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The former comics writer, publisher, and Marvel direct sales manager discusses his new career as the comics industry's first professional agent, representing creators like Steve Gerber, Roy Thomas, Craig Russell, Mark Evanier, and Will Meugniot in negotiations with publishers. Explains the value he provides — top-level connections, knowledge of the deal landscape across all publishers, and time savings that let artists earn more by working instead of spending months negotiating contracts. Offers a bullish forecast for the direct sales market, predicting that specialty outlets will eventually match the reach of traditional magazine distributors and that the first million-selling comic is only two years away. Delivers a provocative long-term prediction: as creator ownership becomes the norm, company-owned characters will become "entry-level jobs" and established properties may wither — "It is possible that in thirty years no one will want to write Superman." Reflects on his own career trajectory driven by the pursuit of control — from writer to editor to publisher to distributor to agent — and notes his creative writing impulse has simply been replaced by the creativity of deal-making.

Part one of a three-part interview with the principals of Star*Reach Productions, the comics industry's only dedicated talent agency. Friedrich traces the agency's founding in 1982, its growth to over 50 clients (including P. Craig Russell, Paul Chadwick, Roy Thomas, Steve Englehart, and Mark Wheatley), and its philosophy of building cooperative creator–publisher relationships rather than adversarial ones.

Part II of a three-part conversation with the founder of Star*Reach Productions. Friedrich explains why Dark Horse succeeded where other independents failed, discusses the difficulty of breaking in as a writer versus an artist, and analyzes creator rights as a practical rather than purely ideological issue. He addresses the Kirby/Marvel art-return dispute and predicts that Marvel and DC's aggressive title expansion will lead to a significant cutback within a few years.

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.

Mayerik reflects on his early association with Howard the Duck — which he was the first to draw, in Man-Thing — and the grueling experience of the Howard newspaper strip. He describes how Steve Gerber's agent Mike Friedrich brought them together for the creator-owned graphic novel Void Indigo, which Mayerik fully painted, and which Marvel's Epic imprint published under what he considers one of the best creator contracts in comics at the time. He also discusses his Ohio-based lifestyle, his passion for karate (which he credits with giving him a sense of realistic combat choreography), his cable television work, and his hopes to eventually write and draw his own graphic novel.

Marvel's Director of Specialty Sales gives a detailed account of her unconventional path into the industry — from Radcliffe geology graduate to Boston-area comic retailer, magazine circulation manager, and New Media Publishing/Distribution executive — before being hired by Mike Friedrich and quickly becoming Direct Sales Manager when Friedrich departed. She explains Marvel's multi-channel distribution strategy (direct market, newsstand via Curtis, and Marvel Books for chain stores), the co-op advertising and rack programs she created to support retailers, and the rationale behind the Waldenbooks deal as a tool for growing casual readers into committed direct-market customers. Kalish is candid that Marvel is not planning to become its own distributor, details the marketing logic behind launching the Star Comics kids' line despite thin margins, and argues that expanding the returnable marketplace is essential to the long-term health of the direct market.