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Heavy Metal's art director discusses the editorial process of assembling each issue from a vast backlog of European material (three years' worth in the office), his creation of the "June 2050" feature as a way to showcase American artists, and his disappointment that so many artists couldn't conceive of creating a single page without a writer. Passionately advocates for the auteur model in comics, naming Kurtzman, Eisner, Toth, Barks, Krigstein, Steranko, and Corben as genius-level creators, and argues that the fragmentation of comics labor into separate writer-penciller-inker-letterer roles dissipates the storytelling power that one person can bring. Expresses concern that American comics publishers are losing their traditional young audience by catering to continuity-obsessed fans while newsstand distribution collapses in smaller towns. Praises Frank Miller's Ronin as proof that "an American can shoot the Europeans right out of the water" and hopes Epic and other publishers will create more Heavy Metal-style anthology magazines.