] Homage

An homage to him as well as artist Gil Kane, appeared in a novel set in the Justice League Cartoon. In the novel In Darkest Night, a place in Coast City is mentioned to be Kane/Broome Institute For Space Studies.