Patrick "Pat" McGreal, one of the most prolific Disney comic book writers in the world over the past thirty years, and an Eisner-nominated writer who did a number of acclaimed Vertigo series, has passed away at the age of 68.
McGreal first started working in the world of Disney comics while writing stories featuring The Little Mermaid in 1991. Once that series ended, he began writing other Disney comic book stories for Egmont Comic Creations, a Copenhagen company that produces Disney material throughout the world. Many of those stories are then reprinted in the United States by whichever company has the Disney licensing rights at any given moment (over the years, McGreal's work has been published by Gladstone Publishing, Gemstone Publishing and currently IDW).
Starting in 1997, McGreal's wife, Carol, who had always contributed ideas to Pat's work over the years, became his official co-writer on his Disney stories and the pair has created many popular new Disney comic book characters over the years, including the Batman parodies, Blotman, Rodent, Goofus D. Dawg and Doc Stat.
Outside his Disney work, McGreal also wrote a number of acclaimed Vertigo limited series and graphic novels, including Chiaroscro; The Private Lives of Leonardo DaVinci, Veils and I, Paparazzi. Chiaroscro (which McGreal worked on with Dave Rawson, Chas Truog and Rafael Kayanan) was nominate in 1996 for the Eisner Award for Best Limited Series.
Former Vertigo head, Karen Berger, posted her thoughts about McGreal on Twitter...
The author and editor (and preeminent Disney comic book historian), David Gerstein, memorialized McGreal on Facebook, noting, "Missing Patrick McGreal, my old friend and Disney comics colleague, who passed away several days ago. An ace of a guy, an incredible writer, and an extra-incredible *dialogue* writer, Pat—with his wife Carol, another great comics talent—spent decades making Duckburg and Mouseton richer.
For awhile in the late 1990s, as a story editor at Egmont several years out of college, I had the pleasure of editing many of Pat's stories, and was struck foremost by his *curiosity*. He was always asking me about Disney comics characters he hadn't used yet—so that I might send him references and he might get into their heads. He was forever reading about Japanese and other Asian mythology and incorporating it into his stories. He was a pop-culture vulture, always looking for new or legendary fads, movies, or musical trends to spoof. He was never content with the same old plots or casts of characters."
McGreal also wrote humor stories for Simpsons Comics and wrote a number of superhero comic books over the years, as well, including a pair of fill-ins on The Flash between the end of Mark Waid's run on the book and the start of Geoff Johns' run (around that same time, McGreal and Norm Breyfogle did an Elseworlds Flash limited series called Flashpoint, a decade before the crossover of that same time).
Outside of his comic book writing, McGreal was also a past president of the Comic Art Professonal Society.
0 Comments