Eugene Joseph Pelc
Gene Pelc (Eugene Joseph Pelc) was born on April 16th, 1944 in the U.S. Gene Pelc is the son of Polish immigrants, Joseph and Veronica Pelc.
Early life and education[edit]
Gene spent most of his youth in upstate New York, in a town called Roscoe. There, his family ran the Red Rose Motel and Restaurant. Although the ownership has changed, it still exists to this day.
Gene received a scholarship to both Juilliard (he played classical piano) and Fordham University. He chose the latter and attended the Bronx campus for four years.
Family[edit]
After graduation, his first job was a disk jockey at WALL Radio in Middletown, New York. During this period he married Mary Angela Eastlake, a Eurasian girl, whose parents resided in Japan, where the Eastlakes had made major contributions to its modernization. William Clarke Eastlake, son of an English nobleman, who became an American citizen, was a pioneer in Western dentistry in Japan. There is a monument in Yokohama where he began his practice. William’s son, Frank, was a philologist, scholar, editor of possibly the first English-Japanese dictionary (1888) as well as newspapers, teacher of English, and author of about 100 books. He also was a translator for Emperor Meiji. His son, Pascal, and grandson, Ernest (Mary’s father) taught English at Keio, a prestigious private school.
Marvel[edit]
Gene quit his job at WALL and went to Stan Lee at Marvel comics, asking him to hire him to bring Marvel to Japan. Stan Lee got Jim Galton, then president of Marvel Comics to give Pelc the chance to see if he could succeed. Gene got some material published and then tied up with Toei to get live action TV shows made. His first project with Toei was putting together the Japanese version of Spiderman which aired in 1978,[1] followed by other live action programs. A major part of his work was having many animated cartoons (as diverse as Pink Panther, Transformers, and G.I. Joe) produced in Japan.
Sentai Series & Power Rangers[edit]
He was very enthusiastic and involved with the work, and his son was fascinated with Toei characters and robots, both of which lead to the inspiration to use the footage of masked heroes in the U.S. market. By doing this, cost would be cut by replacing only a fraction of the show, just where the faces of the Japanese actors appeared. He presented this novel idea to Stan Lee and the others at Marvel.[1] His concept to create a new show incorporating existing footage from Toei’s programs eventually ended up as “The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers” for FOX.eH
He worked with other companies as well as Toei. One notable project was “The Adventures of T-Rex” with Kitty. He worked on all 52 episodes.
Marvel Religious Comics[edit]
Although Gene was “Marvel’s Man in Japan”[1], his accomplishments extended beyond its borders. When Fr. Campion Lally, O.F.M., a Franciscan priest, suggested doing a comic book on St. Francis of Assisi, Gene sold Marvel New York on the idea and started work on the project. The result was “Francis, Brother of the Universe”, a comic which became the company’s best seller (better than Spiderman and all other Marvel titles). He then was instrumental in creating “The Life of Pope John Paul II” comic, quite a feat as Poland was still under Communist rule making it difficult to communicate with and get material from the Pope’s official biographer Fr. Malinski.
Ameriasian Comics[edit]
Early in his Marvel career in Japan, he wanted to make a co-production, a comic that would appeal to both East and West. One of the first problems he faced in Japan as a publisher was that American and Japanese comics were very different. English is read from left to right, Japanese is read from right to left. The words in English are sideways, while Japanese words can be vertical. American comics are in four color, Japanese comics are mainly in black and white typically with the exception of the first few pages. Gene felt that an American comic is meant to be read, a Japanese comic is meant to be looked at. Japanese comics are more like an American storyboard, therefore, Gene felt, reading an American comic for a Japanese person was a chore, rather than a pleasure.[1]
One of his early ideas was to create an Amerasian comic. In the early 80’s he had tried an American/Asian comic book that when you flipped left to right it would be a Japanese comic, but if you flipped right to left it would be an American comic. The title of this series was “Popcorn”.
In the early 90’s he came up with a comic book concept called “PSYCHO-NAUTS”. Marvel’s Alan Grant and Tony Luke wrote the story and Motofumi Kobayashi illustrated it.
It was written by Marvel’s New York office and writers for the Epic line. However, the story they wrote was laid out and drawn by Japanese artists. The comic was published simultaneously in the U.S. and Japan. The American version was in color with English style word balloons, while the Japanese version was in black and white with Japanese shaped word balloons. He had felt the best way for that to work was to have a western writer and a Japanese artist.
Music merchandising[edit]
While doing the animation for Marvel, he broke the barriers for venue merchandising in Japan for foreign music acts. Before this time, this lucrative business was conducted only by the Japanese promoters. He began handling venue merchandising in Japan for music acts. His first big break in this business was with Duran Duran at venues such as the Budokan and Korakuen Stadium (before the Tokyo Dome was built). Later in the late 90’s he would make a media company which handles hundreds of acts annually including artists like Lady Gaga, Bon Jovi, Sting, Madonna, Aerosmith , David Bowie, Back Street Boys, Santana, Celine Dion, Alanis Morissette, Elton John, Metallica, Oasis, Mariah Carey, Janet Jackson, U2, Billy Joel, RHCP, Avril Lavigne, Christina Aguilera, Whitney Houston, Radiohead, Live Earth, Paul McCartney, Fuji Rock & Summer Sonic Festivals.
Contact Sports: UWFi / Shootwrestling / Bushido[edit]
Another area he went into was the world of contact sports. In 1991 he tied up with a Pro-Wrestling organization called U.W.F. International. He produced a T.V. series called “Bushido-The Way of the Warrior” which was syndicated worldwide. He also produced a series of Pay-Per-View specials (Shoot Wrestling) for the American market for which he did the color commentary on some, working with announcers like Bob Papa, Sam Rosen, and 1984 Olympic Wrestling Gold Medalist Jeff Blatnick, who would later go on to become the commentator for the UFC and then their commissioner.
Kick boxing was also featured on the U.W.F. International cards and in the T.V. programs. The UWF International was the only wrestling organization to hold two major world titles (I.S.K.A.) Gene was responsible for making this possible in addition to some of the “mixed martial arts” or “mixed matches” at the time. These in addition to the Shooting/Shooto organization which began in the mid-80’s and a handful of others would be the precursor of the UFC and modern day MMA. After the U.W.F. International closed it’s doors, several wrestlers who began their professional career in the group would be successful in MMA as well as the world of professional wrestling. Amongst some of the noteworthy wrestlers to come out of this company are Yoshihiro Takayama and Kazushi Sakuraba. Kiyoshi Tamura and Masahito Kakihara, who started their career in the 2nd incarnation of the U.W.F. were also on the U.W.F. International roster.
References[edit]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 "Marvel's 616 (2020) | Documentary Series | Synopsis, Trailer, Clips & Latest News | Marvel | Marvel". Marvel Entertainment.
- HENSHIN TIME (UNSUNG) HEROES - Marvel's Gene Pelc. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - Saintly Superheroes (Podcast). 68. CNA Newsroom. 8:23 minutes in – via Soundcloud. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - Francisco, Eric. "Stan Lee: How Marvel Almost Created the 'Power Rangers'". Inverse. Retrieved 2020-07-09.
- Agency, Catholic News. "Saintly superhero: When Marvel Comics told the life story of John Paul II". Catholic Telegraph. Retrieved 2020-07-09.
- McEniry, Matthew J.; Peaslee, Robert Moses; Weiner, Robert G. (2016-04-05). Marvel Comics into Film: Essays on Adaptations Since the 1940s. McFarland. p. 92. ISBN 978-1-4766-2411-2. Search this book on
External links[edit]
- "Gene Pelc". IMDb. Retrieved 2020-07-09.
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