[3][4] Friedrich used the $10-per-page payment to visit New York City the following month, after his high school graduation, and took a DC Comics tour in order to meet Schwartz in person.

[3] Friedrich quickly began writing stories for a number of DC publications, including Challengers of the Unknown, Detective Comics, The Flash and Teen Titans.

[5] Friedrich's first extended run on a title was on the superhero-team series Justice League of America from #86–99 (Dec. 1970 – June 1972); in the story "The Most Dangerous Dreams of All" in issue #89 (May 1971), he himself makes a cameo appearance and breaks the fourth wall at a time when such experimentation in the mainstream was rare.

Friedrich's most notable contribution may be his 1970s anthology series Star*Reach, a forerunner of the independently produced comics that proliferated, beginning in the 1980s, with the rise of the "direct market" of comic-book stores.

Eighteen issues were released between 1974 and 1979, with Friedrich's same-name publishing company expanding to other series, including Quack; Imagine; and Lee Marrs' Pudge, Girl Blimp, along with a number of one-shot comics, before closing down.

... Michael T. Gilbert, John Workman, Lee Marrs, Robert Gould, Dave Sim, Ken Steacy, Dean Motter, Gene Day and Paul Kirchner got their first major exposure here.

[16] Friedrich, in partnership with Joe Field, owned and operated the San Francisco Bay Area comic book convention WonderCon for 15 years before selling it to Comic-Con International in 2001.