Edward Summer

March 18, 1946 – Nov. 13, 2014

Edward Summer, the multifaceted writer, artist, filmmaker and movie and animation historian who founded the Buffalo International Film Festival, died Thursday after a battle with cancer. He was 68.

Born in Buffalo, he studied painting at the Albright Art School and had a special exhibit of his drawings in a group show at the Buffalo Museum of Science when he was 15.

After graduating from Kenmore West High School in 1963, he studied at Antioch College before returning to complete a bachelor's degree in English at the University at Buffalo. He also earned a master's degree in outdoor education from the University of Wyoming.

Joining the inaugural class of what became the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University in 1966, he made a student film, "Item 72-D, The Adventures of Spa and Fon," which won numerous awards, was shown worldwide at festivals and introduced the actor Hervé Villechaize.

In 1971, Mr. Summer opened one of the nation's first comic book stores, Supersnipe Comic Book Emporium on Manhattan's Upper East Side, and later established a comic art gallery nearby.

A former customer noted on his Facebook page that "Ed truly was the boy with the most comic books in America."

He was a writer for Marvel Comics from 1972 to 1989 and was a writer and editor for DC Comics from 1980 to 1990. He contributed the plot for the first issue of Marvel's "Red Sonja," and helped start the process that gained long-denied royalties for the comic book artists who created Superman.

He received a National Endowment for the Arts grant to produce a documentary film about the history of American comic strips and comic book arts, and interviewed many leading cartoonists, but never finished it.

He also was an executive producer of the first "Conan the Barbarian" film, for which he wrote the original treatment and screenplay. A contributor to Time magazine and the Skeptical Inquirer, he wrote numerous articles about film and comics.

His better-known efforts include a collection of Disney cartoonist Carl Barks' stories, "Uncle $crooge McDuck: His Life and Times"; a novel, "Teefr"; and a prequel, "The Legend of Teddy Bear Bob." He created "The Dinosaur Interplanetary Gazette," the first online science magazine for children.

He was a screenwriter for Walt Disney Pictures since 1981. His credits include the animated shorts "Mickey Mouse's Merry Pranks" and "The Devil and Donald Duck."

In 2004, he founded the Digital Nitrate Prize to encourage the development of methods to preserve historic movies by duplicating the highly defined look of nitrate motion picture film.

In conjunction with the Buffalo International Film Festival, which he founded in 2006 and served as president, he turned up evidence that Buffalo was the home of the world's first movie theater and developed a tour of the sites of the city's landmark movie palaces.

Mr. Summer rubbed shoulders with notables all his life. Renowned photographer Milton Rogovin was a family friend. He knew acclaimed local watercolorist Robert Blair from childhood.

In the early 1960s, he worked as an actor and stage manager with Fred Keller and Neal DuBrock and appeared in "Many Moons," a production choreographed by Michael Bennett at Studio Arena Theatre.

At UB, he studied with Leslie Fiedler, Robert Creeley and John Barth and created a comic strip for the Spectrum student newspaper with Spain Rodriguez.

His classmates at NYU included Martin Scorsese and Oliver Stone. In the 1970s, he worked with director Brian DePalma to revise the promotional materials for "Phantom of the Paradise."

A longtime friend of "Star Wars" producer George Lucas, who was believed to be a silent partner in his comic art gallery, he served as a script and marketing consultant for "Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope."

Since 1981, he was an adjunct professor of film at the School of Visual Arts in New York City.

He was a certified instructor of Constructive Living, a philosophy of mindfulness. He also was a founding member of New York Area Skeptics and a longtime member of the International Brotherhood of Magicians, Ring 12.

– Dale Anderson