Welcome to Comic Book Legends Revealed! This is the seven hundred and seventy-sixth installment where we examine three comic book legends and determine whether they are true or false.
As usual, there will be three posts, one for each of the three legends. Click here for Part 1 of this week's legends. Click here for Part 2 of this week's legends.
NOTE: If my Twitter page hits 5,000 followers, I'll do a bonus edition of Comic Book Legends Revealed that week. Great deal, right? So go follow my Twitter page, Brian_Cronin!
COMIC LEGEND:
Werewolf By Night's real name was an intentional pun.
STATUS:
Apparently False
In the early 1970s, the Comics Code Authority relaxed its restrictions on the depiction of monsters within comic books and the comic book companies quickly rushed out new monster comic books to cash in on this new deal. Roy and Jean Thomas came up with the idea of doing a werewolf series, specifically told from the perspective of the werewolf character.
Once Thomas finished the idea and Stan Lee insisted that it be called Werewolf By Night instead of Thomas' initial idea of I, Werewolf (hence the whole first person narrative comic book), Thomas then gave the book over to Gerry Conway to script. Mike Ploog drew the comic.
While Roy and Jean laid out the plot of the first issue, Conway was given the freedom to name the character on his own and he came up with the name Jack Russell...
Obviously, over the years, people have naturally assumed that Conway named the character Jack Russell because of the dog breed, Jack Russell Terrier...
It's a natural thing to believe, but shockingly, in his interview with Conway in TwoMorrows' Back Issue #71, Jarrod Buttery asked Conway about it and Conway shockingly revealed that he doesn't believe it WAS intentional!
"Gosh, no, but as people have pointed out to me repeatedly, it is kind of an appropriate name! I know that Roy and Jean came up with the original premise for the first issue. And it's entirely possible that when I wrote the script, and I wrote the character's name, that I was subconsciously making that association. I'm pretty sure I would have never thought of it; I didn't own a dog, I wasn't raised with dogs, and the idea of calling a character Jack Russell - wo turns into a werewolf - probably would've struck me as hilarious if I had thought of it, but I don't think I did."
You have to figure that Conway knows the truth the best, right? So I'm willing to believe him and go with a "false" here.
What a funny coincidence!
Thanks to Gerry Conway and Jarrod Buttery for the information!
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In the latest Movie Legends Revealed - Did the fatal accident during the filming of Twilight Zone- The Movie result in the film's story going from a redemptive story to a tragic one?
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Feel free to suggest ideas for future legends to me at either cronb01@aol.com or brianc@cbr.com!