Bill Mumy
Writer, Marvel
Working on: Comet Man (with Miguel Ferrer)
Miguel Ferrer
Writer, Marvel
Working on: Comet Man (with Bill Mumy)
Hollywood veterans Bill Mumy (Lost in Space child star and musician) and Miguel Ferrer (actor and drummer) discuss their lifelong passion for comics and their six-issue limited series Comet Man for Marvel, a psychological science-fiction family drama with guest appearances by the Fantastic Four and the Hulk. They recount how Jim Shooter approached them at San Diego after learning they had written a Twilight Zone script, and how Marvel's mini-series freeze and the Challenger disaster delayed the book from March to October. The interview also covers a historic dinner party at Mumy's home bringing together Jack Kirby, Jerry Siegel, and Bob Kane for the first time in over thirty years, alongside Mark Hamill and the Ferrers.
Floyd Norman
Cartoonist/Animator, Walt Disney Studios / Hanna-Barbera
Working on: Disney comic strips for domestic and overseas markets
Norman discusses his career as an animator and comic-strip artist at Walt Disney Studios, where he has been producing Donald Duck and Goofy gags and comic stories primarily for the overseas market since late 1983, with Gladstone Comics set to reprint that material in the U.S. He traces his credits through Disney features from Sleeping Beauty to The Jungle Book, his stints at Hanna-Barbera on shows including Godzilla, The Flintstones revival, and The Smurfs, and his early start as Bill Woggon's assistant on Katy Keene. He notes that Europe takes comics far more seriously as an art form than the American market currently does.
Stan Sakai
Writer/Artist/Letterer, Fantagraphics / Epic / King Features
Working on: Usagi Yojimbo, Groo the Wanderer (lettering), Spider-Man newspaper strip (lettering)
Sakai describes how Usagi Yojimbo evolved from human characters into funny animals, explaining that the rabbit design simply felt right and gave the character more personality. He details his dual career as letterer (Groo the Wanderer, the Spider-Man newspaper strip) and as creator of Usagi, whose solo Fantagraphics series is set in feudal Japan and is heavily researched thanks to encouragement from Sergio Aragones. He also discusses the upcoming Usagi Yojimbo Book One trade paperback and a crossover story pairing Usagi with Leonardo of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for the forthcoming Turtle Soup anthology.
Ken Selig
Managing Editor, Harvey Publications
Working on: Harvey Comics revival
The long-tenured managing editor of Harvey Publications explains how he single-handedly kept the company from being sold to Marvel (or five other bidders) after publication ceased in 1982, convincing the Harvey family to hold on and reorganize under three of the founders' sons. He reflects on the "Harvey style" — pleasant characters rooted in the Paramount cartoon tradition, Warren Kremer's defining artistic influence — and praises Keith Giffen as a rare true cartoonist while dismissing the dominant Marvel/DC house style as culturally impoverished.
DAK reports on the summer convention season, praising reader and retailer enthusiasm for the Comics Interview line of publications following his Guest of Honor appearance at SpartaCon in South Carolina.
A photo feature and short narrative account of a dinner party at Bill and Eileen Mumy's home at which Jack Kirby, Jerry Siegel, and Bob Kane gathered together for the first time in more than thirty years, alongside Mark Hamill and others; includes anecdotes about Lois Lane being modeled on Joanne Siegel and Roz Kirby inking early Challengers of the Unknown pages.
Includes a critique of the brevity of the Jack Kirby interview in issue #41 (DAK notes Kirby asked the interviewer not to revisit the Marvel art controversy), and a letter from J.M. DeMatteis updating readers that his Twilight Zone script was ultimately filmed despite CBS cancelling the series before the episode aired.