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Extensive interview exploring Starlin's philosophical preoccupations with death, belief, and human imperfection as they run through his body of work from Warlock through The Death of Captain Marvel to his current series Dreadstar. Reveals that his father died of cancer while he was midway through penciling The Death of Captain Marvel, making the project a personal catharsis — and that he broke his hand during the same job, forcing him to ink with felt-tip pens. Discusses *Dreadstar*'s themes of belief and flawed leadership, his villain Lord Papal as a counterpart to Thanos, and his working process of doing thumbnail breakdowns that allow three rounds of revision before final art. Plans a 20-to-30 issue storyline for the Instrumentality conflict and mentions Berni Wrightson will contribute irregular humor back-up strips starting in issue #6.

Recorded panel discussion from a Los Angeles comics convention, addressing whether creators work for love or money. Panelists discuss creative burnout, the challenges of working with editors, the difficulty of breaking in as a writer vs. an artist, and the dual necessity of passion and business sense for a comics career. Kirby reflects on his long career spanning romance comics to Fourth World, while younger creators like Liefeld and Silvestri describe their own paths into the industry.

Introduces the new "Out of Context" department, which poses the same question to multiple interview subjects. This issue's question concerns the recent trend of superhero deaths, tying into the Jim Starlin feature.

Conducted at Ken Steacy's Toronto studio over Chinese food, this comedic three-way conversation covers Leialoha's career of "amazing coincidences": meeting Mark Evanier at the 1971 San Diego con, getting on Warlock by bumping into Jim Starlin in Berkeley, inking Howard the Duck #1, and landing Star Wars because he knew who George Lucas was and asked Howard Chaykin in an elevator. He discusses the creative/financial tension between Marvel work-for-hire (fast, paid, owned by Marvel) versus creator-owned alternative work (slow, satisfying, underpaid), explaining why he eventually left Coyote — the bi-monthly schedule was destroying him. He is planning a samurai mini-series with Carl Potts at Marvel and more funny-animal work for Epic.

Part One of Orzechowski's career retrospective, conducted by Schutz in her capacity as editor of The Telegraph Wire for Comics & Comix in California. Orzechowski traces his origins in Detroit fandom — where he worked alongside Terry Austin, Jim Starlin, Al Milgrom, and Rich Buckler — and his path to Marvel at age 19 via Tony Isabella, where Starlin championed him onto Captain Marvel before he felt ready. He recounts his famous prank of changing the Comics Code stamp to "The Cosmic Code Authority" on Strange Tales #179, and describes his move west with Mike Friedrich's Star*Reach collective (alongside Englehart, Starlin, and Brunner), his years freelancing for independents, and how he eventually settled into working almost exclusively with Chris Claremont on X-Men. Part Two (covering his X-Men alphabet design, Dark Phoenix lettering, and royalties) is promised for the next issue.

Goodwin recounts his career arc from EC fan to editor at Warren Publications (CREEPY, EERIE), through stints at Marvel and DC before returning to Marvel to launch Epic Comics. He explains how Epic came about partly through his own intervention after Jim Shooter initially approached Al Milgrom, and how creator ownership at Epic means creators like Jim Starlin can take their books elsewhere if dissatisfied. He discusses the New Universe at length — four of the eight launch titles were concepts he developed — describing it as a more realistic universe proceeding from a single event (the "White Event"), and praises ELEKTRA: ASSASSIN (Miller/Sienkiewicz) as breakthrough material.

Perez discusses returning to Marvel after nearly a decade, pencilling The Infinity Gauntlet for writer Jim Starlin, working strictly as penciller without co-plotting credit for the first time. He also previews The Holy Wars, his DC crossover tied to Wonder Woman's 50th anniversary, and reflects on his six-year DC exclusive contract and his experience writing plots for other artists on Wonder Woman.