Leo Dorfman


Leo Dorfman was an American writer of comic books throughout the Silver Age. Although the majority of his work was for DC Comics, he also wrote for Dell Comics and Gold Key Comics.

Early life

Dorfman grew up on New York City's Lower East Side.

Career

Leo Dorfman began working for National Periodical Publications in the 1950s. Comics historian Mark Evanier has estimated that Dorfman may have been "the most prolific scripter" for Superman during the 1960s.
Dorfman's work included the creation of the Superman supporting character Pete Ross in 1961 as well as writing the "Superman Red/Superman Blue" story in Superman #162, which inspired a year-long plot arc in 1998. As the writer of Superman's Girl Friend, Lois Lane, he and artist Kurt Schaffenberger crafted Catwoman's first appearance in the Silver Age of Comic Books in issue #70 and updated Lois Lane's fashions to a then-more contemporary look in #80. Dorfman wrote World's Finest Comics #175 which featured Neal Adams' first Batman story. In 1971, Dorfman created the Ghosts anthology series for DC.
He produced stories for Gold Key Comics' supernaturally-themed The Twilight Zone, Ripley's Believe it or Not!, Boris Karloff Mystery and Grimm's Ghost Stories. One of Gold Key's editors at the time told Mark Evanier "Leo writes stories and then he decides whether he's going to sell them to DC or to us. He tells us that if they come out good, they go to us and if they don't, they go to DC. I assume he tells DC the opposite."
Leo Dorfman died unexpectedly on July 9, 1974 at the age of 60 while still writing for Ghosts. Editor and longtime friend Murray Boltinoff replaced Dorfman with Carl Wessler as the series' primary writer.

DC Comics