New Haven Register (Sunday) (New Haven, CT)
‘It still spoke to the world in which we live today’
Connecticut man turns lost story by ‘Black Adam’ co-creator and ‘Superman’ writer into graphic novel
GREENWICH — Robert Reiner, of Greenwich, got an unusual parcel in the mail when he was a 14year-old comics fan and amateur magazine publisher growing up in Los Angeles in the late 1960s.
Through a friendly network of fellow comics fanatics, Reiner, 67, not the actor, was mailed a manuscript by a comics-world giant Otto Binder, the main writer for the “Captain Marvel” series and numerous “Superman” stories.
The short manuscript told a story about an alternate future of planet Earth, in which a sinister group of intergalactic overlords sends an advance party to determine humanity’s fate.
In those days, Reiner recalled, it was not uncommon for big name comics creators to connect with their most ardent fans by sending them their output — both as a favor to loyal followers and with the expectation of gaining some good publicity in return.
The short story itself turned up at Reiner’s address without any notes or explanation.
Reiner got busy with high school and put aside the Binder manuscript, titled “The Unwanted,” but he never forgot about the yellowed typewritten pages with handwritten corrections on them that showed up unexpectedly in his mailbox.
In 2016, Reiner came across a biography of Binder, which re-awakened his interest in the old manuscript he obtained as a teenager. He found that “The Unwanted” had never been published, and an idea was born.
“I saw that it still spoke to the world in which we live today, and I decided I would try to adapt it for a modern audience,” the comics collector recalled.
All these years later, Reiner has turned that old manuscript into a finished product, after three years of work and the collaboration of new artistic talent both young and old.
Binder has been described as “comics’ forgotten genius.” Besides writing for the “Superman” and “Captain Marvel” series, he and his brother Earl also penned stories about a thinking robot under a pen name, which became “I, Robot,” in Amazing Stories in 1939.
Those stories reportedly inspired author Isaac Asimov, who published a collection of interconnected short stories also called “I, Robot” in 1950.
Binder, who often worked with Earl, also cocreated the Black Adam character, which has gotten the big-screen treatment with Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. The comics master also wrote numerous science-fiction stories in his career.
In “The Unwanted,” his story written in 1953, he decries racial bigotry through the guise of a sci-fi dystopian tale.
Reiner, a collector and graphic-novel aficionado who has written extensively on the field, thinks the work written by Binder decades ago will find an audience today, as it deals with themes of racial inequality, the dangers of technology and menacing evaluations of human capabilities.
“I’m just impressed, how it seems so ‘now,’ “he said. “Most of the material we were working with was 70 years old. But all the things that were happening in 1953 are still happening today.”
Over a three-year period, Reiner (no relation to the actor and filmmaker of the same name) acquired the rights to the manuscript, researched Binder’s work in the archives of Texas A&M University, where they are stored, and set out to find the right artists to illustrate the graphic novel.
He persuaded Angelo Torres, a 90-year-old illustrator who had worked with Binder in the 1950s, to create the sketches for the story, as well as a 29-yearold Austrian artist and sculptor, Stefan Koidle.
“He sculpts beautiful wooden masks,” Reiner said of Koidle. “His style is perfect for melding the two.”
Reiner, who worked previously in the field of finance, did some light rewriting on the manuscript.
Fantagraphics, the largest publishers of graphic novels in the world, once based in Stamford, published the short work, and it has since climbed up the “dystopian graphic novel” list of best sellers.
The graphic novel is intended for the young adult category, Reiner said, “but it’s for everyone.”
Binder, who died in 1974, never published the work in his lifetime, Reiner said. The artist sought to maintain his mainstream credentials with the “Captain Marvel” and “Superman” titles at a time when darkly-themed comics and potentially controversial stories were being discouraged in the industry.
Reiner, who was born to a Japanese mother and an American father, has been on a lifelong quest to place graphic novels and artists at the forefront of the visual arts, worthy of respect and contemplation, not ephemeral form for kids.
“What’s nice about graphic novels, it’s slow, it’s not like a movie that goes right past you,” he said. “The images are part of the story. You study the images, you savor them. That’s what I wanted to do this with this book. It’s all about good story-telling, and it often time conveys the human condition. And I want people to see the art as something important.”
Clint Morgan, a graphic designer who is familiar with the book, said Reiner was uniquely suited for the unusual publishing project.
“Rob was the right person for the job,” he said, adding that Reiner was meticulous in assembling all the components of the project.
The book, Morgan said, combines a “renowned” line of comics with a decidedly modern and “fantastical” flair that connects with readers in 2023.
“I think readers will find it fascinating, and sobering, to discover that the message of a story written 70 years ago remains just as relevant today,” he said.