Stefan Petrucha
Writer, Freelance (Topps)
Working on: The X-Files comic (Topps), upcoming X-Files digest and graphic novel
Petrucha explains how his longstanding interest in Forteana and UFO phenomena made him lobby hard to write the X-Files comic for Topps, and discusses the show's success as the product of unique, integrity-driven storytelling rather than formula replication. He reflects on the freedom the comics format gives him versus TV budget constraints and expresses hope that the series' success will allow him to revive Squalor and Meta-4.
Don McGregor
Writer / Director, Freelance (Topps / Malibu)
Working on: Zorro, Lady Rawhide (Topps); Detectives, Inc. video film
The final session of the career-spanning interview covers McGregor's experience writing and directing the Detectives, Inc. video film (a two-hour-ten-minute production dealing with domestic abuse), drawing detailed comparisons between comics scripting and filmmaking. He also discusses his later Warren work, his Eclipse prose books (*Dragonflame*, The Variable Syndrome), his Gene Colan stories from Nathaniel Dusk and Ragamuffins and Panther's Quest, and his ambitions for future projects including Sabre: The Decadence Indoctrination, a Predator series at Dark Horse, a Milestone story, and completing the final Killraven graphic novel with Craig Russell.
DAK recalls producing "The UFO Connection," a 1977 Marvel one-shot on alien phenomena, and shares his own unexplained childhood encounters — a "scissors creature" witnessed with his grandmother, a hovering blue globe, and a metal robot — as a way of explaining his genuine fascination with the paranormal that the X-Files taps into.
A brief profile of the British artist drawing The X-Files comic for Topps, covering his preference for black-and-white work, his pencil-and-ink speed (two complete books a month), and his collaboration with Keith Giffen on Supreme and Mars Attacks.
A comprehensive reference guide covering the full first and second seasons of The X-Files TV series, including episode synopses, guest casts, air dates, awards history, tie-in novels, and the full run of Topps comics issues and their plot summaries.
Don Markstein writes on Bill Lignante's Phantom work and the Gold Key/Charlton comic series; Australian fan Rohan Thompson delivers a detailed report on the publishing dispute between Frew Publications and the Australian creators of Marvel's Lee Falk's The Phantom: The Ghost Who Walks.