I'm pretty sure Roy Thomas wrote the first comic stories I truly loved. His work on Avengers, X-Men and others won me over at a very early age and showed me what a big, huge, fun place the Marvel Universe was. Hisrun with Neal Adams on X-men stands as among my favorites, and with all due respect to Stan Lee, he OWNED the Avengers.

As Editor-in-Chief Thomas launched titles like The Defenders and What If, did killer Conan work with Barry Windsor-Smith, and helped out in creating characters like Iron Fist and Ghost Rider.

Roy Thomas was and in totally, totally awesome. One of the best writers of Marvel's second great heyday and a guy full of imagination.

Roy Thomas. Praise him with great praise.

According to Wiki, just a few of the characters Thomas helped create or co-create (full list at link):


That's awesome.

He and Gerry Conway WERE 70s Marvel, as far as I'm concerned.

My favorite run on the Avengers is the Thomas/Buscema run. Considering the talent that's worked on that book, that's saying a lot.

Roy Thomas is teh awesome.

i second Matt's call on the Thomas Avengers.

I always wondered why Roy, having followed Stan directly on so many books, only did a couple of Spider-Man when Stan was writing a movie script, and never had a run.

Thirded on Avengers. In my opinion, Thomas and Buscema were to that book what Lee and Kirby were to FF. Moreso than Stan Lee, Roy Thomas and his collaborators built the sweeping Avengers mythology, creating the landscape that made them one of the coolest teams ever. When I think of "true" Avengers, almost invariably they are from Thomas' time on the book (with the lineups of Roger Stern's era a close second for me). Love, love, LOVE those books.

Roy is not too "big" to pose for a picture with a stuffed baby seal:

Though he is scratching his head in befuddlement.

My favorite Roy Thomas works:
All Star Squadron
Avengers
Conan
Fantastic Four (most of all the Marvel Boy issues with George Perez)
Invaders
Infinity Inc.
Thor.

Roy's work with Gil Kane was the best, imho. I have a softspot for their work on Amazing Spider-Man, Warlock and Captain Marvel. Also loved Roy's writing on Conan, Fantastic Four, X-Men and Invaders.

I can't believe I forgot about the All Star Squadron and JSA stuff in the 70s. Those books were among the first exposure I had to the world of DC comics outside of Batman and Superman.

I can't decide whether to praise him for his great superhero work at marvel, His Conan work, his JSA-related work on All-Star Squadron and Infinity Inc, his work on Alter Ego, or his new Anthem series.

So it will just have to be everything!

Marvel Superhero work - he was Stan's first real protege, combining Stan's sense of humanity with his own love of history and literature. The epilogue to the first Vision story in Avengers 57 shows the latter, and the ending of the second Vision story in Avengers 58 shows the former. His Avengers run is, in my opinion, the greatest of a number of extremely high quality runs on that book.

Conan – he defined the character for me. Everyone else’s Conan, even that of Howard himself feels “right” only inasmuch as it conforms to the Thomas Conan. Consider that Roy took the character through from a rough early patch sales-wise, to having three simultaneously running titles when he left Marvel in 1980. Artists varied, but Roy was the single constant. I didn’t appreciate Conan at the time, but when he returned in the 1990s, I picked it up and enjoyed it, and got virtually all the back issues (still hunting for some Conan the King issues, but I got pretty much everything else, and definitely got all the Roy Thomas issues.)

All-Star Squadron and Infinity Inc. – these were the books that brought me back into comics in 1984, after I took three years off when I entered my senior year in high school. Not the Titans by Wolfman and Perez, not the Simonson Thor, not the Byrne FF, not the Claremont/Smith X-Men – All-Star Squadron and Infinity Inc. by Roy Thomas with art by Richard Howell and Jerry Ordway. I’ve been buying comics ever since. Great stuff that kept in mind that you can refer to previous stories and still bring new readers into things. I picked up Infinity Inc. with issue 4, having seen only Power Girl and Huntress of the Infinitors before, and never having read the original JSA story that it referred to and had no problem jumping right into things.

Alter Ego – My favorite magazine about comics – even when I don’t know the work of the people covered, I’m fascinated with the stories they have to tell, and the samples of art and story. A must-read every month.

Anthem – Roy Thomas is writing super-heroes again! And the artist obviously is strongly influenced by the great John Buscema! Hooray!

Roy Thomas is brilliant. He is Robin to Stan's Batman in my mind, and responsible for some of my very favourite comics - most of which have been mentioned above. His dialogue and captions, on X-Men and Avengers particularly, but on just about everything he wrote, set the standard for everyone else to follow. And he comes across - in Alter Ego - as a real good guy, too. My first concerns about the character of He Who Must Be Obeyed were when I read what he had said about Roy Thomas.

I actually had a negative opinion of Roy Thomas because of those comments..........until I looked at the Wikipedia site ,and was reminded that Thomas had probably the biggest hand in creating my best childhood comic book memories.

Other than REH, no one is more qualified to write Conan. His issues with BWS and Buscema are just the epitome of quality.

The Thomas/John B run on Avengers was classic! The Zodiac, Arkon, Ultron, etc..so many great great stories!

I also really dug All Star Squadron as a kid...it was cool seeing all those heroes fight the nazis...

And of course his run on Conan was brilliant.

If you want to read weird stuff, check out Thomas's '90s run on West Coast Avengers, taking over from JB. Co-plotted with his wife Dann.

Definitely a low point. Wonder how much editorial interference was going on?

"All-Star Squadron" was easily my favorite of his work.

I wish finances had not kept me from buying "Alter Ego." The comic shop I used to live near had all the back issues, but they were all still for cover price.

I am absolutely loving his current work adapting the classics for Marvel. All three are really ramping up -- my favorite reads right now. Get them!

The three titles are Man in the Iron Mask, Treasure Island, and Last of the Mohicans.

I met Roy once at a con. He was really nice, and was flattered that I said I'd liked his Legion stories.
This must have been right before All Star Squadron.

He does have a habit of making every little thing fit into place, which in most cases is ok. He totally got screwed over with Crisis, and the way if messed up A.S.S.

I occasionally check out Alter Ego, when it catches my eye.