Comics Interview — Issue #052

Miller discusses the comics censorship controversy in detail, recounting how DC's proposed ratings system came about after pressure from religious groups, and how he organized a petition signed by Alan Moore, Howard Chaykin, and Marv Wolfman, which he says led directly to DC firing Wolfman as an editor. He argues that the direct sales market offers genuine creative freedom and that any ratings system would damage the artform by introducing invisible bureaucratic censorship. He also previews upcoming projects: a new series with Dave Gibbons, an Elektra graphic novel, and covers for Lone Wolf and Cub with Lynn Varley coloring.

In their first-ever interview for an American comics magazine, Koike and Kojima discuss Lone Wolf and Cub's staggering sales in Japan (roughly 252 million copies over the original serialization run), the role of their generation in elevating manga to mainstream cultural status, and their views on censorship, color, and comics education. Koike holds a 4th-degree Kendo rank and draws on Bushido tradition in his writing; Kojima describes his cinematic influences, his pre-manga career as a kami-shibai street performer, and his belief that art cannot truly be taught. The two candidly reveal that Kojima initially hated Koike's wordy scripts and began inserting comic relief involving the child Daigoro to release narrative tension.

Oliver recounts how Global Communications approached First at the 1985 ABA convention and how Frank Miller's name became the key marketing hook for Lone Wolf and Cub's American debut. He explains the production decisions — perfect-bound format, $1.95 price point, no colorization, 64-page episodes — and reports the series is selling over 100,000 copies per issue with multiple reprints, making it First's best-selling title.

Schubert describes the challenges of lettering Lone Wolf and Cub, particularly adapting Japanese sound effects that describe non-audible phenomena (bowing, thinking, fear) into English equivalents that integrate visually with Goseki Kojima's artwork. He explains his technical workflow using overlays on reduced artwork and notes that the book demands more creative effort on sound effects than any other title he letters.

Guinan details the intricate production work of adapting Lone Wolf and Cub for American readers: rearranging panels for left-to-right reading, whiting out Japanese sound effects and retouching the art seamlessly, and occasionally reconstructing entire background elements when dialogue is removed. He compares his role to art restoration, emphasizing faithfulness to Kojima's original style.

Wald, a self-taught Japanese reader, explains his adaptation process for Lone Wolf and Cub's dialogue: working from Global Communications' rough English translations against the original Japanese text, consulting multiple dictionaries and kanji references to capture nuance the literal translation loses. He discusses the complexity of Japanese sound effects and why he believes the books could eventually be published in original right-to-left format for American readers.

Goldzung, a former Florida comics retailer, describes his role as First Comics' liaison to retailers, including the First Comics Retailer Rebate Incentive Program tied to five key titles. He discusses his view that surviving retailers will need to diversify into gifts, games, and videotapes, and expresses concern about too many new shops opening in already-saturated markets.

Obadiah tells the full story of acquiring Lone Wolf and Cub at the 1985 ABA convention with an unconventional pitch (no money offer; just confidence), the marathon Chicago contract meeting, and his subsequent trip to Japan where he ate live octopus as an act of business hospitality. He reveals that the book's actual Japanese circulation far exceeded First's advertised figure of 6 million — the original weekly serialization totaled 252 million copies — and teases an upcoming full-color Japanese graphic novel from a world-famous Japanese creator targeting a summer 1988 release.

Boatz frames the issue around two major 1987 cross-cultural comics events: Marvel's Moebius graphic novels and First Comics' Lone Wolf and Cub, calling both watershed moments for American exposure to foreign comics excellence.

A standalone feature-length interview in which Miller lays out the full timeline of the DC ratings system controversy and advocates for an anti-censorship information booklet he is assembling from editorials by Mark Evanier, Alan Moore, Chris Claremont, and Steve Bissette.

Includes DAK's pointed response to a retailer who objected to the nude Frazetta cover on issue #42 (noting the issue sold out the same day), a letter from a 13-year-old reader defending comics against censorship, and a thank-you letter from a relative of Marvel founder Martin Goodman.