Comics Interview — Issue #086

Byrne addresses the "Byrne-bashing" phenomenon and explains his departures from the two Avengers titles, arguing that editors have increasingly overstepped their role as collaborators. He recounts his firings and departures from She-Hulk, Superman, and Avengers/West Coast Avengers, laying blame on editorial interference, broken promises, and Tom DeFalco's policy of always siding with editors over creators. He discusses his plans to continue on Namor, write Iron Man, and pursue self-publishing to regain creative control.

Wagner discusses the origins and development of Hepcats, which he self-publishes, tracing the strip's roots through campus strips at the University of Texas. He explains his approach to self-publishing as giving him full creative control and a consistent schedule, comments critically on the work-for-hire debate in comics and the censorship panic in the industry, and distinguishes his situation from creators who sign away rights to major publishers.

Prentice discusses his experience writing Rip Kirby after original writer Fred Dickenson's stroke, describing storylines he developed including Alaska totem-pole and Mount Olympus adventures. He reflects on the challenges of newspaper strip production — shrinking print sizes, research burdens, King Features' content restrictions — and expresses a desire to do more illustration and eventually Western-themed paintings.

Pratt and Pertierra explain CompuServe's Comics Forum: Pratt as sysop describes how the forum operates (message boards, data libraries, real-time conference rooms), its half-million subscribers, and the roster of comics professionals who participate, including Chris Claremont, Walt and Louise Simonson, Peter Laird, and Mark Evanier. Pertierra describes his own path back into comics fandom and how he became an assistant sysop, and both discuss the community atmosphere and topics — censorship, art quality, Japanese animation — that drive discussion.

Boatz reflects on the dilemma of discovering a great under-selling comic like Hepcats and the lengths a dedicated fan might go to (buying unsold copies as guarantee to a retailer) to keep it alive.