Early life and career

Haney grew up in Philadelphia, where he read popular newspaper comic strips like Prince Valiant and Flash Gordon, and was a regular listener of radio dramas. Earning his master's degree from Columbia University, he embarked on a writing career, publishing a number of novels under a variety of assumed names.

In 1948, Haney broke into the comic book industry. From 1948 to 1955 Haney wrote crime and war comics for a number of publishers, including Fawcett, Standard, Hillman, Harvey, and St. John.

DC Comics

In large part due to the Fredric Wertham scare and the U.S Senate Subcommittee hearings on juvenile delinquency, most of Haney's publishers went out of business during the period, but around 1956 he connected with DC Comics. Thus began a long association with DC, which lasted almost thirty years, with Haney scripting just about every sort of comic DC published.

Besides the Teen Titans, other DC titles Haney worked on include Sgt. Rock, World's Finest Comics (where he created the Super-Sons), The Brave and the Bold, Blackhawk, The Unknown Soldier and Deadman. With artists Joe Orlando and Jack Sparling, Haney co-created Cain and his gargoyle Gregory for House of Mystery, characters further popularized by their appearances in Neil Gaiman's The Sandman.

Haney frequently claimed to have co-created the Doom Patrol with Arnold Drake and worked with him on the first few issues, but Drake insisted that he merely called in Haney for help in meeting the deadline for the very first story.

Haney's stories in the 1960s and 70s, especially with the Teen Titans and the Super-Sons, often dealt with youth culture and current issues, but by the late 1970s and early 80s, Haney struggled to produce material that DC's editors considered timely or contemporary. This led to occasional clashes with the DC editorial staff and ultimately to Haney's departure from the company (and comics in general).

His masterpiece in comics writing is the four page "Dirty Job," illustrated by Alex Toth, for Our Army at War #241 in 1972, and subsequently reprinted numerous times, notably in The Best of DC treasury edition.

Animation

In the 1960s Haney contributed scripts to the The New Adventures of Superman and The Superman/Aquaman Hour of Adventure cartoon shows; and in the 1980s, after leaving DC, wrote for several Rankin/Bass animated shows, including ThunderCats, Silverhawks and Karate Kat.

Later life

When comics and animation work petered out in the late 1980s, Haney turned to other forms of writing, including a book on carpentry. His last few years were spent in San Felipe in Baja, Mexico.

Haney's industry recognitions included the 1968 Alley Award for Best Full-Length Story ("Track of the Hook" in Brave and the Bold #79, drawn by Neal Adams); and a 1997 Inkpot Award from Comic-Con International.