SKATING ON THIN ICE!

THERE'S A WRITER BEHIND EVERY GREAT COMIC BOOK. And behind more comic books in the whole action-packed universe there's Paul S. Newman '45, the 1998 Guinness Book of World Records' newly proclaimed King of the Comic Book Writers. What did it take to earn the comic crown? A kingly 4,121 scripts. His 36,500 pages yes, someone actually counted them outstripped the competton by some 2,000 pages.

In a 50-year career Newman has penned stories for 360 comics. Name it, he's written it: Buck Rogers, Superman, The Lone Ranger, Trazan Fat Albert, Archie, FlashGordon, I Love Lucy, Girl from U.N.C.L.E., The Jetsons, Gunsmoke, Huckleberry Hound,Little Rascals, Mighty Mouse, Nancy, Prince Valiant, Ripley's Believe It or Not, RoyRogers, Sherlock Holmes, Tom and Jerry, Tweety and Sylvester, Twilight Zone, Underdog, Yogi Bear, Yosemite Sam, Zorro. To name just a few. There's a reason you never heard of this Paul Newman, though. Only 20 percent of his comic stories bear his byline.

Skating on Thin Ice, comic story number 4,122, may be Newman's last. "Comic books have retired from me," he claims. Not that he is finished writing. The author of four plays, 50 industrial films, 16 children's books, and dozens of magazine articles is currently at work on a nonfiction book about the Holocaust. And, for comic relief, he's writing a humorous novel about a passion of his that's tied to the quill rather than the pen: bird watching.

Newman