Dennis Mallonee
Writer/Publisher, Hero Comics
Working on: Southern Knights/League of Champions/Flare crossover ("Morrigan Wars")
Mallonee discusses the eight-chapter "Morrigan Wars" crossover between Hero Comics' League of Champions/Flare and CI Group's Southern Knights, scripted entirely by Mallonee with plotting input from Henry Vogel, featuring art by Mark Propst across most chapters and a George Pérez opening. He also addresses the challenges independent publishers face with retailers who reflexively prioritize Marvel and DC product.
Will Meugniot
Supervising Producer / Comics Artist, GRAZ Entertainment
Working on: X-Men animated TV series (Fox); *Exotic Fantasy* mini-series (Fantagraphics)
Meugniot, veteran of DNAgents and the original X-Men pilot, describes his role as supervising producer at GRAZ Entertainment on the new Fox X-Men animated series, focusing on comics continuity, script editing, and handling the politics of a complex licensed property. He discusses the core cast of eight X-Men, the Korean animation studio Akom doing production, and his parallel work on the Fantagraphics sketchbook mini-series Exotic Fantasy.
Larry Houston
Line Producer / Storyboard Artist, GRAZ Entertainment
Working on: X-Men animated TV series (Fox)
Houston, a long-time animation professional with credits ranging from Filmation to Marvel Productions, explains his duties as line producer on the X-Men series, including managing storyboards, maintaining close contact with Marvel editor Bob Harras for continuity, and supervising Canadian voice recording.
Bruce Smith
Director / Animator, Hyperion / Paramount
Working on: *Bebe's Kids* animated feature film
Smith describes the origins of Bebe's Kids, adapted from the late comedian Robin Harris's stand-up routine, and how the project evolved from a TV pilot concept to a theatrical Paramount release. He discusses the challenge of designing African-American characters without stereotyping, the visual design philosophy drawing on the Harlem Renaissance color palette, and the film's aim to balance entertainment for children and adults.
Ramona Fradon
Cartoonist, Freelance (Tribune Media Services)
Working on: *Brenda Starr* newspaper strip
Fradon recounts her long DC career (Aquaman, Plastic Man, Metamorpho, Super Friends) before being selected in 1980 as the artistic successor to Dale Messick on Brenda Starr, explaining how she gradually moved the strip toward a cleaner romance-strip aesthetic suited to scripter Mary Schmich's more serious stories. She reflects on the declining market for story strips and discusses Brenda's evolution into a cooler, less vulnerable 1990s character.
Reader mail responding primarily to issue #107 (Dave Sim interview and letter-hack panel); includes a notable correction from Don Markstein disputing the claim that Bebe's Kids is the first animated feature with exclusively African-American principals, citing Ralph Bakshi's Coonskin (1975) as a predecessor.