Comics Interview — Issue #142

Main Topics: The Crow, Duckman, Image Comics, Beanworld, Marvels

Contents
  1. Bess Cutler
  2. Stefan Petrucha
  3. Kurt Busiek
  4. Larry Marder
  5. "Up Front: DAK Burns Rubber on the 'Information Superhighway'" (David Anthony Kraft)
  6. "The Last Word" (Letters)
interview Bess Cutler
Interviewed by Mark Lucas
Bess Cutler Gallery Owner, Bess Cutler Gallery (SoHo, NY) Working on: Exhibiting James O'Barr's Crow artwork
Cutler discusses her SoHo gallery's pivot to pop and comics art, catalyzed by Robert Williams shows in 1992 and subsequent exhibitions of Clive Barker and James O'Barr. She recounts how The Crow movie launch coincided with an O'Barr gallery show, how the book outsold Spawn three-to-one in Italy, and previews O'Barr's next graphic novel Gothik, forthcoming from Dark Horse.
interview Stefan Petrucha
Interviewed by Mark Lucas
Stefan Petrucha Writer, Freelance (Topps) Working on: Duckman, The X-Files (Topps)
Petrucha describes how Jim Salicrup recruited him for Topps' Duckman comic just as he'd resolved to quit comics, and how he pitched satirical springboards that won approval from creator Everett Peck and the Klasky-Csupo TV team. He discusses the show's sophistication, the Underground-comics aesthetic of artist Craig Yoe, and reflects on earlier series META-4 and Squalor for First Comics and his work on Topps' X-Files.
interview Kurt Busiek
Interviewed by Lou Mougin
Kurt Busiek Writer, Freelance Working on: Shadowhawk: Images of Tomorrow, The Regulators, Youngblood: Year One, Velocity, Spartan (Image)
Busiek explains that Image offered him the most creatively interesting post-*Marvels* opportunities, leading to a slate of projects including Shadowhawk: Images of Tomorrow, The Regulators (a villain-centric mini-series with Kerry Gammill), Youngblood: Year One (a Washington political thriller), and solo mini-series for Spartan and Velocity. He traces his career from fanzines and a high-school collaboration with Scott McCloud through assistant editing Marvel Age and later stints on Power Man and Iron Fist.
interview Larry Marder
Interviewed by Lou Mougin
Larry Marder Executive / Artist, Image Comics Working on: Beanworld; Executive Director at Image Comics
Marder elaborates on *Beanworld*'s tribal character dynamics — Mr. Spook as hunter-chief, Professor Garbanzo as tool-making thinker, Beanish as artist-entertainer, and Heyoka as sacred contrary figure drawn from Lakota Sioux tradition — and discusses Image's internal structure (more like an advertising agency than a publisher) and the ongoing market-share battle with Marvel.
article "Up Front: DAK Burns Rubber on the 'Information Superhighway'" (David Anthony Kraft)
DAK recounts how a cascade of last-minute production emergencies forced this issue to be assembled via CompuServe and e-mail, with interviews conducted online between California and New York, typeset in Arizona, proofed via fax in Georgia — making it *Comics Interview*'s first internet-assisted issue.
article "The Last Word" (Letters)
Dave Prowse (Darth Vader actor) writes in about his CI #138 interview, corrects two transcription errors, and previews a busy 1995 including a sci-fi Hollywood film and filming with Arthur C. Clarke in Sri Lanka. ---