Michael Carlin (born October 6, 1958) is an American comic book writer, editor, and executive. He has worked principally for Marvel Comics and DC Comics since the 1970s.

Early life

Carlin attended the High School of Art and Design in Manhattan, graduating in 1976. He received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Cartooning from the School of Visual Arts in New York in 1980.

Career

Mike Carlin started out in the business at DC Comics as a high school intern in 1974. He was hired by Marvel Comics as a writer and artist on Crazy Magazine, the company's black-and-white humor title at the end of 1980. His first work appeared in print in 1981. He later became an assistant editor under Mark Gruenwald in 1982 and wrote a short run of stories in Captain America and Ka-Zar as well as the Assistant Editors' Month issue of Marvel Team-Up (Aunt May and Franklin Richards vs. Galactus). Carlin moved to DC Comics as of October 6, 1986, his 28th birthday, and became group editor of the Superman titles. He oversaw "The Death of Superman" storyline and the subsequent introduction of such characters as the Kon-El version of Superboy and John Henry Irons. From 1996 to 2002, he served as an executive editor at DC Comics. As of 2011, he was DC Entertainment's Creative Director of Animation.

Appearances within comics

The backup story "Bernie America, Sentinel of Liberty" in Captain America #289 (Jan. 1984) features Mike Carlin dressed as The Watcher, introducing the story. The Batman Adventures #13, the first DC Comics spinoff of Batman: The Animated Series — features a screwball trio of incompetent super-villains: the Mastermind (a caricature of Mike Carlin), The Perfessor (a caricature of Dennis O'Neil), and Mr. Nice (a caricature of Archie Goodwin), a super-strong but childishly-innocent super-villain. Superman: The Man of Steel #75 (Jan. 1998) is a pastiche of Superman's death in Superman vol. 2 #75 (Jan. 1993), where Mister Mxyzptlk creates a duplicate of Doomsday. The confrontation culminates with Mxyzptlk meeting the Supreme Being who turns out to be Mike Carlin, the then-editor of the Superman titles, who promptly brings him back to life.

Awards

Nominations

DC Comics

Marvel Comics