Comics Interview — Issue #080

Hannigan discusses drawing the premiere arc of Legends of the Dark Knight, DC's landmark new Batman series set just after Batman: Year One, which sold close to a million copies on its first issue. He reflects on the full-script method vs. the Marvel style, the commercial controversy of the four-cover variant collectible gimmick, his philosophical disagreements with scripter Denny O'Neil, and his admiration for Batman: Year One as the gold standard of superhero storytelling. He also addresses the dangers of shared-universe crossover bloat and the collector-market bubble, and discusses plans for a future personal creator-owned project.

Celardo recounts a 50-year career that began in the Eisner-Iger shop in 1938–39 and ran through Fiction House, the Tarzan Sunday and daily strip (1953–67), The Green Berets, and freelance comic-book work for DC. He explains his dual role at King Features Syndicate as associate comics editor and as the final artist/writer on Buz Sawyer, which he agreed to take over from Hank Schlensker until the strip's scheduled cancellation in October 1990.

Sutton traces his eclectic career from a comic strip in the Pacific Stars and Stripes during the Korean War through commercial art, animation, Charlton horror titles, Marvel's black-and-white magazines, DC anthology horror (*I, Vampire*), Star Trek, and Grimjack for First Comics. He discusses his current work on the Squalor mini-series for First Comics, his preference for stylistic experimentation over formula superhero work, and his artistic influences (Wally Wood, Milton Caniff, Moebius, Barry Windsor-Smith).

Vogel argues that the U.S. government's war on drugs is an expensive failure, drawing an extended analogy to a boy plugging a dike, and calls for drug legalization on the grounds that prohibition primarily benefits criminals.