“Tap Tap Tap,” a tribute to the late comic book icon Denny O’Neil that will be published in the Green Arrow 80th Anniversary 100-Page Super Spectacular, is now available to read for free on the DC Comics website.
The story, a wordless ode to O’Neil’s life and career in comic books, was written by his son Larry O’Neil and features artwork by Jorge Fornes and Dave Stewart.
In six pages, “Tap Tap Tap” goes from portraying O’Neil as a young St. Louis boy transfixed by Western radio dramas to a legend of the comic book world. Along the way, readers are given glimpses of the many turns in O’Neil’s life, including his time in the U.S. Navy in the 1960s, his move to New York City, his struggle with alcoholism and his marriage to wife Marifran O’Neil, who passed away in 2017.
These moments are all punctuated by the steady “tap tap tap” of O’Neil’s fingers, first on typewriter keys and later on computer keyboards as he spun his tales for DC Comics, Marvel and other publishers.
Among the most notable comics that O’Neil worked on was his Green Lantern/Green Arrow run in the 1970s, including the anti-drug story “Snowbirds Don’t Fly,” and his many stories pitting Batman against Ra’s and Talia al Ghul, two characters he co-created.
At the end of the story, O’Neil is seen watching many of the creations that he helped make famous — including Batman, Green Arrow and Green Lantern — in their big-budget movie incarnations, while continuing to write stories right up to his death at the age of 81 last June. The final panel of the comic shows Denny in the hospital surrounded by his beloved characters, all of them paying their respects to the man who crafted hundreds of memorable comics.
In an interview with CBR, Larry O’Neil reflected on the title of the story, calling tapping “definitely a sound I grew up with in my childhood.” The younger O’Neil, himself a storyteller who directed the films Throwing Down and Breast Men, also addressed how his father related with loner characters like Batman due to his unique career path as a comic book writer.
“Because he grew up in this culture that did not value the things that he was good at, he grew up a little isolated, a little bit different from everyone around him,” the younger O’Neil said. “He certainly felt like that while he was in the Navy. It’s not really an accident that he became associated with a character who felt so lonely and abandoned. I don’t think that’s saying anything that Denny hasn’t said himself about how he related to characters like Batman.”
Priced at $9.99, Green Arrow 80th Anniversary 100-Page Super Spectacular #1 features the work of Mike Grell, Jeff Lemire, Phil Hester, Otto Schmidt, Ben Percy, Tom Taylor, Devin Grayson, Stephanie Phillips, Mariko Tamaki, Ram V, Vita Ayala, Nicola Scott, Chris Mitten, Laura Braga, Max Fiumara, Brandon Thomas and more. The special goes on sale June 29 from DC Comics.
Source: DC Comics
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