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Part one of a two-part interview with DC's newly promoted Vice President and Executive Editor. Giordano outlines his management philosophy — letting creative people motivate themselves, judging work from the creator's perspective rather than imposing his own — and describes DC's strategic planning retreats where the leadership team (Jenette Kahn, Paul Levitz, Joe Orlando, and himself) maps out multi-year publishing plans. Discusses DC's shift toward direct-sales market research, the potential for 400-500% expansion in comic shop retail outlets, and plans for age-segmented lines targeting children, teens, and adults. Addresses the Omega Men violence controversy head-on, articulating a nuanced editorial policy: sex, violence, and strong language are acceptable when they serve the story, never gratuitously. Also covers the Atari in-pack comics deal winding down and DC's position as a "rights company" that owns characters but shares revenue with creators.

Part two of a two-part interview with DC's Vice President and Managing Editor, focusing on his philosophy of inking and the state of DC's creative pipeline. Giordano argues that inking is primarily intellectual — "the work is done in your head before you sit down to a drawing board" — and that a good inker's contribution should be invisible to everyone except the penciler. Discusses training many of the industry's top inkers (Terry Austin, Bob Layton, Klaus Janson, Joe Rubinstein) through his assistant program, and his new talent development workshop at DC led by Sal Amendola. Reveals DC plans to revitalize their five core heroes (Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Flash) in 1984, admits to a severe graphic novel bottleneck because top creators are overcommitted, and laments that the direct-sales fan market doesn't embrace illustrative styles like Stan Drake's, making it hard to diversify beyond superheroes.

Discusses finishing Frank Miller's final Daredevil issue, wrapping up The Further Adventures of Indiana Jones after John Byrne's departure over a conflict with Lucasfilm, and discovering new talent Kevin Nowlan for Dr. Strange. Reflects on his X-Men tenure — "fun while it lasted" but he got "X-Men'd out" — and his career path from inking backgrounds for Dick Giordano at Neal Adams' Continuity Associates to becoming one of the top inkers in the industry. Talks about his tradition of sneaking Popeye and other characters into backgrounds, and the long-running Jack Abel/Howie Chaykin murder subplot hidden in newspaper headlines across multiple Marvel books.

Son of Marvel production manager Sol Brodsky, Gary discusses his entrepreneurial venture Garco Systems — nearly going bankrupt in "the Depression of '82" (down to sixty cents), rebuilding with partner Brian Moore, and publishing The Comic Art Workshop series featuring instruction by Dick Giordano, John Romita, and John Byrne. Also does coloring-book art for nearly every major character and is planning to enter comics publishing. A colorful, humorous interview touching on his karate practice, piranha tank, and gambling habits.

Interview with the relatively unknown young artist who replaced Keith Giffen as penciller on The Omega Men. Smith describes his pre-comics career as a rock'n'roll guitarist in Rhode Island, his training at the Joe Kubert School and Dick Giordano's inking workshop, and his path from doing backgrounds for Frank McLaughlin, Mike DeCarlo, and Gil Kane to landing his first pencilling assignment. He got The Omega Men because the deadline was urgent after Giffen left, and editor Marv Wolfman chose his more "Kirby-esque" style over another candidate's animated look. Smith discusses his admiration for "the three Ks" — Kirby, Kubert, and Kane — and shares Kane's motivating advice to either commit fully to comics or give it up. He acknowledges the legitimate criticism of the book's graphic violence and says the series will move toward a more entertaining adventure tone under Wolfman's direction.

The inker of The Omega Men since issue #1 discusses his decision to remain on the book despite Keith Giffen's departure and Roger Slifer's announced exit after issue #13, which had left him "disenchanted." He explains that his growing affinity with Tod Smith's pencils and his sense of obligation to a book he'd been with from the start convinced him to stay, after taking just two issues off. DeCarlo passionately advocates for the overlooked role of inkers, arguing that the final look of a comic is really the inker's responsibility, and cites his training under Frank McLaughlin and Dick Giordano. He reveals he has been hiding Marvel characters — the Hulk, the Thing, Iron Man, Spider-Man, and even Charlie Brown — as Easter eggs throughout The Omega Men, and expresses excitement about inking a Batman Annual pencilled by Michael Golden, which he calls the best work of his career.

Rubinstein discusses his start at age thirteen as an assistant at Neal Adams and Dick Giordano's Continuity Studios, crediting Giordano as the definitive influence on a generation of inkers including Klaus Janson and Terry Austin. He argues passionately that inking is a full artistic discipline requiring anatomical knowledge and an understanding of light and rendering, not mere tracing, and discusses his approach of preserving each penciller's individual style rather than imposing a homogeneous look, and his pride in inking 164 different pencillers for the Marvel Universe Handbook. This is part one of two.