Don Glut, Sheldon Mayer to Receive 2025 Bill Finger Award
Don Glut and Sheldon Mayer have been selected to receive the 2025 Bill Finger Award for Excellence in Comic Book Writing. The selection, made by a blue-ribbon committee chaired by writer-historian Mark Evanier, was once again unanimous.
“As usual, the judges considered a long list of names, but these two jumped out at us,” Evanier remarked. “They’re two men who made important contributions to the comic book industry and artform and who haven’t received proper recognition and maybe not proper compensation.”
Don Glut in his teens distinguished himself as an amateur filmmaker before embarking on a career that would include becoming a professional filmmaker, having co-produced, directed, and written eight feature-length films. He has also written TV shows and novels and, most important to this award, comic books. Much of that work was for Gold Key Comics, where he co-created and wrote three series that formed a little “Don Glut Universe” within the company’s line: Dagar the Invincible, The Occult Files of Doctor Spektor and Tragg and the Sky Gods. They attracted a loyal following then on the newsstands and more recently in fancy reprint collections. For Warren Publishing, Don authored tales for Creepy, Eerie and Vampirella, and for Marvel, his writing could be found in, among others, Captain America, The Invaders, Kull the Destroyer, Solomon Kane, Star Wars, and What If…? Don also has more than 80 books to his credit, including The Dinosaur Dictionary and the authorized novelization of the movie The Empire Strikes Back.
Sheldon Mayer (1917–1991) was a key contributor to some of the earliest comic books, with work traced back as far as the mid-1930s. After a brief stint at the Max Fleischer animation studio, he began writing and drawing for Dell Comics, producing some of the earliest original (i.e., not reprinted from newspaper strips) material featured in comic books. These included his semi-autobiographical strip Scribbly, about a boy cartoonist. In 1936 he began working with industry pioneer M. C. Gaines at the McClure Syndicate, and two years later he was the person who convinced Gaines to reconsider an oft-rejected submission. That submission — Superman by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster — wound up appearing in DC Comics and revolutionizing the field. When Gaines (and partner Jack Liebowitz) formed the All-American comic book company in 1939, Mayer was their first editor and presided over the creation of many popular properties, including The Flash, Wonder Woman, and Green Lantern. He also found time to write and draw humorous comics, including a revival of Scribbly. When All-American was acquired by DC Comics in 1944, Mayer came along as editor, but four years later he retired from editing to create, write, and draw new features for DC, most notably The Three Mouseketeers and his masterpiece, Sugar & Spike. Mayer later wrote for DC’s ghost comics, co-created and wrote The Black Orchid for Adventure Comics, and even adapted The Bible into a special edition DC comic. He passed away in 1991, but his granddaughter Chelle will be on hand to accept his Finger Award at the ceremony.
The Bill Finger Award was created in 2005 at the instigation of the great comic book artist and cartoonist Jerry Robinson. It was his way of preserving the memory of his friend and colleague, William Finger (1914–1974), who was the first and, some say, most important writer of Batman. Many have called him the “unsung hero” of the character and have hailed his work not only on that iconic figure but on dozens of others, primarily for DC Comics. Evanier explains, “When Jerry first suggested this award, it was the worst-kept secret in comics that Finger had co-created Batman and much of the mythos and supporting cast of that character. Nowhere on the comics or movies or TV shows was Bill Finger credited. That has changed, but there are still plenty of important, undercredited writers for us to put into the spotlight. Which is what this award is all about.”
In addition to Evanier, the selection committee consists of Charles Kochman (executive editor at Harry N. Abrams, book publisher), comic book writer Kurt Busiek, artist/historian Jim Amash, cartoonist Scott Shaw!, and writer/editor Marv Wolfman.
The major sponsor for the 2025 award is DC Comics; supporting sponsors are Heritage Auctions and Maggie Thompson.
The Finger Award falls under the auspices of Comic-Con International and is administered by Jackie Estrada. The awards will be presented during the Eisner Awards ceremony at this summer’s Comic-Con International on Friday, July 25.
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