Jenny Blake Isabella

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Jenny Blake Isabella
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Jenny Blake Isabella selfie
Born (1951-12-22) December 22, 1951 (age 74)
Cleveland, Ohio, U.S.
AreaWriter
Notable works
Black Goliath
Black Lightning
The Champions
Justice Machine
"Tony's Tips"
AwardsGoethe Award 1972
Inkpot Award 2013
http://tonyisabella.blogspot.com

Jenny Blake Isabella[1] (born December 22, 1951),[2] who writes under the names Tony Isabella and Jenny Blake, is an American comic book writer, editor, actor, artist and critic. She is the creator of Marvel Comics superhero Black Goliath, and of DC Comics' first major African-American superhero, Black Lightning. She was a columnist and critic for the Comics Buyer's Guide magazine.

Biography

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Early life and influences

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Isabella was born in Cleveland, Ohio on December 22, 1951.[3] She discovered comics at the age of four, when her mother began bringing her I. W. Publications titles she bought at Woolworth.[3] Early influences from the comic book world included Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Roy Thomas, Robert Kanigher, and Len Wein; Isabella also cited being influenced by William Shakespeare, Harlan Ellison, Ed McBain, Neil Simon, Mel Brooks, Lester Dent, Dave Barry, Max Allan Collins, Don Pendleton, and Studs Terkel.[3]

As a teenager, she had many letters published in comic book letter columns under her earlier name of Tony Isabella,[4] primarily in the pages of Marvel titles. She was an active member of the comics fandom, a member of CAPA-alpha (an amateur press association for comics), and a regular contributor to comics fanzines.[3]

Marvel Comics

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Isabella's fanzine work attracted the attention of Marvel editor Roy Thomas[3] (whose earliest published writings had been in fanzines such as Alter Ego), and in 1972 Thomas hired Isabella as an editorial assistant. With Marvel's establishment of Marvel UK that year, Isabella oversaw reprints used in Marvel UK's nascent comics line.[5] She briefly edited for Marvel's black-and-white magazine line.[6]

As a writer, Isabella scripted Ghost Rider, the characters It! The Living Colossus in Astonishing Tales, Luke Cage in Hero for Hire and Power Man, the Living Mummy in Supernatural Tales, Tigra in Marvel Chillers, Daredevil,[7] and Captain America.[8] While writing the "Iron Fist" feature in Marvel Premiere, she co-created the supporting character Misty Knight with artist Arvell Jones.[9] Isabella developed the concept of The Champions series and wrote the first several issues.[10][11]

Controversy

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During her mid-1970s run on Ghost Rider, Isabella wrote a two-year story arc in which Johnny Blaze occasionally encountered an unnamed character referred to as "the Friend" who protected him from Satan, the source of his supernatural powers and identity as Ghost Rider. Isabella said in 2007:

Getting prior approval from editor Roy Thomas, as I would from later editors Len Wein and Marv Wolfman, I introduced "The Friend" into the series. He looked sort of like a hippie Jesus Christ and that's exactly who He was, though I never actually called Him that.... It allowed me to address a disparity that had long bothered me about the Marvel Universe. Though we had no end of Hell(s) and Satan surrogates in our comics, we had nothing of Heaven.... [After two years] I'd written a story wherein, couched in mildly subtle terms, Blaze accepted Jesus as his savior and freed himself from Satan's power forever. Had I remained on Ghost Rider, which was my intent at the time, the title's religious elements would have faded into the background. Blaze would be a Christian, but he'd express this in the way he led his life. ... Unfortunately, an assistant editor took offense at my story. The issue was ready to go to the printer when he pulled it back and ripped it to pieces. He had some of the art redrawn and a lot of the copy rewritten to change the ending of a story two years in the making. "The Friend" was revealed to be, not Jesus, but a demon in disguise. To this day, I consider what he did to my story one of the three most arrogant and wrongheaded actions I've ever seen from an editor.[12]

Isabella later identified the assistant editor as Jim Shooter.[13][14] In 2020, Shooter said he was concerned that this "basically established the Marvel universe is a Christian universe" and could alienate readers by suggesting "that all other religions are false". Shooter said he made the changes after consulting with editor Marv Wolfman.[15]

DC Comics

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Isabella worked as a writer and story editor for DC Comics,[6] and is known for creating Black Lightning,[16] and writing both the character's short-lived 1970s and 1990s series.[17] After reaching an agreement with DC,[18] Isabella returned to the character in 2017 with the publication of the Black Lightning: Cold Dead Hands limited series.[19][20]

Isabella and artist Richard Howell produced the Shadow War of Hawkman mini-series in 1985, involving the characters of Hawkman and Hawkwoman.[21] An ongoing series was launched the following year.[22]

Justice Machine

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In 1987, Isabella began writing the Justice Machine series for Comico, co-plotting with series creator and penciller Mike Gustovich. The new series picked up from the end of the Bill Willingham/Gustovich written limited series Justice Machine featuring the Elementals, which re-booted the series' continuity from the older Noble Comics/Texas Comics-published original series. The ongoing book became one of Comico's best-selling series, selling upwards of 70,000 copies of each issue at its peak. Isabella wrote the first 11 issues of the Comico series before moving on to other projects.[23]

In 1990, Isabella returned to the characters and wrote the series for Innovation Comics, with Gustovich pencilling once more.

"Tony's Tips"

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Isabella wrote the Comics Buyer's Guide column "Tony's Tips" for over a decade. The last column was June 22, 2010.[24] Starting in 2013, she continued "Tony's Tips" online at Tales of Wonder.[25][26] She also regularly writes about comics and her work on her personal blog.[27]

Books

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Isabella and her fellow Comics Buyer's Guide columnist Bob Ingersoll co-authored the short story "If Wishes Were Horses..." which was published in The Ultimate Super-Villains: New Stories Featuring Marvel's Deadliest Villains (1996).[28] The pair also wrote the novels Captain America: Liberty's Torch (1998)[29] and Star Trek: The Case Of The Colonist's Corpse (2003).[30]

In 2009, her non-fiction book 1000 Comics You Must Read was published by Krause Publications.[31]

Other work

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During the 1980s, Isabella operated Cosmic Comics, a comic book shop in the Colonial Arcade in Downtown Cleveland.[32]

She has translated and localized foreign-language Disney comics for the U.S. market.[33]

In 2020, Isabella cameoed as "Judge Isabella" on the CW series Black Lightning, based on the DC comic created by her and Trevor Von Eeden, who also plays a judge.[34]

Personal life

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Isabella's wife is Barbara.[35] They have two children, Eddie (born c. 1989) and Kelly (born c. 1992).[3]

In a February 9, 2025 social media post, Isabella came out as transgender with a meme reading "Keep Calm and Yes I'm Transgender".[36] In a Facebook post, she said she would continue writing as both Jenny Blake Isabella and Tony Isabella.[1] Her first story written under the Jenny Blake Isabella name appeared in the DC Pride 2025 anthology, an autobiographical piece setting out the path her life took to coming out as transgender.[37]

Awards

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Bibliography

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Atlas/Seaboard Comics

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Atlas Comics (Ardden Entertainment)

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  • Grim Ghost vol. 2 #1–6 (with Stephen Susco) (2010–2011)

Caliber Comics

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Comico

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Dark Horse

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DC Comics

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IDW

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  • Ditko's Monsters (foreword) (2019)
  • Star Trek: Gold Key Archives #1 (foreword) (2014)

Image Comics

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  • Geeksville #3 (2000)

Innovation Publishing

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  • Justice Machine vol. 3 #5–7 (1990–1991)
  • Sentry Special #1 (with Bob Ingersoll) (1991)

Marvel Comics

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Moonstone

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  • The Phantom: Generations TPB (new 12-page text story) (2010)

Topps Comics

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Warren Publishing

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Filmography

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Television roles
Year Title Role Notes
2020 Black Lightning Judge Isabella Episode: "The Book of War: Chapter Three: Liberation"

References

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  6. ^ a b Tony Isabella (editor) at the Grand Comics Database
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  8. ^ Tony Isabella at the Grand Comics Database
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  15. ^ Shooter, Jim, in Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value). Alt URL
  16. ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
  17. ^ Manning, Matthew K. "1990s" in Dolan, p. 269: "Writer Tony Isabella returned to his prized character, Black Lightning, in an ongoing series with artist Eddy Newell."
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  21. ^ Manning "1980s" in Dolan, p. 215: "May [1985] saw the return of the Winged Wonder in a four-issue miniseries entitled The Shadow War of Hawkman by writer Tony Isabella and penciller Richard Howell."
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  38. ^ The Comic Reader #90 (October 1972).
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