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Wide-ranging career retrospective with the veteran artist and inker, whose over-thirty-year career spans the Golden Age to the present and who notes this is his first published interview. Abel recalls attending Burne Hogarth's Cartoonists and Illustrators School alongside classmates Wally Wood, Al Williamson, Marie Severin, Mike Esposito, and Ross Andru, and describes the post-school bohemian scene of late-night inking sessions and bars near the school. He recounts working for Fox, Crestwood, Fawcett, Charlton, DC, Marvel, and the short-lived Seaboard/Atlas, as well as inking Joe Kubert's Green Beret newspaper strip and doing cover art for Israel Waldman's repackaged warehouse comics. Abel frankly admits he is "really sick of super-hero comics" and misses the genre variety of earlier decades — crime, westerns, romance, and mystery — while reflecting on Dr. Wertham's damaging crusade and the industry's evolution from a short-term hustle to a professional career path.

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.

Previews the issue's contents, noting the "First Look" at D'Arc Tangent provides a cross-section of comics creators from writers/artists to letterer, editor, and publisher. Highlights the mix of newcomers like Tod Smith and the D'Arc Tangent crew alongside veterans Jack Abel and Joe Rosen, plus the magazine's first interview with overseas industry figures.