I recently learned that longtime Jonah Hex writer Michael L. Fleisher passed away on February 2nd. Word is still getting around the comics community: Mark Evanier posted the first words about it a few days ago, with Newsarama, CBR, and Bleeding Cool picking up on it not long after (there’s also a memorial page put up by the funeral home in Oregon that performed the services). I find it strange that Fleisher’s death slipped under everyone’s radar for a month-and-a-half, but then again, he hadn’t written a comic book since 1995 and -- so far as I’m aware -- he wasn’t active on the con circuit at all. Fleisher just faded away from the comics scene and seemed content with that, though he was fine with giving interviews when asked (this wasn’t a Steve Ditko situation). On that note, I highly recommend looking up the interviews conducted over the years by my fellow Hex-chroniclers Darren Schroeder, Dwayne Hendrickson, and Michael Browning, not to mention the vintage piece printed in The Comics Journal way back in 1979, as they’ve all been invaluable to me during my work on "An Illustrated History of Jonah Hex".
I am hoping that, as more people find
out about Fleisher’s passing, those in the industry who knew him will speak up
about his work (even a simple “in memoriam” page from DC or Marvel would be
nice). I’m not just referring to the 126
Jonah Hex stories he did, mind you, but also to Scalphunter, The Spectre,
Spider-Woman, Ghost Rider, and all the other characters he wrote over the years. If you look him up on comicbookdb.com, you’ll
find his massive list of credits, which doesn’t even include his work on the
three-volume Encyclopedia of Comic Book
Heroes (covering Batman, Wonder Woman, and Superman). Then there’s his novels Chasing Hairy and Shambler,
plus the non-fiction book Kuria Cattle Raiders from University of Michigan Press, which was based on the field
work he did for his Doctorate in Anthropology from the school. And not to speak ill of the dead, but as many
of the articles about him so far have mentioned, Fleisher once sued Harlan Ellison and The Comics Journal for libel. I’m curious to see if either of those parties offer up any sort of
words about him in the coming days.
Despite all the stuff I’ve written in
regards to Jonah Hex over the past dozen years -- and all the folks I’ve made
connections with due to that -- I never talked with Michael Fleisher in any
capacity. Frankly, I felt the
aforementioned interviews with him were so well-done and covered so much ground
that anything I came up with, question-wise, would be redundant, and decided to
just let Fleisher enjoy his semi-retirement in peace. When a distant relative of Russell
Carley -- Fleisher’s friend who was responsible for “script continuity” on his
early Hex stories -- contacted me looking for help on a genealogy project, I
passed her information on to those who knew Fleisher personally as opposed to
contacting him myself, so as to respect the man’s privacy (I don’t know if
Fleisher was able to help her, but since he and Carley had been such close
friends, he seemed the best person to ask in this regard).
It could be said, however, that in
knowing so much about Jonah Hex, I know Michael Fleisher pretty well. The writer embraced Jonah as if he was his
own creation, giving this fictional person a depth and breadth that helped him
live on long past the Western heyday that birthed him. Nearly every facet of Jonah’s backstory was
crafted by Fleisher, building upon the scant amount of information left behind
by John Albano & Tony DeZuniga (if it can be said that they’re Jonah’s
“fathers”, then it can be equally said that Fleisher raised him). Thanks to Fleisher, we know about Jonah’s
time with both the Apache and the Confederate cavalry, his parents, his marriage,
his son, the countless enemies he made over the course of his life, and even
his final days. “I got very choked up
writing that story,” he once said in regards to the bounty hunter’s demise in
the Jonah Hex Spectacular, “because
it was the death of a character that I really loved -- not only loved, but I
feel is really me.” That sentiment is
probably what led Fleisher to impart some of himself into Hex lore, first by
sharing his birthday with Jonah (November 1st), then by bestowing his middle
name of Lawrence upon a character in Secret
Origins #21 who not only resembled Fleisher, but in a case of art imitating
life, was also said to have written “the definitive book” on the bounty hunter.
Though he may be gone now, Michael
Fleisher will never be forgotten in the hearts and minds of Jonah Hex
fans. The two names are inseparable, and
I have a feeling he wouldn’t have wanted it any other way.
