Arnold Drake was an American comic book writer, primarily remembered for the characters he created during the 1960s. Drake worked as a staff writer of DC Comics since the mid-1950s, though he never had a long-term assignment to any series at the time. In 1962, Drake noticed that Marvel Comics was experimenting with creating superheroes with more character depth than usual. He wanted to try his hand on the concept, so he started work on developing a tram of heroic misfits and social outcasts. The result was the original version of Doom Patrol, with Bob Haney as Drake's initial co-writer and, Bruno Premiani as the character designer. Drake wrote or co-wrote nearly every Doom Patrol story between 1963 and 1968, co-creating the team's main enemies in the Brotherhood of Evil. and the supporting character Beast Boy.
Drake's other major creations included the undead superhero Deadman/Boston Brand for DC, and the original version of the Guardians of the Galaxy for Marvel. Drake served as the main writer for Marvel's X-Men from 1968 until 1969. His main legacy to that series was creating the new team members Havok/Alexander Summers (the younger brother of Cyclops) and Polaris/Lorna Dane (the green-haired daughter of Magneto), and the hypnotist super-villain Mesmero/Vincent. Otherwise, Drake wrote a few stories about the alien superhero Captain Marvel/Mar-Vell and the jungle-lord Ka-Zar/Kevin Plunder.
Drake had left DC by the end of the 1960s due to his arguments with the publisher Irwin Donenfeld over the compensation of the company's creative writers. Drake was reportedly one of the loudest voices in a writers' revolt with demands for health insurance, reprint fees, and better pay. He quit working for Marvel by mid-1969, possibly for similar reasons. He spend the early 1970s as a regular writer for Gold Key Comics. He primarily worked on comic book adaptations of television-series, such as "Dark Shadows", "Star Trek", and "Twilight Zone". Starting in 1976, he had a lengthy run as the main writer of "Little Lulu".
From the late 1970s onward, Drake was a freelance writer for various mediums. He created new comic book stories infrequently, but he was reportedly working on a new Doom Patrol graphic novel at the time of his death. In February 2007, he appeared as a guest in the New York Comic Book Convention but he fell ill during his public appearances. He had to be hospitalized, and he died within days due to pneumonia. In 2008, he was posthumously inducted into the Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame.
