I AM THE CREATOR OF BLACK LIGHTNING

 

The official creator credit for Black Lightning, a credit agreed to by both DC Comics and myself and used by DC in DC comic books and TV shows, is:

Black Lightning Created by Tony Isabella with Trevor von Eeden.

I hate to be a nag about this, but I should always be referred to as the creator of Black Lightning. Not the co-creator. All that was vital to Black Lightning was created by me before I pitched my character to DC.

Trevor von Eeden should always be referred to as the co-creator of Black Lighting. To paraphrase Salim Akil, the show runner of the Black Lightning series, “Tony told us who Jefferson Pierce is and Trevor showed us what he and his world looked like.” That’s accurate. Working from my scripts and input from our editors, my friend Trevor gave us the outstanding visuals the fans remember to this day.

I have an ongoing problem with comics journalists who blindly and wrongly follow the first writer/first artist notion when it comes to determining the creators of comics characters. It’s an inaccurate one size fits all notion that fails to consider all the facts and any contributions made to creations by those other than the first writer and the first artist. A recent example: the Marvel editors who contributed substantially to the creation of the wonderful Kamala Kahn.

A somewhat less recent example: Wolverine. There were many hands on that one. Roy Thomas, John Romita Sr, Len Wein, Herb Trimpe. I also recognize the later contributions of Dave Cockrum, Chris Claremont and John Byrne in shaping the character. Before you give me crap about including Roy Thomas, let me inform you of what informs my take on this.

I was in the room.

I wasn’t getting it second or third hand. I was in the room when Roy told me of his plans to create an international team of X-Men to interest our global partners. I was the editor of Marvel’s British weeklies at the time, which is why Roy was talking to me about this. I asked Roy if there would be an Italian mutant on the team. He quipped that I was Marvel’s Italian mutant. No one has disproved that.

Back to Wolverine, Roy told me the character would be Canadian and based on the fierce animal of the same name. He would be short and feisty, character traits I could immediately relate to. His costume colors were the same as the college football team of the same name, a joke almost no one got. Including me.

Wolverine was far more than what Roy described to me. But what Roy came up with was vital to the character. I stand by his being considered a co-creator. Not based on second or third hand recollections.

Based on what I learned when I was in the freaking room.

Getting back to Black Lightning, I ask the comics journalists to get the credits and titles right going forward. I recognize some of them will choose to ignore accuracy, either out of laziness or malice or misunderstanding. All I can do is hope they will get it right. I’m such an optimist.

Thanks for stopping by. I’ll be back soon with more stuff.

© 2025 Tony Isabella