Comics Interview — Issue #101

Grant discusses the long, convoluted history of the Batman/Judge Dredd team-up Judgment on Gotham, explaining how earlier attempts fell through before he and John Wagner finally took it on. He describes their decision to play the story for dark humor rather than grim seriousness, casting Judge Death and Mean Machine Angel as the villains alongside Scarecrow, and structuring the story so that Batman and Dredd remain adversaries rather than allies throughout. Grant also discusses his extensive current workload across DC and British comics, and upcoming creator-owned proposals including Necronomicon and The Hanged Man for Touchmark/Disney.

Bisley reflects on his fascination with death as a theme and how it informed his approach to Judge Death in Judgment on Gotham, acknowledging the book is ultimately a fun, black-humored action story. He discusses his contrasting views of Batman (a medieval-knight idealist) and Judge Dredd (a realistically plausible fascist figure), and mentions upcoming projects including a Batman graphic novel with Neil Gaiman and a Superman story with Dave Gibbons.

David describes his eight-part Wolverine story in Marvel Comics Presents (following Barry Windsor-Smith's "Weapon X"), which centers on Wolverine's psychological block against an opponent named Cyber. Originally intended for Todd McFarlane and rewritten for Sam Kieth's moody, horrific style, David wrote the story at 3 a.m. to achieve a stream-of-consciousness, *Twin Peaks*-influenced surrealism. He also discusses the differences between his and Claremont's interpretations of Wolverine and argues in favor of keeping Wolverine's past deliberately mysterious.

Semeiks discusses his tenure on The Demon, praising writer Alan Grant's blend of action, humor, and horror in the Kirby tradition, and advocates strongly for critics and fans to evaluate comics as a combined visual-verbal medium like film. He discusses his artistic influences (Jack Kirby, Looney Tunes, Hal Foster), upcoming story arcs involving the Beyond Region and a Wonder Woman crossover, and the value of guest stars like Batman and Lobo in energizing the book.

A wide-ranging career retrospective covering Anderson's entry into comics at Fiction House in 1944, his Navy WWII service, his work on Buck Rogers, his long DC tenure illustrating science fiction and superhero features (*Hawkman*, The Spectre, Adam Strange), his close working relationship with editor Julius Schwartz, his years inking Curt Swan on Superman, and his current company Visual Concepts which handles color separations primarily for DC.

Smyth analyzes Marvel's recent stock offering and argues it signals a long-term corporate strategy to wrest distribution control away from specialty retailers, potentially through direct-to-consumer fan club subscriptions and expansion into alternative retail venues. He warns specialty shop owners to take the threat seriously.