Edward Summer was an American painter, motion picture director, screenwriter, internet publisher, magazine editor, journalist and science writer, comic book writer, novelist, book designer, actor, cinematographer, motion picture editor, documentary filmmaker, film festival founder, and educator. He died on November 13, 2014. Among his better known works are the collection of Carl Barks stories , the Dinosaur Interplanetary Gazette, the first motion picture based upon Robert E. Howard's character Conan the Barbarian, the novel Teefr, and a prequel The Legend of Teddy Bear Bob.
Encouraged by experimental filmmaker Peter Adair, Summer ultimately attended the first year of the New York University School of the Arts. Haig Manoogian, instrumental in starting the career of Martin Scorsese by producing the film Who's That Knocking at My Door headed the school and was one of the main instructors. At NYU, Summer continued painting and studied with, among others, acclaimed photo-realist Audrey Flack. Harry Hurwitz, director of The Projectionist was also an instructor and personal friend. His student film "Item 72-D, The Adventures of Spa and Fon" not only won multiple awards, but was shown worldwide at many film festivals. It was the first film shown at the now famous Film Forum movie theater in New York City when the Film Forum was only a tiny loft space on West 88th Street in Manhattan. Hervé Villechaize, then unknown was one of the stars of "Item 72-D, The Adventures of Spa and Fon" Villechaize went on to fame in The Man with the Golden Gun and as a recurring character on the television series Fantasy Island. A co-writer of the film, John Byrum went on to write and direct numerous other films. Both Manoogian and Scorsese were advisors to the project. Other early films included:
Solstice - Film Editor
High on the Wind Rivers - Cinematographer, Film Editor
Street Scenes - Cinematographer, Sound Recording, Film Editor
As a fellow of the National Endowment for the Arts, Summer received a grant to produce a documentary about the history of American Comic Strip and Comic Book art. This unfinished film covered, among other people, Jack Kirby, Milton Caniff, Carl Barks, Chuck Jones, Ray Bradbury, Dick Huemer and Ralph Bakshi. He worked with CBSCamera Three on a two-part series covering the history of comic books and comic strips. In 1975, Summer helped his friend Brian De Palma redo all of the promotional materials for Phantom of the Paradise. As a result, producer Edward R. Pressman approached Summer for other projects. The result was Conan the Barbarian which took nearly seven years to bring to the screen. The original treatment/screenplay was written by Summer with some collaboration by Roy Thomas who had written and edited the Marvel Comic Book series. In 2003, he founded the Buffalo International Film Festival. Summer has been Executive Director since 2005.
Comic books
Several science fiction adaptations for Starstream. Born of the Sun. Shaka Marvel Comics Plot Red Sonja Issue One. Red Sonya and the Unicorn. This story largely defined Red Sonja's personality and "inner nature". Plot: The Invaders Involving the revival of the Golem to defeat the Axis. Plot: Conan the Barbarian The Devourer of the Dead Story about origin of Egyptian pyramids. Editor: Superman the Movie Magazine, DC Comics Summer was instrumental in beginning the process that resulted in Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster receiving lifetime financial benefits from their creation of Superman.
Magazines
Founding editor and co-publisher: The Dinosaur Times Contributing writer: Written By, Time Magazine, The New York Times, Circus, Films in Review, The Perfect Vision, The Absolute Sound, Home Theater Magazine, Skeptical Inquirer, Skeptical Briefs, The Monster Times.
In 2005, Edward Summer founded The Digital Nitrate Prize in order to encourage the research necessary to properly transfer and preserve the world's motion picture heritage using the developing digital media. Based upon the X Prize, the Digital Nitrate Prize will offer a cash prize for the first individual, group or corporation which is able to exactly duplicate the look of nitrate film stock using digital transfer and digital projection.
Edward Summer was a certified instructor of Constructive Living. He studied with David K. Reynolds in Los Angeles, New York, West Virginia and Tennessee.
Summer's contributions to Star Wars and friendship with George Lucas was profiled extensively in 2013 through interviews with Jonathan Rinzler in issues 139, 140, 141 of the magazine Star Wars Insider.
