So, there I was, contemplating another post in my ‘Thurian Age Maps’ series when I jumped onto Facebook for the first time in a while. Right off the bat, I see Charles R. Rutledge—rightly—wishing Roy Thomas a happy birthday. A few minutes of checking revealed that today—November 22, 2025—is the eighty-fifth birthday of Roy.

Obviously, I could not let this milestone pass without remark.

Roy Thomas--for those unacquainted or woefully ignorant--is the greatest living writer/editor of American comics. Born in Jackson, Missouri on November 22, 1940, Roy became a huge fan of American comics, all the while, discovering the works of pulpsters like Edgar Rice Burroughs. Those two influences--'Golden Age' comics and their pulp predecessors--would be the hallmark of RT's career.

Roy graduated from Southeast Missouri State University in 1961 with a double major in history and social studies. Both would serve him well.

In 1965, Thomas moved to New York City to take a job at DC Comics as assistant to Mort Weisinger, then the editor of DC's Superman titles. Weisinger was well-known within the comics industry for being a bully. Roy had enough within a week and had this to say about his transition to Marvel Comics:

"I was hired after taking [the] 'writer's test', and my first official job title at Marvel was 'staff writer'. I wasn't hired as an editor or assistant editor. I was supposed to come in 40 hours a week and write scripts on staff. ... I sat at this corrugated metal desk with a typewriter in a small office with production manager Sol Brodsky and corresponding secretary Flo Steinberg. Everybody who came up to Marvel wound up there, and the phone was constantly ringing, with conversations going on all around me. ... Almost at once, even though Stan proofed all the finished stories, he and Sol started having me check the corrections before they went out, and that would break up my concentration still further. ... [and] they kept asking me to do this or that, or questions like in which issue something happened, or Stan would come in to check something, because I knew a lot about Marvel continuity up to that time. ... It quickly became apparent to them, too, that the staff writer thing wasn't working, and Stan segued me over to being an editorial assistant, which immediately worked out better for all concerned."

So, there was Roy, a true fan of comics in his twenties, serving as the 'gopher' and 'lore-master' for grizzled comics hacks who were in it for just one more buck.

Wikipedia has this to say:

Thomas took on what would be his first long-term Marvel title, the World War II series Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos, starting with #29 (April 1966) and continuing through #41 (April 1967) and the series' 1966 annual, Sgt. Fury Special #2. He also began writing the mutant-superteam title [Uncanny] X-Men from #20–43 (May 1966 – April 1968), and, finally, took over The Avengers, starting with #35 (Dec. 1966), and continuing until 1972. That notable run was marked by a strong sense of continuity, and stories that ranged from the personal to the cosmic – the latter most prominently with the "Kree-Skrull War" in issues #89–97 (June 1971 – March 1972).

Nick Fury, the X-Men and the Avengers? Honestly, Roy Thomas laid the foundations for the successes of the Fox and Marvel Studios movies just as much as Stan Lee.

Once again from Wikipedia:

Thomas, with Marvel writers and artists, co-created many other characters, among them Ultron (including the fictional metal adamantium), Carol Danvers, Morbius the Living Vampire, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, Ghost Rider, Doc Samson, Valkyrie, Werewolf by Night, Banshee and Killraven. Thomas also co-created several characters based on pre-existing characters, including the Vision, Yellowjacket, the Black Knight, and Adam Warlock.

What about Drax the Destroyer? Just like the Vision, he had a 'Golden Age' precursor who looked very similar. Was that Roy or Jim Starlin? Roy is the Timely/Atlas/Marvel historian.

Meanwhile, Roy was bringing in more 'pulpish' elements to Marvel Comics, whether it was Doc Savage, more 'Mythos' elements to Doctor Strange or Killraven's post-apocalyptic adventures.

As Roy said in one interview:

"We were trying to expand. I felt like we should expand from the superhero, expand from that. You can’t just keep doing more and more superheroes, they’re all the same. So you bring in … You raise the level a little bit with new … We tried to get Tarzan; it took a few years, but we did get it eventually. We got lucky in being able to get Conan, which we didn’t think we could get."

To back-track a little, what about 1970? Roy Thomas talked Stan Lee into licensing Robert E. Howard's Conan of Cimmeria. Roy believed in the IP so much, he made up the licensing fee out of his own pocket. As I've pointed out before, Lancer Books was in the middle of bankruptcy in the early 1970s. By the late ‘70s, Conan the Barbarian was the best-selling character for Marvel Comics. Period.Without the massive success of Conan the Barbarian, The Savage Sword of Conan and other REH-centric Marvel titles, would Robert E. Howard have maintained his fleeting popularity from the Lancers until the resurgence in late '70s/early '80s?

Maybe. Maybe not. As it was, Roy Thomas helped put together the film project that became Conan the Barbarian (1982).

Meanwhile, there was an anti-pulp counter-insurgency brewing at Marvel. Roy Thomas was tired of the drama. Jim Shooter was ready to wipe the slate and make Marvel safe for super-heroes and nothing else.

Roy jumped ship before he was pushed. DC welcomed him with open arms. For DMR Books readers, his run on Arak is paramount. Beyond that, Roy once again displayed his unparalleled ability to bring 'Golden Age' super-heroes to modern readers with The All-Star Squadron. DC slowly began to push Roy out.

By 1990, Roy was writing for the up-and-coming comics publisher, Dark Horse Comics.

In closing, without Roy Thomas, the comics landscape of the past sixty years would be a much bleaker place. When it comes to heroic fantasy/pulp comics, that goes double.

Happy birthday and 'thank you', Roy. Nobody else could've done what you did.