Search Results

Sienkiewicz discusses his radical shift to fully painted, mixed-media originals for the Elektra limited series, describing the psychological and technical challenges of working in cut paper, acrylics, and other color media rather than pen and ink. He compares working with Chris Claremont (emotionally driven, soap-opera storytelling on New Mutants) versus Frank Miller (thematically and politically driven on Elektra), calling Elektra "a punk book — counterculture, very political." He also discusses plans to begin writing his own material, citing Orwellian imagery and the political subtext of David Lynch's Eraserhead as major influences.

Sienkiewicz explains how Joyce Brabner recruited him to create the cover for Real War Stories, and how he chose a child's drawing style — inspired by the book Fire in the Sky, a collection of children's war drawings — rather than a conventional rendered image, to make the anti-war imagery more primal and powerful. Working on the project shifted his views considerably; he says he was previously ignorant of U.S. covert military involvement in Central America and is now far more skeptical.

Sienkiewicz describes the chaotic, emotionally exhausting process of developing his fully painted, mixed-media approach for the Elektra: Assassin series — working in cut paper, acrylics, charcoal, and other non-traditional materials — and contrasts it with the more controlled painted work on his Daredevil graphic novel with Miller. He compares his creative relationships with Frank Miller and Chris Claremont, reflects on breaking from his early Neal Adams-derived style during New Mutants, and discusses his ambitions to write as well as draw.

New Legion of Super-Heroes artist Jurgens explains how he landed on Tales of the Legion after burning out on Warlord, a book he felt was artistically unsuited to him due to its sword-and-sorcery subject matter and the pressure to maintain Mike Grell's visual formula. He describes his preference for universe-building books like Legion and Sun Devils over grounded titles, expresses regret about how he handled Sun Devils early in his career, and discusses his ambition to write more and develop a more illustrative style like Bill Sienkiewicz. He notes he has committed to six issues of Legion with his direction beyond that undecided.

Mushynsky, whose full Ukrainian name is Andreas Vasylovych Muszyskyj, traces an unusual path to comics inking: born in a Displaced Persons Camp in postwar Germany, he later worked in avant-garde theatre, tenant-rights activism, and publishing before gravitating toward inking through a studio he shared with DC inker Bob Smith. He discusses his tools and techniques (Sable #3 brush, Hunt #102 crowquill pen), the differences between inking the detail-heavy G.I. Joe versus the more open superhero forms in The Vision and Scarlet Witch, and his admiration for artists like John Byrne and Bill Sienkiewicz who can "turn on" creative flow without self-censorship. He expresses frustration at being overlooked while working on G.I. Joe despite its strong sales, and aspires to eventually move into pencilling.

Concluding a two-part conversation, Rubinstein discusses the difference between technically proficient and genuinely artistic inkers, citing Klaus Janson as the most innovative in the field, and his ongoing debate with Bill Sienkiewicz over the tension between expressionism and serving the source material. He defends Jim Shooter against industry criticism, describing Shooter's genuine care for quality and his personal role in negotiating favorable deals for creators. He also explains his decision to ink Don Newton's final DC job as an act of mourning, and talks about burnout, business pressures, and his assistant Kyle Baker's habit of hiding Bullwinkle in background panels.

Brabner edited Real War Stories for the CCCO and recruited top talent including Alan Moore, Brian Bolland, Denny O'Neil, Bill Sienkiewicz, and Steve Bissette. She describes the book as strictly non-fiction — no composite characters, no fictionalization — and recounts how two publishers got cold feet before Eclipse agreed to publish it. She reveals that Harvey Pekar wrote a story for the book that she rejected, and that her next project will be a comic about the Christic Institute's investigation into a CIA-linked secret team.

The co-owner and import manager of the Paris-based Album Shops discuss the structure of French comics distribution (publisher-direct vs. national press distributors), pricing laws under the Socialist government, and the contraction of the French comics market due to publisher overproduction. Bruno offers observations on American comics from a French retail perspective — noting that superheroes are a hard sell in France, that John Byrne and Frank Miller are the most popular American creators, and that Chaykin's Shadow was perceived as anti-communist by French readers. Both discuss their rapid receipt of new American comics, shop signings with creators including Walt Simonson and Bill Sienkiewicz, and the challenges of shoplifting.

Reis describes his extensive private collection of original Batman artwork, acquired over roughly fifteen years by trading handmade multi-layer 3-D paper shadow-boxes with artists including Berni Wrightson, Jack Kirby, John Byrne, Bill Sienkiewicz, Walt Simonson, George Pérez, and many others. He explains the mechanics and artistry of the 3-D shadow-box medium, offers advice for new collectors on acquiring original art at conventions and through trades, and reflects on how creating the 3-Ds deepened his appreciation for comic art as a craft.

Comics Interview Hot Tips From Top Comics Creators #1 is a reference compilation edited by Don Markstein that gathers practical advice from more than 250 working and legendary comics professionals, organized into six thematic chapters covering breaking in, storytelling, business practices, artistic philosophy, working methods, and miscellaneous craft observations. The book grew out of the tip segments that had appeared in Comics Interview magazine across 132 issues and was intended as a durable resource for aspiring creators. Contributors range from Golden Age veterans like Joe Kubert, Carmine Infantino, and Dick Sprang to then-current stars like Frank Miller, George Perez, and Bill Sienkiewicz, with each contributor briefly profiled in a "Tipsters" biographical section before the tips chapters begin. The volume functions less as a collection of interviews than as a distillation of professional wisdom — a how-the-industry-works manual assembled from hundreds of individual voices rather than any single authoritative perspective.