Comics Interview — Issue #005

Group interview with the young founders and creators of Comico, a new independent publisher based in Norristown, Pennsylvania, putting out five titles: AZ, Skrog, Slaughterman, Grendel, and Primer. They describe how they started the company straight out of college with creative rights as its foundation, working eighteen-hour days in a suburban studio. Each creator discusses the deeply personal nature of their characters — Lasorda designed AZ after his father, Giovinco's Slaughterman is "the first transvestite superhero," and they speak effusively about Matt Wagner's Grendel, predicting he will be "the next Frank Miller." They discuss their upcoming transition from black-and-white to four-color printing, their emphasis on advertising, and their philosophy of being artists first and businessmen second.

Extensive interview covering the creative philosophy, working process, and cultural impact of Elfquest. They discuss the series' roughly equal male/female readership — unusual for comics — and their collaborative method, with Wendy as the driving creative force and Richard as editor and business manager. They delve into the anthropological design of the various elf tribes, the deliberate ambiguity of their villains (Winnowill's evil is "deplorable in execution but debatable in motive"), and how Blue Mountain expanded from one issue to a multi-issue arc, forcing them to extend the series to twenty issues. They also address the darker side of fan devotion, including a deeply disturbing suicide note from a girl who "wanted to set her soul free so she could be an elf," which led them to personally track down and check on troubled fans who write in.

Part two of a two-part interview with DC's Vice President and Managing Editor, focusing on his philosophy of inking and the state of DC's creative pipeline. Giordano argues that inking is primarily intellectual — "the work is done in your head before you sit down to a drawing board" — and that a good inker's contribution should be invisible to everyone except the penciler. Discusses training many of the industry's top inkers (Terry Austin, Bob Layton, Klaus Janson, Joe Rubinstein) through his assistant program, and his new talent development workshop at DC led by Sal Amendola. Reveals DC plans to revitalize their five core heroes (Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Flash) in 1984, admits to a severe graphic novel bottleneck because top creators are overcommitted, and laments that the direct-sales fan market doesn't embrace illustrative styles like Stan Drake's, making it hard to diversify beyond superheroes.

Interview with the prolific letterer and children's book illustrator, who has just signed an exclusive three-year lettering contract with DC. Discusses his regular assignments on Amethyst, Legion of Super-Heroes, Ronin, The Omega Men, and Swamp Thing, as well as his parallel career writing and drawing Tweety and Sylvester, Bugs Bunny, and Yosemite Sam for Western, plus children's books and Heathcliff storybooks for Marvel Books. Shares the amusing story of DC using his photograph for the "Mark, on the Man's Side" romance-column feature — and Marvel later reusing the same photo with drawn-on sideburns. Says he could "never do a superhero if I traced one" and traces his love of drawing to his grandfather's barber shop, where his childhood art was hung above the cash register.

Two interviews combined: a long-distance conversation with DAK and Salicrup, plus a follow-up by Dan Hagen. Lee discusses his transition from comics writer to head of Marvel Productions in Hollywood, describing himself as "more of a salesman out here" and detailing the difficulty of getting movies made — projects for the Human Torch (with Irwin Allen), Spider-Man (with Roger Corman), Fantastic Four, Thor, Power Man, and Howard the Duck are all in various stages of development. He candidly addresses Jack Kirby's claims of creating Spider-Man, insisting Kirby "has taken leave of his senses" and recounting his version of events. In the Hagen interview, Lee reflects on the Marvel method of plotting, the constraints of the Spider-Man newspaper strip versus comic books, his disgust with the live-action Captain America and Spider-Man TV shows ("they were just the pits"), and his conviction that the Superman movie was ironically "done Marvel-style." Also discusses his friendship with Alain Resnais, his near-collaboration with Paul McCartney, and Mario Puzo's failed attempt to write a comic book.

Brief column promoting the upcoming third issue of Mark Gruenwald's Omniverse fanzine, noting its full-color wraparound cover by Ed Hannigan and John Beatty, and previewing next issue's look at Don McGregor's James Bond 007 book.