Comics Interview — Issue #021

Saenz discusses Shatter, the first comic book generated entirely on an Apple Macintosh, published by First Comics with writer Peter Gillis. He explains the technical process in detail — drawing with a mouse, using modified MacPaint software developed with help from the Macromind team in Chicago, and the advantages (speed, clean corrections, built-in lettering) and disadvantages (the "small window" view, the flatness of the image) of the medium. Saenz is evangelical about computers as the future of commercial art and hopes Shatter will bridge the comics and personal computer markets; he also discusses his commercial illustration work and aspirations toward more serious fine art.

Jones talks about landing the pencilling job on The Micronauts at Marvel after starting as an inker, his meticulous approach to alien character design, and his creative relationship with writer Peter Gillis. He reveals that Marvel is cancelling Micronauts as of issue #17 despite nearly tripling its readership, which he believes may relate to licensing complications; he is simultaneously saddened and energized by the news, planning an epic double-size finale with full-page spreads.

In his wide-ranging debut interview for the magazine, Hoberg covers his years working alongside Russ Manning on the Tarzan and Star Wars newspaper strips, his extensive animation career (storyboarding Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends, G.I. Joe, Thundarr, and others at Marvel Productions and Hanna-Barbera, including a stint directing in Korea), and his recent move to Batman at DC. He is blunt about declining art quality at Marvel, the economics of Saturday morning animation versus comics work, and his belief that storytelling fundamentals — learned from Manning, Roy Thomas, and Doug Wildey — matter more than artistic showiness.

King, a software engineer and aspiring comics artist based in Vermont, describes his Comic Art Creator — a low-cost ($39.95–$59.95) computer-aided design program for the Apple IIe that generates accurate perspective construction lines, anatomical models, and shadow calculations, allowing artists to double their pencilling output. Unlike Saenz's fully computer-generated art, King's tool is a production aid that leaves the actual drawing to the human artist. He predicts that publishers will begin licensing such systems to creators and that Marvel will soon market animated comics for the home video market.

Jorgensen, a self-taught freelance illustrator and Ringgenberg's close personal friend, holds forthright opinions on what is wrong with mainstream comics: formulaic storytelling, unrealistic depictions of violence, and thoughtless use of female characters. He traces his artistic influences from Neal Adams and Steranko through Barry Smith and the Pre-Raphaelites, critiques the fine-art academic world as full of failed artists, and describes Outrider, a fantasy/science-fiction/western strip he is developing with Ringgenberg that he plans to shop to publishers.

DAK's editorial describes his own conversion from typewriter loyalist to enthusiastic computer user, and frames the issue's computer theme: the technology is a tool, not a talent, and artists who fear it are experiencing a natural but ultimately surmountable fear of change.