Steve Skeates was born on January 29 1943 in Rochester, New York. Growing up he was a fan of both humour magazines and comic books (although he preferred funny animals to superheroes). He attended Alfred University in Alfred, New York. It was as he was nearing graduation that Steve Skeates applied to the four major comic book companies. It was then in 1965 that he was hired as Stan Lee's assistant editor at Marvel Comics. He only lasted two weeks, as he was not particularly good at proofreading. Fortunately, while he was no longer an assistant editor, Stan Lee did give him some freelance writing assignments, including work on the Marvel Western titles Kid Colt Outlaw and Two-Gun Kid.
Steve Skeates then picked up work at Tower Comics, writing issues of T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents, Noman, and Undersea Agent. The late Sixties saw Mr. Skeates do considerable work at DC Comics, including his run on Aquaman as well as work on Date with Debbi, Debbi's Dates, and Spectre. He co-created Hawk and Dove with Steve Ditko and wrote four issues of their title. He also wrote for Charlton, writing on the titles Abbott & Costello, a back-up story featuring The Question in Blue Beetle, Charlton Premiere, The Gunfighters, the Thane of Bagarth back-up stories in Hercules, a Sarge Steel back-up in Judomaster, The Many Ghosts of Dr. Graves, Outlaws of the West, Fightin' 5 backup stories in Peacemaker, Secret Agent, and Timmy the Ghost.
The Seventies saw Steve Skeates also writing for multiple comic book companies. At DC Comics he wrote Adventure Comics, Blackhawk, DC Super Stars, The Flash, Forbidden Tales of Dark Mansion, House of Mystery, House of Secrets, The Mighty Isis, Phantom Stranger, Plastic Man, Plop!, Secrets of Haunted House, Star Spangled War Stories, Super-Team Family, Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen, Teen Titans, Unknown Soldier, Weird Mystery Tales, Weird War Tales, Weird Western Tales, The Witching Hour, and World's Finest. He also worked on Marvel on the titles Chamber of Chills, Crazy Magazine, Journey into Mystery, Monsters Unleashed, Sub-Mariner, and What If...?. At Gold Key he wrote issues of The Twilight Zone, Underdog, and Yosemite Sam and Bugs Bunny. At Archie Comics he wrote on Red Circle Sorcery. He also did work at Warren Publishing (Creepy, Eerie, Vampirella) and Star Reach (Star Reach and Quack!).
Steve Skeates's work on comic books slowed in the Eighties, and late in the decade he took up bartending. He still did some work during the decade, including writing for DC (DC Graphic Novel, House of Mystery, Secrets of Haunted House) and Marvel (Bizarre Adventures, Crazy Magazine, Howard the Duck, Peter Porker the Spectacular Spider-Ham, Savage Sword of Conan, and Savage Tales). In the mid-Eighties he wrote episodes of the animated TV shows Transformers, G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero, and Jem. In the late Eighties he also did a locally oriented newspaper strip in Upstate New York titled The Adventures of Stew Ben and Alec Gainey.
Since the Nineties Steven Skeates wrote for various companies. He wrote very nearly until his death.
One of the first comic books I ever read was one of the issues of Aquaman authored by Steve Skeates. To this day I don't think anyone wrote Aquaman as well as he did. Quite simply, he was one of the best writers to emerge from the Silver Age of comics. He was certainly versatile. While his first love was humour, during his career he wrote superhero comics, horror comics, Western comics, war comics, and more. There didn't seem to be a genre he could not write. What is more, he was able to take a character and do things with that character that no one else had ever considered. Indeed, Aquaman had spent most of his history as a back-up character in various titles before getting his own title in the Sixties. Steve Skeates took the character places he had never been before. Few comic book writers were ever as gifted as Steve Skeates.
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