Back Issue #4 Preview by TwoMorrows Publishing

T H E U LT I M AT E C O M I C S E X P E R I E N C E !

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MARVEL MILESTONES: BYRNE! CLAREMONT! SIMONSON! WEIN! ZECK!

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WALT ON & SIMONS JOE CASEY

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Face front, true believer! It’s our

The Ultimate Comics Experience!

Volume 1, Number 4 June 2004 Celebrating the Best Comics of the '70s, '80s, and Today! EDITOR Michael Eury

Milestones issue!

EDITORIAL: REMEMBERING JULIUS SCHWARTZ ..............................................................2 The Marvel Universe owes a debt of gratitude to this late, great DC editor

PUBLISHER John Morrow

PRO2PRO: CHRIS CLAREMONT AND JOHN BYRNE.......................................................3 The legendary X-Men creative team discusses Wolverine

DESIGNER Robert Clark PROOFREADER Eric Nolen-Weathington SCANNING AND IMAGE MANIPULATION Rich Fowlks COVER ARTIST John Byrne COVER COLORIST Tom Ziuko CONTRIBUTORS Jack Abel Arthur Adams Ross Andru Terry Austin Bob Budiansky John Buscema John Byrne Joe Casey Paul Chadwick Chris Claremont Dave Cockrum Gene Colan Gerry Conway Mike Esposito Michael Eury David Hamilton Russ Heath Adam Hughes Dan Johnson Gil Kane Jack Kirby

“Marvel”

Erik Larsen Jim Lee Rob Liefeld Todd McFarlane Frank Miller Brian K. Morris George Pérez John Romita Sr. Joe Rubinstein Peter Sanderson Marc Silvestri Walter Simonson Roy Thomas Tim Townsend Herb Trimpe Len Wein Bob Wiacek Al Williamson Barry WindsorSmith Mike Zeck

THE GREATEST STORIES NEVER TOLD: I WAS A TEENAGE WOLVERINE! ...................................................................................................26 Creator Len Wein spills the beans on teen Wolverine HAPPY BIRTHDAY, WOLVERINE! ART GALLERY .............................................................32 Art by Arthur Adams, Colan and Williamson, Hughes and Townsend, Miller and Rubinstein, Pérez and Austin ROUGH STUFF: WOLVERINE SPOTLIGHT .............................................................................36 Wolverine pencil art by J. Buscema, Byrne, Chadwick, Cockrum, Hughes, Kane, Larsen, Lee, Liefeld, Silvestri, and Simonson! SECRET WARS 20TH ANNIVERSARY QUIZ...........................................................................47 Test your knowledge of Marvel’s first crossover. With unpublished Mike Zeck art! BRING ON THE BAD GUYS: THE PUNISHER......................................................................50 How Marvel’s vigilante went from antagonist to anti-hero PRO2PRO: WALTER SIMONSON AND JOE CASEY........................................................62 Relive the days of Simonson’s Thor, with never-before-published artwork BACK IN PRINT: THE CHRONICLES OF CONAN .............................................................83 Dark Horse’s reprints of Marvel’s classics, plus a “New in Print” glimpse at the new Conan and Iron Fist series BACK TALK.........................................................................................................................................................86 Reader feedback on issue #2

SPECIAL THANKS Spencer Beck Jerry Boyd Glen Cadigan Comic Book Database Ken Danker Nick Ford Jedimaster Garay Grand Comics Database Scott Green

Heritage Comics Sean Kleefeld Richard Kolkman Ted Latner Wayne Osborne Brent Peterson John Petty Rose Rummel-Eury Kevin VanHorn Jim Warden

BACK ISSUE™ is published bimonthly by TwoMorrows Publishing, 10407 Bedfordtown Drive, Raleigh, NC 27614. Michael Eury, Editor. John Morrow, Publisher. BACK ISSUE Editorial Office: BACK ISSUE, c/o Michael Eury, Editor, 5060A Foothills Dr., Lake Oswego, OR 97034. Email: euryman@msn.com. Six-issue subscriptions: $30 Standard US, $48 First Class US, $60 Canada, $66 Surface International, $90 Airmail International. Please send subscription orders and funds to TwoMorrows, NOT to the editorial office. Wolverine, X-Men, Alpha Flight, Iron Fist, the Incredible Hulk, Wendigo, Spider-Man, Punisher, Marvel Super-Heroes: Secret Wars, Magneto, Captain America, Thor, Beta Ray Bill, and all other related characters TM & © 2004 Marvel Characters, Inc. Superman, Batman, and the Doom Patrol TM & © 2004 DC Comics. Conan TM & © 2004 Conan Properties International, LLC. All editorial matter © 2004 Michael Eury and TwoMorrows Publishing. BACK ISSUE is a TM of TwoMorrows Publishing. Printed in Canada. FIRST PRINTING.

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Claremont and Byrne: Interview s condu by Pete cted and transcri be r

interview

Sanderso

No writer-artist team at Marvel has come close to equaling the creative brilliance of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, with the possible exception of Stan Lee and Steve Ditko. But the team of Chris Claremont and John Byrne came closer than anyone else. From Uncanny X-Men #108 through #143, they revolutionized the super-hero team book, created storylines that still resonate nearly a quarter century later, and memorably shaped the personalities of characters old and new. Byrne and Claremont did not create Wolverine, but it was through their partnership that the character truly caught fire. Building on the considerable contributions of his co-creator Len Wein and artist Dave Cockrum, Claremont and Byrne developed Wolverine from a feisty, somewhat comical supporting character into not only a star, but a new kind of super-hero: more violent, more psychologically unstable, and yet with a genuine nobility. Byrne and Claremont had, and have, very different creative visions, and so it was inevitable that they parted as a team, each to go on to an extraordinarily successful career. In fact, readers may be surprised to see in these “Pro2Pro” interviews just how widely different Claremont and Byrne’s concepts of Wolverine are from each other. Currently, Byrne and Claremont have again teamed up for a project, JLA #94–99. But in this case, Claremont is simply providing dialogue for Byrne’s plot; it is not the close collaboration that they had on X-Men, in which they jointly brainstormed the stories. That kind of creative partnership will not happen again; both men have changed and moved on. But for that short time that they worked together on X-Men, a little over three years, those disparate creative visions merged into a

Byrne’s First X-Men This mid-1970s illo (right) was John Byrne’s first rendition of Marvel’s mutants. Note the influence of thenX-Men artist Dave Cockrum in Byrne’s version of Storm. Courtesy of Wayne Osbourne.

coherent artistic whole. Wolverine, as we know him today, is one of the results of that brief, groundbreaking collaboration between two of the most important comics creators of their generation. Ideally, a “Pro2Pro” interview would be conducted with all the participants in the same place at the same time. In this case, though, I ended up doing separate phone interviews with Chris and John. I’ve edited the transcripts so that one person’s response to a question will segue into the other’s comments on the same subject. It’s the next best thing to being there. —Peter Sanderson

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PETER SANDERSON: Let’s go all

the artist who focused more in on Wolverine as a character.

the way back to the beginning.

It was under John’s pen that he blossomed.

How did your conception of

SANDERSON: How so? Did John want to use him more, or

Wolverine way back in the ’70s dif-

did he draw him differently?

fer from Len [Wein]’s?

CLAREMONT: The interesting thing is actually that Dave is

CHRIS CLAREMONT: Well, Len

the one who came up with the look, the hairline.

thought he was 19 years old [see

SANDERSON: Dave came up with what he looked like

this issue’s “Greatest Stories Never Told” for the full story]. Len’s original idea was the claws were in the gloves. SANDERSON: Is this something he told you when you took over the book, or did you find out later? CLAREMONT: Well, we found out later. Dave [Cockrum] and I talked about it. Dave said Len thought the claws were in the gloves and he and I both agreed, why? If they’re in the gloves, then anybody could wear the gloves. SANDERSON: It raises the question of what made Wolverine a mutant in the original stories, since the healing factor was-

Bad to the Adamantium Bone

n’t established back then. CLAREMONT: Well, the healing factor was always part of it. Dave and I figured it would be much more fun if the claws

Wolverine, by

were integral.

John Byrne.

SANDERSON: I don’t know if the healing factor was always

Date unknown.

part of it, unless it’s something that Dave and Len talked

unmasked and with the hair, and I assume he’s the one who came up with the Western look of dressing. CLAREMONT: Pretty much. ’Cause that was consistent with western Canada, the idea that he came out of the mountains of Alberta, so he should look like a Westerner. John just liked him more. Dave’s signature character was Nightcrawler; John’s turned out to be Wolverine. You glom onto a certain guy. SANDERSON: John, why did you pick Wolverine as your character when you started on X-Men? JOHN BYRNE: Because he was a Canadian. [Byrne was born in England, spent much of his life in Canada, and now lives in the United States.] Chris and Dave [Cockrum] had said quite openly they could never figure out what to do with him. Dave’s favorite character clearly was Nightcrawler. When I started, Chris was still conferring with Dave on the plot, and I was really just the art robot for the first two or three issues, until finally I just protested and said, Excuse me [laughs], it’s not Dave any more. And Chris told me at one point, “We’re going to write Wolverine out because we don’t know what to do with him.” SANDERSON: Really!

about that wasn’t actually written into the stories. I don’t

believe it’s mentioned in Len’s stories [the initial Wolverine appearances in Incredible Hulk and Giant-Size X-Men #1]. CLAREMONT: In terms of his fighting the Hulk, otherwise what would make him a mutant? SANDERSON: Yeah. CLAREMONT: We needed something that made him a mutant, something that made him unique. The claws were obviously artificial, and if the claws were part of the glove, what made him a mutant? The reductium of the equation was

what

makes

him

mutant

the

healing

factor. But if he has a healing factor, what about the claws? Well, let us make the claws part of him. The healing factor enables him to survive with the claws. Dave and I thought, this is cool, we’ll run with it. SANDERSON: Did Dave and you differ in any way on what Wolverine should be like? Some people think Dave treated Wolverine more as a comedic character, who’d be the butt of jokes. CLAREMONT: Dave’s focus was more on different characters. Certainly in the first run of [X-Men] books [that Cockrum drew], his first tenure on the series, we were busy e s t a b l i s h i n g e v e r y b o d y. H i s i n t e r e s t w a s m o r e i n Nightcrawler, say, and Phoenix and Storm. John [Byrne] was

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BYRNE: Yep. And I stamped my little foot and said there is no way you’re writing out the only Canadian character. And so I made him mine. Whenever I do a group book I make one character mine and sort of focus on that character so I have a focus for the book. And I made him mine, and I guess I can now say a big mea culpa, right? [laughs] SANDERSON: Do you think it’s true that when Dave was on the book, Wolverine was more like a comedy character? BYRNE: He was. He was like comedy relief. He was getting punched into orbit. Actually, that happened in my first issue, but it was a leftover Dave idea. SANDERSON: Wolverine’s unmasked face is much more distinctive than most super-heroes’. BYRNE: Yeah, that was Dave’s.

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SANDERSON: Was that hard to get a handle on drawing?

: Cyberspacedially Chris”

BYRNE: It was hard to get the hair to work. In my entire run I was never

or Co-hosts “C ms, iX-Fan Foru forum at Com com/xfan/ n. fa www.comix forums

satisfied with how I drew his hair when he had his mask off. It was something about the way the flat part on the front had to kind of blend into the plumes on the side. Of course, it was much slicker in my day; it wasn’t as wild as it is now. It’s probably much easier to draw now, drawing it as scruffy as it is. SANDERSON: Would you say that as you got more interested in Wolverine’s character that Chris started to follow along in your wake? BYRNE: To some extent. Chris did express a concern to [editor in chief Jim] Shooter that he was losing control of the characters at one point, ’cause more and more of it was mine. Especially when [Roger] Stern and I were un-indicted co-conspirators when Roger was editing the book. SANDERSON: Since you adopted Wolverine, how did you get the idea to start doing Wolverine as this tough, military kind of guy? BYRNE: That’s who he seemed to be. When he was first introduced in Hulk and when he was enlisted by Xavier in Giant-Size [X-Men] #1 he was a military agent. He’d probably be a Mountie. Much of the stuff that’s done by the CIA and the Secret Service and whatnot in the United States is handled by the Mounted Police in Canada. SANDERSON: Wolverine in a Mountie uniform is something we’ve never seen and I immediately want to see this. BYRNE: This would be scary, wouldn’t it? He’s probably too short and he’d scare the horses. [laughs] It just seemed a natural progression from what we’d seen of the character that his background was covert military. SANDERSON: Who was it who came up with the name “Logan”? BYRNE: Chris. Or at least it predates me. It might have been Dave’s; I don’t know. Chris did not know this, but I did point out that Mount Logan is the tallest mountain in Canada. It’s not a very Canadian-sounding name. I would think of a cowboy when I think of somebody named Logan. He sort of is a cowboy.

Beginnings :

First compl ete story ar t: Wheelie the Chopper and Bunch #2 (1 975)

Milestones :

Doomsday +1 / Rog 20 00 / Iron Fist Up / Uncan / Marvel Te ny X-Men / amCaptain Am Four /Alpha erica / Fant Flight / Incr astic edible Hulk Superman / Man of Ste / Sensation el / al She-Hul Sub-Mariner k / Namor / Wolverine the / John Byrne Wonder W oman / Jack ’s Next Men / Kirby’s Four Men: The H th World / X idden Year s / Superman Generations and Batman / Fearbook : and Whipp ing Boy nove Works in P ls ro g re ss: JLA / The D oom Patrol / DC Comic s Presents (Julius Sch wartz tribut e book) / True Brit

Cyberspace :

John Byrne Forum: www.netw ork54.com/ Hide/Forum /248951; writes “IM O” column www.ugo.c om/channel s/ comics/feat ures/johnby rne/ imo/html

SANDERSON: Chris, where did Logan’s name come from? CLAREMONT: Mount Logan, a mountain in Canada. SANDERSON: Was that your idea or John’s? CLAREMONT: I think it was John’s. I don’t know, might have been mine. Or Dave’s. I’d have to go back and look. But the idea was the tallest mountain being the name of the shortest character. SANDERSON: And that leads to another question. Why is it important that Wolverine is short? CLAREMONT: Why does every character have to be 6’ 3”?

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SANDERSON: Well, you could well ask the makers of the X-

with a guy who was 6’ 4” if we wrote it right. But it

Men movies this.

certainly gives him an extra layer. There’s not too many

Taking a Slice Out of Chrome

CLAREMONT: Well, ’cause Hugh Jackman is 6’ 3” and a real

super-heroes who are running around who are 5’ 1”

hunk. To me the image I used to have of Wolverine when I

or whatever he’s supposed to be.

The cover to

was writing the book years ago was Bob Hoskins. Not fero-

It’s not absolutely vital that he be 5’ 1”. But I figure as

ciously tall, but incredibly, dynamically frightening when he

long as that’s the way he’s been portrayed, that’s the way

X-Men #115 (1978), signed

gets his anger up. The point with Logan is that people

he should be portrayed. It’s one of my little bugaboos when

always have underestimated him because of his size,

they do adaptations. It’s like if this character is a

by the artists.

because of his manner. Then he explodes into action and

6’ 2” redheaded Amazon, she shouldn’t be played by

Courtesy of

there’s nothing left standing. With Colossus you expect it;

Whoopi Goldberg. It’s not like adapting a novel. We know

with Wolverine you don’t, or shouldn’t.

what these characters look like. I thought X-Men, with the

SANDERSON: John, why is it important that Wolverine is

exception of Halle Berry, who looked exactly like the Storm

short? Why is it that Hugh Jackman is too tall to play him?

that I drew, except for her hair, was horribly cast.

BYRNE: It’s not important. It’s just the way it is.

SANDERSON: I don’t know. I don’t mind Patrick Stewart.

SANDERSON: Does it add something to the character?

BYRNE: He wasn’t the Professor Xavier who lives inside my

BYRNE: It probably has a lot to do with who he is and his

head. He got the job because he’s the bald guy. And if we

general mentality. I’m sure we could get to the same place

made this movie twenty years ago, he would have been Telly Savalas, and if we’d made it forty years ago, he would’ve been Yul Brynner. That’s the way Hollywood works. SANDERSON: Apart from the height, what do you think of Wolverine in the movies? CLAREMONT: I think it’s fine. Hugh Jackman did a spectacular performance. It was everything I wanted out of it. You could always wish for more screen time and fight choreography, and I wish the kiss with Jean had gone on to something more important, but I thought he was totally kickass. I have no problem with Hugh Jackman as Wolverine. I think if they ever do a Wolverine movie, he’d be the guy.

WOLVERINE’S AGE SANDERSON: Chris, how did you decide to make Wolverine older than 19? CLAREMONT: It’s the way Dave drew him: he looked older. As I wrote him more and more, he felt older. We didn’t know about [him being] 19; that was something that Len mentioned years and years later. SANDERSON: And as time went on you decided that Wolverine was in fact older than he looked. CLAREMONT: If he has a healing factor, why not? SANDERSON: When did you decide that in fact Wolverine could possibly be over a century old? CLAREMONT: The over a century old was something that [was decided] later on. But it was always something we played at, again, as it evolved. Through John’s tenure on the book, through Frank’s [the Claremont/Frank Miller Wolverine] miniseries. Again, it’s like everything else: The more you get to know the character, the more you answer the questions who, what, where, when, why, how, the more you try to differentiate him from the characters around him. One answer leads you to the next question, the next question leads you to a new answer, and you gradually build the structure of the character. SANDERSON: John, how did the idea that Wolverine was

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I Was a

Teenage Wolverine!

ury Michael E

It was an editor’s desire to appease Canadian readers and his appreciation of a writer’s flair for dialects that led to the creation of the most popular comic-book character to emerge during the past 30 years. In early 1974, Len Wein was the writer of his favorite Marvel title, The Incredible Hulk, and was winding down a stint scripting the “Brother Voodoo” feature appearing in Strange Tales. “I have a very good ear for accents,” Wein reveals to BACK ISSUE. “I used to love writing accents in books, trying to make you hear the voice with the accent.” Wein’s Hulk editor was Roy Thomas. “Whatever his strengths as a writer were, which were considerable,” Len reminisces, “Roy had no ear for accents and loved the fact that I was doing Jamaican and Haitian accents in “Brother Voodoo.” So he came to me one day and said, ‘I want you to do a Canadian accent. I want you to do a Canadian character. I’ve got a name: Wolverine. Go!’” Thomas concurs, explaining his reasoning behind his mandate: “I knew that we had lots of Canadian readers,” Roy says, “and I thought having a Canadian hero (even if he started out as a quasi-villain, like so many Marvel heroes) would be a good idea. I considered either Badger or Wolverine as names, decided on the latter, and told Len over lunch that

Cantankerous Canuck

I’d like a Canadian hero with that name. . . that he should be short of stature and short of temper like his namesake. That was pretty much my

The Hulk (and readers) forgot about

contribution to the character, although I do consider it a co-creation in

the Wendigo once Wolverine clawed

a sense. Len and Herb Trimpe [artist of Incredible Hulk #180–182, where

his way into this 1974 issue.

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WOLVERINE’S DEVELOPMENT Thomas’ directive inspired Wein to hit the books. “I researched wolverines,” he recalls, discovering that “wolverines are short, nasty animals with razor-sharp claws that will attack creatures ten times their size,” the perfect sound-bite definition of this pint-sized Canuck who fearlessly challenged the towering Hulk. At this developmental stage of Wolverine’s history, Wein’s embellishments upon Thomas’ proposed hero began to take shape. “I don’t think either being a mutant or having adamantium claws was part of my concept,” offers Thomas, “even though I made up and named adamantium.” Wein’s recollection is that he created Wolverine as a mutant, gifted with “tenacity and heightened senses, like an animal.” Wolverine’s claws, in Len’s mind, were vastly different from what we now

Wolverine Prototype? Reader Richard Kolkman writes, “I think I’ve discovered an

recognize. “They were retractable, but into the gloves,” Len notes. “I guess it was Dave’s [Cockrum] and Chris’ [Claremont] idea to make them part of his body. My feeling was, the claws were made of adamantium. Adamantium is an indestructible metal.” Wein envisioned that the gloves were made of fabric-covered

! T K I SN overlooked cross-company

‘prototype’ inspiration for Wolverine (right down to

the SNIKT sound effect).”

From The Forever People #5

adamantium—“a logical way to approach this.” Thomas’ and Wein’s memories diverge at this juncture. States Roy, “[Wolverine]

was intended to have some sort of regular presence in the Marvel books, if he

proved popular. . . but at that time there wasn’t any X-Men book yet. At least, I

don’t think I had any part in suggesting that the Canadian character necessarily be part of the ‘international X-Men’ I envisaged in around the summer of ’74.” [For detailed coverage of the development of the “new” X-Men, inspired by the

global ethnic composition of the Golden Age war heroes the Blackhawks, see Thomas’ own magazine, Alter Ego #24, published by TwoMorrows] Wein confesses that from his perspective, the invitation to make Wolverine an X-Man was there from the beginning. “I was the one who decided he was a mutant,” Len says. “But I never expected to be writing Giant-Size X-Men [the 1975 launching point for the new mutant team]. I always thought somebody else was going to get that assignment. I created Wolverine to be a Canadian mutant, knowing that the [X-Men] concept was going to be an international group of characters. I figured, ‘Okay, whoever gets the book, if you want a Canadian guy, you’ve got one.’ It was really a case of me being a good soldier, and preparing something for the company’s future.”

WEIN’S TEEN WOLVERINE Longtime readers are aware that the original X-Men, who premiered in 1963, were five teenagers—Cyclops, Marvel Girl, the Beast, Iceman, and Angel—banding together under the tutelage of an older mentor, Professor X. Wein assumed that the new X-Men—banding together once again under Professor X’s wing— would follow this tradition and be youths. And from that assumption he considered Wolverine to be in his late teens, although for the character’s first appearance, he © 2004 Marve l Characters, Inc .

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gave his age little thought. “In the original story in Hulk, I never bothered with

an age [for Wolverine],” explains Len. “It wasn’t important to that story. But if you look at that story, he is kind of ‘youngish’ with that face, and the shorter mask.” Nor was Wolverine’s age of much concern at the time to Hulk editor Thomas: “I probably thought of him as early 20s, to the extent it crossed my mind. I don’t think there was any such discussion [about his age].” An examination of Wolverine’s original costume design by legendary artist John Romita Sr. (working with Wein) speaks to the contrary. Romita’s full facial

Ready to Rumble

shots of the character unmistakably depict Wolverine as much younger than the figure we now know. Hulk penciler Herb Trimpe worked closely from Romita’s

John Romita Sr.’s original designs for

model sheets, even mimicking one of Romita’s poses in Wolverine’s walk-on at

Wolverine. Romita laments to BACK ISSUE

the end of issue #180. After his Incredible Hulk outing, Wolverine lay dormant until the summer 1975 release of Giant-Size X-Men #1, written by Wein and penciled by Dave

that years ago, he sold these roughs for a mere $50. The inset depicts Wolverine’s first appearance, drawn by Herb Trimpe and Jack Abel, from the last page of

Cockrum. Through Cockrum’s renderings and through Wein’s characterizations,

The Incredible Hulk #180.

each of the new X-Men was clearly a teen or in his or her early twenties. The fountain of youth even affected the Irish mutant Banshee, portrayed earlier

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“Big” John N. Buscema was 61 years of age when he began his stint on Marvel’s first Wolverine series (issue #1, cover date: November 1988)—61 years old! And yet, as it is fully revealed here (minus the inks of titan Al Williamson), Mr. Buscema’s dynamic pencils pop off the page—a feat not easily accomplished by artists less than half his age! This seventh page carries the added distinction of being the only full-pager used in the first three-and-a-half issues of the series.

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David Hamilton

WOLVERINE • J O H N B U S C E M A

feature

WOLVERINE • J O H N B Y R N E John Byrne’s return to Wolverine—a few years back—is perfectly showcased here (Wolverine #17, page 22)! An action-packed page of graphite, folks!!!

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Secret Wars 20 Anniversary

special feature

th th

This issue’s celebration of Marvel Milestones

QUIZ d{

Michae

l Eury

would not be complete without a salute to Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars, which debuted in May 1984. Featuring “the combined might of Earth’s most powerful super heroes” against “the ultimate menace,” Secret Wars was the result of a merchandising agreement to create a comic-book tie-in to a line of action figures based on Marvel Comics heroes and villains. The 12-issue maxiseries’ self-contained epic story “crossed over” into a variety of Marvel titles, birthing the crossover concept that has since become an industry staple. Secret Wars reportedly sold in the vicinity of 750,000 copies per issue, numbers unheard of since the 1940s. So how’s your memory, 20 years later? Test your Secret Wars IQ by taking this pop quiz:

Your Secret IQ 1. Secret Wars was Marvel’s first multi-title crossover, but it wasn’t the company’s first limited series to combine its characters.

Behold. . . Magneto!

That title was 1982’s:

Plastic Man Captain America was part of the first of two

a. Contest of Champions

Mike Zeck’s energetic

b. Combat of Champions

cover pencils for Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars #2

c. Marvel Super Heroes Contest of Champions

(June 1984). Courtesy of

d. Marvel Super Heroes Breakfast of Champions

David “Hambone” Hamilton. 2. The toy company behind the Secret Wars

action-figure line was (don’t peek at the photo!): a. Mattel

c. Playmates

b. Hasbro

d. Ideal

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Your

Secret IQ continued

3. The “ultimate menace” that assembled Marvel’s heroes and villains for conflicts on a battle planet was named: a. The Monitor

c. Galactus

b. The Beyonder

d. Lactose the Intolerant

4. Penciler Mike Zeck and inker John Beatty illustrated 10 of the 12 Secret Wars issues,

Secret Wars Birthday Bonus!

with issues #5 and #6 penciled by: a. Al Milgrom

c. John Byrne

b. Jim Starlin

d. Bob Layton

Here are two unpublished Secret Wars penciled pages (for an unspecified issue)

5. Which of the following Marvel heroes did not

by Mike Zeck. The artist

participate in Secret Wars? a. Iron Man

c. Captain Marvel

b. Sub-Mariner

d. Mr. Fantastic

remarks to BACK ISSUE: “Changes were commonplace throughout that series. In most cases,

6. Secret Wars #8 featured the following ground-

changing a panel or

breaking event:

two would suffice. In the

a. The death of Kraven the Hunter

case of the two pages

b. The death of Thor’s alter ego Don Blake

in question, I’m thinking

c. The debut of Spider-Man’s new costume

those were times when

d. Marty McFly travels back to the future

the changes were enough to warrant a complete

7. At the end of Secret Wars, the Thing

redrawing of the page.”

replaced in the FF by: a. She-Hulk

c. Power Man

b. Crystal

d. Herbie the Robot

8. The second Spider-Woman premiered in Secret Wars #6 and #7. Her real name was: a. Jessica Drew

c. Julia Carpenter

b. May Parker

d. Richard Carpenter

9. Which of the following was not a Secret Wars action figure?

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a. Iceman

c. Hobgoblin

b. Green Goblin

d. Electro

Answers: 1–C; 2–A; 3–B; 4–D; 5–B; 6–C; 7–A; 8–C; 9–B.

temporarily left the Fantastic Four and was

Current

Punisher Comics

Comics great Russ Heath was one of many artists to illustrate Marvel’s mob buster during the character’s early-1990s’ heyday. From The Punisher #91 (1994). Courtesy of Heritage Comics (www.heritagecomics.com). © 2004 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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Miami Vice

meanwhile

Writer Garth Ennis and artist Lewis Larosa are the new creative team behind Marvel’s popular anti-hero, with covers by Tim Bradstreet (like The Punisher #5’s cover seen here, now on sale). Also available: The Punisher: The End #1, by Ennis and the legendary Richard Corben!

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The Essential Punisher A Review by Dan Johnson Marvel Comics, 2003 568 pages, black and white • $14.99

Calling Card This 1987 rendering of the Punisher by Mike Zeck was specifically produced for use as a business card for art dealer

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review

Jim Warden, who shared it with BI.

The Essential Punisher, Volume 1 is a great crash course in finding out who the Punisher is and how he came to be. It collects every outing Marvel gave the character before granting him his own miniseries: The Amazing Spider-Man #129, ASM #134–135, Giant-Size SpiderMan #4, Marvel Preview #2, Marvel Super Action #1, ASM #161–162 and 174–175, Captain America #241, ASM #201–202, Amazing Spider-Man Annual #15, Daredevil #182–184, and Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man # 81–83. Many of the books reprinted in Essential Punisher are hard-to-find collectors’ items not priced for the casual reader. That is especially true for the character’s earliest appearances in Amazing Spider-Man, and his two black-and-white magazine one-shots, Marvel Preview #2 and Marvel Super Action #1, the latter of which allowed Marvel to get around the restrictions of the Comics Code. Marvel’s black-andwhite Essential format is priced at a mere $14.99, just slightly more than you would have paid for each comic individually if you had bought them when they first came out. There are some drawbacks to the collection that I feel I must make my fellow comic-book fans aware of, though. Some of the early Spider-Man stories had numerous running subplots, and if you are not

Unsung rtist Spider-Man A

familiar with Amazing Spider-Man from the early to late 1970s, you are going to be left wondering whatever became of the Jackal, what happened to Harry Osborn (did he really take up his father’s mantle as the Green Goblin?), and what was it that sent J. Jonah Jameson over the edge and caused him to “flip out” for a while. Also, in an apparent effort to save space in the book, only an eightpage segment featuring the Punisher is reprinted from Daredevil #182 (although the other two issues in that story arc are reprinted in their entirety). But still, if it is the Punisher you are interested in, then this is the collection you have been waiting for. Also, if you are like me, someone who got into comics as a kid in the 1970s, this book will also prove to be a real blast from the past. It features some wonderfully nostalgic work by writers and artists who helped to shape the comics scene in

the 1970s and the early 1980s, such as Gerry Conway (the creator of the Punisher), Len Wein, Marv Wolfman, Mike W. Barr, Keith Pollard, Tony DeZuniga, Denny O’Neil, Frank Miller, and the late Archie Goodwin, and it might just introduce the late Ross Andru—the man who penciled the first Punisher story (and who was one of the most underrated of all of Spidey’s artists—to a new generation of readers. Getting the chance to see any of Andru’s SpiderMan work reprinted is worth my $14.99 any day of the week.

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Simonson and Casey:

Pro” cr2ea00to4r, A “Pro2 ary 27,

conducted

on Janu by Brian

dialogue ribed and transc

K. Morris.

Just a little over 20 years ago, Thor #337 hit the stands like a thunder crack (no pun intended). It was writer/artist Walt Simonson’s inaugural issue of a three-year-plus run, and the impact that it made on me personally cannot be measured. It’s one of my favorite super-hero single issues ever. It’s also my first memory of a “hot” comic book in the marketplace, back when that really meant something. Re-reading Walt’s run in preparation for this interview gave me as much joy and inspiration as an adult as it did when I first read Thor as a kid, a testament to Walt’s enduring talent as a storyteller. And talking to him about this seminal work was an even greater thrill. Besides being a consummate professional, Walt is well known as one of the nicest guys in the business, taking time out from his current art gig (a brand new, Michael Moorcock-written Elric prestige format miniseries for DC Comics) to talk about what was, for me, an amazing—although not so distant—era in mainstream comics. —Joe Casey

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Beginnings:

particular title. But I think I was captivated not only

First published art: Magnu s Robot Fighter #10 (“guard-rob” fan drawing) / First pro story: “Cyrano’s Army” in Weird War Tales #10 (1973)

CASEY: What can you say about your first stint as

Milestones:

the artist on Thor, a few years previous to scoring the

by Thor but by the comics of that time in general.

Manhunter in Detective Com ics / Alien movie adaptation for Heavy Metal / Thor / Fantastic Four / X-Men/New Teen Titans / Star Slammers / Meltdown: Havoc and Wo lverine / Michael Moorcock’s Multiverse / Orion

writer/artist gig? I know that Len Wein wrote it, and I remember reading an interview with you where you expressed how much you enjoyed it. . . but you also said you’d felt like you’d burned through the more

Work in Progress:

Elric: The Making of a Sor cerer, written by Michael Moorcock (DC)

“Kirby” aspects of the concept so that when you came to it as a writer/artist, you came to it fresh. . .

Cyberspace:

SIMONSON: Len and I had a lot of fun doing Thor for a year in 1977–78. I was drawing layouts rather Photo courtesy of www .FFplaza.com.

I don’t have a website myself (too old and crabby to go to the bother), but I hang out a fair amount at www.comicboards. com/ newgods/.

JOE CASEY: So the first thing I need to do is give you the disclaimer: There’ll be moments when I’m totally waxing your car. I admit that freely. [Walt laughs] But it’s completely genuine, which I hope makes all the difference. WALT SIMONSON: I’ll just think you’re talking about somebody else. It’ll be all right. [laughs] CASEY: It’s well documented that Thor was your favorite super-hero series. I’ll be as delicate as I can here. . . Was there anything specific that you felt you could add to Thor that [creators] Stan [Lee] and Jack [Kirby], in particular, hadn’t? Some unexplored areas? Were you thinking of those things even before you went pro? SIMONSON: I think I took inspiration from the work Stan and Jack did with Thor rather than regarding their work as somehow needing an extra boost. [laughs] My own interest in Norse mythology preceded my discovering the Thor comic book and, no doubt, that interest contributed greatly to my enjoyment in that

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than full pencils during that run; Tony DeZuniga was doing the actual finishes. But I was definitely drawing Thor in a “Kirby” style. The work gave me a chance to exercise all my Kirby chops with big figures and bold strokes of design in my best Kirby manner. While I wasn’t attempting to be Jack’s clone, I was drawing heavily on his influence.

So I began adding my own visual contributions to the world of Thor. CASEY: Okay, I’m curious about this question. I never had the opportunity to work with [the late] Mark Gruenwald, but it’s obvious that he was one of the better editors working at Marvel at the time. In an old interview you gave for Comics Interview, you said that, when Mark offered you Thor, he gave you some suggestions that were way more radical than what you ended up doing in the actual book. Can you remember any of those specific suggestions. . . ? SIMONSON: Mark gave me a typed list of possibilities. I believe there were about ten options. The only idea I remember is the suggestion that Thor could be killed and somebody else would become the new Thor By the time I took over the title as writer/artist, a lot of artists had drawn Thor over the years. But Jack’s was the defining work for me. Not only had he drawn the character originally, but much of the “world” Thor inhabited was clearly based on Jack’s visual conceptualizations. By spending a year hanging out in Jack’s world in the ’70s, I found that when I came back to it in 1983, I was able to be inspired by Jack and yet strike out in my own direction as my own thoughts took me. I hadn’t planned it that way deliberately, but that’s how it worked out. The visualization of Asgard’s architecture is a

Beginnings:

Past #2 (1997) Wolverine: Days of Future

Milestones:

m miniseries / X-Men: Children of the Ato Automatic Kafka / / Adventures of Superman 3.0 sion WildC.A.T.s Ver

Works in Progress:

rk Horse) / The Milkman Murders (Da / Earth’s Mightiest ) orm ldst (Wi The Intimates Heroes (Marvel)

Cyberspace:

www.manofaction.tv

good example. In my earlier work, I drew Asgard as Jack had drawn it with big heroically scaled statues, gleaming metal building, gracefully arcing ramps— y. Photo courtesy of Joe Case

a rather sci-fi-looking city. When I began drawing Asgard a second time, I kept the “island in space” look. But I took off in a rather different direction with the city, using early Scandinavian architecture as my model. I took the old surviving stave churches of Norway as the basis for my Asgardian architecture.

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ry Michael Eu

The Chronicles Chronicles of of The

trade paperback reviews

CONAN b y R oy Th omas and Barr y W inds or-S mith

I’ll start with a confession: I’m not a fan of war stories, simply because I do not wish to see a graphic recreation of the horrors of combat. Similarly, I’ve steered clear of epic fantasy involving barbarism, swordplay, and sorcery—and yes, I readily admit to the thousands of you reading this that I have not seen any of the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Revoke my fanboy club membership if you must, but that’s the truth. It wasn’t always that way. During my youth, back before my

The Chronicles of Conan Volume 1: Tower of the Elephant and Other Stories Dark Horse Books • 2003 Softcover • 168 pages, color • $15.95 Volume 2: Rogues in the House and Other Stories Dark Horse Books • 2003 Softcover • 168 pages, color • $15.95

testosterone was diminished by watching romantic comedies with my wife, I enjoyed “manly” adventures. I was an Edgar Rice Burroughs devotee, saw Excalibur three times, and read Marvel Comics’ Conan the Barbarian each month. So nostalgically, I find it exciting that Dark Horse Comics is reprinting Marvel’s Conan run in a series of astoundingly beautiful trade paperbacks under the umbrella title The Chronicles of Conan. And given this issue’s “Marvel Milestones” theme, the importance of these tales cannot be overlooked. Conan the Barbarian #1, cover dated October 1970, was a radical departure from the titles (mostly super-hero, with the occasional Sgt. Fury and Millie the Model thrown in for a hint of diversity) previously published by Marvel during its 1960s’ Silver Age. Recalls Conan author Roy Thomas in his exceptionally informative Afterword in Volume 1, Marvel’s acquisition of novelist Robert E. Howard’s legendary barbarian was rooted in reader feedback, which also included requests for Tarzan, Doc Savage, and Lord of the Rings comics. Thomas’ regaling backstory (worthy of a BACK ISSUE “Beyond Capes”— too bad you didn’t save

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this for us, Roy!) reveals how Marvel publisher Martin Goodman’s penny-pinching almost led to a deal to adapt Lin Carter’s Thongor of Lemuria instead of Conan, and how then-newcomer Barry (Windsor-) Smith was tapped to illustrate Conan the Barbarian because Thomas’ A-list choice, John Buscema, commanded too high a page rate for this fledgling title. Conan the Barbarian became a surprise hit (although it took several issues to find its audience), ushering in a new comic-book genre— “sword and sorcery”—inspiring a spate of imitators including Kull the Conqueror, Red Sonja, The Warlord, Sword and Sorcery, Wulf the Barbarian, IronJaw, and even Thongor (in the pages of Marvel’s Creatures on the Loose). Without Thomas and Windsor-Smith’s Conan

Volume 1’s Afterword features three panels of pencil reproductions from Smith’s Conan artwork, including this one.

convincing publishers that comics could be more than just super-heroes and cartoon critters, the climate that cultivated everything from Cerebus to Sandman might not have emerged. The Chronicles of Conan Volume 1 gathers Marvel’s Conan the Barbarian #1-8, with Volume 2 following with its reprints of issues #9-13 and 16 (Smith did not

illustrate #14 and #15). The historical significance of these stories aside, it’s fascinating to observe the progression of the Thomas/Smith team. Issue #1’s “The Coming of Conan,” an original story by Roy, is quite stilted: Thomas strains to find a voice for both the barbarian and for his own narration, and Smith’s anatomy is lopsided and weakly structured (although considerably solidified by the inks of stalwart Dan Adkins). Despite these deficiencies, “The Coming of Conan” still screams with innovation—no other comic had ever looked and read quite like this one. With each story in these trades, both writer and artist congeal as an artistic team and help transform the trailblazing Conan into one of the most unique comics of its day. After three issues of original tales or loose variations of Howard’s work, with Conan battling other barbarians, beast-men, and spectral

Considered the seminal installment of the Thomas/Smith

warriors, Thomas strikes pay dirt by adapting Howard’s opus “The Tower of the Elephant” in issue #4. In this classic, Conan encounters a tortured soul named

Conan era, “Red Nails” is included

Yag-Kosha, a jade-hued humanoid with an elephant’s head. Yag-Kosha intro-

in Dark Horse’s forthcoming fourth

duced to Marvel’s Conan series the same concept that made so many of its super-

heroes a hit: larger-than-life, horrific beings with tragic lives. More bombastic beasts follow in subsequent stories, although not all of them evoke sympathy. Some, like the giant spider Omm, the Unspeakable from issue #13’s “Web of the Spider-God” (from Volume 2), deserve a quick taste of Conan’s blade—and get it!

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