Comics Interview — Issue #050

This novel-length, issue-spanning interview covers Perez's entire career from fanzine work and his early Marvel years (Man-Wolf, Sons of the Tiger, Avengers, Fantastic Four) through his landmark DC work on New Teen Titans and Crisis on Infinite Earths, up to his then-current ongoing series Wonder Woman. Perez discusses his personal life candidly — his Puerto Rican heritage, his first marriage and divorce, his diabetes and dramatic weight loss, his community theater work — drawing direct connections between his personal experiences and his artistic output. He offers extensive behind-the-scenes detail on Crisis on Infinite Earths, including designing the Monitor, Anti-Monitor, Harbinger, Pariah, and Alexander Luthor, and the story reasons behind killing Barry Allen and making Wally West the new Flash. On Wonder Woman, he explains his feminist-humanist approach to the character, the importance of Greek mythology research, the departure of co-writer Greg Potter and arrival of Len Wein, and he also speaks at length about his views on industry censorship — opposing DC's new in-house guidelines introduced without creator consultation — and addresses Marv Wolfman's firing as editor over his public protest of those guidelines.

David Anthony Kraft reflects on the milestone of issue #50, recalling his early partnership with Perez on Man-Wolf at Marvel in 1974 and noting that 50 issues sets a record for comics-about-comics magazines; he frames the issue as the largest Comics Interview ever published at 148 pages.

Readers debate censorship in comics and the First Amendment at length; a letter from Carr d'Angelo (Managing Editor, Starlog / Co-Editor, Comics Scene) praises the magazine's anti-censorship editorial from issue #43 and critiques parental reliance on rating systems.