Mike Violante, RIP

Mike Violante died last week. Edward Michael "Mike" Violante won't be a name familiar to anybody as some one in the comics field. But for me, he's a major figure. Along with my parents, he aided and abetted my love of comics. He also started my love of science fiction and fantasy novels. To use a space shuttle analogy from my youth, if my parents were the solid rocket boosters, with copies of Richie Rich, Archie, Superman, Mad, Disney digests, and Peanuts paperbacks around the house, Mike was the liquid fuel tank that fed the engines to push the shuttle into orbit. 

Mike was the person who got me started on Marvel. When he married my cousin Emma around 1970, I was 5 years old. A few years later than that (I would guess I was about 8), he gave me a stack of his comics. This was before speculator booms and they were only 10-15 years old at that point anyway, but it was still a generous gift. There were a lot of DC Silver Age science fiction and early Marvels. I grew hooked on Carmine Infantino's Adam Strange with its sleek futuristic lines, Space Cabbie, and the Challengers of the Unknown. Meanwhile Marvel's interlinked universe was a tantalizing mystery, as I read single issues of the Avengers and Spider-Man, including the ones that introduced Kang (Avengers 8) and the Green Goblin (Amazing Spider-Man 14; I have those numbers memorized). I still read Curt Swan, Elliot S! Maggin and Cary Bates' clever stories in DC's superhero line, as they tried to deal with a Superman who could move planets, or a Flash who could run faster than light. But when I started earning a bit of paper-delivering money, I bought Marvel and got thoroughly invested in their soap opera super heroics. Fortunately, my parent's ecumenical tastes carried me along, and even though superheroes have palled for me to this day, I read all types of comics. I have gotten to know a wide range of creators too, something the 8-year-old me would never have imagined.

Mike also gave me his Science Fiction Book Club collection after introducing me to fantasy books by giving me a copy of the Richard Corben-covered Llana of Gathol and John Carter Warlord of Mars combined edition. After a long physical and mental decline, Mike passed away last week in Arizona, thousands of miles and a lifetime away from growing up in northern New Jersey. As far as I know he never returned to comic books, although I think he still read science fiction at times. My last email from him was in January 2017, but it's safe to say that without Mike Violante, I would not be the person that I am today and I remain very grateful to him. I read those comics to death, and they have no value at all now to anyone but me, but boy, do they mean a lot to me. Thanks for everything, Mike.