Back Issue #11

Augu

05 st 20

N$o5..9151

An in-depth look at Mar vel’s

KING A R TH U

R • A AG ONÉS

PR P RO O 22

ER’S G AN I RO EV

P P

C O N A N THE

&

RO

’s DO ON

R R

• NESTOR

AT TEES EA RE ST GR G T

SS

• LD O

IES NEVER OR T T

RE D

O

GH STUFF OU • R

and wa r ri ds o go

rs

il penc art RM PEER MA UP AN SU S N ! !

D D

PIDER-M . S A S N V

SECR E HE T •T A

r Rare Rare art art by

by Buscema Buscema ARTHUR SUYDAM SUYDAM Interview Interview r Gods and ARTHUR u Windsor-Smith Windsor-Smith x x Adams Adams > > Kane Kane u Warriors!

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 !

ST REV EA TI LE R A

CONAN TM & © 2005 CONAN PROPERTIES INTERNATIONAL LLC. KING ARTHUR, MR. MIRACLE, AND SUPERMAN TM & © 2005 DC COMICS. GROO TM & © 2005 SERGIO ARAGONÉS. SPIDER-MAN TM & © 2005 MARVEL CHARACTERS, INC.

TM

BARBARIAN

A plea from the publisher of this fine digital periodical: TwoMorrows, we’re on the Honor System with our Digital Editions. We don’t add Digital Rights Management features to them to stop piracy; they’re clunky and cumbersome, and make readers jump through hoops to view content they’ve paid for. And studies show such features don’t do much to stop piracy anyway. So we don’t include DRM in our downloads.

At

However, this is COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL, which is NOT INTENDED FOR FREE DOWNLOADING ANYWHERE. If you paid the modest fee we charge to download it at our website, you have our sincere thanks. Your support allows us to keep producing magazines like this one.

If instead you downloaded it for free from some other website or torrent, please know that it was absolutely 100% DONE WITHOUT OUR CONSENT. Our website is the only source to legitimately download any TwoMorrows publications. If you found this at another site, it was an ILLEGAL POSTING OF OUR COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL, and your download is illegal as well. If that’s the case, here’s what I hope you’ll do: GO AHEAD AND READ THIS DIGITAL ISSUE, AND SEE WHAT YOU THINK. If you enjoy it enough to keep it, please DO THE RIGHT THING and go to our site and purchase a legal download of this issue, or purchase the print edition at our website (which entitles you to the Digital Edition for free) or at your local comic book shop.

Otherwise, please delete it from your computer, since it hasn’t been paid for.

And please DON’T KEEP DOWNLOADING OUR MATERIAL ILLEGALLY, for free. If you enjoy our publications enough to download them, support our company by paying for the material we produce. We’re not some giant corporation with deep pockets, and can absorb these losses. We’re a small company—literally a “mom and pop” shop—with dozens of hard working freelance creators, slaving away day and night and on weekends, to make a pretty minimal amount of income for all this hard work.

All of our editors and authors, and comic shop owners, rely on income from this publication to continue producing more like it. Every sale we lose to an illegal download hurts, and jeopardizes our future. Please don’t rob us of the small amount of compensation we receive. Doing so helps ensure there won’t be any future products like this to download.

And please don’t post this copyrighted material anywhere, or share it with anyone else.

Remember: TwoMorrows publications should only be downloaded at

www.twomorrows.com TM

TwoMorrows.Celebrating The Art & History Of Comics. (& LEGO! ) TwoMorrows • 10407 Bedfordtown Drive • Raleigh, NC 27614 USA • 919-449-0344 • FAX: 919-449-0327 • E-mail: twomorrow@aol.com • www.twomorrows.com

Barbarians, beasts, and legendary heroes abound in our

The Ultimate Comics Experience!

GODS AND WARRIORS

Volume 1, Number 11 August 2005 Celebrating the Best Comics of the '70s, '80s, and Today!

EDITOR Michael Eury

issue!

PUBLISHER John Morrow DESIGNER Robert Clark

PRO2PRO: SERGIO ARAGONÉS AND MARK EVANIER ON GROO .............................................2 The MADmen chat about comics’ dimmest barbarian, with rare art by Aragonés

ART ASSISTANT Rich J. Fowlks PROOFREADERS John Morrow and Eric Nolen-Weathington COVER ARTISTS John Buscema and Joe Jusko SPECIAL THANKS Neal Adams Tom Taggart Sergio Aragonés Joel Thingvall Manual Auad Roy Thomas Terry Austin Len Wein Daniel Best Renee Jerry Boyd Witterstaetter Mike Burkey Marv Wolfman Scott Burnley Kurt Busiek Jay Caldwell Gerry Conway Jon B. Cooke Don Corn Scott Dutton John Eury Mark Evanier Brian Friedman Dick Giordano Grand Comic-Book Database David Hamilton Heritage Comics Jeff Jatras Dan Johnson Terry Jones Joe Jusko Dave Karlen Nick Katridis Mark. B. Kirschner Michel Maillot Don Mangus Bob McLeod Steve Morger Brian K. Morris Richard Pini Wendy Pini John Romita, Sr. Josef Rubinstein Rose Rummel-Eury Tom Stewart Arthur Suydam

PRO2PRO BONUS: THE WIZ ...................................................................................................................................12 DC’s unpublished adaptation of the 1978 Michael Jackson movie, with Dan Spiegle art ROUGH STUFF: GODS AND WARRIORS PENCIL ART GALLERY ............................................14 Glorious graphite by Boring, J. Buscema, García-López, Heck, Kirby, Moebius, Pérez, Rude, M. Severin, Willingham, Wilshire, and Windsor-Smith OFF MY CHEST: SUPERMAN VS. SPIDER-MAN .............................................................................................26 Journalist Daniel Best uncovers the original crossover’s secret artist, interviewing a host of comics luminaries GREATEST STORIES NEVER TOLD: KING ARTHUR ............................................................................33 Unpublished for three decades, Nestor Redondo’s awe-inspiring artwork on the highly anticipated epic that never saw print FLASHBACK: BRIAN BOLLAND’S 1980s BRITISH ANNUALS .....................................................42 A look at rarely seen Bolland covers to U.K. publications BEYOND CAPES: CONAN THE LONG-RUNNING ................................................................................45 Behind the scenes of Marvel’s Conan the Barbarian, with art and/or commentary by Barry Windsor-Smith, Roy Thomas, John Buscema, Gil Kane, Joe Jusko, Neal Adams, and Kurt Busiek FANTASY ART GALLERY ..............................................................................................................................................66 Spellbinding illos by Bill Sienkiewicz, Joe Kubert, Jeff Jones, Wendy Pini, Mike Ploog and Alex Niño, and other talents INTERVIEW: ARTHUR SUYDAM ...........................................................................................................................74 Heavy Metal, Epic Illustrated, Cholly and Flytrap, and Mudwogs, then and now, with the award-winning artist BACK TALK ..............................................................................................................................................................................86 Reader feedback on issue #9

BACK ISSUE™ is published bimonthly by TwoMorrows Publishing, 10407 Bedfordtown Drive, Raleigh, NC 27614. Michael Eury, Editor.

John Morrow, Publisher. 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.

Conan the Barbarian TM & © 2005 Conan Properties International, LLC. Superman and Mister Miracle TM & © 2005 DC Comics. King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table © 1975 DC Comics. Groo the Wanderer TM & © 2005 Sergio Aragonés. Spider-Man TM & © 2005 Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved. All characters are © their respective companies. All material © their creators unless otherwise noted. All editorial matter © 2005 Michael Eury and TwoMorrows Publishing. BACK ISSUE is a TM of TwoMorrows Publishing. Printed in Canada. FIRST PRINTING.

G o d s

a n d

W a r r i o r s

I s s u e

•

B A C K

I S S U E

•

1

groo

much

Groo 2K Sergio Aragonés’ Groo and Ruferto in a 2000 commission shared with us

by Brian Friedman.

conducted January 26, 2005

interview

by Dan Johnson

Groo © 2005 Sergio Aragonés.

ado about

DAN JOHNSON: Sergio, tell us about Groo’s history. As I understand it, the character is close to 30 years old, correct?

SERGIO ARAGONÉS: We first published Groo in 1983, but the character was in existence long before then. I created the character in the early 1970s, but [for a long time], Groo was just a character on paper. I didn’t want to publish Groo unless I could retain the rights to him.

MARK EVANIER: Now I get to my purpose in life: correcting Sergio. [Groo] was first published in 1981.

ARAGONÉS: Yes, in Destroyer Duck #1 [from Eclipse Comics].

JOHNSON: As I understand it, Mark, you became aware

Creator-Owned Roots (Inset, far right) Groo was first seen in Steve Gerber’s Destroyer Duck #1. © 2005 Steve Gerber.

2

•

B A C K

I S S U E

•

G o d s

a n d

W a r r i o r s

I s s u e

of Groo when you saw some of the original sketches, right?

EVANIER: I saw those a couple of houses ago. Sergio had this beautiful house up in the hills, and we were up there one day and he said, “Let me show you something.” He pulled out these wonderful drawings, many of which were on the stationary of the Laugh-In television show [the second version, in 1977], which had been filmed recently, and they were all these barbarian characters and this one in particular named Groo. I asked Sergio, “Why Groo?”

He said, “I believe that name means nothing anywhere in any language.”

JOHNSON: What did you think when you first saw this character?

EVANIER: I thought it was a neat idea. I’m always a huge fan of anything Sergio did.

ARAGONÉS: The problem was, Dan, we couldn’t do anything with it. The publishing houses were against sharing the copyrights [with the creators].

EVANIER: At that point, you had a lot of double talk about ownership and copyrights. In this period of comics, companies were starting to realize that they couldn’t get new characters with the way they were doing business, but nobody had the guts to actually change things.

When Sergio had talked to publishers about doing Groo, they said, “Oh, yes, you can keep the rights, but of course we’ll have to own everything.” There was actually one person who told Sergio that it was illegal for an individual to own a copyright, so it would have to be in the name of the corporation.

ARAGONÉS: Another told me it would be over his dead body when the day came that I could own the copyrights.

EVANIER: Sergio was one of the few people that was actively working in comics who finally said, “No, I don’t believe that you’re being honest with me. I will not give you my work on those terms.” He not only wouldn’t give people Groo, he stopped working altogether on mainstream comics.

JOHNSON: That is incredible. Sergio, I remember the one-pagers you used to do for DC’s horror comics. Those were always terrific. So Groo is why you stopped doing those?

ARAGONÉS: Yes, that was the main reason.

DC didn’t want me to own the rights to my work, so I stopped working for them. I was writing stories for House of Secrets and House of Mystery, and one-pagers for the war books.

[I was doing] all kinds of stuff, but I stopped.

EVANIER: He even stopped right in the middle of a project we were doing together.

We were doing for DC an adaptation of The Wiz, the film that starred Diana Ross and Michael Jackson [see the “Pro2Pro Bonus” following this interview]. I was writing it, and I was on page 32, I think, and suddenly Sergio had a falling out with [the company] over the concept of creators’ rights. Actually, I think when Sergio left, I was almost finished with the project. It went to another artist, but DC never printed it. I didn’t work for DC for a while after that.

JOHNSON: Sergio, I had always thought that you got out of comics because of your work with MAD and your television work. I didn’t know this stemmed from Groo.

EVANIER: A normal person would have not had time to work in television and MAD, but you’re talking to Sergio Aragonés. He’s probably done several pages while we’ve had this conversation already. And he’s done my carpeting.

He’s amazing.

JOHNSON: Tell us how the character finally did see print.

As you said, the first Groo appearance was in Steve Gerber’s Destroyer Duck.

EVANIER: Well, Steve Gerber was locked in a legal battle with Marvel Comics over Howard the Duck and everybody was rallying to Steve’s support, first of all because of the position [on creator’s rights] and also they didn’t believe that someone should lose a lawsuit because they have less money than the people they are up against. At that moment, that was the particular strategy of Marvel’s lawyers, for which they were sanctioned in court and admonished because they were trying to drive up Steve’s legal bills with meaningless procedure in the hopes he would have to drop the case. The judge fined them for doing this, but Steve still couldn’t cover his legal fees. So Dean Mullaney [of Eclipse Comics], who was trying to get his first comics going, suggested doing a benefit comic. I somehow volunteered to assemble it and Jack Kirby offered to draw the lead story. We needed a back-up series, and the first person I went to was Sergio. I told him about the project, and before I was halfway finished telling him about it, he went to his drawer of series that had not been published and told me, “Take anything you want. If it’s not right, I’ll draw something special.” I said, “This is the per-

G o d s

a n d

W a r r i o r s

I s s u e

Groo’s Girl Trouble The cover art to DC Comics Resents #16 (1989), a Wonder Woman/Groo team-up.

No, we made that up— it’s actually a convention sketch commissioned from Sergio Aragonés by Joel Thingvall (check out Joel’s Wonder Woman art gallery at www. wonderthing.com).

Groo © 2005 Sergio Aragonés.

Wonder Woman © 2005 DC Comics.

Wheel of Misfortune An Aragonés splash from House of Mystery #175 (1968). Courtesy of Mike Burkey. © 2005 DC Comics.

•

B A C K

I S S U E

•

3

fect place to put Groo in, as you’ll own the copyright to it.” Sergio had one four-page Groo story completed, and it was one of only two Groo stories I was never involved with because it had no words. I said, “Let’s just publish this.” I called up a friend of mine, Gordon Kent, a colorist, and that’s the way the story got in there. It turned out to be one of the big hits of the book.

JOHNSON: There is a nice sense of symmetry there, especially considering that Destroyer Duck came about because Steve was taking a stand for creators’ rights over Howard the Duck. It seems appropriate, given Sergio’s desire to own the rights to his own work, that Groo should appear in that book first.

EVANIER: There was a very nice symmetry there. And of course eventually Marvel ended up publishing Groo for ten years on exactly the kind of contract that they once said they would never give Sergio. Steve settled his lawsuit in an amicable manner, with a settlement where both sides could claim certain victories. Groo then went to Pacific Comics and destroyed it. Groo then went to Eclipse Comics and destroyed it. Groo then went to Marvel, and I think when we left Marvel, it was in bankruptcy, if I’m not mistaken. One of the nice things about owning your own books is that you can survive. The fact that a publisher goes under doesn’t mean your comic property is sold in a bankruptcy auction and it’s passed around like a baseball card. They stay with the person who should own them, who in this case is Sergio Aragonés.

JOHNSON: What you are talking about makes me think

Yabba Dabba Groo A Fred Flintstone sketch by Groo wordsmith Mark Evanier.

Courtesy of David “Hambone” Hamilton.

Flintstones © 2005 Hanna-Barbera.

Piling it On (right) A 1984 Groo sketch by Sergio Aragonés, courtesy of Scott Burnley. © 2005 Sergio Aragonés.

The Shadow Knows A “Marginal Thinking” cartoon by Sergio Aragonés from an unspecified issue of MAD. Original art courtesy of Heritage Comics. © 2005 Sergio Aragonés.

4

•

B A C K

I S S U E

•

G o d s

a n d

W a r r i o r s

I s s u e

of how DC Comics, in the last 20 years, has bought up super-heroes from comic-book companies that have gone under, like the Charlton heroes and Wally Wood’s T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents.

EVANIER: You can talk about ownership of characters in two separate ways. One is moral ownership, ownership by the person who gave the character life, and the other is legal rights. Sometimes those two things are diametrically opposed, but sometimes, and this is nice, one guy qualifies in both categories.

JOHNSON: You touched on Pacific and Eclipse. How did Marvel come to publish Groo?

ARAGONÉS: We did eight issues with Pacific Comics, but they were getting into trouble. They were having problems with distribution, and they told us, starting with issue #5, that they didn’t know if they could continue publishing it. So, Mark started shopping Groo around, and he met a very nice lady— EVANIER: Carol Shaley, who was at that time an executive at Marvel. I called Carol at home one night and said, “I think Pacific Comics is going the way of the passenger pigeon, and even if they don’t, they won’t be publishing Groo much longer.” I asked her if Marvel would be interested, and she said, “Absolutely.” It took a long time to firm up the deal. At that time, [Epic] was still figuring out what it was going to do with creator-ownership contracts. We went through several months of negotiations, back and forth with our lawyer and Marvel’s lawyers, hammering out exact wording and clauses. I remember we got hung up at one point over whether we should be indemnified if a crate of Groo comics fell on someone and they sued the company. That was certainly a concern, because we had to be free from financial responsibility if one of Marvel’s warehouses someplace collapsed on someone.

ARAGONÉS: Another point that took a long, long time was “Stan Lee Presents.”

EVANIER: Yes. At Marvel they had a routine policy where they added “Stan Lee Presents,” and various other credits on their books. We said, “Stan Lee isn’t even going to read this comic, let alone present it.” It was just minor

details like that took a long time [to hammer out]. One of the more amusing moments from the entire proceedings came when we were in the lawyer’s office one day. We had a very high-priced, experienced Hollywood lawyer [who was] rather incompetent. He had the latest draft from Marvel, and he was supposed to have redlined changes that Marvel sent out from the previous draft. I was flipping through the contract and on page 19 there were no

Beginnings:

First professiona l art: Began selli ng cartoons to Mexican ma gazines at age 17.

First sale in U.S. : “A Mad Look at the U.S. Space Effort,” M AD #76 (1963)

Works in Progre ss:

MAD / Groo/Con an

Photo courtesy of

Cyberspace:

sergioaragone s.com.

Milestones:

Comics: Groo / MAD (including “Marginal Think cartoons) / Hous ing” e of Mystery an d House of Secr Plop! / The Mig ets / hty Magnor / Se rgio Aragonés Massacres Mar vel / Sergio Arag onés Destroys DC Sergio Aragonés / Stomps Star War s / Fanboy / The Mighty Magnor / Actions Speak / Louder Than W ords TV Animation an d TV and Film Ac ting Appearance Laugh-In (1977 ve s: rsion) / Speak Up, America / No rman, Is That You? / Di ck Clark’s TV Bloopers and Pr actical Jokes

www.sergioarag ones.com

Beginnings:

ey and scripts for Disn Cartoon-comics under p hi es tic en appr Gold Key, and an 1969–70).

Jack Kirby (circa re / Tarzan / ts / Groo / Crossfi Comics: DNAgen r / Fanboy / tte Ko elcome Back, Blackhawk / W r e Mighty Magno POV column / Th , Welcome Back Live-Action TV: an / M Animation and tic as Pl / s and Friend Kotter / Garfield llkins / ABC rbarian / The Tro Ba e th rr da un Th et / Superman: ck Ro y ial / Ricket Weekend Spec / Dungeons & ch ries / Richie Ri Se ed at im An e Incredible!

Th Dragons / That’s

changes, so the lawyer and I just went past it. Sergio though, who actually read it, said, “What is this new clause on page 19?” We went back, and “accidentally,” as Marvel claimed, their word processor stuck in a paragraph that would give them all ownership of everything Sergio had ever done. The lawyer hadn’t caught it, it hadn’t been redlined, but Sergio spotted it there.

ARAGONÉS: But after that, the contract was signed, and we did 120 issues without missing one month.

EVANIER: Yeah, you hear a lot of people say, “Oh, creatorowned comics never come out on time. Creator-owned comics are irresponsible.” We put out 120 issues, in 120 months, without a fill-in, without a reprint issue, without a late issue, and without us sleeping. . . .

JOHNSON: You’re lucky these days if you can keep the same writer and artist on a book for more than two issues in a row. Except for Gordon Kent’s departure, the Groo team has been together consistently right from the

ss: Works in Progre eroes in perh POV Online / Su /Conan oo Gr / s nt Pa My

Cyberspace:

me.com www.newsfrom

G o d s

a n d

W a r r i o r s

I s s u e

•

B A C K

I S S U E

mpanies. ir respective co Characters © the rgio Aragonés.

Cartoon by Se

Milestones:

•

5

beginning. If there is a secret to this, please share it.

Maybe the rest of the industry will pick up on it.

EVANIER: One of the reasons people go from title to title these days is they have no particular vested interest in the titles. If they owned them, like Erik Larsen owns The Savage Dragon, they have a reason to stay and nurture the title.

ARAGONÉS: Like Stan.

EVANIER: Right. Stan Sakai’s Usagi Yojimbo is his character, it’s his baby. He has a personal stake in the continuation of that character with a plot he has created and a story he wants to do. If someone comes up to you tomorrow and says, “Hey, would you like to write Thor?,” it’s not your character, it will never be your character, and you can only put so much of yourself into the book. You might do it, and you might do a fine job of it out of a love of the past comics— ARAGONÉS: Or out of professionalism— EVANIER: —or out of professionalism, but it’s like babysitting. You never put the same effort into babysitting as you do raising your own children.

JOHNSON: You mentioned how Gordon Kent came on board. How about Tom Luth and Stan Sakai? How did they join Groo?

EVANIER: Gordon Kent was, and still is, a very hard-working fellow in animation. He’s an old friend of mine, and I’ve worked with him on a number of animated television shows, and Gordon is not a professional colorist. When [working on Groo] got to be too much for him, Sergio chimed in, “Let’s get Tom Luth.”

ARAGONÉS: We were all members of CAPS [The Comic Art Preservation Society].

EVANIER: Yes, we had this [Los Angeles-based] cartoon-

Canine Loyalty “Who else would have stuck around with a barbarian like that?” says Sergio of Groo’s pooch Ruferto, who was never intended to last more than a story or two.

Groo © 2005 Sergio Aragoné s.

© 2005 Sergio Aragonés.

Groovy Groo-pies Art courtesy of Mark B. Kirschner. © 2005 Sergio Aragonés.

6

•

B A C K

I S S U E

•

G o d s

a n d

W a r r i o r s

I s s u e

ist society called CAPS that [Sergio and I] helped co-found, and Tom was a member. Sergio got the idea of having Stan Sakai letter Groo. We were talking about his other work, and Stan seemed like the perfect person. One of the reasons, I should point out that we manage to consistently meet our deadlines, is Stan and Tom are so dedicated.

We have handed them some really impossible assignments over the years, and they manage to turn them around overnight.

JOHNSON: In reading over the history of the series, it seems like one of the big concerns that people had with the series is the fact that Groo is a comical book. I have heard that there were people in the industry who were fans of Groo, but who thought it would never sell because it was trying to be funny.

ARAGONÉS: When we were selling to the direct-sales market and general distribution, the comic sold roughly around 80,000 copies. Half of that was in the direct sales market, and the other half was in the regular newsstand sales. When the companies went into direct sales, they raised the price of the comic, and they made it on better paper, so our sales went up. At the same time, we were making the same amount of money. Well, I was anyway. Mark wasn’t making any money. This was also the beginning of the collector’s market, and the comic-book shops had to buy all these exorbitant amount of comics from the big companies. There were special covers and all kinds of material sold, and smaller guys suffered. Shop owners

It’s Wanderer Time!

a one-plot effort. Sergio has run into people who go, “I was going to read Groo, b u t I hear it only has one joke in it.” Yet people have read 8,000 issues of The Hulk with one plot. They didn’t understand irony or sarcasm.

JOHNSON: While we’re on the topic of running jokes, I have to ask about cheese dip. Where did it come from?

EVANIER: In one early Groo story, there was a scene where Sergio indicated that Groo is going to look for some sort of food. We had already decided we weren’t going to really do any anachronisms, so I started wondering what kind of silly food would have existed in this era. Cheese was always a primal staple of human subsistence, but cheese in itself is not funny.

So I thought there must have been something that passed for cheese dip back then. If there was cheese, people must have been dipping something in it. So I put in cheese dip and I thought it was a one-panel throwaway. One of the fascinating things about writing something like Groo is that you come up with something at the 11th second, and then months later everybody at a convention is commenting on it over and over again and throwing your own line back at you. [You have to stop and say,] “So, oh . . . I guess that was brilliant.” We had people asking us about cheese dip, laughing about cheese dip and everyone is describing the comic as being about “this barbarian who likes cheese dip.” We would go to parties and people would bring out tons of cheese dip, thinking that they were being funny. Of course, nobody likes cheese dip, especially us. People were actually sending us packets of cheese dip. One of the stupider things we did in the comic was that we made the next running gag about mulch. I wrote about mulch and then people started sending us whole bags of fertilizer.

G o d s

a n d

W a r r i o r s

I s s u e

Tom Taggart’s tantalizing mixed-media Groo clock, courtesy of the artist. © 2005 Tom Taggart.

Groo © 2005 Sergio Aragonés.

Groo © 2005 Sergio Aragonés.

Groo © 2005 Sergio Aragonés.

said, “[Fans] may buy Groo and all these other smaller comics, but we can not lose our clientele that buys all these new comics that are coming out [and flooding the market place].” Their budget, which for comicbook shops is limited, had to go for buying these absurd collectibles materials. The fill of the regular, small comic always gets dwindled to almost nothing. The humor comic is one of the ones that suffers first.

I don’t know why, but for collectors the true meaning of comics is just super-heroes.

EVANIER: I don’t think the [comic-book] audience knows what to do when they see a joke.

They don’t know they’re supposed to laugh at it.

JOHNSON: Well, there are a lot of Howard and Burroughs fans who take the sword-and-sorcery material very seriously. They don’t respond well to jokes being poked at the genre. Myself, I always thought funny is funny. Groo is definitely a funny comic book, but could the fact that the book is a b o u t a b a r b a r i a n b e w h a t some folks don’t like?

ARAGONÉS: Don’t forget, our readership that enters into Groo is generic. It’s everybody [not just fantasy fans]. It just happens that Groo enters that field of sword and sorcery. Groo was not a satire of Conan, it was a humor comic book in the same vein that Conan was.

We never took any of Conan’s stories and satirized them.

JOHNSON: Oh, no, I understand that. I just meant that there are some folks who love this type of material and they can’t have it not being taken seriously.

ARAGONÉS: Well, if they like a good story, and if they like funny drawings, then Groo supplies both. It’s a comic that Mark and I love to do. It’s a comic that we do for ourselves.

EVANIER: There’s certainly no money in it.

ARAGONÉS: Not really.

EVANIER: For some of us at least. That’s the other thing, some people don’t get jokes. I say silly things in the book about how I don’t get paid or Sergio doesn’t speak English, and people take that seriously.

ARAGONÉS: Mark put in one of the letter pages that Groo was a one-joke comic book, and people to this day don’t buy Groo because they think it has only the one joke.

EVANIER: I meant it’s a one-joke comic book in the same sense that every super-hero comic, collectively, is

•

B A C K

I S S U E

•

7

ARAGONÉS: One of the funniest parts of the comic was the letter page that Mark wrote. To me it was the one thing I knew nothing about until the comic was published, so that way I could get something out of the book myself. When I saw the letter pages, I laughed my head off because of the answers and the particular repose Mark had with the readers.

JOHNSON: The letter pages were good. How did you come to start running the definitions of mulch?

EVANIER: With me, I have learned that you put down what you think is funny [at the time]. That’s one of the things I learned from Jack Kirby. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. It’s a little like improvisational comedy. The energy with which [humor] is created can be lost in translation, and in the reading. Mulch was something Sergio stuck in, and it seemed like a funny word and we mentioned it a lot. People started asking us what it meant, so we started defining it, and it just kind of snowballed from there. By the way, a mulch snowball is pretty frightening.

JOHNSON: Gotcha, gotcha. Now, I was introduced to

A Dog and His Barbarian Norm Lee contributed this wonderful Sergio Aragonés convention illo for publication.

Check out our cover “bullets” for a peek at it in color, with hues by Groo colorist Tom Luth. © 2005 Sergio Aragonés.

8

•

B A C K

I S S U E

•

G o d s

a n d

W a r r i o r s

I s s u e

Groo through the Marvel books. When I first saw it, I knew Sergio’s work from MAD magazine, and Mark, I had been a big fan of your work since the Blackhawk and Crossfire days. I figured that if both you gentlemen were involved with this comic, it had to be good.

EVANIER: People have gone wrong making deductions like that.

JOHNSON: Well, you guys haven’t steered me wrong yet. [long pause] It’s a compliment, guys. Please take it.

EVANIER: Okay.

JOHNSON: As I was saying, the Marvel Comics was where I discovered the character. I could be wrong, but it seemed like those issues were the ones where the character really began to pick up speed, as well as supporting characters.

Would you say that is correct?

EVANIER: Groo had supporting characters all along. One of the running problems we had was I tried to stop Sergio from doing supporting characters for a while.

ARAGONÉS: When we needed a character, it was for the plot. A character was always included only if the story needed it. Because Groo was a wanderer, he was always going to different places and finding different people.

EVANIER: Except every time we were plotting the story, we had Groo wandering to a different place and suddenly Sergio would say, “What if he runs into Paladrone?” I would say, “How can he run into Paladrone everyplace he wanders?”

ARAGONÉS: All of our characters were wanderers! Also, [I did this] for the variety of it. I didn’t want the character to look the same way, so I would find ways to make it look like they were in an Arab place, or in Africa, just for the variety of scenarios and the costumes and weapons.

But never in a particular place. When I draw a ship, I try to take from every ship, and invent a ship that could be of that era without it being a particular ship. I did it with things like that, and houses so no one could say, “Oh, that’s Turkey or that’s Siam.” [I wanted] just generic period towns where magic exists and dragons exists. I’m a stickler for crafts, so I study every craft so when I do a craftsman of the period, I can do the right tools so it is more believable.

JOHNSON: What about some of the recurring characters? I know for some artists and writers some characters are throwaways, and yet others become personal favorites.

Were there any characters that you yourselves enjoyed using in Groo?

ARAGONÉS: [Bringing characters back] really happened when we needed them in the plot. We were like a very large family.

EVANIER: At one point, we decided to give Groo a dog for one or two issues, and the dog, like some do, had a way of staying around and so we couldn’t get rid of Ruferto. He fit so well, he became an essential part of the comic.

Images of Groo

When we went to Image, the same thing happened. We got angry letters from people that said, “It’s not fair. I became an Image collector and now you’re making me buy this Groo the Wanderer.” I think there was even this one letter from a kid who had given up Marvel because they made him buy non-superhero comics, and so he started collecting Image.

ARAGONÉS: With Image, we did 12 issues. That was a good run. Then we went to Dark Horse. By then, Image was falling apart. The ownership was dissolving and it wasn’t a very stable company.

JOHNSON: How has it been working with Dark Horse?

EVANIER: It’s a very fine relationship. I have found Dark Horse to be a very mature, levelheaded company. One of the nice things about it is that they don’t have a layer of temporary executives. Unfortunately in comics, you’ll get one person who reads something and then they have to check with 12 other people. By the time you check with all 12, they will have all left the company. With Dark Horse, I go up to [publisher] Mike Richardson and say, “This is what I want to do.” He says, “Fine. Go do that,” and that’s the end of it. It’s a very nice, refreshing way to do business.

JOHNSON: I have heard that we might be seeing a Groo movie sometime in the near future. What can you tell us about that?

EVANIER: For many years we’ve been getting inquiries about doing a movie or a television series about Groo, but we never did seem to get the right feel. We’re a little possessive about Groo because we have so much invested emotionally in him. We don’t want to give up too much of the control that some of the brass would ask for. Also,

G o d s

a n d

W a r r i o r s

I s s u e

Original cover art to three 1995 issues of Groo in its Image Comics incarnation: issues #4, 7, and 8, all courtesy of Nick Katradis.

s.

Sergio Aragoné Groo © 2005

© 2005 Sergio Aragonés.

s.

Sergio Aragoné Groo © 2005

JOHNSON: I loved the fact that the dog was much smarter than Groo was.

ARAGONÉS: What happened, in the beginning with Groo being so stupid, he kept talking to himself. We needed to have some companionship for Groo, but if we had put in a human, they wouldn’t have lasted long because we would have had to get rid of them or kill them. Groo would have, because of his stupidity, become a second banana.

It had to be a dog. Who else would have stuck around with a barbarian like that? The dog wasn’t planned to stay forever. It was just an animal next to him for him to talk to. It became so wonderful, though, Ruferto stayed forever.

JOHNSON: Well, a lot of the good lines were also coming off that dog, too. I’m curious, what was the reason for leaving Marvel?

ARAGONÉS: They were getting rid of the Epic line, and by then we had figured out that we were going no place with Marvel. We had entertained offers from other companies, and one of the best ones was Image. [With Image] we figured out we could reach a new audience, so we went there. [When] we started with Image, though, we realized our audience was still the same. We didn’t even pick up one new reader from Image, because the people who buy Image buy what they think the company is, just heroes. Some readers complained that they had to buy Groo now, to completely buy Image.

EVANIER: When we were at Marvel, they got a couple of angry letters that said, “I’m a Marvel fan. I must buy all Marvel and now I have to buy this Groo thing I didn’t want.” I don’t know if that mentality exists today in comics, but then there was still that “collect the entire line” thinking.

•

B A C K

I S S U E

•

9

Groo is a luckless character and sometimes these deals go the same way. We’ve had people who were involved in deals who get fired or die.

Finally, there came a day, I’m not quite sure I understand why, but four different major Hollywood producers were suddenly bidding against each other, fighting for the rights to Groo. We went back and forth and talked to them all, and we picked a company that would give us what we wanted and was serious about doing it. We’re working on a screenplay right now, and talking to directors and I really don’t want to jinx this. This film may never happen, but we’re really comfortable with the way things are proceding at the moment. We like the people, and they like the story that is being developed. We’ll see where it goes.

JOHNSON: I can understand that. There are many stories about comic-book projects that get bought up for development, and you just know you will never see them.

EVANIER: Things have a way of taking a long time, and there are twists and turns and there are projects that are on-again, off-again. You should never take any of those things that seriously until you actually see it coming out on DVD. JOHNSON: What can Groo fans expect in the way of upcoming comics?

ARAGONÉS: We took a break [from Groo]. We had been working so hard, and we had neglected so many other projects that we both would like to do. I got very behind in other things, so we felt right now it was very convenient to take a break and work on other things.

EVANIER: I’ve been managing a Burger King and Sergio has been going door to door clipping hedges.

ARAGONÉS: We meet very often, every week, and we talk about projects. We’re discussing other projects for Groo.

Collect ’Em All Dark Horse has released a set of Groo PVCs. Groo © 2005 Sergio Aragonés.

Groo’s Latest Publisher. . . . . .is also Dark Horse Comics. Special thanks to Jerry Boyd for the photocopy of Sergio’s original cover art to Dark Horse’s first issue of Groo. © 2005 Sergio Aragonés.

A Conan/Groo Crossover??

The Cimmerian doesn’t look too happy about that. . . © 2005 Conan Properties International LLC.

1 0

•

B A C K

I S S U E

•

G o d s

a n d

W a r r i o r s

I s s u e

We haven’t quit doing it. One of the projects we are working on is very much in line [with this issue’s theme] that we’ve been discussing with Dark Horse is a Groo crossover with Conan. [Dark Horse] is very eager about it, and when Mark meets with the big bosses over there, the first thing they ask is, “How is our Groo/Conan project coming along?”

EVANIER: We always said that Groo would never crossover with any other strip, but when Dark Horse asked us about doing Conan, Sergio and I had an idea about how to do it in such a way that it would not offend our sensibilities— ARAGONÉS: Nor the Conan people’s either.

EVANIER: We’re still in discussion about this. In fact, I think we should phone [Dark Horse] about this after we finish this discussion and discuss it further.

ARAGONÉS: It would be one of those crossovers, but at the same time it wouldn’t damage either Groo or Conan.

EVANIER: Actually, it may be the last Conan comic ever published, but it’s a small price to pay for us to do something we like to do.

JOHNSON: You took down Pacific, you took down Eclipse, and now you’re taking down Conan.

EVANIER: After that, we’re going after the government.

JOHNSON: I take it then this won’t be like the Archie/ Punisher crossover from a few years ago, right?

EVANIER: No, no, no.

ARAGONÉS: Not even close. This is something that will

Groo © 2005 Sergio Aragonés.

and I have certainly learned in the past to trust that anything with both your names on it will be quality goods. [long pause] And yes, that is a compliment, Mark. Just take it, and don’t fight me on this.

EVANIER: Okay.

JOHNSON: Guys, thanks for a great interview.

Groo © 2005 Sergio Aragonés.

make sense. Mark wrote a wonderful comic that I illustrated called Fanboy and that was a mixture of humor and the super-heroes, and that never offended anyone that we know.

EVANIER: That’s because nobody read it. You can’t offend people if nobody buys the comic.

JOHNSON: Sounds like this is going to be a great project,

He Says “Bye” With a Little Help From His Friends Sergio Aragonés and his Groo cast, plus a special friend. © 2005 Sergio Aragonés. Alfred E. Newman © 2005 E.C. Publications.

G o d s

a n d

W a r r i o r s

I s s u e

•

B A C K

I S S U E

•

1 1

Ease on Down the Road to Limbo A page from DC Comics’ unpublished The Wiz (1978), written by Mark Evanier and illustrated by Dan Spiegle.

The Wiz © 1978 Motown and Universal Pictures.

Art © 1978 DC Comics.

1 2

•

B A C K

I S S U E

•

G o d s

a n d

W a r r i o r s

I s s u e

Sergio Aragonés’ stand for creator’s

Johnson

to treat the material.”

rights over Groo led him to walk away from main-

The plug was pulled on The Wiz when DC got wind

stream comics in the mid-1970s. A project that was

that the film was not going to be the blockbuster the

affected by his departure was a comics adaptation of

studio was hoping it would be. For Evanier, The Wiz

The Wiz—the “reimagining” of The Wizard of Oz with

being canned wasn’t too big of a disappointment. Even

an all-black cast, including Diana Ross and Michael

though the project was aborted, some good did come

Jackson—which he was slated to do with Mark Evanier

out of it. “One of the motives I had for doing the book

for DC Comics. Evanier wrote the adaptation’s script

was, Dan wanted to work for DC, and I thought he should

and replacement artist Dan Spiegle penciled the entire

work for DC,” says Evanier. “The fact that Orlando

book and inked around 22 pages before the project

wanted him on this project was a sign that I wanted

was cancelled.

to encourage. Orlando called me first and asked me

Had The Wiz been released, it would have been pub-

what I thought the problems would be if we called [The

lished in a magazine format with photos and related

Wiz] off. I told him, ‘I can’t speak for Dan, but if I were

articles. DC hoped that The Wiz would reach a broader

you, I would offer him a lot of other work in

audience beyond the one that was buying super-hero

exchange for stopping in the middle of the project after

comics at the time. There was even some talk of selling

he had cleared his schedule to do this book.’ DC gave

the magazine as a souvenir book in the lobby of the

Dan another comic to draw the next day, and he

theaters that showed the movie.

worked pretty steadily for DC for years after.”

Originally The Wiz adaptation was going to be written

by Len Wein, drawn by Sergio Aragonés, and edited by Joe Orlando. When Wein left the project because of other writing commitments, Aragonés suggested that DC hire

sidebar sidebar sidebar sidebar sidebar sidebar

n

by Da

Mark Evanier to write it. When Aragonés vacated the project, the only thing that kept Evanier interested was Orlando’s suggestion to bring Spiegle on board. Spiegle, who had worked with Evanier previously on Scooby-Doo, the film and television adaptations he had done for Dell and Gold Key. Orlando got a copy of the screenplay before Evanier did, and he was the one who noted what parts of the screenplay should be omitted for the adaptation and what parts should be played up. “Joe and I had this one-hour long phone conversation where he read me his notes and I wrote them down, and they were my

Even though DC decided not to publish its adaptation of The Wiz, one of the movie’s stars, Michael Jackson, eventually danced his way into comic books. Captain Eo, a 17-minute 3-D movie starring the King of Pop, was produced in 1987 by George Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola for exclusive showings in Disney theme parks. Eclipse Comics published a 3-D adaptation of the film, illustrated by Thomas Yeates and released

blueprints,” says Evanier. “The result was one of those

in two formats: as a traditional comic book and in an

comics where I felt that I didn’t have any of myself

original art-sized souvenir edition sold exclusively at Disney

invested in it. If anything, it was Joe’s choice of how

gift shops.

G o d s

a n d

W a r r i o r s

I s s u e

•

B A C K

© 1987 Walt Disney Corp.

was considered an excellent replacement because of

I S S U E

•

1 3

© 2005 Marvel Characters, Inc.

MARIE S EV ERIN • CAPTAIN MARVEL

n amilto H ” e bon “Ham ends) d i v a fri

by D (and

1 4

•

B A C K

I S S U E

•

G o d s

a n d

W a r r i o r s

I s s u e

WAY N E B O R I N G • C A P T A I N M A R V E L

© 2005 Marvel Characters, Inc.

© 2005 Marvel Characters, Inc.

The Kree warrior Mar-vell,

by Marie Severin (opposite page). There’s a curious set of circumstances revolving around this rejected version of the cover to Captain Marvel #10 (Feb. 1969—oops, this doesn’t really fall between this magazine’s stated ’70s/ ’80s realm, but what the “heck”—who, by the way, drew the inside story [Don Heck, that is]). I suppose Stan the Man felt this cover gave too much away (the growing-old “eon ray,” revealed on pg. 5, no less!), so a second Severin cover was done (see inset), inked by the late, great John Verpoorten.

The pencil pieces on this page represent Wayne “Superman” Boring’s earliest work on the post-Roy Thomas/Gil Kane/Dan Adkins new version of the cosmic Captain, which have never seen print on this planet . . . before. Oh, yeah!

G o d s

a n d

W a r r i o r s

I s s u e

•

B A C K

I S S U E

•

1 5

J A C K K I R BY • M I S T E R M I R A C L E

© 2005 DC Comics.

© 2005 DC Comics.

Another rejected cover, this one by Jack “Fourth World/King” Kirby, for what would’ve been the original packaging for DC Comics’ Mister Miracle #10 (Oct. 1972). Oddly, this piece (stupendous, by the way, folks) went all the way through the finishedink stage by Mr. Mike Royer (inset 1). Yet a far less dynamic/dramatic version (inset 2) was commissioned and used. Go figure!!

© 2005 DC Comics.

1 6

•

B A C K

I S S U E

•

G o d s

a n d

W a r r i o r s

I s s u e

A Steve Rude glimpse (before Mike Royer’s magnificent inks) from the Mister Miracle one-shot Special (summer of

STEV E RU D E • MISTER MIRACLE

1987)—page number 24! Plus, the preliminary cover sketch for what would guide the look of the finished cover, all by “the Dude.” A double-shot of previously unseen ’80s wonderment!

© 2005 DC Comics.

© 2005 DC Comics.

G o d s

a n d

W a r r i o r s

I s s u e

•

B A C K

I S S U E

•

1 7

J O H N B US C EMA • CONAN

Art © 1974 Marvel Comics Group. Conan © 2005 Conan Properties International LLC.

A blast from the past—from John Buscema’s first year on Conan the Barbarian, page 17 of issue #39 (June 1974)! For a further exploration of this graphic milestone, and more Conan pencils (and other art) by Big John as well as Gil “Sugar” Kane, see this issue’s cover feature on everyone’s favorite barbarian.

1 8

•

B A C K

I S S U E

•

G o d s

a n d

W a r r i o r s

I s s u e

Mary Wilshire, one of the truly unsung

M A RY W I L S H I R E • R E D S O N J A

talents of comicdom (remember her fantastic work on Marvel’s/Louise Simonson’s Power Pack?), penciled this eye-catching cover to Red Sonja #2 (Oct. 1983)—female swordplay at its best!

Although the note in the bottom margin of the artboard says the cover was to be inked by master craftsman Walter Simonson, Ms. Wilshire inked the cover herself, and quite ably, we

© 1983 Marvel Comics Group.

might add.

G o d s

a n d

W a r r i o r s

I s s u e

•

B A C K

I S S U E

•

1 9

The too-damn-talented José Luis García-López penciled this perfect specimen of a page

J O S É LU IS G ARC IA- L O P É Z • ORION

from DC’s mid-1990s Showcase series, starring the new god (as in “Gods and Warriors,” get it?) Orion, Kirby’s classic character written in this story by the aforementioned Walt Simonson.

© 2005 DC Comics.

2 0

•

B A C K

I S S U E

•

G o d s

a n d

W a r r i o r s

I s s u e

© 2005 Marvel Characters, Inc.

D O N H EC K • HERCULES

Fantastic storytelling

by Mr. Don Heck (see TwoMorrows’ Alter Ego #42 for more on Heck) from a Hercules (son of a god and the one-andonly Prince of Power) short from Marvel Comics Presents. Simple and to the point—story progression at its best (someone to learn from . . . no flash needed!).

G o d s

a n d

W a r r i o r s

I s s u e

•

B A C K

I S S U E

•

2 1

M O EBIUS • SILVER SURFER

A wonderfully realized piece of Moebius’ original art from the Stan Lee-written Silver Surfer two-issue microseries of late 1988/early 1989. Here’s an epic clash between the warrior Norin Radd (he’s the one on the surfboard) and the godlike Galactus.

Few examples of Jean Giraud’s (aka Moebius) work have ever survived the pencil stage to

© 2005 Marvel Characters, Inc.

print . . . enjoy!

2 2

•

B A C K

I S S U E

•

G o d s

a n d

W a r r i o r s

I s s u e

BIL L W IL LIN G HAM • THE ELEMENTALS

Bill Willingham is known today as the writer of DC’s Day of Vengeance, Robin, and (Vertigo series) Fables, but back in the ’80s he put himself on the comics map as the writer/penciler of Elementals, from the long-defunct Comico the Comic Company.

Here’s page 17 of issue #3 (1984), featuring the fire/earth/air/water team whose members rose from the dead to receive

© 2005 Comico.

their super-powers!

G o d s

a n d

W a r r i o r s

I s s u e

•

B A C K

I S S U E

•

2 3

B A R RY W I N D S O R - S M I T H • M I R A C L E M A N ™

Barry Windsor-Smith is a god of graphite, and Miracleman has god-like powers— what a duo of deities!

Here’s the penciled version of the cover of Miracleman #24 (June 1993).

Miracleman is a shared ™ of Todd McFarlane Productions, Inc. and Neil Gaiman and Mark Buckingham.

2 4

•

B A C K

I S S U E

•

G o d s

a n d

W a r r i o r s

I s s u e

G EO RG E P É RE Z • WAR OF THE GODS

© 2005 DC Comics.

Truly a sterling example of George Pérez’s loose layouts/ pencil roughs, from the cover to DC Comics’ War of the Gods #3 (Nov. 1991). The fully finished cover inks are, for your total enjoyment, provided as well. (Are we [me] good to you folks . . . or what?!)

G o d s

a n d

W a r r i o r s

I s s u e

•

B A C K

I S S U E

•

2 5

guest editorial by daniel best Gods and Warriors Nearly 30 years

Superman vs. Spider-Man The Secret Artist Revealed

after its publication, Superman vs. the Amazing Spider-Man (1976) remains the super-hero crossover of all time.

Editor’s Note: In researching his forthcoming biography of artist team supreme Ross Andru and Mike Esposito, journalist and teacher Daniel Best discovered a mystery that, quite frankly, I initially didn’t realize was a mystery—Andru was not the only penciler on the legendary first crossover between the premier super-heroes of DC and Marvel Comics. In an impressive display of journalism, Best traipses through a web of creators to reveal the full story of this historic comic-book event, and he’d like to get that . . . off his chest. —M.E.

Superman © 2005 DC Comics.

Spider-Man © 2005 Marvel Characters, Inc.

2 6

•

B A C K

I S S U E

•

G o d s

a n d

W a r r i o r s

I s s u e

When the legend becomes fact, print the legend.

The above quote was all well and good for John Ford; however, at times the legend becomes the truth and the discovery of the actual facts becomes all the more harder. After all, memory is a tenuous thing at best.

In early 2004, Mike Esposito and I were talking about the Andru and Esposito book that I was in the process of preparing. We’d spent a considerable amount of time talking about various aspects of the pair’s career and the artists that Mike had worked with over the years. As is the norm whenever Mike and myself speak, a lot of the conversation was taken up by subjects other than comic books, and it was during one of those conversations that Mike made an offhand comment about the Superman vs. The Amazing Spider-Man treasury edition that saw the light in of day in 1976. Mike’s comments were about how his art partner, Ross Andru, had made the book into something more than a comic book, and into an experience that was almost cinematic. To me that was an opening to discuss the book and I started by asking if Mike had ever been considered as an inker for the project, considering his history with both Ross and Marvel and DC (at the time very few artists had worked on both Superman and SpiderMan—Ross Andru and Mike Esposito were amongst them). Little did I know that I was about to open a can of worms that’d take nearly a year to close.

Mike instantly came back with the following: “I was supposed to ink the first Superman/Spider-Man crossover. However, I got into a big argument with Marv Wolfman, who was the editor at Marvel at the time. They kept changing editors; Roy Thomas was the editor at one stage, then Marv, then Len Wein. I got a call from Sol Harrison at DC and he said, ‘Mike, we want to team you and Ross up together. We’re going to do a crossover with Spider-Man and Superman and since you guys were known as Andru and Esposito up here we figure it’d be perfect for you guys to do it.’ And it was all set to go, and then Marv Wolfman, and I’m not doing this verbatim, I’m paraphrasing what happened, he called them up and said, ‘You can’t have both guys.’

“It was like they were trading ball players from one team to another. He said, ‘You can have Ross but you can’t have Mike, or you can have Mike but you can’t

Page 4 of

have Ross. You can’t have both of them.’ So Sol Harrison called me up and he was very apologetic because he really enjoyed the idea of having the two guys from years ago coming together on the project. He said, ‘It looks like you’re not going to do it. I’m sorry, Mike.

It looks like Dick Giordano is going to be put on it.’”

So far, so good? Well, no. For the record, and before we go any further, Mike only has good words to say about Dick: “Dick Giordano did a good job.

It’s a very nice book.”

However, this is only the start of the legend/fact part of the story. I then contacted Marv Wolfman and included a copy of Mike’s comments for clarification as the journalist inside of me knows that in order to get all the facts, you have to at least ask anyone and everyone that’s being mentioned in your story. If they tell you to take a hike, well at least you’ve asked, so they can’t then come back at you. So I emailed Marv.

I’ve never met Marv, but I have emailed him more than once and he’s always been a good guy to me.

He’s been friendly, courteous, and more than helpful, which is why I was taken aback slightly when this reply came in, only a few hours after my email left. Marv’s reply read as follows: “Mike’s quote from Sol is wrong. I was on the Marvel black-andwhite books at the time, not the color comics. I had absolutely nothing to do with deciding who was on the Superman/Spider-Man book.

G o d s

a n d

W a r r i o r s

I s s u e

Superman vs. the Amazing Spider-Man. Superman © 2005 DC Comics.

Spider-Man © 2005 Marvel Characters, Inc.

•

B A C K

I S S U E

•

2 7

“Len Wein was the editor, as he will tell you because I had to hold him back when he nearly strangled the guy from Cadence Corp. who told us about the team-up and that Len, as the Marvel editor, would not have any say in the matter. I may have later inherited the project when Len left Marvel, but I don’t remember. At any rate, I know the team had been selected without us, and that the idea, as little as I remember of it now, was that there would be a Marvel penciler and a DC inker on it so I doubt that Mike would have been considered, despite his years with Ross, because they wanted people from both companies working on each step of it. Gerry Conway was the writer because he had written both Superman and Spider-Man, the only one to do it at that point.”

There was more, but I’ve decided not to let that go to air, so to speak. Marv might have been having a bad day, or perhaps he felt that I (or Mike) was accusing him of something that he’d clearly not done. As it was I emailed an instant apology to Marv and as he’d commented that he wished people would get their facts right, I assured him that I was indeed working hard to get the facts down pat, and that I’d not be letting anything go to print without everyone involved giving their side of the story. Marv replied that I perhaps should contact Len Wein and ask for his side of things. I thanked Marv, apologized again, and contacted Len and included everything I’d gathered thus far. Len had a read of it and came back with the following: “I’m pretty much with Marv on this one. I was the Marvel editor-in-chief at the time, not Marv, who had nothing at all to do with the Superman/SpiderMan book other than saving then Marvel Publisher Al Landau’s life when I threw myself at him, determined to rip out his throat, after Landau told me when I complained about losing Ross Andru’s penciling services off the Amazing Spider-Man title for a couple of months, that, despite my position as Marvel E-i-C and also being the current writer on Amazing Spider-Man, what went on in the S/S-M team-up book was, quote, ‘None of your f*cking business!’

“Nobody in Marvel editorial had anything whatsoever to do with determining who worked on the Superman/Spider-Man book and, to the very best of my memory, Mike Esposito’s name never came up.

And, frankly, I doubt it would have. As mentioned, the idea was to make this one-shot a true cross-company

The Amazing Spider-Man #160 (Sept. 1976), from the Wein/Andru/ Esposito era of the book; cover by John Romita. © 2005 Marvel Characters, Inc.

Stan Lee (top) and Carmine Infantino circa 1976, from the inside front cover to Superman vs. the Amazing Spider-Man. Photos © 1976 Marvel Comics Group and DC Comics.

2 8

•

B A C K

I S S U E

•

G o d s

a n d

W a r r i o r s

I s s u e

book. That meant splitting the creative services between the two companies. Thus, the writing came from DC (Gerry Conway), the penciling from Marvel (Ross Andru), the inking from DC (Dick Giordano), the coloring from Marvel (Glynis Oliver), and the lettering from DC (Gaspar Saladino). Even the cover was laid out by DC’s then-publisher, artist Carmine Infantino, penciled by Ross, and inked by Dick, and colored

by Glynis.

“Despite what whatever line of bull Sol Harrison might have fed Mike (Sol had his own agenda at the time, having been passed over for the publisher position), I don’t believe for an instant it ever happened.

The best I could imagine was Ross (always a wonderful man) suggesting his buddy Mike as inker and being overruled for the reasons mentioned above.

“Also, it should be noted that Mike inked the two issues of Amazing Spider-Man that Ross missed while penciling the crossover. The fill-in penciler for those issues was Sal Buscema.” 1 I thanked Len and promised that he could have a look at the final draft of this article in case there might be some comments he’d rather not allow see the light of day.

TH-TH-THAT’S SOL, FOLKS! So, there it was. My theory is that Mike had been asked to ink the book by Sol Harrison, and had then been told, again by Sol, that the editors at Marvel had refused to give permission. My best guess is that everyone is right—the events that Mike, Marv, and Len recounted all happened, however it more than likely happened like this: Ross Andru is asked to pencil the crossover and elects Mike as his inker of choice. This wouldn’t have come as a surprise as Mike and Ross went back to when they were kids, they’d published together, they’d drawn and written together, they even got married at roughly the same time. Ross and Mike did pretty much everything together, and Mike’s inks did complement Ross pencils, and Ross must have felt that on a project of such magnitude he might need a sympathetic inker, and, knowing how lucrative a project this would be, wanted to include Mike. So Ross asks Sol Harrison who then calls Mike and tells him how everyone at DC wants to reunite the Andru/ Esposito art team for this book. Now, as Len recounts, Sol had more than a few hidden agendas at that stage, perhaps Sol did indeed ask the editors at Marvel only to be told no. More likely he didn’t, and was told who the creative team would be: Gerry Conway (at that stage the only man to have written both Superman and Spider-Man for any length of time), Ross Andru (the only man to have drawn both characters at that stage),

Dick Giordano (pretty much the preeminent inker of any era), and so on, taking people from both Marvel and DC. Sol probably found himself in a bind. He had made a promise to Mike and now had to break that promise, so he called Mike and gave him the line that Marvel had turned down DC’s request for Andru/Esposito. At that time Andru/Esposito had established themselves as the main art team for the book The Amazing SpiderMan. Roy Thomas, Marv Wolfman, and Len Wein had all edited the book, albeit Marv only editing the one issue (#150). Gerry Conway had written the book until March 1975 when Len Wein took over, with the one fill-in issue, #150, which was written by Archie Goodwin.

Other than one issue written by Marv, Len would remain as the writer/editor on the title until Marv replaced him in mid-1978, well after the Superman vs. the Amazing Spider-Man book had been published.

Mike simply has his names mixed up, but he does believe that someone at Marvel had him taken off the book. But at the end of the day it wasn’t Marv Wolfman, and we might never know for sure, but it appears that Sol Harrison in all likelihood pointed the finger at Marv and used him as a scapegoat.

Mike does have regrets about not doing the book, the sheer cool factor of seeing the Andru/Esposito name on one of the biggest projects that either of them would ever be likely to be connected to is one of them.

But there’s another: money. In Mike’s own words, “It would have been nostalgic and it would have been a landmark thing for us two guys to come back together to work for DC on Superman, because we had done Superman together in the late ’60s and we both were doing Spider-Man at the time. Our names were still going together with the old days of Metal Men and Wonder Woman, and so on and now we were finding a new audience with Spider-Man. The book did very well and Ross got a lot of money for it, I think he got around $27,000, which is pretty good as a royalty, and later he got more from the reprints.”

JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY A nice tale, with a happy ending? Far from it. Once I had fairly well established who had actually said what and to whom, another spanner was thrown into the works: Who actually drew the book?

In the book are the credits. The credits read: Writer: Gerry Conway. Artist: Ross Andru. Inker: Dick Giordano, and so on. The book was edited by the then two editor-in-chiefs at the respective companies, Stan Lee and Carmine Infantino. Infantino even laid the cover out for Ross to follow. Again, as simple as it looks, nothing is quite as it appears.

As part of my website project I take it upon myself to interview artists. In early 2004, I was flattered when none other than legendary inker, Josef Rubenstein, approached me and asked if I’d like to interview him.

I leapt at the chance and placed the call. It was a lovely chat and in the process of the interview we spoke about more than I’d actually use, and one of those subjects was, you guessed it, the Superman/Spider-Man book. I had asked if the rumors were true, that Josef had helped ink the book, along with Terry Austin, and the reply was a resounding ‘yes’: “Terry Austin did all the backgrounds and I may have done the blacks and touch ups. Terry certainly did the blacks on the backgrounds; I just don’t remember the figure part. It was done same size. That’s the story.”

Then Josef took things one step further by telling me that Ross wasn’t the only penciler on the book and that, “Neal Adams couldn’t stand not being included in such a history-making project so with or without Dick Giordano‘s permission he redrew all of the major Superman figures and inked the one on the cover.” 2

G o d s

a n d

W a r r i o r s

I s s u e

Our heroes rub shoulders in their true identities of Peter Parker and Clark Kent.

Credited embellisher Dick Giordano wasn’t the only artist who inked page 45.

Superman © 2005 DC Comics.

Spider-Man © 2005 Marvel Characters, Inc.

•

B A C K

I S S U E

• 2 9

Look closely at

No way was I going to allow that one to slide. I sat on it for a while, and had a look at the book. Certainly the book had that glossy Neal Adams-like feel to it, but then there’s not that much difference between Ross’s Superman and Neal’s. Plus anyone inked in the Continuity studios at that stage came out looking like Neal Adams—after all, the studios did belong to Neal and Dick Giordano, and Dick was the inker on the book.

I ran it past a few people I knew and was told not to be as silly as to believe it. An ex-production staffer at DC at the time told me that there was no way known that Neal could have had anything to do with the book, as

the Man on Steel on page 48 of Superman vs. the Amazing Spider-Man: Does this look like “pure” Ross Andru pencil art to you?

Superman © 2005 DC Comics.

Spider-Man © 2005 Marvel Characters, Inc.

3 0

•

B A C K

I S S U E

•

G o d s

a n d

W a r r i o r s

I s s u e

the production staff had seen the pages, both before and after inking, and there was no evidence of tampering. I brought it up in an online conversation with Mark Evanier, who also told me that it was impossible, as he, too, had seen the original penciled pages and they were the same as what was published. Mark’s views were, “John Romita did redraw most of the heads of Peter Parker and other supporting Spider-Man characters . . . even though the Andru versions were good enough to appear for years in the Spider-Man comics. That whole book had a ‘too many cooks’ mentality about it.” 3 Far from solving a mystery, Mark had opened yet another can of the proverbial. I’d known for a while though that John Romita had redrawn the Peter Parker heads (you only have to look at them). This was bugging me though, and the question still remained: Did Neal Adams redraw the Superman figures, and if he had, how did he do it?

If everyone who’d seen the original pages agreed that there was no way known that Neal could have redrawn the figures between the pencil and ink stage, then what was the truth?

One thing I’d always been taught when I started working as a journalist at the ABC here in Australia—if you keep going you’ll end up at the end of the line. Don’t bother working your way up the pole to the top, go straight to the top at the first opportunity and don’t bother with the underlings. With that in mind, and it did take me a while to recall it, I decided that there was pretty much only three people who could probably answer the question of who drew the book for me: Ross Andru, Neal Adams, and Dick Giordano.

Asking Ross was out of the question—sadly, he passed away in 1993. So the next step was going to the two people who might be able to answer me. First stop was Dick Giordano.

I’ve been conducting an interview with Dick for months now, off and on, via email. I decided to sneak the question into the interview because I felt that if he said yes, and elaborated, that Neal had redrawn some figures, then it’d make the interview all that more interesting—if indeed you can make an interview

with Dick more interesting than it’s going to be— Dick could tell you what he had for lunch and you’d be sitting there in rapture. The guy has made a career out of taking ordinary, mundane things and making them special, so an interview with Dick is like an audience with God—you come away from it better than you walked in. So the question was asked and I left it at that.

Dick had been answering my questions when time permitted, so there had been gaps between my questions and his replies of up to a month. So I sat and waited, all the time finding more and more resistance to the idea that Neal had indeed redrawn the book. I had emailed Neal’s son Joel, who suggested I email Neal—that’s like asking me to email the Pope. I sent the email but deep down I didn’t expect that much of a reply, if any at all. I know that Neal is a very, very busy man, and in the context of things, I’m just another person.

Two replies in two days. Vindication. Josef had been right all along. Mark Evanier was wrong—for probably the first time in his life. The people I’d spoken to who’d worked at DC at the time had been wrong. Neal did have a hand in drawing the book.

The first reply I got back was from Dick. It read, “No one asked Neal to redraw the Superman figures, but the pages were sent to me at Continuity and were mostly left on my desk or thereabouts when I went home at night or on weekends and Neal took it upon himself to redraw the Superman figures without telling me that he was going to do it. I didn’t complain, but I also never mentioned it to anyone at the time and really never spoke of it until now . . . mostly out of respect for Ross and his work. Ross was one of the very best storytellers in the business as well as great at composition, layouts and design. But his drawing was a bit quirky and somewhat distorted as a result of an eye problem that affected his perception. He often drew on one side of the paper, then, on a light box, turned it over and redrew it on the other side, correcting the distortion, then reversed the page again and traced the corrected version from the back side of the art board onto the copy side.

This took a great deal of time and slowed him down greatly toward the end of his career. But. . . “. . .I loved the distortions! It gave his work a charm and distinction that I always believed was appealing. I learned how to ink his work to minimize the distortion without losing the charm! That became moot, as Neal changed/corrected all the Superman figures to his own frame of reference. I tried in the inking not to lose too much of the Ross Andru look (and to his credit, Neal tried, as well, to retain the “look” mostly correcting anatomy errors in his redrawing). You really couldn’t lose

his storytelling or compositions, so in my mind, the result was still Ross Andru at his best!!

“I questioned Neal’s son’s claim that Neal inked the Superman figure on the cover. He redrew it and I inked it . . . and then Neal may have gone back and tightened up some of my inks as he often did on my inks on his material. He never much liked my more organic brush inking, preferring the more controlled look of pen inking. Different strokes. . .”

Then the big one. Dick had confirmed what I had suspected, and what Josef had been telling people all these years, that Neal had redrawn the Superman figures. Still one problem remained—how did he do it?

If people such as Mark Evanier had seen the pages both pre- and post-inks and were adamant that they’d not been tampered with, then how had Neal done it? I have no reason to doubt Mark’s word—indeed, I have the utmost respect for Mark and many has been the time that I’ve sourced either his work, or the man himself, for clarification. Still Dick had said what he’d said, so how did Neal pencil the book? We all know that Neal is an artistic genius, but this was art beyond art! Then Neal gave me the answer himself.

G o d s

a n d

W a r r i o r s

I s s u e

With Doc Ock and Luthor snagged, our heroes become super friends on penultimate page 91 of Superman vs. the Amazing Spider-Man. Superman © 2005 DC Comics.

Spider-Man © 2005 Marvel Characters, Inc.

•

B A C K

I S S U E

•

3 1

PASS THE MUSTARD, PLEASE This is how Neal Adams redrew the Superman vs. the Amazing Spider-Man treasury edition: “Dick was given the job to ink Ross on the book,” says Adams. “When I looked at the first pages I realized Ross had rushed some of the work and Dick, himself, had a lot of pressure deadline-wise. I thought, ‘How many times would Supes go up against Spidey? How many shots will this project get?’ One! “I knew the strengths and weaknesses of the two artists. I asked Dick if I could tighten up the cover for him in preparation for inking. He said, ‘Long as you don’t, basically, change it.’ I said, ‘Never, I’ll just sorta ink it with a pencil.’ It worked out nicely.

“Then we agreed to ask Ross if I could, because I had more experience with Superman, tighten up the Superman figures in the book. Ross was delighted. Dick and I were delighted. I took great effort to keep the Ross Andru look and quality while I added a bit of anatomy here and there, chiselled a face a bit, and basically inked with a pencil, after which Dick inked with ink. I don’t think you could find a collaboration the likes of this one, anywhere. I was the mustard on a ham and swiss.

“The method I used?

“I ran a kneaded eraser over each Superman figure, which lightened the pencil. Then I penciled new lines over the old and filled in areas that were unfinished, I located the roughed in ‘S’ symbol and solid-ed up the anatomy. I knew Ross Andru’s style, so I kept it Ross as best I could, and Dick blended it with his inks . . . but if you look real close. . . .

“Ross came up and visited me at the studio after that and we became quite friendly.” 4 MYSTERY SOLVED!!! Neal didn’t redraw it as much as he embellished the pencil art—which is why anyone who’s seen the penciled pages will swear that nothing was erased—because, technically, nothing was erased.

This is why Neal Adams is an artistic genius: because the man can find a solution in any given situation.

Next on the list was John Romita. As part of writing the book about Andru and Esposito I found myself on the phone with John late one night, just talking about Ross and Mike as artists and people. In the middle of the conversation, without any prompting John came out with the following: “I think the greatest thing Ross did was the Spider-Man vs. Superman crossover. I have told many people at many conventions that I don’t know of anybody I know who could have done a better job on a huge project like that. It’s high profile, you’re out there exposed, and he did the best job I’ve ever seen on such a big project. That’s one of my favorite books of all time. I did work with him on that book because I was the consultant for Marvel and Stan sort of insisted

(Below right) Page 92 of Superman vs. SpiderMan was rich with characters and artists’ contributions.

Superman © 2005 DC Comics.

Spider-Man © 2005 Marvel Characters, Inc.

1 Len Wein; September 2004 2 Josef Rubenstein; September 2004 3 Mark Evanier; Gene Colan Yahoo List; January 2005 4 Neal Adams; January 2005 5 AI with John Romita; February 2005

3 2

•

B A C K

I S S U E

•

G o d s

a n d

W a r r i o r s

I s s u e

that every once in a while I’d have to touch up a Mary Jane Watson face, or a Peter Parker face. You might find a couple of my faces sticking out like a sore thumb in that book.” 5 With the art team finally now in place, perhaps the revised credits for the book should now read: Written

by Gerry Conway, penciled by Ross Andru with assists

by Neal Adams and John Romita, inked by Dick Giordano with assists by Terry Austin and Josef Rubenstein. In any era, those are credits that’d leave any serious comicbook fan in awe.

But will it? Unlikely. It leaves us with a landmark book, one that is fondly remembered by all that have read it for the first time—who can go past that incredible double page spread of Supes and Spidey shaking hands? Who’d dare to?? When you’re talking iconic images in comic books, that ranks up there with all of them. The meeting of the two main companies of the day, the first proper super-hero crossover (not counting the Rutland crossovers, and The Wizard of Oz), and the book that blazed a trail that’s still being followed.

And it was so darn big!!!

Daniel Best, longtime reader of comics, hails from Adelaide, South Australia. He maintains a website where he interviews creators, teaches Comic Books As Pop Culture at the Adelaide WEA, and when not being woken up in the dead of night by his gray cat, is the author of an upcoming biography of Ross Andru and Mike Esposito.

KING ARTHUR and the Knights of the Round Table:

Passed Into Legend

Redondo, the Art King Magical page 3 of Nestor Redondo’s unpublished masterpiece. All King Arthur

by

Morris Brian K. g by Gerry

-checkin (with fact d Manuel Auad) n a y a Conw

original art pages in this article are courtesy of Manuel Auad and Dave Karlen. © 1975 DC Comics.

Chances are that if Arthur Pendragon truly existed, he probably didn’t look like Richard Burton, Richard Harris, or even Graham Chapman. Maybe the tales of he and his knights are an amalgam of folk tales embellished through centuries of retelling, but we may have no way of ever knowing. However, like Beowulf, The Iliad, and The Odyssey, the tales that remain comprise a classic story of sword and sorcery to say nothing of romance, intrigue, and betrayal.

G o d s

a n d

W a r r i o r s

I s s u e

•

B A C K

I S S U E

•

3 3

Redondo’s water-

Gerry Conway broke into comics writing for the

of MGM’s Wonderful Wizard of Oz by Roy Thomas,

colored front

DC Comics horror books when he was only 15 and

John Buscema, and Tony DeZuniga and Superman

and back covers

soon moved over to Marvel. By the time he left in

vs. the Amazing Spider-Man (written by Conway).

to the Arthurian adaptation (we lament that our black-and-white format doesn’t allow their color

1975, he had written many of Marvel’s top titles

As Conway recalls, DC actively sought new projects

such as Fantastic Four, Amazing Spider-Man, Thor,

to fill these oversized books. “I’m not sure if it was

Daredevil, and Tomb of Dracula while still in his

[editor] Joe Orlando who suggested it to me or whether

early twenties. Conway jumped to DC to write and

I suggested it to him, but we talked of doing an

edit existing titles such as Kamandi and Tarzan,

adaptation of Le Morte d’Arthur.” Originally published

revive books like Blackhawk and All-Star Comics, as

publication).

well as create new titles such as Freedom Fighters, © 1975 DC Comics.

Steel, Man-Bat, The Secret Society of Super-Villains, and many more.

Redondo ably

For many years, DC experimented with different

succeeded Bernie

formats for their comics including reprint volumes

Wrightson as the artist

of 80 and 100 pages as well as the “tabloid” size of

on Swamp Thing, as

magazine.1 These oversized (10" by 13 3⁄4") comics

seen in this panel from

began as showcases for reprints from DC’s library and

page 18 of issue #13.

eventually moved into presenting original material,

Swamp Thing © 2005 DC Comics.

3 4

•

B A C K

I S S U E

such as the first DC/Marvel crossovers: an adaptation

•

G o d s

a n d

W a r r i o r s

I s s u e

in 1485, Thomas Malory detailed the life story of

and lavishly detailed scenery, Redondo’s longtime

Arthur Pendragon, from his ascent from squire to

friend, Manuel Auad, shared the opinion of Redondo’s

kinghood, his eventual creation of Camelot, the

fans. “Yeah, he was good. He was extremely good.

gathering of the Knights of the Round Table, and

As far as I’m concerned, there were a lot of good

their various quests. The saga culminated with Arthur’s

Filipino artists. But to me, he was just several notches

eventual betrayal and death. These stories became

above most of them.” Auad found a number of artists

the basis for various stage plays, movies, and novels,

who embraced Redondo as an influence, including

and it’s become the foundation of how contemporary

Dave (Rocketeer) Stevens.

society views the legend of Camelot as well as

Seeing Stevens at a San Diego Comic-Con, Auad

Swordplay, courtesy

approached him and said, “By the way, are you

of Gerry Conway

“It wasn’t intended as a series,” Conway continues.

familiar with Redondo’s work?” The excited

and Nestor Redondo.

“It was a four-part adaptation of Malory’s stories. We

response was, “He’s my idol! He’s my idol.” With a

medieval living.

© 1975 DC Comics.

would have ended with the death of Arthur.

It would have ended just as thematically. You have to take the arc of Arthur’s story from youth though adult through Lady of the Lake through Excalibur to Camelot to his death. That would have been the plan, I think.”

Joe Orlando was a fan of Howard Pyle’s (1853–1911) illustrations from the 1903 edition of Malory’s book, according to Conway. Looking for someone to give that look of authenticity to the series, Orlando turned to Nestor Redondo to illustrate the proposed fourissue series. Redondo was part of the initial wave of Filipino artists whose work began showing up in American comics in the early ’70s. In addition to numerous mystery stories, the shortlived Rima, the Jungle Girl (a comics version of the novel Green Mansions by William Henry Hudson), and a lavish rendering of the Old Testament in DC’s Limited Collectors Edition #C-36 over Joe Kubert’s layouts, Redondo succeeded Berni Wrightson as illustrator on the original Swamp Thing series.

Renowned in both the Philippines and in America for his smooth line work

G o d s

a n d

W a r r i o r s

I s s u e

•

B A C K

I S S U E

•

3 5

laugh, Auad recalled, “I wanted to say, ‘Yeah, I could see.’”

Gerry Conway wrote the

The breathtakingly

premiere tale, “The Boy Who

rendered title page

Became King,” in full script due

to the boy king’s

to Nestor Redondo’s living in the

origin tale.

Philippines. As the artist began to

© 1975 DC Comics.

pencil and ink the pages, DC pumped up the volume on the buzz for this book.

The Amazing World of DC Comics was launched in 1974 as DC’s own professional fanzine with high production values and a direct line to news from the company. It also provided the newest members of its production staff (nicknamed the “Junior Woodchucks” in the days before “intern” became a dirty word) with valuable experience. In the seventh issue, cover dated July 1975, DC announced “our medieval masterpiece” was on its way, claiming layouts by Joe Orlando (although if the editor truly supplied the layouts, it was never mentioned again). The following issue from

Queen. The Legend of King Arthur and the Knights of the

Sept. 1975 verified that the four issues would appear

Round Table promised to be a “classic in the making.”

in the Limited Collectors’ Edition series.

3 6

•

B A C K

I S S U E

•

But the project was obviously not to be rushed.

Also in the Sept. 1975 editions of their comic

The Amazing World of DC Comics’ 11th issue, cover

books, DC ran a half-page ad for the series. Redondo’s

dated Apr. 1976, proclaimed that the project was

artwork showed a young Arthur holding what was no

“beautiful and nearing completion. We hope to have

doubt Excalibur along with illustrations of possibly

it to you in late summer or early fall.”

Guinevere, the famous stone that would yield the

Time passed. No Legend of King Arthur. DC no

sword and the British kingdom to only the worthiest

longer mentioned the project as it geared up produc-

of rulers, the castle of Camelot, and the knights sur-

tion towards what was dubbed the “DC Comics

rounding the Round Table to honor their King and

Explosion,” the event that led to the “DC Comics

G o d s

a n d

W a r r i o r s

I s s u e

Conway remembers completing the first script, but no others, before returning to Marvel Comics in late 1976 to briefly become their editor-inchief. A cover, the half-page ad, and the first 13 pages of the finished artwork are known to still exist. According to Auad, Redondo worked on the pages in order, from first to the last. “He did it from beginning to end, [as he always worked] all the years I’ve known him.”

In any case, the book never reached the newsstands and after the art was returned to Redondo, it eventually passed into the hands of dealers and fans of

Detail-rich page 11

the artist.

showcases Redondo’s

Don Mangus, a collector and

matchless talent.

dealer of original comic-book

© 1975 DC Comics.

artwork, bought several pages of the artwork from a dealer at the 2001 San Diego Comic-Con. “He’d have these plastic tubs just brimming with originals,” Implosion” as surely as Crisis on Infinite Earths led to

recalled Mangus. “You would just stand at his table

Legends. Was it because of the care taken with the

and then go through these bins and everything

project that translated into an investment of added

would be all shuffled together so there might be

time? Not according to Gerry Conway:

some House of Mystery pages and then some DC

“We were going to do this, and I think we com-

war pages, or maybe some Koraks, if you’re lucky.

pleted the first issue, and the Powers That Be decided

“As I was going through the piles of art, I spotted

that they didn’t want to do original material for large

these King Arthur pages. Of course, I didn’t know

format books. They just wanted to stick to team-ups

what they were at the time. I just saw they were

and super-heroes, already existing properties, so that

factoid pages about knights.” Mangus picked up

seemed to be what happened to it,” Conway con-

all the pages he could at the time, including some

cludes with a laugh.

Redondo pages for a never-released adaptation of

G o d s

a n d

W a r r i o r s

I s s u e

•

B A C K

I S S U E

•

3 7

Author Conway titled the first chapter after legend’s most famous sword. © 1975 DC Comics.

the New Testament. He gave some to his friend Dave

didn’t write those pages, Gerry Conway claims that,

Karlen. “Dave always liked the Prince Valiant stuff,

“Joe Orlando would have been interested in doing

but they’re a lot of money, so I picked the pages up.

(those) because he liked that sort of thing,” and that

Later on, I identified them as being from this King

someone else in the DC editorial offices might have

Arthur book.”

scripted them. “My research would have been pretty

Of the pages that have surfaced, the “factoid” pages

3 8

•

B A C K

I S S U E

•

much relegated to the Mallory book.”

may not have been drawn by Redondo, but might

When Gerry Conway returned to DC from Marvel

have passed through his art studio, whether they were

a couple years later, the project never resumed its place

a part of The Legend of King Arthur or another project

on the production schedule. “It was for a format

entirely. Signed by Arthur Geroche and copyrighted

that they didn’t want to pursue, so there was no

1981 according to current owner Dave Karlen, the

opportunity to bring it back.” He adds, “I believe that

pages tell of aspects of Arthurian times. Although he

. . . after the collapse of that particular project, they

G o d s

a n d

W a r r i o r s

I s s u e

King Arthur finally made his way into the DC Comics firmament in Mike W. Barr and Brian Bolland’s 12-issue Camelot 3000 maxiseries (1982–1984).

This penciled Bolland page comes to us by did Camelot 3000 so I think they said all they wanted

page, which the artist turned down. “Come on,”

way of David Hamilton.

to say about King Arthur.”

Redondo said, “I make more than that here in the

© 2005 DC Comics.

But Redondo was to have one more visit to

Philippines, for Heaven’s sakes.”

Camelot. According to Auad, “Years ago, there was

But as Camelot itself passed into legend, the

a publisher of coloring books here in San Francisco

participants moved on in their careers. Joe

and of course, he admired Redondo’s work and he

Orlando became DC’s vice president and editorial

wanted to know if Redondo would be interested to

director before passing on in 1998. Nestor

do a coloring book on King Arthur.” One phone call

Redondo passed away in 1995, leaving behind an

to the Philippines later, “[Redondo] sent me some

impressive volume of work and many devotees who

beautiful tight pencil samples of the scenes of King

still marvel at what the artist could do with a cheap

Arthur.” But on top of keeping the artwork, the

Chinese brush. And what King Arthur pages that

publisher only offered Redondo ten dollars per

weren’t kept by Manuel Auad passed on to be sold

G o d s

a n d

W a r r i o r s

I s s u e

•

B A C K

I S S U E

•

3 9

While destiny derailed this Conway/ Redondo epic, this lushly illustrated two-page (pages 7 and 8) sequence offers a glimpse of one of comics’ greatest stories never told. © 1975 DC Comics.

DC’s Sept. 1975 house ad trumpeted the King Arthur comic you didn’t see. © 1975 DC Comics.

at the San Diego Comic-Con. Gerry Conway moved from writing comic books in favor of scripting for Hollywood. With former editor Roy Thomas, he wrote Conan the Destroyer starring the current Governator of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger, as well as other screenplays before moving into television where he is the current coexecutive producer of Law and Order: Criminal Intent.

Manuel Auad is an Eisner Award-winning publisher of books that spotlight the art of Alex Toth and Jordi Bernét (which are available through his website:

4 0

•

B A C K

I S S U E

•

G o d s

a n d

W a r r i o r s

I s s u e

Manuel Auad’s lavishly illustrated book examining the art of Jordi Bernét is highly recommended.

Visit www.auadpublishing.co m for more information.

www.auadpublishing.com). Auad plans to devote a book to Nestor Redondo one day.

If Camelot once existed, whatever the truth, it now survives as a tragic tale of courage, nobility, love, and the eventual destruction of a dream. With The Legend of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, we are left with beautiful artwork, a tribute to some of the

1

most talented creators in comics history, and memo-

offerings by Paul Dini and Alex Ross that featured Superman,

ries of an ambitious project that never came to be.

Batman, Wonder Woman, Captain Marvel, and the JLA; JLA:

And for our never getting to enjoy the series in its entirety, there’s the tragedy.

The format has seen a revival in recent years with the annual

Heaven’s Ladder by Mark Waid, Bryan Hitch, and Paul Neary; and Superman/Fantastic Four by Dan Jurgens.

G o d s

a n d

W a r r i o r s

I s s u e

•

B A C K

I S S U E

•

4 1

Early Bolland Brian Bolland’s bombastic style was clearly emerging in this cover created for a U.K. repackaging of U.S. DC Comics stories. © 2005 DC Comics.

by

Terry Jones

In Britain after World War II, American comics were banned, not for ideological reasons so much as economic ones: dollar imports were a no-no.

Consequently, until this practice eased in 1959, British comics fans had to make do with reprinted material. I encountered some of this in the pages of satisfactorily thick cardboardcovered annuals, in black-and-white and a far cry from the DC 80-page Giants of the ’60s. You could have beaten a rabid dog to death with one of these weighty tomes!

Inside were lovely reprints, some from the Golden Age but mainly from the Silver. Wayne Boring and Curt Swan art jostled for space.

These annuals petered out in the late ’60s. A new series, now in full color and published by London Editions, began to appear in the ’80s. Thinner than their ’60s counterparts, they had one thing in common with them: local British artists were employed to produce the covers.

In the ’60s, various anonymous and pretty wonky artists came up with endearingly naive results. The ’80s annuals, however, sported covers by the best of the new British “invasion,” those artists nurtured in the pages of 2000 A.D. and Warrior, soon to work on U.S. titles from Superman to Green Lantern, from Camelot 3000

4 2

•

B A C K

I S S U E

•

G o d s

a n d

W a r r i o r s

I s s u e

to Swamp Thing. Perhaps the most impressive of the new covers were those created by Brian Bolland, and none better illustrate these than the covers for the 1983 Superman Annual and the 1982 Batman Annual.

Boland’s cover for Superman Annual 1983 (meaning it was actually published in ’82!) features a dynamic Man of Steel flanked by Supergirl and J’onn J’onzz, while a glowering Darkseid to his left is balanced by the inscrutable Spectre on his right. Superb stuff—and then, when you open the book there is a double-page spread by Dave Gibbons!

Bolland’s Batman (1982) features a kind of reverse angle shot of BACK ISSUE #3’s page 73 illo of Joker/ Batman. This time it is the Batman who is in the foreground holding a Joker card, with the real deal lurking menacingly behind him. I agree with Alan Moore that the pair’s graphic novel The Killing Joke was not a complete success, but for me, Bolland’s depictions

BACK ISSUE readers

of Bats were as good as or better than

may find Bolland’s

Neal Adams’.

Batman Annual cover

This was a fruitful time for classic British

somewhat familiar.

Bolland cover art. He crops up with Wonder

© 2005 DC Comics.

Woman Annual 1981, as well as the first Judge Dredd Annual (also from 1981) and a great one for the same year for Star Lord.

The latter title was the 2000 A.D. publisher’s attempts at another sci-fi comic which

Here’s an early

didn’t quite work out (although it did give

Bolland cover new

us Strontium Dog, who would go onto join

to most stateside

2000 A.D). The cover for this 1981 Annual

BI readers. Look

features not only Strontium Dog and Wulf

closely for a cameo

but also, way in the background, a self-portrait

by the artist.

of Mr. Bolland himself!

© 1981 IPC Magazines Ltd.

Back over in the 1980s’ Superman and Batman Annual lines, there are covers by Dave Gibbons, Bryan Talbot, and even Kevin O’Neill! O’Neill’s eccentric 1981 Superman cover (Supes bashing a robot) demonstrates aptly why he should stick

G o d s

a n d

W a r r i o r s

I s s u e

•

B A C K

I S S U E

•

4 3

to robots: His Superman is more akin to his work on Marshal Law, as you might expect!

It’s not just the covers that make these Annuals so special. Amongst the reprinted U.S. strips are many text stories with illustrations by some fabulous Brits including Talbot, Arthur Ransom, Barry Kitson, and the hugely underrated Garry Leach (check out his stint on Global Frequency). And I haven’t even mentioned the writers.

In the 1986 Superman Annual you will find “Osgood Peabody’s Big Green Dream Machine” by Grant Morrison, with illos by Barry Kitson, while the writer also put together that same year’s Batman tale “The Stalking” (illustrated by Leach). Alan Moore, of course, contributed several text stories: “Protected Species” (Super-Heroes Annual 1984) and “I Was Superman’s Double” (in the 1985 Superman Annual). Both these stories are available as a free download from the Moore Store: www.4 colorheroes.com 1980s’ British Annuals are a real treasure trove for these who can seek them out!

Years after this 1981 Brian Bolland cover, the artist would rope Wonder Woman’s cover-art stint. © 2005 DC Comics.

4 4

•

B A C K

I S S U E

•

G o d s

a n d

W a r r i o r s

I s s u e

“The Comics b y Tom art Savant” Stew Editor’s note: Artwork for this feature was contributed by Michael Arnold, Terry Austin, John Eury, David Hamilton, Heritage Comics, Joe Jusko, Michel Maillot, Bob McLeod, and Jim Warden, to whom BACK ISSUE extends its gratitude and a frothy pint of mead.

“Why we didn’t just create an entirely new character, I don’t know. . .”

In the late ’60s, DC Comics, as a whole, must have sat down and sighed. After releasing a spate of innovative titles (almost all of which had been cancelled within two years) and luring an influx of new talent (Neal Adams, Denny O’Neil, Dick Giordano), and even the go-go checks (!), nothing had worked. Like the nerd with the new haircut, DC had somehow failed to be cool, and didn’t seem to understand why. It was now 1969, and Marvel Comics, in what would have been unthinkable only ten years before, was about to leave DC in its dust, ready to take over the top spot from DC. Marvel had the drive, the talent, and some of the hippest characters in comics (I mean, really, Superman seemed like someone’s dad trying to be cool at your birthday party), and they had the college crowd with them. That new base could be a demanding bunch of cusses. Roy Thomas, Marvel writer and fan turned pro

Blacklight Barbarian

who wrote Conan, man and boy, for over 30 years should

Remember those garishly groovy blacklight

know. Roy?

posters of the 1970s? Here’s a Conan poster,

“About that time, 1969 I think, we were getting letters

amazingly illustrated by Barry (Windsor-) Smith.

asking us to do a Conan comic. Well, I’d read a couple of the books, with the Frazetta covers, I knew who he was.”

© 2005 Conan Properties.

G o d s

a n d

W a r r i o r s

I s s u e

•

B A C K

I S S U E

•

4 5

Stan liked the name. . .”

Thongor really is a Stan Lee kind of name. It sounds like a villain from an early Marvel monster mag. Roy had gotten the okay from Goodman to go ahead all right, but to do it on the cheap (yep, sounds like Goodman). Roy had $150 to offer for the rights to the mighty Thongor (really, no disrespect to Lin Carter, but Thongor was just not one for the ages), so he made the call to Carter’s agent, who gave him an “I’ll get back to you.” Carter promised his agent would get back to him. Still, no call. Roy again: “Well, it wasn’t much money, even then it wasn’t much. Which is why the agent dragged his feet. When Martin Goodman said $150, he meant $150, not $151!”

Roy started to investigate the field a little more, and one night, stopping by the newsstand on the way to the subway, he picked up another Conan novel. In the back it had an address for Glen Lord, literary agent for the Robert E. Howard estate, Pasadena, Texas. Roy took a shot. Why not? He wrote Lord, relating what he planned and offering $200 for the rights. I’m surprised Martin Goodman didn’t hear Roy’s typewriter upping the offer all the way across town. Roy explained that it was a great chance to get more exposure for Conan, and also that he didn’t really have any room to negotiate (Goodman was probably already getting a rope ready). He heard back quickly. Lord had accepted. Sorry, Thongor, you’ll have to wait a couple years more for your own comic.

Great. “Now all I had to do was figure how to get the extra $50 past Martin Goodman.” One way? Hire a cheap writer, or at least one that could cut his rate if Goodman kicked. For Roy that meant writing it himself. “I hadn’t figured on writing it in the beginning. I was thinking Gerry Conway maybe. . .” It was $50 that changed Roy Also Gil Kane, one of Marvel’s (and DC’s) most popular

Thomas’ life, starting him on a journey that lasted over

artists, was a huge Conan fan, and owned all the Gnome

200 issues (yes, I know they weren’t consecutive), two years

Press books from the 1950s’ Conan revival (which Roy

of a comic strip, record albums, a paid consultancy on the

later bought, and still owns, BTW), and he was interested

first Conan movie, and five drafts of the screenplay for the

in Conan of Cimmeria, so why not?

second. That 50 bucks would also change the life of some-

Stan Lee, editor-in-chief, agreed. Roy wrote a memo

one else, Barry Windsor-Smith (then just Barry Smith; for

to Marvel’s publisher and owner, Martin Goodman: “It was

history’s sake, that’s how I’ll refer to him throughout).

the only thing I did that he ever mentioned to me in the Goodman had approved. They had a budget! Line ’em

John the Expensive, Barry the Not So Much

up! So Roy started right away to secure the rights to . . .

“Stan and I thought that John Buscema would be per-

Lin Carter’s Thongor. Thongor? Roy:

fect [for Conan]. He’d been reading the books, and was

two, three times I ran into him! ‘That was some memo!’”

4 6

•

B A C K

I S S U E

•

“I figured that Conan, being as popular as he was,

ecstatic: ‘It’s not super-heroes! When do we start?’ He was

would be out of our price league. I’d read Thongor and

ready.” Except for that $50 and Martin Goodman again.

G o d s

a n d

W a r r i o r s

I s s u e

Martin evidently did notice that his mandated $150 had

fans waited for what they figured

been raised by a full third. John Buscema? Great artist . . .

would be another desecration. They

Roy had worked with him on The Avengers and Sub-Mariner

shouldn’t have worried.

—he’d be perfect. Except for his page rate. John was at

Roy Thomas was probably the

the time too well paid (if that term can be applied to any

best man for the job. He approached

comics creator besides Spawn’s Todd McFarlane), he was

the work with respect: “I really liked

at the top of Marvel’s page rate. Better to have someone

Howard’s prose. By then I’d read all

a mite lower, like at the bottom. Like maybe that British kid.

Howard’s paperbacks. I wanted to keep

The one that drew that issue of X-Men [#53] on a park

as much Howard as I could.” He made

bench and then got deported. Smith.

sure that the name “Robert E. Howard”

Barry Smith was Roy’s second choice, having worked

was credited in every story, and that

with the young Englishman on several projects before

each time an actual story was used,

(including a proposed team of Red Raven, Bucky, and

the story and Howard were again

Quicksilver that never got off the ground; order the CBA

credited. Roy created sort of a code:

Collection Vol. 1 for more info—no, I don’t get a cut).

When he used a Howard story and

Barry was back in England after having been working at

made only minor changes, the credits

Marvel for a year or so without the benefit of a green

would read “Adapted from the story”;

card. He had been deported, but not forgotten. Barry said

when he added to it greatly, it would

yes. Roy sent him a stack of the Lancer Conan paperbacks.

say “freely adapted”; and when he

Barry started studying, and Roy worked on his approach

made up a stor y completely, it

to Howard. At the time, drawing with the dynamism of

would read “Based on the character

Kirby was a Marvel style, and Barry was known as some-

created by REH.” This was at a time

thing of a Jack Kirby clone. Here’s Barry: “In my case there

when a lot of Howard’s fans felt there

was no problem—I had an idée fixe that comics were Kirby

was a movement to divorce Howard

and, in so drawing a comic, I drew it, to the best of my

from Conan, to diminish the impor-

young abilities, as if I was Jack Kirby . . . real drawing was

tance of the original stories to build

academic, but comics were Kirby.”

up the “character.” Roy didn’t have to

Would Barry’s Jack Kirby mannerisms work on a Howard

do that Howard credit—it wasn’t in

character? Roy? “That was one of the reasons I chose

the agreement with Glen Lord. He did

him! I really liked the Jack Kirby influence in him, and it

it out of respect for the stories, and

would help the Marvel readers!” At that time, Roy didn’t

for Howard. The fans noticed. But they

have the rights to the Conan stories, just the right to use

could still find things to complain

Conan himself. So he wrote up an original plot for the first

about . . . hey, they’re fans.

issue, trying to keep the Howard flavor, and sent it off to England to his new artist.

But what about those Howard readers? You know that some REH fans can be very . . . passionate.

Roy: “Oh, yes! I know it! No matter what I did, I got letters.” Fans are very protective of ones they believed have

So, what to call the newest title in the Mighty Marvel pantheon? “I called it Conan the Barbarian, which hadn’t been used by Howard per se, but had been used as the title of one of the Gnome hardbacks, so it

Were you stuck on

wouldn’t be as familiar to the Lancer readers.”

Conan in the 1970s?

been wronged, and they had cause to believe that Howard’s

Now that the name of the comic was set, the artist

Two barbarian peel-

legacy, Conan in particular, had been grievously mistreat-

was in place, and Roy had chosen himself as writer (the

offs from the Marvel

ed under the stewardship (some say “heavy hand”) of author

poor guy), one more approach problem had to be ironed

Sticker Set.

L. Sprague de Camp. De Camp had started editing the

out: Should Marvel use the Miller/Clark/de Camp Conan

Howard Conan stories in the ’50s, then began the prac-

outline? (Note here: The Miller/Clark outline is something

tice of “converting” non-Conan Howard stories into tales

devised by a couple of Conan fans in the ’30s, with a few

of Conan. It was a practice that many Howard fans viewed

notes from Howard. They went and put all the Conan

unsympathetically. When they heard the news, many REH

stories in order, roughly outlining Conan’s life, then it was

G o d s

a n d

W a r r i o r s

I s s u e

© 1975 Marvel Comics Group © 2005 Conan Properties.

•

B A C K

I S S U E

•

4 7

The first Howard story adapted to the comics was not a Conan story, but one Howard set originally in ancient Ireland: “The Grey God Passes.” Here’s Roy: “De Camp had made a practice, in the books, of adapting non-Conan stories and making Conans out of them.

He did that in Tales of Conan. I thought de Camp had a good idea there, so I suggested to Glen that I be allowed to do the same thing in the comics.” A system was worked out where, if Thomas wanted to adapt a certain Conan story, Marvel would pay a sum of money, “a pittance of filthy lucre,” Roy calls it, and Roy would write his adaptation and send it across the pond to Barry Smith. The first instance of this wasn’t a Conan story, but it was too good a story to pass up. The result was “Twilight of the Grim Grey God” in issue #3, one of the best of the first

later revised by de Camp to include the sto-

These Conan character

ries he added. This is a real fan thing to do,

studies (shared with

like putting all the Star Trek episodes in order

us by Bob McLeod)

of Stardate . . . I know, please, send no lists.)

show why John Buscema

Roy decided he would. “These days they’ve

was Stan Lee and Roy

packed the timeline so tight, if Conan stubbed

Thomas’ first—but

his toe you’d have to write a story about it.”

originally unattainable

How would Conan be aged? “I decided that

—choice to draw

each year of the comic would be a year in

Conan the Barbarian.

Conan’s life”—start with him young, in his teens, then progress to the first story in the de

© 2005 Conan Properties.

Camp chronology, “The Tower of the Elephant.”

Marvel’s Conan #1 would not be an adaptation, but would serve to introduce the character and let both artist and writer get the feel of him, then they would hit the ground running with the first Howard story. Maybe.

4 8

•

B A C K

I S S U E

•

G o d s

a n d

W a r r i o r s

I s s u e

few issues, and a showcase for the developing art of

Elephant”) and #6 (“Devil-

Barry Smith.

Wings over Shadizar,” an

Young Mr. Smith was gaining confidence. His art was

original story by Roy) as the

maturing and starting to become more nuanced, refined

best comic-book stories of

(even though this was a comic about a brutal man living

1971. Sales on #1 were

by his wits in a brutal time), quiet, and also decorative, his

good, and there was talk

art taking on an art nouveau look. And he was getting

of adapting other Howard

slower. Conan #4, the first Howard Conan story that Roy and

characters into Marvel

Barry would adapt, showed a great leap forward in Barry’s

comic books—until the

art. The Kirbyisms were disappearing, being absorbed into

later sales reports started

the emerging style. Shadows and mood started to play a

to come in. The early sales

more important part on the page. Barry wasn’t there yet,

reports were like exit polls,

but the artist he would become in just a few issues was

with the numbers starting

emerging. Conan would become the book that Barry Smith

high on #1, then dropping

would be known for (even after adding the “Windsor-”),

with each issue. Conan al-

the one where he found the style he would continue to

most ended his journey

refine in the years to come.

before he’d barely started.

At this point, Thomas and Smith were still working in the dark, Conan #1 not having hit the stands. When it did, Conan sold out! Sort of. Conan #1 held several distinctions. First, it was the first appearance of Conan in a comic

(Above) An early

book; second, it is looked upon as the first “Bronze Age”

Conan illo by Barry

comic, a herald of a new comics age (sounds important);

Windsor-Smith, inked

and third, was one of the first comics to fall victim to

by Rich Buckler.

speculators. That’s right, speculators were alive and well © 2005 Conan Properties.

in the ’70s. Conan was bought by the case by dealers who then sat on them, some not even bothering to save them, but put them out almost instantly at a markup over cover price. Some dealers got their cases from the “return” market.

Newsstand vendors (and comic-store dealers) signed what was called “affidavit returns,” so instead of sending back the whole book, they would send back the covers, or just the logo, claiming the rest of the book was destroyed.

Sometimes they returned just the affidavit, the covers somehow getting lost in the mail. This system was . . . much abused. The mafia even got involved in the funny-

Barry Windsor-Smith

book-selling business, calling stores and offering them

will always be number

the Conans (you wonder why the Overstreet Price Guide

one in our book!

says “low distribution,” well. . .), but you had to buy in © 2005 Conan Properties.

bulk, by the case. They didn’t say where they got them.

They musta fell off a truck.

Leave it to the comics wizard Stan Lee to figure out the problem:

“Too Many Animals”

“Too many animals.”

Thomas and Smith continued to work away at Conan,

Sword and sorcery being “not his thing,” Stan didn’t

adapting the Howard stories when it fit into the timeline,

read the issues, but like the old comics editor he was, he

advancing Conan a month in age each issue. The Academy

scrutinized each cover. Stan pointed out that each issue

of Comic Book Artists nominated Conan #4 (“Tower of the

since #1 had Conan facing some monster or giant animal,

G o d s

a n d

W a r r i o r s

I s s u e

•

B A C K

I S S U E

•

4 9

but not enough humans. “Less ani-

Along with the regular Conan color comic, Marvel

mals, more people.” Roy had

started a magazine line to rival Warren’s . . . kinda. They

Barry draw Conan facing off

put their toe in the water with Savage Tales #1, featuring

against tall skeletons in

Man-Thing, Ka-Zar, and Conan. Roy had planned to use

armor. One thing that

the title to adapt and tell stories of the later Conan that

Julie Schwartz over at

didn’t fit yet into the then current comic continuity of

DC could tell you, “Ske-

the young Conan. Roy and Barry adapted the Howard

letons Sell!” (Gorillas,

story “The Frost Giant’s Daughter” for #1, a tale that had

too.) Sales went up for

been rejected by Weird Tales back in the 1930s (but then

that issue, and for the

rewritten featuring a different character, a “Conan stand-

one after it, thus saving

in,” and sold elsewhere by Howard (he didn’t want the

Conan the Barbarian from

editor of Weird Tales thinking he was giving Conan stories

being Conan the Cancelled.

to other pulps). It hadn’t appeared in its Conan form until the

Almost.

’60s, and then only as altered by de Camp. After one issue,

Like another highly praised

though, Savage Tales was cancelled. For a while at least.

series of the same era (Green Lantern/

The next Howard/Thomas/Smith collaboration would

From the collection

Green Arrow), Conan was cancelled after only a few

be “Rogues in the House” from #12. Well, #11 and 12.

of David “Hambone”

issues. GL/GA was in limbo for several years. Conan? One

Thomas took the first paragraph of the Howard story

day. The spike in sales brought it back. It would never

and made it the springboard for issue #11, covering the

be cancelled again. Well, at least not for several years.

events of “Rogues” in #12. Again, Roy monkeyed a bit

Hamilton comes this Conan sketch by

At this time, Barry Smith was becoming more and

with Howard, but when you have to do an ongoing

more disenchanted with the Marvel way. He wanted to

series, you don’t want to use it all up in the first ten

make each issue better than the last, develop new ways

issues. . .

King Arthur artist Nestor Redondo.

to tell a story, rather than just the “Kirby way.”

© 2005 Conan Properties.

He was driven. Each issue showed this drive and

(Right) A moody

showed Barry exploring what could be done within the

fantasy illo by one of

limits of a 15-cent comic book. Fan reaction was pouring

Conan’s earliest

in. Roy and Barry had a hit, yes, but Barry in particular was singled out by the fans for praise. It had to be a heady

inkers, Dan Adkins.

experience for a 22-year-old kid, rapidly learning the © 2005 Conan Properties.

ropes as he ground out pages.

A monthly book, no matter how popular, was a grind.

After the pages left his hands to be inked and scripted, Smith had little control over them, common practice for artists at Marvel (and industry wide). Artists like Neal Adams were working to change some of those practices, fighting for a new “system,” but that would take years. The production methods and the rush inking jobs frustrated Smith.

As Barry worked to expand his artist’s vocabulary, his lack of input to the final product would become a source of friction: “The better I got at what I did, the more constraints sprung up like weeds . . . I guess they were always there but as one grows one must challenge the old order or you’re not really growing.”

Barry Smith was ready for bigger things. But was

© 1972 Marvel Comics Group.

Conan © 2005 Conan Properties.

5 0

•

B A C K

I S S U E

Marvel ready to give it to him?

•

G o d s

a n d

W a r r i o r s

I s s u e

As Roy would do throughout the run of Conan, he invited another writer he admired to, well, take a swing

at the barbarian. Author John Jakes was famous for the

tion of REH’s story ‘The Frost Giant’s Daughter’ and our

“Kent Family Chronicles,” but Roy was a fan of his earlier

quasi-Conan ‘Starr the Slayer’ warm-up in issue #16 [Editor’s

“Brak the Barbarian” novels. Thomas had him write a syn-

note: See this issue’s Art Gallery for a sample Starr page.],

opsis for “Web of the Spider God,” which Barry drew and

so that all our Conan work would be on view in those

Roy scripted. It was published in #13, and Jakes still has

16 issues.”

the splash page displayed proudly on his wall.

Roy, at this time, was devouring sword-and-sorcery

Who could replace Barry? How about huge Conan fan Gil Kane? Kane had provided a carload of enthusiasm

books as they shot off the press. He was especially interest-

for Conan and the rest of the Howard properties (how

ed in Michael Moorcock’s Elric of Melnibone. The skinny

about Gil Kane on Solomon Kane? That would have been

albino Elric was the opposite of the brawny Cimmerian

pretty nice!), so Gil took over for two issues (you’ll find

Conan, but, hey! “Opposites attract,” right? He got Martin

these listed in the Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide as

Goodman to spend a bit of money on Jakes, so why not

“No Barry Smith art” . . . ah, well). Kane would bring his

Moorcock? Roy fired off a letter to England, offering again

own dynamic style to the book. Gil had a particular story

some more of Marvel’s treasure for an Elric/Conan match-

in mind he wanted to do, an adaptation of Howard’s “The

© 1972 Marvel Comics Group.

Conan © 2005 Conan Properties.

up. Moorcock agreed, and sent back a synopsis “by Michael

God’s of Bal-Sagoth,” which was not a Conan story but

Moorcock and Jim Cawthorn,” which was more Cawthorn

featured another Howard character, Black Turlogh O’Brien

than Moorcock, but Roy didn’t mind too much. After all,

(again, this is a practice carried over from

he had an original synopsis for an Elric and Conan meet-

L. Sprague de Camp, taking non-

ing, with the okay of Moorcock himself. It was official! It

Conan stories and changing them

Conan sketch by

was an event! It was a coup! It was too long.

over to star Conan, something

Windsor-Smith.

Even after dropping a subplot, it would go on to become

that irritates Howard fans who

the first two-parter for the comic book, pitching Conan

believe this dilutes Howard’s

and Elric against Zukala (a Roy-and-Barry-added touch,

work . . . but that’s another

a character created by the team for #5’s “Zukala’s

article). Roy and Gil re-

Daughter”), with Elric weilding Stormbringer and wearing

worked the story and

that stupid “dunce” cap from the cover of the American

added elements

paperbacks, a hat that Moorcock thought less than

already established

highly of.

in the Thomas/

It was during the course of this story that Barry Smith

Art © 2005 Barry Windsor-Smith.

Conan © 2005 Conan Properties.

Smith run. Conan

decided he’d had enough. Conan #15 would be his last.

with Kane at the

Roy and Barry had been going along well by now,

artistic helm was

but problems were cropping up. With Conan’s growing

A mid-1990s’

swinging again!

popularity, Barry Smith was becoming a “hot young artist” he was paid the same whether he rushed through and

“It Was Hard!”

did sketchy layout drawings for the inkers to finish, or if

Kane had had a

he did his preferred tight, finished pencils. This hardly

long history with

and his evolving style took more time and more care. But

seemed fair to him. Plus there were inker problems. Dan

Howard’s bar-

Adkins was having difficulties completing the jobs on

barian.

time; it seems inking Barry was a job and a half. There

He’d

were fill-in inkers, jobs that had to be less finished to get

wanted to

the book back on schedule, and the stories that were group-

put out his own

inked. There was growing disenchantment. Conan #16

adaptation as a companion

contained a reprinting of “The Frost Giant’s Daughter”

to his independent publishing

from Savage Tales #1. Why? Roy? Thomas and Smith “had the exact same idea at exactly the same time—we would have Marvel reprint our adapta-

venture His Name is Savage.

Though that went down in flames (find the book, read it. It’s like the Lee Marvin

G o d s

a n d

W a r r i o r s

I s s u e

•

B A C K

I S S U E

•

5 1

Covers © Marvel Comics Group.

Conan © 2005 Conan Properties.

from Point Blank, loose in the comics), he still

there were a million crowds, a million riots and every-

held out some hope for the Cimmerian. He

thing . . . but it was hard! I felt I was doing Prince Valiant

thought he had a contact with the owner of

material! I couldn’t do three or four pages a day on that

the rights. Martin Greenberg of Gnome Press

stuff so I gave up after two issues and came back to covers,

had published Conan during a revival in the

because they paid the same! I just couldn’t do it fast enough

1950s, lived next door to Gil, and owned a

though I was given it to be the regular artist. Conan lowered

certain amount of the rights . . . maybe. Ah,

my income! Then Buscema took it over.”

the fights for the rights of Conan is the subject

It was the same problem Barry Smith had: Whether

of a separate article—just let it be said that

you knocked yourself out with full detailed pencils or just

Kane didn’t get the rights at the time. Needless

did little more than layouts, it paid the same. “Roy

to say, Greenberg didn’t have full and clear

expected me to draw an epic every issue.” So Gil was

rights to the Conan properties, but Kane did get a carton

gone, except for a few covers and fill-ins now and then.

of Howard Conan manuscripts, Howard letters, and assorted

Next, Roy welcomed the return of Barry Smith, who

papers from one of the agents for the Howard estate.

came charging back, determined to make the book the

Kane was able to keep these for nine months (yes, he gave

best it could be. Still, problems cropped up with inking

them back) and it was then that Glen Lord took over and

and production. Deadlines permitted Dan Adkins to only

the estate started to get its act in order. That’s when Roy

ink part of issue #19 (“Hawks of the Seas”), so Barry tight-

Thomas came in.

ened his pencils so they wouldn’t have to be gang-inked

Kane’s two issues differed greatly from the ever more ornate Smith issues, showcasing the Kane stretching-and-

best reproduction they could get at the time, but did little

leaping style at its early-’70s best. Kane had been waiting

justice to the art. In #23, they introduced Red Sonja, a

for Conan for a while. His own Blackmark owed much to

character with the name of a Howard character (taken from

Conan and to Howard. But Gil had his own problems

the non-Conan Howard story “Shadow of the Vulture”), but changed a bit (the Howard character is called “Red Sonya”).

with Conan: Roy Thomas says that Gil Kane complained, “I took

She would come back for a full story in #24, then get

over with #17 and did two issues. It was very hard to do:

her own comic with art by Frank Thorne, her own movie,

Red Sonja and Conan live it up—at this poor schmuck’s expense—in an unfinished Tom Sutton rendering. © 2005 Conan Properties.

5 2

•

B A C K

I S S U E

•

over a long weekend and hoped for the best. It was the

G o d s

a n d

W a r r i o r s

I s s u e

and a live embodiment at cons by Thorne’s model, Wendi Pini. (Track down those pictures. Trust me.)

Barry Windsor-Smith’s

Barry wasn’t done with Marvel and Conan yet. He and Roy had agreed to do the lead-off Conan story in the

art rapidly matured

The next issue would be a showcase for Red Sonja.

revived Savage Tales #2, under a cover painted by John

during his Conan stint.

Barry had also decided again that issue #24 would also be

Buscema. This time, Man-Thing was jettisoned, leaving more

His original “Kirbyisms”

his last issue of the monthly series. He wanted to do the

room for Conan to swing his blade (Marvel was also doing

whole thing: pencil, ink, and color it as a farewell (and to

a bunch of cool monster mags that had something of a less

make sure there were no problems) “. . .it is entirely inked

spotty publishing history than the early issues of Savage

with a Mont Blanc fountain pen and I wrecked the pen in

Tales). Thomas and Smith came back strong, adapting one

the process.” The result was “The Song of Red Sonja,”

of Howard’s better Conan stories, “Red Nails.” Barry had

one of the most memorable of the Thomas/Smith issues.

grown greatly as an artist, and the work showed it. The

G o d s

a n d

W a r r i o r s

I s s u e

are nowhere to be found in this elaborate portfolio piece. © 2005 Conan Properties.

•

B A C K

I S S U E

•

5 3

pages were moody and detailed, the Kirby influence

Three pages of Gil

another portfolio featuring different Howard characters,

Kane’s breakdowns

fully digested and now made his own. This time there

as well as innovative posters and books, seeing where

for “The Hour of the

would be no Comics Code Authority to tell Barry what he

his boundaries would lie.

Dragon,” appearing in Giant-Size Conan #1 (Sept. 1974).

Cover © Marvel Comics Group.

Conan © 2005 Conan Properties.

B A C K

I S S U E

book that had brought him so much attention. When

shirt over her breasts in the pool, or that Conan’s hands

asked of his experience with Marvel?

“A learning experience.”

Nails” find its own length. Barry could take his time and

© 1974 Marvel Comics Group.

•

It was 1974, and Barry Smith was gone from the

Do you really think that Sonja would bother to hold her really stopped at her waist?). Barry and Roy would let “Red

Conan © 2005 Conan Properties.

5 4

could draw (check out page 6 of “The Song of Red Sonja.”

•

work at his own pace (something that made Stan nervous

The Coming of Buscema!

and Roy grateful that there would be four months between

Roy now chose his first choice, John Buscema, to take over

Savage Tales issues). It would cover two issues and become

Conan. John was thrilled. Just has Barry before him, he

a classic, one of the most-reprinted of the Conan tales.

was able to throw off the leftover Kirby mannerisms that

Reflecting on “Red Nails,” Barry Smith said, “I was

had become the Marvel house style and use his pencil

losing interest in all comic books, Marvel in particular, I

to paint something closer to his heart than the super-

guess, because I was in the thick of it. With Kirby gone

heroes he’d grown to hate. It was a different Conan now,

and Stan decreasing his script output and with a change

huskier, beefier, more in line with the original Howard

of style in both story and art that I perceived as a back-

version fans said. Big John told Roy in 2001, “After reading

ward step rather that an advance of merit, I felt that I

Howard’s description, I envisioned this guy to be about

couldn’t tolerate the scene anymore. I was becoming

six-three, six-four, weighing about 275 pounds. The thing

more and more disillusioned.” He packed his pencils,

I struggled with, that I tried to get, and was a little

and cleared the way for the next new Conan artist. He

intimidated by, was the head. I wanted it to make it look

was becoming more interested in ventures outside

like a tough guy, yet I didn’t want it to look obnoxious

comics. He put out a fantastic Conan portfolio and

or a bad guy. I wanted it to look like a good guy, yet tougher,

G o d s

a n d

W a r r i o r s

I s s u e

ing with Chan favorably. The inks of Alfredo Alcala, however, while possessing some truly great beauty of their own, at times buried Buscema under their own careful details. Under Roy, John, Ernie, and Alfredo (and others), Conan rose to become one of Marvel’s most popular titles, and Conan even earned his way onto a Hallmark collector’s medallion coin with Spider-Man and the Hulk.

Conan lasted in the lead spot of Savage Tales until #6, when he was spun off into his own magazine (with Ka-Zar taking over Savage’s title spot), but those early issues were still on shaky publishing ground (#3 contained a notice that the book was in danger of being cancelled again!). Savage Tales #4 featured a Neal Adams cover, and a Gil Kane (and “diverse hands” including Adams) adaptation of Howard’s “The Dark Man,” with nice tone work by Pablo Marcos (who would go on to draw many a Conan story himself, including the Conan newspaper strip). The issue was filled out with text features, a Joe Maneely reprint, and a reprint of “Dweller in the Dark” from Conan #12. and I struggled with it for a while. I think I caught it after a certain number of books.”

Conan would now head a new title all his own, The Savage Sword of Conan. It would showcase

Conan was now John’s “baby,” and a climb in sales

stories of the later Conan, ones not fitting into the cur-

showed it was a good fit. John Buscema attracted new

rent timeline. It would feature painted covers by some

readers to the book, ones that had followed him over

of the best in the business, like Savage Sword #1’s cover

from the super-heroes, and defined the look of Conan

by Boris, featuring Conan and Red Sonja. Who would follow

for a generation.

on #2? How about one of the most influential artists ever

But a new artist brought new inkers. First to ink over

to pick up a Pentel? Neal Adams.

John on Conan was his brother Sal Buscema. Sal had a

Cover © Marvel Comics Group.

Conan © 2005 Conan Properties.

straightforward, unembellished style that John liked. He

“He was a Mother****er!”

inked John’s pencils pretty much as John drew them. But

That’s Neal’s view of the Robert E. Howard character on

after the heat generated by Barry Smith’s art, Roy felt the

the pulp page, dipped in the black ink of Howard’s prose:

need to have a more illustrative style to pair with John’s,

mean, vicious, and willing to do what it takes to survive.

something he found in Filipino artists Alfredo Alcala and

That’s the Conan that Adams liked, and the one he wanted

Ernie Chan (the latter later becoming Ernie Chua, thus adding

to draw. You know the cover of Savage Sword #2, with

to the headaches of many an indexing comics fan), an

Conan holding up the guy over his head? Says Neal, “In

inker/finisher that brought a strong style to an already

the next panel, he’d throw him off!” Neal also drew classic

strong penciler.

issue #37 of the color Conan, “The Curse of the Golden

Roy: “What Ernie brought to Conan was a willingness

Skull.” It was meant to be an adaptation of the de Camp

and a natural inclination to add detail to John’s powerful

story “City of Skulls,” but it turned out Marvel didn’t have

drawings, where Sal had followed his brother’s pencils

the rights. After a bit of scrambling, an okay to use a Howard

‘out the window,’ as they say.” John preferred his brother’s

Kull piece as a prolog, and the “kind permission” of de

more faithful inks, but most readers regarded the team-

Camp to use Juma (who Neal had already drawn into the

G o d s

a n d

W a r r i o r s

I s s u e

•

B A C K

I S S U E

•

5 5

An unpublished Conan illo penciled by John Buscema and inked by Steven Butler. © 2005 Conan Properties.

5 6

•

B A C K

I S S U E

•

G o d s

a n d

W a r r i o r s

I s s u e

story anyway), they were ready—except for the fact Neal was drawing a 32-page story for a 19-page comic. Neal was drawing a Savage Sword story, but Roy was waiting for a Conan the Barbarian issue. Adams crammed the panels into 19 pages. It’s beautiful, powerful art, but it’s the most cramped of Neal’s work. © 1974 Marvel Comics Group. Conan © 2005 Conan Properties.

Adams would go on to do one more Conan story, “The Shadows of Zamboula” for Savage Sword #14. Neal doesn’t like talking about this one.

His basic layouts disappeared from his studios, only partially inked, to appear again under the inks of the Filipino artists.

It was a story not to be put on the schedule, but to be finished as Neal had the time to do it right. How it suddenly got scheduled? “Who knows?” Neal sighs in his studio almost 30 years later, talking about what was and what could have been. It’s a refrain in comics (as in life): If only. . . .

The popularity of the Lancer paperbacks helped bring Conan to the comics, but the popularity of the comics helped bring Conan to a wider audience—Hollywood. After trying to get his own film version started, Roy Thomas was hired by the producer to talk into a tape recorder about

Despite the

Conan. He talked, the tape recorder recorded, the studio

sketchiness of

handed him a check for $10,000 (he talked into mine for free, but there you go) as a paid consultant. Comics should

these Conan

pay like that.

roughs, Buscema’s weighty pencils

Roy was running out of the early Howard Conan stories to adapt, so he ended up using an old Gardner Fox novel,

pack a tremendous

Kothar and the Conjurer’s Curse, as the basis for Conan #46–51,

punch.

a nice way to pay tribute to one of his favorite writers. © 2005 Conan Properties.

Finally, with the formation of Conan Inc. (a compromise between the Howard heirs and de Camp, pooling the disputed rights into one company), Marvel gained the rights to the de Camp stories considered to be part of the official Conan timeline. This caused some filling in and backtracking here and there to smooth out the continuity.

With the rights to the de Camp and Lin Carter stories and books squared away, Roy and John launched King Conan, a title devoted to the tales of Conan as the King of Aquilonia.

The tile started of with a Thomas/Buscema adaptation of the Carter/de Camp story “The Witch of the Mists.” This

G o d s

a n d

W a r r i o r s

I s s u e

•

B A C K

I S S U E

•

5 7

John Buscema’s meaty pencils (left) gained even deeper texture under the inks of Ernie Chan. © 2005 Marvel Characters, Inc.

Ernie Chan illustrated Roy Thomas’ scripts for the popular Conan the Barbarian newspaper strip syndicated

by King Features. The daily’s date is unknown; the Sunday page (bottom) was originally published Feb. 18, 1979. © 2005 Conan Properties.

5 8

•

B A C K

I S S U E

•

G o d s

a n d

W a r r i o r s

I s s u e

brought the total of Conan titles out at the time at three,

took over scripting, and John

all written and mostly drawn by Thomas and Buscema.

Buscema (now back in the

How they maintained a life outside the Cimmerian, I

saddle) even plotted a

don’t know.

few issues, reminding

Roy and John charged up their batteries again, and

everyone of the

brought forth a true saga, an adaptation of Howard’s

good ol’ days.

“Queen of the Black Coast,” a single Howard story they

When Jim Owsley

managed to stretch from issues #58–100! This adventure

t o o k o v e r, h e

sent out the Cimmerian off to sea with Belit, the Queen of

introduced Tetra,

the Black Coast and leader of the Black Corsair pirates.

a female character

In the Howard story, Conan spends three years on the

who bedeviled

Black Coast, so he spends close to that in the comics,

Conan, and who was

roistering about with pirates, knaves, wenches, and thieves.

revealed to be a witch-

These are some fun stories, and some of the deepest

queen. It was a change

and richest since the early issues. But even these were

from the run-of-the-barbarian

poked through with fillers and reprints (a reprinting

stories that had been occupy-

of the Conan/Red Sonja was nice to

ing Buscema’s pencil, and he seemed

see, and has some of Buscema’s best

glad of it.

Neal Adams’ chain-

art, but really? How many reprints in

Bob McLeod was one of Big John’s inkers

breaking barbarian

a monthly title do we need?), includ-

around this time. What was it like to ink

reminds us of his

ing Howard Chaykin on five issues

Buscema? Bob, did Big John ever

classic “Kryptonite

(#79–83) which weren’t either great

give you any feedback on your

Conan or great Chaykin. Roy wrapped

inking. . .?

up the storyline in the double-sized

“When I was inking Conan

#100 (July 1979). It was some of his

(and several Tarzan covers over

best writing on the series, and he

John), the last thing I had time

couldn’t really better it in the few

to worry about was what John

issues he had left to him.

thought of my inking. He was

In 1980, after 15 years at Marvel,

knocking out four to five pages

Roy Thomas decided not to renew his

a day, of various quality, and I had

contract and moved on to DC Comics

a monthly deadline to turn ex-

and his other love, the Justice Society

tremely loose breakdowns into

of America (check out the

completed pages. I was just begin-

upcoming All-Star Companion Vol

ning to feel confident in my inking

2—consider this a recommendation). His

with Conan #123, where I finally started

last Conan was #115, and the writing was taken

getting a sense of how much black I could

over by various (or should I say diverse?) hands.

add. Unfortunately, at the same time,

J. M. DeMatteis took over scripting, introducing a couple of kid sidekicks to the title. We readers

No More!” cover to Superman #233.

Art © 2005 Neal Adams.

Conan © 2005 Conan Properties.

the plots of the subsequent issues deteriorated and John’s layouts showed his

knew that when a long-running TV series added

boredom. The dreadful coloring every issue

a new kid sidekick (Scooby-Doo, Brady Bunch,

didn’t exactly encourage good work, either,

He is Conan.

Partridge Family), that series was in trouble. Same

because our best efforts were often obscured

Hear him roar.

with Conan. Bruce Jones came in, with Gil

with lurid purples and reds. I really

REH’s barbarian

Kane back as artist, to try to breathe some

wish I could have inked more of

by Neal Adams.

life into the series, but just ended up keeping it

John’s work after I became a better

going. Michael Fleischer (the writer Harlan Ellison

inker. I think I did do some very good work

referred to as “Bug-f*** crazy, but in a nice way”)

on him at times, particularly on some covers.

G o d s

a n d

W a r r i o r s

I s s u e

Art © 2005 Neal Adams.

Conan © 2005 Conan Properties.

•

B A C K

I S S U E

•

5 9

was coming close to self-parody. He fought too many monsters, rescued too many scantily clad maidens, stole again, rode away again, found a few more lost cities. . . . The better stories were the unusual rather than the norm. By issue #241, Roy Thomas was back. When Thomas resumed his seat at Conan’s table, he looked around at what his fellows had left over, swept it aside, and asked, “All right, where were we?” He ignored all that had happened in his absence, having Conan refer to the time passed as uneventful. After that, the comics rapidly improved, but it wasn’t quite like the old days.

Savage Sword of Conan, the mag that was the most canceled and monkeyed with, was now the only one still standing. It would feature some of the best painted covers of the ’80s and ’90s, including memorable covers by the previously mentioned Joe Jusko, who greatly contributed to the popularity of Conan.

Jusko, fantasy artist and illustrator of the Joe Jukso’s Edgar Rice Burroughs trading-card set (120 paintings of ERBdom), was a Buscema fan, first and foremost, following Big John from title to title, like the comicbook version of a Deadhead (but without the bus and tie-dye). When he was a kid Joe first encountered John’s work, and Buscema became his seminal influence in comics: “You can see it in my layouts and sketches, I spent so much time studying his art! I was into superheroes as a kid, never picked a Conan comic at all! I’d seen the Frazetta covers, but never read the book. I followed John over, I think, from The Avengers. When I heard that John Buscema was going to do Conan, I But I never inked his finished pencils very much, or

Alfredo Alcala’s rich inks

his more enthusiastic layouts.”

added even more depth

said ‘Okay, now I gotta buy Conan!’” It was only after his interest in Conan had been piqued by Buscema that he discovered the back issues: “I’d never seen

to Big John B’s pencils.

See Monster, Kill Monster

This splash was first seen

In the later issues, John Buscema’s boredom is

Jusko recalls his first meeting with John Buscema:

in Savage Sword #36

almost palpable. He did his always solid job (he was

“I was sitting in the Marvel offices, around ’78–’79. John

(Dec. 1978).

a pro, after all), but it looked like he’d done it before.

came in with his “Weirdworld” pages [see this issue’s

His drawing became looser, more layouts than any-

Art Gallery for an example]. I was dumbstruck! I couldn’t

thing resembling finished pencils. He looked like he

do anything but sit there.” How did you start paint-

was treading water.

ing Savage Sword covers? “I knew I couldn’t maintain

So did Conan.

the monthly schedule” on interior stories, so he figured

There were a lot of “See monster, kill monster”

painting would be easier. “I didn’t know what I was

© 1978 Marvel Comics Group.

Conan © 2005 Conan Properties.

6 0

•

B A C K

I S S U E

•

G o d s

Barry Smith’s work up till then.”

stories, mixed with some “hear girl scream, rescue

doing [on the early covers]—I just painted.” Joe’s were

girl, lose girl, reflect on the life of the nomadic bar-

some of the bigger, meaner looking Conans of Savage

barian, sheathe sword, ride off” story. Repetition was

Sword: “My Conan was really John’s. I was trying to

making a home, as was anachronistic humor. Conan

do what he was doing!” What was it about Buscema’s

a n d

W a r r i o r s

I s s u e

Death Covered in Gold (it should have been Death Carved

(Left top) Thomas,

in Gold, but the letterer made a mistake, and they were

Buscema, and Chan

stuck with it), plotted and drawn by John Buscema, who

slice their way through

then asked Roy Thomas to script for him. Roy proudly

the anniversary issue

did just that.

Conan #100 (July 1979).

Barry Windsor-Smith returned in 1995 for his first new © 1979 Marvel Comics Group.

Conan © 2005 Conan Properties.

Conan comics story in 20 years, teaming his character Rune from Malibu Comics with the Cimmerian for some beautiful storytelling (and very nice drawings of gore as well). Barry wasn’t happy with the final product, but many fans welcomed him back to their favorite barbarian with open arms. Conan then went from mini-series to mini-series, a warrior without a home of his own. It must have inspired some new Martin Goodman to look at the licensing fees

Buscema’s penciled

and wonder just what they were getting out of their efforts

splash to Conan #65

on behalf of a character they didn’t own.

(Aug. 1976) drips

In 2000, Marvel published Conan: The Flame and the

with atmosphere.

Fiend, Roy Thomas scripting its three issues. Both Marvel © 1976 Marvel Comics Group.

Conan © 2005 Conan Properties.

and Conan gave up the battle and quit the field. Marvel

work kept him reading the book? “It’s classical in nature, in approach, you just look at it and you know it’s right. John didn’t draw guys sitting on a chair, he drew guys sitting in chairs. He would do massive amounts of work! [When he was doing Conan,] John would do four pages of finished pencils, eight in layouts, just massive work. I have to labor over stuff to get it done, but John knew how the figure moved—he could draw!” Joe Jusko still admires the heck out of John Buscema.

By the late 1980s, Marvel had run out of steam with Conan, and Conan had grown tired of the Marvel merry-go-round. The book was the victim of declining sales and, with no more movies in the prospect, declining interest. In 1989, Conan the King was the first Conan title to fall. There was a brief spurt of activity to match the 1992 Conan the Adventurer cartoon (not bad! Roy wrote a few), but after 22 years as a Marvel mainstay, Conan the Barbarian was cancelled with #275 (Dec. 1993), with Roy Thomas riding out the issues. Savage Sword ended its 21-year run in 1995 with #235, as did the reprint series Conan Saga.

Despite Marvel’s whittling away of the Cimmerian, in the mid- to late 1990s there was life (and a little less charitably, money) left in Conan still. Conan was briefly relaunched, and there followed several mini-series (here’s where I get letters for leaving someone’s favorite out) including Conan: G o d s

a n d

W a r r i o r s

I s s u e

•

B A C K

I S S U E

•

6 1

Joe Jusko goes for

“Know, O Kurt and Cary. . .”

the jugular in this

The word was going around the comics world in 2002 that

scintillating sampling

Dark Horse Comics had Conan. Publisher Mike Richardson

of his painted Savage

made it official in November of 2002: “I am very honored

Sword of Conan covers.

and excited to bring this classic character back to the comics world. We will be working closely with Fredrik Malmberg

Conan © 2005 Conan Properties.

of Conan Properties to ensure the highest-quality stories and art to do this legendary character justice.”

And Fredrik Malmberg of Conan Properties seemed excited as well: “Conan has been a major comics franchise for many years. Dark Horse was our number-one choice when we looked for a new licensee and we are extremely pleased with the creative approach they are planning.”

Marvel had dropped the axe (no, I couldn’t resist) on the Cimmerian, and now Dark Horse picked it up. Everyone seemed to know the secret before the “official announcement.” Except for Kurt Busiek. He called Dark Horse editor Scott Allie to talk about a project that had been canceled.

Scott seemed surprised: “Oh, I thought you were calling to talk about Conan!” Allie explained that Dark Horse had the rights, and would he like to write it?

Silly question.

Kurt had not started out as a Conan fan: “He was a guy in fur shorts swinging an axe!” That was before an illness forced him into extended bed rest. Busiek was

gave

(Center) Conan the

gave up the Conan license after almost 30 years and

Unpublished! At left

hundreds of comics, thousands of pages, and Lord knows

is the original cover

how many bodies left behind on Hyborian battlefields.

art to Conan #149

It had been a good and long battle, but it was time to lick the wounds and plan for the next fight.

(Aug. 1983), deemed too graphic for publi-

On January 10, 2002, Big John Buscema passed away.

cation. Its revised

His work had defined Conan for a generation, and his life and legacy live on in the art and stories and family he

version, signed off

left behind, and the many fans who pride and cherish his

by Marvel editor-in-

work. Conan, being ink, paper, and a sharp blade, would

chief Jim Shooter,

go on.

appears at right. © 1983 Marvel Comics Group.

Conan © 2005 Conan Properties.

6 2

•

B A C K

I S S U E

•

G o d s

a n d

W a r r i o r s

I s s u e

Seems like Conan just can’t shed his attraction to giant snakes! A Buscema/McLeod page from Conan the Censored!

Conan #121 (Apr. 1981).

Compare the original © 1981 Marvel Comics Group. Conan © 2005 Conan Properties.

art to Conan #171’s cover (June 1985) to

Allison to King Kull to Solomon Kane to El Borak, and back to

the published version

Conan. He read and knew them all. Would he write Conan?

and you’ll notice some

Silly question. Kurt?

missing gore. Special

“Well, I love Roy’s stuff, it’s what got me hooked in the

thanks to Michel Maillot

first place, but when he first started, he didn’t have the

for these cover rarities!

rights to the de Camp stuff, the unfinished stories, so he’d write them his way. Then he got the rights and had to re-

© 1985 Marvel Comics Group.

Conan © 2005 Conan Properties.

bereft of reading material. Starving for something long to read, he consumed his friend’s collection of the first 100 issues of the Thomas/Smith/Buscema Conan comics. Kurt became fascinated by Conan. Not just Conan, either— he soon discovered the whole Howard canon, from James

G o d s

a n d

W a r r i o r s

I s s u e

•

B A C K

I S S U E

•

6 3

A John Buscema montage of classic Conan moments. © 2005 Conan Properties.

adapt the stories

don’t read anything unless I’m writing it.” Or maybe if it’s

and make them fit.

about the Justice Society of America (just kidding, Roy).

I wanted to start

In 2005, Joe Quesada, editor-in-chief at Marvel, was

fresh.” Kurt wanted

asked by an interviewer what character from another

the chance to do his

company he wished that Marvel could publish and he

own Conan, the

said, “Conan. I want Conan back.”

same chance Roy

You know, Joe, I don’t think Dark Horse, Kurt, and

had had back in

Cary will let you have ’im. And he seems to like where

1970.

he is at the moment, by Crom.

This time, though, Conan was a much wider-known

McLeod, Neal Adams, and the many great Conan fans out

property, with not

there who answered my questions and helped with this article!

just the comics and movies behind him, but the

cartoon series and two seasons of a television show (don’t ask). Not only was Busiek the first writer on the barbarian who originally knew Conan from the comics, then the books, but he was accompanied by an audience that mostly © 2005 Dark Horse Com ics.

discovered Conan in the comics. The series (with truly fine art by Cary Nord complemented by the colors of Dave Stewart) is Dark Horse’s bestseller, the individual issues going through several printings.

A collection came out in March 2005, the signed hardcover quickly flying out of the

John Buscema’s

stores. It goes nicely along side the full-color

original frontispiece

reprints of the original Thomas/

to Savage Sword

Smith/Buscema run that Dark Horse is also issuing.

of Conan #17 (Feb.

What does Roy Thomas think of

1977), the basis for

the new Conans?

Joe Jusko’s painted

Kurt is bemused: “He hasn’t read

reinterpretation that

them.”

graces our cover.

“No I haven’t read them.” Roy says. “I’m sure it’s very good, but I

© 2005 Conan Properties.

6 4

•

B A C K

I S S U E

•

G o d s

a n d

W a r r i o r s

Thanks to Roy Thomas, Kurt Busiek, Joe Jusko, Jon Cooke, Bob

I s s u e

Unlock the FINAL secrets of the JUSTICE SOCIETY of AMERICA (& friends) !

THE

• Amazing new info on the Golden Age JSA—including every JUNIOR JUSTICE SOCIETY message ever—and an incredible index of the solo stories of the original JSAers, from 1939 to 1951!

• Sensational new JSA and INFINITY, INC. cover by JERRY ORDWAY, drawn especially for this volume!

• The OTHER 1940s Hero Groups Examined in Depth! THE SEVEN SOLDIERS OF VICTORY—THE MARVEL FAMILY—THE ALL WINNERS SQUAD— & M.C. Gaines’ own INTERNATIONAL CRIME PATROL! • Issue-by-issue 1980s spotlight on INFINITY, INC. & SECRET ORIGINS! • Rare, often unpublished art & artifacts by: ALEX ROSS * TODD McFARLANE JOE KUBERT * CARMINE INFANTINO ALEX TOTH * GIL KANE MURPHY ANDERSON * IRWIN HASEN WAYNE BORING * SHELDON MOLDOFF MORT MESKIN * GENE COLAN MART NODELL * HARRY LAMPERT DON NEWTON * GEORGE TUSKA PAUL REINMAN * JOE GALLAGHER CHESTER KOZLAK * LEE ELIAS E.E. HIBBARD * ARTHUR PEDDY JIM VALENTINO * ALAN KUPPERBERG MICHAEL T. GILBERT * RICK HOBERG MIKE SEKOWSKY * JACK BURNLEY MIKE MACHLAN * FRANK HARRY DICK DILLIN * BERNARD KRIGSTEIN H.G. PETER * MICHAEL BAIR —& many others!

VOLUM E FOUR

Companion

Edited by

ROY THOMAS $

2795

In The US

256 Big Pages ISBN 978-1-60549-004-5

ON SALE NOW!

TwoMorrows. Celebrating The Art & History Of Comics.

TwoMorrows • 10407 Bedfordtown Drive • Raleigh, NC 27614 USA • 919-449-0344 • FAX: 919-449-0327 • E-mail: twomorrow@aol.com • www.twomorrows.com

special feature

Captions by

Michael Eu

ry

Here’s a secret: We’d originally planned a Sandman “Pro2Pro” between Neil Gaiman and Karen Berger for this issue, but Neil’s busy schedule delayed it to a future, undetermined ish. But this mesmerizing Morpheus sketch—commissioned from Bill

Sienkiewicz at the 1999 San Diego Comic-Con by its contributor Jay Caldwell— was just too astonishing to postpone. © 2005 DC Comics.

Writer Roy Thomas and artist Barry Windsor-Smith collaborated on the barbarian tale “The Sword and the Sorcerers,” featuring Starr the Slayer, for Marvel’s Chamber of Darkness #4 (Apr. 1970)—published six months before Conan the Barbarian #1. It was reprinted in Conan #16.

Original art scan courtesy of Jeff Jatras. © 2005 Marvel Characters, Inc.

6 6

•

B A C K

I S S U E

•

G o d s

a n d

W a r r i o r s

I s s u e

Our friends at Heritage Comics recently auctioned some remarkable items from the collection of Elfquest creators Richard and Wendy Pini, and we’re honored to share two of them with you here: an undated Blackmark illo

by Gil Kane (left) and a 1980 Tor sketch (below) by Joe Kubert.

Lastly, another Heritage gem: Tarzan by Jeff Jones (inset).

Blackmark © 2005 Gil Kane estate.

Tor © 2005 Joe Kubert.

Tarzan © 2005 ERB, Inc.

G o d s

a n d

W a r r i o r s

I s s u e

•

B A C K

I S S U E

•

6 7

Remember “Weirdworld”, Marvel’s 1970s’ series “in the fantasy tradition of Tolkien”? This sporadically published storyline started as a backup in the 1976 black-and-white mag Marvel Super Action #1 (starring the Punisher, of all characters!) before spinning off into Marvel Premiere #38 (1977), where this extraordinary page by Mike Ploog and

Alex Niño appeared. Original art courtesy of Heritage Comics. © 2005 Marvel Characters, Inc.

We couldn’t celebrate fantasy comics of the 1970s and 1980s without including Elfquest! From the Heritage Comics auction of items from the Pini collection comes this wonderful Wendy Pini-drawn original cover to Marvel/Epic’s Elfquest #2. (And we promise, BACK ISSUE will eventually cover this enchanting series and its creators.) © 2005 Warp Graphics.

6 8

•

B A C K

I S S U E

•

G o d s

a n d

W a r r i o r s

I s s u e

Weirdworld, take two.

Conan’s John Buscema also ’trolled into this series in its 1979 three-issue “Warriors of

the Shadow Realm” stint in Marvel Comics Super Special.

A photocopy of this penciled page was recently discovered in genial Bob McLeod’s pencil-art library (which Bob will be sharing with us in future issues; thanks, Mr. McLeod!). © 2005 Marvel Characters, Inc.

G o d s

a n d

W a r r i o r s

I s s u e

•

B A C K

I S S U E

•

6 9

Another page from the McLeod collection: A penciled splash page by John

Buscema from the Merlin issue of Marvel Preview #22 (Summer 1980). Move over, Jack Kirby and Nestor Redondo— there’s a new wizard in town! © 2005 Marvel Characters, Inc.

7 0

•

B A C K

I S S U E

•

G o d s

a n d

W a r r i o r s

I s s u e

Michel Maillot, one of this issue’s Conan art contributors, also shared with us these

John Buscema Thor character studies. They hail from 1966, a hammer’s throw before our regular timeline, but they’re too astounding to keep to ourselves. As a thunder god bonus, here’s a Joe Sinnott-illustrated Thor cover to a 1975 edition of one of BACK ISSUE’s precursors, The Comic Reader, courtesy of David Hamilton. © 2005 Marvel Characters, Inc.

G o d s

a n d

W a r r i o r s

I s s u e

•

B A C K

I S S U E

•

7 1

(Right) The Olympians square off against the Amazons in this lushly rendered

George Pérez double-page spread from The History of the DC Universe #1 (1986). George’s attention to detail has always been absolutely breathtaking, and with History he afforded his art even more TLC. © 2005 DC Comics.

You read about Lin Carter’s Conan-like

Thongor in this issue’s “Beyond Capes,” and now here’s a look at a cover from his brief Marvel run. This scan of

John Romita, Sr.’s original art to the cover of Creatures on the Loose #24 (July 1973), with its winged dinosaur (a Pterodactyl refugee from The Flintstones, perhaps?), was contributed by Mike Burkey (www.romitaman.com). © 1973 Marvel Comics Group.

7 2

•

B A C K

I S S U E

•

G o d s

a n d

W a r r i o r s

I s s u e

Here’s Orion of the New Gods in a commissioned illo by Steve Rude, courtesy of affable Jerry Boyd. And just for fun, Pete Von Sholly’s “fantasy” Fantastic Four cover asks the question, “What If Jack Kirby Had Not Left Marvel for DC in 1970?”

Orion and Darkseid © 2005 DC Comics.

Fantastic Four © 2005 Marvel Characters, Inc.

G o d s

a n d

W a r r i o r s

I s s u e

•

B A C K

I S S U E

•

7 3

Suydam’s “When Giants Walk the Earth,” the 2005 Spectrum Magazine Gold Medal winner.

Unless otherwise noted, all artwork accompanying this interview appears courtesy of the artist and Renee Witterstaetter.

conducted on March 10, 2005

Arthur Suydam, a protégé of EC legend Joe Orlando (among others), is an artist’s artist who

interview

by Dan Johnson

© 2005 Arthur Suydam.

7 4

•

B A C K

I S S U E

•

has chosen to avoid the mainstream for most of his extensive career. Although he describes himself as someone who has always been on the fringe of the comics industry, Suydam has nonetheless won over a number of mainstream readers with his work on such series as Heavy Metal’s Mudwogs, Epic Illustrated’s Cholly and Flytrap, and a collection of cuttingedge short stories. If you haven’t heard Suydam’s name mentioned in a while, you may not be alone. His absence from the comics scene is, oddly enough, intentional, the result of his hard work and singular devotion to his art. Over the years, many of the projects that Suydam has worked on have, for a variety of reasons, not made it to fruition. They are now emerging, ready to be unveiled to his eager fans. Suydam is finding the spotlight as he begins new chapters for some of his most famous creations—Mudwogs is back in Heavy Metal, while Cholly and Flytrap have a new home at Image. He has released a series of new The Art of the Barbarian books that tie in very well with the theme of this edition of BACK ISSUE —Dan Johnson

G o d s

a n d

W a r r i o r s

I s s u e

DAN JOHNSON: Let’s discuss your new book: What can you tell us about The Art of the Barbarian?

Beginnings:

ARTHUR SUYDAM: I am quite proud of Art of the Barbarian.

Short stories for Joe Orlando at DC Comics (1980s)

I put a lot of work into it, and there were many hurdles

Milestones:

along the way. It started off as a sketch book, and ended

Heavy Metal / Mudwogs / Cholly and Flytrap / The Art of the Barbarian: Conan, Tarzan, Death Dealer / 2005 Spectrum Magazine Gold Medal winner for artistic excellence

up more as a fine art book. Currently it is softcover, but there are plans to do an expanded hardcover later on, which will truly make it an art book. It has more than 200 illustrations

Works in Progress:

in it already, with eight pull-out plates printed on archival

Cholly and Flytrap (Image Comics) / Mudwogs monthly in Heavy Metal / as-yet-untitled creator-owned barbarian story / The Alien Encounters Poster Book / The Femme Fatale Art of Arthur Suydam (Eva Ink and Image Comics) / Bedtime Stories for the Incarcerated (Last Gasp) / giclees from Heroic Fine Art / The Fantastic Art of Arthur Suydam (Vanguard Productions) / The Art of the Barbarian 2006 Calendar

paper. It features a lot of the barbarian art I have been working on over the years, and most of it is new material. The book contains some sepia studies from a Conan figurine set that I worked on a few years ago, as well as unpublished artwork from a barbarian book, my own, that I will publish later this year with Eva Ink. Additionally, I did some artwork on the Death Dealer, a barbarian character I illustrated a

Cyberspace:

few years back. That job was colored by computer. Now

www.evaink.com

readers for the first time can see what the artwork looked like before it got lost in the coloring. The Art of the Barbarian book also features work from Tarzan and other Conan artwork. I’ve been asked by the publisher to do a second one, The Art of the Barbarian Book Two. I hear Roy Thomas might be involved with that.

I don’t know, it remains to be seen.

2003 Conan

JOHNSON: As I understand

figure studies for Dark Horse Comics.

Conan © 2005 Conan Properties.

Art © 2005 Arthur Suydam.

G o d s

a n d

W a r r i o r s

I s s u e

•

B A C K

I S S U E

•

7 5

Conan series. It is almost as if he wrote those stories himself.

JOHNSON: What about Tarzan? Are you a big fan of that character?

SUYDAM: Yeah, the artists who worked on Tarzan and came before me inspired me, and I really enjoyed the early Johnny Weissmuller movies. I have an affinity for that character.

JOHNSON: Art of the Barbarian marks a huge return for you to the comics industry. It seemed like you fell off the radars there for a while, and some folks even thought you had gotten out of the business. That was not the case though, was it? From what I gather, it sounds like you were working on a few projects that readers just never got the chance to see.

SUYDAM: Right. I was never gone. I worked in film for a while. I am also a musician, and that plays an important part in my life. In fact, I was able to mesh the two worlds in December [2004] when my publisher sponsored a fundraiser for the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art in Manhattan. I got my band together, made up of topnotch musicians who have played with Pat Benatar, James Taylor, Bruce Springsteen, etc., as have I, and we rocked the house. Ha! Or at least folks seemed to have a good time.

This rare 1997

it, you worked on an unpublished Conan graphic novel at

Conan illo by

one point with Roy. What can you tell us about that?

Suydam was

SUYDAM: Oh, yeah. Let’s see here, a few years ago I did

unpublished until

a project collaborating with Roy. We got the thing all fin-

2005’s The Art of

ished, and up to Marvel for scanning. This happened to be

the Barbarian.

right around the time of the big crash in comic books.

The book was being scanned right around the time Marvel

Conan © 2005 Conan Properties.

Art © 2005 Arthur Suydam.

decided to fire all of their staff including the editor of the Conan project, I guess. A lot of people were bitter over being fired and someone apparently, on their way out, must

But, yes, I would say that is probably my history, and

have decided to pick up the artwork for that story and take

my entire career, in comics. I have not sought the spot-

it as some kind of severance benefit. Anyway, it seems to

light. I basically always work on projects on the fringe

(right) A boss photo

have vanished.

and I avoid working on characters that are mainstream.

of Bruce Springsteen,

JOHNSON: Ouch. Sorry. Back to Roy—he’s the go-to man

At least up until now. I am a creator and a writer as well

if you want to talk barbarians.

as an artist, and I always enjoyed writing my own stories

SUYDAM: Roy is the most knowledgeable guy of the

and characters.

Arthur Suydam, and a friend.

7 6

•

B A C K

I S S U E

•

barbarian genre, Conan specifically, that I have ever known.

I also worked on the first issue of a science fiction and

It is amazing how much he knows, down to every detail

fantasy magazine, Forbidden Zone, but the company was

about every character that was ever written about in the

a dot.com enterprise that unfortunately went down the

G o d s

a n d

W a r r i o r s

I s s u e

The postcard promoting a fundraiser for Manhattan’s Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art. © 2005 Arthur Suydam.

A mid-1990s rendition of Tarzan of the Apes, Suydam’s guide for his painted Dark Horse comic-book cover.

Tarzan © 2005 ERB, Inc. Art © 2005 Arthur Suydam.

tubes and was never able to put out issues number two and three, I was the editor-in-chief, head writer, concept creator, and art director for that one.

JOHNSON: Let’s discuss your work in the industry to date: You said you prefer the fringe.

SUYDAM: That’s right. Undergrounds. Heavy Metal is nothing more than an underground printed on glossy paper. Working on projects that are challenging fits my program for artistic development, as opposed to taking them on just for the pay. Over the years, I have been offered a lot of work: Spider-Man, The Hulk, Thor . . . [Marvel] offered me X-Men at one point. I suppose I could have made a little more money if I had gone with one of those books.

Maybe. Probably.

Last week, a client remarked about my work that if you strip away the fancy drawing and nice paper, he would think he was reading R. Crumb or Gilbert Shelton or Will Eisner. I don’t know . . . I do a lot of tributes to my teachers in my work.

JOHNSON: I see what you are saying, but it would be amazing to see your art on something like Spider-Man or Thor. I could imagine your take on Thor would be pretty awesome.

SUYDAM: In recent years, I did pitch a Thor graphic novel to Marvel. They turned it down, opting to go with a gay

G o d s

a n d

W a r r i o r s

I s s u e

•

B A C K

I S S U E

•

7 7

Little trouble for a sleeping giant in Suydam’s “Zzzz.” © 2005 Arthur Suydam.

Arthur’s

Loki thing. Now I hear the character has been cancelled.

for them, and those will be coming out this year. They’ve

electrifying

Although I avoided working on the mainstream charac-

got a great art director, Mark Irwin, who really knows his

Thor . . . the

ters all these years, now I feel pretty comfortable with where

stuff. A rarity in the business. I did a Thor card . . . my

Barbarian?

I am and I am actually starting, for the first time, to do a

Thor card. It’s a little different. I am also doing some of

little bit of work on mainstream characters. I have started

DC Comics’ characters for cards as well.

working on Upper Deck cards, doing Marvel characters

JOHNSON: Have you had a chance to interact much

Thor © 2005 Marvel Characters, Inc. Art © 2005 Arthur Suydam.

with Joe Quesada, Marvel’s editor-in-chief?

SUYDAM: I never met the man, like his work. I would like to meet him some day. He’s an art man. I like an art man.

JOHNSON: I was wondering if you two had met, since Quesada reminds me a lot of Joe Orlando. It seems he is doing a lot for Marvel today, just like Orlando did for DC back in the early 1970s.

SUYDAM: The smart thing they did was finally put an artist in a position of authority since this is an art business. An artist on a comic is like the director of a film. They decide how the story is going to be told—the lighting, the cast, total. It’s all inside the artist’s head. It’s about the creatives, not the wheeler dealers, at the end of the day.

JOHNSON: The time period when your work was really starting to be recognized, the early 1980s, was around the same time comics were starting to explode with creativity, and new venues were just starting to open up through the direct-sales market.

SUYDAM: That’s right. Guys like Libertore, [Richard] Corben, Moebius, Bernie [Wrightson], and me are the ones who set the path towards a more mature readership.

And the undergrounds. Later on, comics were the place to be. That was when Marvel was getting mentioned in the Wall Street Journal.

JOHNSON: I think 1986 was when comics hit their creative zenith with Alan Moore’s Watchmen and Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns.

SUYDAM: Comics? No. Mainstream comics. It was a

7 8

•

B A C K

I S S U E

•

G o d s

a n d

W a r r i o r s

I s s u e

beginning. That was the year, for the first time, that the suits finally learned the value of investing in the creatives.

Watchmen and The Dark Knight were real departures from what mainstream comics had always been up to that point. Those mainstream guys were copying what Heavy Metal, Epic Illustrated, and the underground comics had done for years. Mainstream has always been where the numbers are. They did, however, help redirect mainstream comics towards a more mature audience. But then, of course, the bureaucrats jumped all over it and made a mess of it. Happens every time the producers try to make creative decisions for the talent. They can’t help it. Everybody likes to think that they are the creative force at work. Being an artist is a lot more seductive than being a deal maker, or a bean counter. [laughs] JOHNSON: After 1986, there was a huge decline in the industry, as if every bit of energy that lead up to 1986 was just drained away. What do you think happened?

was widespread through out the comics community, every-

A blazing rendition

SUYDAM: Oh, I can tell you what happened, sure. You

body got on the bandwagon of ripping off the readers,

of forthcoming

know, it’s funny how just about everyone in the comics

until eventually there was a backlash and readers revolted,

Marvel Comics

business “except” management knew exactly what was

and went on to other things, like more interactive forms

movie headliner

going down and saw it coming. Years before it went down.

of entertainment. Better value for the buck.

Ghost Rider.

New management from Revlon at Marvel brought in that

The other part of it would be the creative end. This was

baseball-card trading mentality and it turned the direc-

an era when Dark Knight and Watchmen came out. Industry

tion away from producing a product that was quality,

is very quick to jump on trends. The mainstream was fig-

and instead towards making a product that was collectible.

uring out that there was real money in producing comics

There were all the tacky gimmicks that relied on the fan-

that were not just for little kids. They realized there was a

base’s loyalty. Readers were buying four or five copies of

much larger readership out there with big bucks. The thing

anything with a #1 on it, and socking them away in their

is, mainstream comics did not have the editorship in place

basement, believing that eventually it would be worth more

that understood good, mature writing and good, mature

money tomorrow than today. That

Ghost Rider © 2005 Marvel Characters, Inc. Art © 2005 Arthur Suydam.

directions for the characters. They started putting out a lot of material that imitated the two big hits, superficially. Cutting edge subject matter, some well drawn, but poorly conceived. The end result was comics intended for mature readership that did not make it. The people putting the comics together

A biting 2005

were the same unenlight-

Suydam illustration.

ened conservatives who had

© 2005 Arthur Suydam.

been putting together books

G o d s

a n d

W a r r i o r s

I s s u e

•

B A C K

I S S U E

•

7 9

for the eight-year-olds for all those years. They didn’t

SUYDAM: Well, I have two new series that I believe will be

know how to reach for their “potential” sophisticated

running in Heavy Metal on a monthly basis: a new Mudwogs

readership. Bean counters in the arts need to be smart

graphic novel which began with the January 2005 issue and

about who makes their creative decisions. An ass for every

one called Skin Deep—my tribute to one of my teachers,

chair. I have a plan that would solve the entire mess in

Will Eisner—which is scheduled to begin in the Heavy

two years and restore the numbers.

Metal Special in the summer of 2005. Every month, the magazine will have material by me, probably for the next two years.

JOHNSON: What has it been like going back to Heavy Metal after being away for a while? Did it have a feeling of coming home again?

SUYDAM: Good question. Heavy Metal is different now.

Their offices are no longer in Manhattan. I used to go up to the offices and deliver my work by hand, then hang out with the editors. It was a dad-and-daughter thing. Now they’re spread out and I don’t get to meld with the Heavy Metal family like before. Still, I have a special place in my heart for Heavy Metal. Heavy Metal has always been the fertile ground for creativity in comics. Anthologies suffer terribly for not having ongoing properties. That’s why they don’t sell numbers like mainstream comics. Let’s face it: Americans are obsessive about familiar characters for entertainment. It’s no reflection on quality. It’s a psychological thing. Heavy Metal is the one who revolutionized comics.

The evolution from the more simplistic material from the 1960s and 1970s to what we see today. Nobody talks about it. Everyone’s chasing numbers. They don’t get the tie-in.

JOHNSON: What are your thoughts on the huge independent market that has opened up since the 1980s?

SUYDAM: You’re saying independents—you are talking the fringe books like Eightball, and Zap from Last Gasp?

JOHNSON: Right, yes.

Suydam’s take on

JOHNSON: I believe you would. What would you do if you

SUYDAM: They are the new Heavy Metal, creatively speak-

Frazetta’s warrior

were king?

ing, where it’s at artistically. I believe the future of comics

SUYDAM: Someone’s going to have to pay me to find out.

lies with alternative comics. The other stuff just doesn’t

[laughs]

make the grade quality-wise.

Death Dealer.

Death Dealer © 2005 Frank Frazetta.

Art © 2005 Arthur Suydam.

8 0

•

B A C K

I S S U E

•

JOHNSON: Some of your success has resulted from working

JOHNSON: Heavy Metal seems like the gateway book

for Heavy Metal. I hear you are currently working with that

to the alternative market. Some readers don’t have a comics

magazine again for the first time in quite a while, right?

shop near them, and are not exposed to the independent

SUYDAM: Yes. I like the little guy. For me, Heavy Metal is

books, but it’s easy for them to discover Heavy Metal.

an institution.

SUYDAM: It is tough, sure. It is tough in the United States,

JOHNSON: With Heavy Metal you’re returned to one of

especially when there is a Republican administration running

your most famous creations, Mudwogs. Tell us about that.

the country, to do mature work. Tough to get this material

G o d s

a n d

W a r r i o r s

I s s u e

distributed. There are a lot of stores that won’t carry the

JOHNSON: I think that is what Marvel is shooting for. For

stuff. The U.S. has gotten so puritanical. In the old days,

the vast majority of children, comics are not a part of their

there were magazine stands that carried comics and they

childhood like they were for even people my age. When I

really don’t do that anymore. Publishers think that it is safer

was growing up, there were comic racks in every grocery

to produce a product that is less likely to offend. That’s where

store, drug store, and convenience store. Not only are the

“For Death Dealer,

they’re wrong. They’re just digging their own graves.

comics not readily available to kids these days, but comics

I focused on the

JOHNSON: About comics being available to kids—I heard

are also facing some stiff competition from video games—

various muscles in

recently that Marvel is going to start putting their comic

SUYDAM: The Internet.

his neck and arms,”

books back into 7-11 stores. I think Marvel is finally real-

JOHNSON: Right.

remarks the artist

izing that they need to try and start getting kids buying

SUYDAM: And you have to go looking for comic books

in The Art of the

their books.

to find them now.

Barbarian.

SUYDAM: My understanding is that the publishers who are

JOHNSON: I think that is what Marvel wants to change in

really producing for a young audience, with success, are the

the near future with the 7-11 deal. Also, these days Borders

manga publishers. The good thing about that is that these

is carrying a small selection of comics. I think the publishers

young readers are growing aware of comics. The comics

are now hoping they can reach adults who grew up on

industry is very hopeful that as they mature, they will stay

comics, and they will in turn purchase comics for their chil-

reading comics, and become the readership of the future.

dren, and thus get them reading their books.

G o d s

a n d

W a r r i o r s

I s s u e

Death Dealer © 2005 Frank Frazetta.

Art © 2005 Arthur Suydam.

•

B A C K

I S S U E

•

8 1

SUYDAM: My guess is that the attention in Hollywood is what is causing these bookstores to carry comics.

This cool-as-Hell

JOHNSON: Going back to your work, tell us about the

painting of Dante

return of Cholly and Flytrap.

will soon be seen

SUYDAM: Image Comics is running that right now

as the book cover

monthly—the book began in November of 2004.

of Vanguard’s The

JOHNSON: Will you be making the older material avail-

Fantastic Art of

able to fans through Image?

Arthur Suydam and

SUYDAM: Yes. What we are doing is running new mate-

the cover of The

rial while we are also running the old material to let the

Art of the Barbarian

new audience see what has come before.

2006 Calendar.

JOHNSON: It is great that Mudwogs and Cholly and

© 2005 Arthur Suydam.

Flytrap are both back. I was wondering, while the characters were not being published, were you working on the new material, or was it a situation where you decided to step away from the characters for a while?

SUYDAM: These were all experimental projects that caught on. Cholly and Flytrap appeared in Epic Illustrated, and when Epic stopped publishing, I stopped doing the char-

“Weasels”— would you trust their smiling pusses?

interview

© 2005 Arthur Suydam.

8 2

•

B A C K

I S S U E

•

G o d s

a n d

W a r r i o r s

I s s u e

acters. Creatively, for me, I love writing Cholly and Flytrap

SUYDAM: Well, there is an animated series that a company

and Mudwogs. It was a case of “Is there an outlet for these

in Canada—Paranoid Delusions—is working on right now,

Suydam effectively

books?” When publishers approach me and say, “I would

and I am hoping to premiere it at San Diego this year. I

uses silhouettes on

like to print this,” that’s when I start working on new mate-

am also working on Cholly and Flytrap figurines as well.

pages 26 and 29 of

rial. I like those characters . . . I never get tired of writing

JOHNSON: I had not heard anything about the ani-

Cholly and Flytrap:

and drawing them.

mated series until now. Are you involved in the writing

Till Death Do Us Part

JOHNSON: How is it working with Image?

on this project?

#1 (1990), published

Image is one of the biggest publishers that

SUYDAM: Wouldn’t miss it.

by Eclipse Comics.

understands that the artist needs to be

JOHNSON: Is there anything else cooking

Original art courtesy

an artist first and foremost—they’re not just

for you right now that the readers of BACK

of Heritage Comics.

about releasing a set number of books

ISSUE should be on the look out for?

per month.

SUYDAM: We have two giclees coming out

SUYDAM: They have always been that way.

from Heroic Fine Art. One is a Cholly and

© 2005 Arthur Suydam.

This was a company that was created by

Flytrap giclee and the other is one of a bar-

(Inset) Suydam’s

artists, for artists. They got tired of being

barian character, Dante, called “Dante’s

Cholly and Flytrap

inappropriately used. I couldn’t be more

Reign.” Anyone who likes barbarians might

were cover featured

proud of Todd [McFarlane], Jim [Valentino], and Erik [Larsen].

go for that. Then we have an art book that is going to

on Epic Illustrated

Smart. Working with them has been a good experience.

be coming out from Vanguard Productions [just released

#34 (1986).

JOHNSON: What about Cholly and Flytrap? What’s in the

in Spring 2005], The Fantastic Art of Arthur Suydam, my

cards for this duo?

best work to date.

Epic Illustrated © 2005 Marvel Comics.

Cholly and Flytrap © 2005 Arthur Suydam.

G o d s

a n d

W a r r i o r s

I s s u e

•

B A C K

I S S U E

•

8 3

BOOKS by BACK ISSUE’s editor MICHAEL EURY

KRYPTON COMPANION Unlocks the secrets of Superman’s Silver and Bronze Ages, when kryptonite came in multiple colors and super-pets scampered across the skies! Writer/editor MICHAEL EURY explores the legacy of classic editors MORT WEISINGER and JULIUS SCHWARTZ through all-new interviews with NEAL ADAMS, MURPHY ANDERSON, CARY BATES, NICK CARDY, JOSÉ LUIS GARCÍA-LÓPEZ, KEITH GIFFEN, ELLIOT S! MAGGIN, JIM MOONEY, DENNIS O’NEIL, BOB OKSNER, MARTIN PASKO, BOB ROZAKIS, JIM SHOOTER, LEN WEIN, MARV WOLFMAN, and other fan favorites!

Plus: Super-artist CURT SWAN’s 1987 essay “Drawing Superman,” JERRY SIEGEL’s “lost” imaginary story “The Death of Clark Kent,” MARK WAID’s tribute to Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes, and rare and previously unpublished artwork by WAYNE BORING, ALAN DAVIS, ADAM HUGHES, PAUL SMITH, BRUCE TIMM, and other Super-stars. Bonus: A roundtable discussion with modern-day creators examining Superman’s influential past! Cover by DAVE GIBBONS!

JUSTICE LEAGUE COMPANION A comprehensive examination of the Silver Age JLA written by MICHAEL EURY (co-author of THE SUPERHERO BOOK). It traces the JLA’s development, history, imitators, and early fandom through vintage and all-new interviews with the series’ creators, an issue-by-issue index of the JLA’s 1960-1972 adventures, classic and never-before-published artwork, and other fun and fascinating features. Contributors include DENNY O’NEIL, MURPHY ANDERSON, JOE GIELLA, MIKE FRIEDRICH, NEAL ADAMS, ALEX ROSS, CARMINE INFANTINO, NICK CARDY, and many, many others. Plus: An exclusive interview with STAN LEE, who answers the question, “Did the JLA really inspire the creation of Marvel’s Fantastic Four?” With an all-new cover by BRUCE TIMM!

BATCAVE COMPANION The writer/editor of the critically acclaimed KRYPTON COMPANION and the designer of the eye-popping SPIES, VIXENS, AND MASTERS OF KUNG FU: THE ART OF PAUL GULACY team up to explore the Silver and Bronze Ages of Batman comic books in THE BATCAVE COMPANION! Two distinct sections of this book examine the Dark Knight’s progression from his campy “New Look” of the mid-1960s to his “creature of the night” reinvention of the 1970s. Features include issue-by-issue indexes, interviews with CARMINE INFANTINO, JOE GIELLA, DENNIS O’NEIL, and NEAL ADAMS, and guest essays by MIKE W. BARR and WILL MURRAY. Contributors include SHELDON MOLDOFF, LEN WEIN, STEVE ENGLEHART, and TERRY AUSTIN, with a special tribute to the late MARSHALL ROGERS. With its incisive introduction by DENNIS O’NEIL and its iconic cover painting by NEAL ADAMS, THE BATCAVE COMPANION is a musthave for every comics fan! By MICHAEL EURY and MICHAEL KRONENBERG. (240-page trade paperback) $26.95 US • ISBN: 9781893905788 • Diamond Order Code: NOV068368

(224-page trade paperback) $24.95 ISBN: 9781893905481 Diamond Order Code: MAY053052

(240-page trade paperback) $24.95 ISBN: 9781893905610 Diamond Order Code: MAY063443

COMICS GONE APE!

DICK GIORDANO: CHANGING COMICS, ONE DAY AT A TIME

The missing link to primates in comics, spotlighting a barrel of simian superstars like Beppo, BrainiApe, the Gibbon, Gleek, Gorilla Man, Grease Monkey, King Kong, Konga, Mojo Jojo, Sky Ape, and Titano! It’s loaded with rare and classic artwork, cover galleries, and interviews with artists & writers including ARTHUR ADAMS (Monkeyman and O’Brien), FRANK CHO, CARMINE INFANTINO (Detective Chimp, Grodd), JOE KUBERT (Tor, Tarzan), TONY MILLIONAIRE (Sock Monkey), DOUG MOENCH (Planet of the Apes), and BOB OKSNER (Angel and the Ape)! All-new cover by ARTHUR ADAMS, and written by MICHAEL EURY.

MICHAEL EURY’s biography of comics’ most prominent and affable personality! Covers his career as illustrator, inker, and editor, peppered with DICK’S PERSONAL REFLECTIONS on his career milestones!

Lavishly illustrated with RARE AND NEVER SEEN comics, merchandising, and advertising art (includes a color section)! Also includes an extensive index of his published work, comments and tributes by NEAL ADAMS, DENNIS O’NEIL, TERRY AUSTIN, PAUL LEVITZ, MARV WOLFMAN, JULIUS SCHWARTZ, JIM APARO and others, plus a Foreword by NEAL ADAMS and Afterword by PAUL LEVITZ!

(128-page trade paperback) $14.95 ISBN: 9781893905627 Diamond Order Code: FEB073814

(176-pg. Paperback with COLOR) $19.95 ISBN: 9781893905276 Diamond Order Code: STAR20439

CAPTAIN ACTION: THE ORIGINAL SUPER-HERO ACTION FIGURE (Hardcover 2nd Edition)

CAPTAIN ACTION was introduced in 1966 in the wake of the Batman TV show craze, and later received his own DC comic book with art by WALLY WOOD and GIL KANE. Able to assume the identities of 13 famous super-heroes, his initial career was short-lived, but continuing interest in the hero has led to two different returns to toy-store shelves. Lavishly illustrated with over 200 toy photos, this FULL-COLOR HARDCOVER SECOND EDITION chronicles the history of this quick-changing champion, including photos of virtually EVERY CAPTAIN ACTION PRODUCT ever released, spotlights on his allies ACTION BOY and the SUPER QUEENS and his arch enemy DR. EVIL, an examination of his comic-book appearances, and “Action facts” that even the most diehard Captain Action fan won’t know! The original softcover edition has been sold out for years, but this revised, full-color hardcover second edition includes behind-the-scenes coverage of CAPTAIN ACTION’S TRIUMPHANT 2008 RETURN to comics shelves in his new series from Moonstone Books, and spotlights the new wave of Captain Action collectibles. Written by MICHAEL EURY. (176-page COLOR HARDCOVER) $39.95 US • ISBN: 9781605490175 • Diamond Code: APR091003

THE

BATCAVE C O M P A N I O N NOW SHIPPING! Batman. Is he the campy Caped Crusader? Or the grim Gotham Guardian?

Both, as The Batcave Companion reveals.

On the brink of cancellation in 1963, Batman was rescued by DC Comics editor Julius Schwartz, who, abetted by several talented writers and artists, gave the hero a much-needed “New Look” which soon catapulted Batman to multimedia stardom.

In the next decade, when Batman required another fresh start, Schwartz once again led a team of creators that returned the hero to his “creature of the night” roots.

Writers Michael Eury (The Krypton Companion, The Justice League Companion) and Michael Kronenberg (Spies, Vixens, and Masters of Kung Fu: The Art of Paul Gulacy) unearth the stories behind the stories of both Batman’s “New Look” and Bronze Age (1970s) comic-book eras through incisive essays, invaluable issue-by-issue indexes, and insightful commentary from many of the visionaries responsible for and inspired by Batman’s 1960s and 1970s adventures: Neal Adams, Michael Allred, Terry Austin, Mike W. Barr, Steve Englehart, Mike Friedrich, Mike Grell, Carmine Infantino, Joe Giella, Adam Hughes, Sheldon Moldoff, Will Murray, Dennis O’Neil, Bob Rozakis, Mark Waid, Len Wein, and Bernie Wrightson.

Featuring 240 art- and info-packed pages, The Batcave Companion is a must-have examination of two of the most influential periods in Batman’s 70-year history.

Written by Back Issue’s

MICHAEL EURY & MICHAEL KRONENBERG ISBN 978-1-893905-78-8 $26.95 in the U.S. plus shipping Batman, Robin, and all related characters and indicia are TM & © DC Comics. All Rights Reserved. Used with permission.

TwoMorrows. Celebrating The Art & History Of Comics.

TwoMorrows • 10407 Bedfordtown Drive • Raleigh, NC 27614 USA • 919-449-0344 • FAX: 919-449-0327 • E-mail: twomorrow@aol.com • www.twomorrows.com

Send your comments to: Email: euryman@msn.com (subject: BACK ISSUE) No attachments, please!

Postal mail: Michael Eury, Editor • BACK ISSUE 5060A Foothills Drive • Lake Oswego, OR 97034

I wanted to comment on Chris Khalaf’s short piece on Time Warp. Yes, it’s true a lot of people aren’t familiar with that book (or the short-lived

Mystery in Space revival which followed it), but it had an influence on my own work and I take away something new from it every time I pull my copies out. Thanks for devoting a few column inches to it.

And as member #42 of the Nexus Fan Club (I have the card to prove it), it was great to see Steve Rude’s version of the original cover. It’s kind of funny now to think that because Rude was unknown at the time they got “name” talent to do the first couple of covers. Of course, what I want is a copy of that cover without all the blurbs on it. I’ll check out Rude’s website to see if he’s going to sell prints of it.

– Scott Dutton www.catspawdynamics.com/scott.html

Thanks for writing, member #42—and for sharing the Nexus Fan Club items shown here! – M.E.

Mike Nexus © 2005

8 6

•

B A C K

I S S U E

•

G o d s

a n d

ve Baron and Ste

Rude.

W a r r i o r s

I s s u e

© 1982 Marvel Comics Group. Star Wars © 2005 Lucasfilm.

Questions? Comments? Exaltations? Send 'em to euryman@msn.com.

Thanks for helping make BACK ISSUE the ultimate comics experience!

I thought I should drop you a note about Glenn Greenberg’s wonderful overview of Marvel’s Star Wars series in issue #9 of BACK ISSUE. Growing up in the ’70s and primed by Jack Kirby comics and Star Trek reruns, I was the perfect age for Star Wars to burn itself into my brain. The thrills I got from the movies stay with me to this day.

And let me tell you, the Marvel Comics Star Wars series went a long way towards making the wait between movies a lot more bearable. Even though not every story was a homerun, I do think Marvel did a very good job telling Star Wars stories despite some remarkable restrictions. While a whole new generation of Star Wars stories have emerged in the last decade or so, the Marvel tales of Valance the Hunter, the Tarkin Battle Station, and the Dark Lady Lumiya stand as some of the finest Star Wars adventures to be told in any medium.

Thanks for the article’s fascinating peek behind the curtain of some of my favorite comic-book stories.

– Mark Hudson Tell us, Mark: How many times have you seen Revenge of the Sith? – M.E.

As a lifelong fan of the Marvel Star Wars comic, I loved issue #9.

On page 4, you asked about an art piece of Han Solo. This was originally published in the U.K.’s Star Wars Weekly #6.

– Ed Reilly Thanks for the info, Ed—and our gratitude also goes out to Rob Kirby, who also shared this info in a letter unfortunately too long for publication. – M.E.

G o d s

a n d

W a r r i o r s

I s s u e

•

B A C K

I S S U E

•

8 7

ON S U B M I S S IL I N E S GUIDE

I’ve only recently gotten into comics and am splitting my resources between

BACK ISSUE is on the lookout for the following comics-related material from the 1970s and 1980s:

current comics and older titles. As such, I’m always

Unpublished artwork Original artwork Penciled artwork Character designs, model sheets, etc.

Original scripts

on the lookout for titles to explore, collect, and read.

Your magazine is THE BEST resource I have found © 1973 Marvel Comics Group

for in-depth histories and reviews of titles and creators, and has led me to hours of fun on my newfound hobby! Thanks so much!

One title I am particularly interested in (even before the movie) is Ghost Rider. This is really a hard one to get a lot of good in-depth info on— especially the first modern “Johnny Blaze” series from the ’70s/’80s. There are a couple of websites I found, but not a lot of details. Really, it’s been difficult to dig into this one. This seems like a title that would be within your scope, and seeing

Photos Original sketches and/or convention sketches Rare fanzine material Other rarities

Creators and collectors of 1970s and 1980s comics artwork are invited to share your goodies with other fans! Contributors will be acknowledged in print and receive complimentary copies (and the editor’s gratitude).

Submit artwork as (listed in order of preference):

Scanned images: 300dpi TIF (preferred) or JPEG (e-mailed or on CD, or to our FTP site; please inquire) Clear color or black-and-white photocopies BACK ISSUE is also open to pitches from writers for article ideas appropriate for our recurring and/or rotating departments. Request a copy of the BACK ISSUE Writers’ Bible by e-mailing euryman@msn.com or by sending a SASE to the address below.

Artwork submissions and SASEs for writers’ guidelines should be sent to: Michael Eury, Editor BACK ISSUE 5060A Foothills Dr. Lake Oswego, OR 97034

as the movie is coming out, might fit very well. Anyhow, keep

Advertise In BACK ISSUE!

up the good work!

– Jeff Henke

FULL-PAGE: 7.5" Wide x 10" Tall • $300 HALF-PAGE: 7.5" Wide x 4.875" Tall • $175 QUARTER-PAGE: 3.75" Wide x 4.875" Tall • $100 Prepay for two ads in Alter Ego, DRAW!, Write Now!, Back Issue, or any combination and save:

Wow, Jeff, thank you for the wonderful letter! Ghost Rider is one of several characters spotlighted in our upcoming “Weird Heroes” issue—BACK ISSUE #15! And what do you think of Arthur Suydam’s rendition of Marvel’s Hell’s angel in this ish?

See you in sixty for our “Extreme Makeovers” issue, featuring character revamps of the 1970s and 1980s!

Michael Eury

•

B A C K

I S S U E

•

G o d s

a n d

W a r r i o r s

These rates are for black-&-white ads, supplied on-disk (TIF, EPS, or Quark Xpress files acceptable) or as cameraready art. Typesetting service available at 20% mark-up.

Due to our already low ad rates, no agency discounts apply.

Sorry, display ads not available for the Jack Kirby Collector.

Send ad copy and check/money order (US funds), Visa, or Mastercard to: TwoMorrows Publishing 10407 Bedfordtown Drive • Raleigh, NC 27614 Phone: 919/449-0344 • FAX 919/449-0327 E-mail: twomorrow@aol.com

Your friendly neighborhood Euryman,

8 8

TWO FULL-PAGE ADS: $500 ($100 savings) TWO HALF-PAGE ADS: $300 ($50 savings) TWO QUARTER-PAGE ADS: $175 ($25 savings)

I s s u e

TwoMorrows Publishing 2009 Update WINTER/SPRING

Supplement to the 2008 TwoMorrows Preview Catalog

ORDER AT: www.twomorrows.com

SAVE

BATCAVE COMPANION

All characters TM & ©2009 their respective owners.

IT’S FINALLY HERE! The writer/editor of the critically acclaimed KRYPTON COMPANION and the designer of the eye-popping SPIES, VIXENS, AND MASTERS OF KUNG FU: THE ART OF PAUL GULACY team up to explore the Silver and Bronze Ages of Batman comic books in THE BATCAVE COMPANION! Two distinct sections of this book examine the Dark Knight’s progression from his campy “New Look” of the mid-1960s to his “creature of the night” reinvention of the 1970s. Features include issue-byissue indexes, interviews with CARMINE INFANTINO, JOE GIELLA, DENNIS O’NEIL, and NEAL ADAMS, and guest essays by MIKE W. BARR and WILL MURRAY. Contributors include SHELDON MOLDOFF, LEN WEIN, STEVE ENGLEHART, and TERRY AUSTIN, with a special tribute to the late MARSHALL ROGERS. With its incisive introduction by DENNIS O’NEIL and its iconic cover painting by NEAL ADAMS, THE BATCAVE COMPANION is a must-have for every comics fan! By MICHAEL EURY and MICHAEL KRONENBERG.

15

WHE % N YO ORD U ONL ER INE!

(224-page trade paperback) $26.95 US • ISBN: 9781893905788 • Diamond Order Code: NOV068368 • Ships April 2009

COMIC BOOK PODCAST COMPANION Comic book podcasts have taken the Internet by storm, and now TwoMorrows offers you the chance to go behind the scenes of ten of today's top comic book podcasts via all-new interviews with the casts of AROUND COMICS, WORD BALLOON, QUIET! PANELOLOGISTS AT WORK, COMIC BOOK QUEERS, iFANBOY, THE CRANKCAST, THE COLLECTED COMICS LIBRARY, THE PIPELINE PODCAST, COMIC GEEK SPEAK, and TwoMorrows’ own TUNE-IN PODCAST! Also featured are new interviews about podcasting and comics on the Internet with creators MATT FRACTION, TIM SEELEY, and GENE COLAN. You'll also find a handy guide of what you’ll need to start your own podcast, an index of more than thirty great comic book podcasts, numerous photos of your favorite podcasters, and original art from COLAN, SEELEY, DC's MIKE NORTON, and many more! By ERIC HOUSTON, with a spectacular new cover by MIKE MANLEY. (128-page trade paperback) $15.95 • ISBN: 9781605490182 • Ships May 2009

ALL-STAR COMPANION Volume 4 The epic series of ALL-STAR COMPANIONS goes out with a bang, featuring: Colossal coverage of the Golden Age ALL-STAR COMICS! Sensational secrets of the JUNIOR JUSTICE SOCIETY! An index of the complete solo adventures of all 18 original JSAers in their own features, from 1940 to 1951! The JSA's earliest imitators (Seven Soldiers of Victory, All Winners Squad, Marvel Family, and International Crime Patrol)! INFINITY, INC. on Earth-Two and after! And the 1980s SECRET ORIGINS series! With rare art by ALEX ROSS, TODD McFARLANE, JERRY ORDWAY, CARMINE INFANTINO, JOE KUBERT, ALEX TOTH, GIL KANE, MURPHY ANDERSON, IRWIN HASEN, MORT MESKIN, GENE COLAN, WAYNE BORING, GEORGE TUSKA, MICHAEL T. GILBERT, GEORGE FREEMAN, DON NEWTON, JACK BURNLEY, MIKE MACHLAN, HOWARD CHAYKIN, DICK DILLIN, and others. Edited by ROY THOMAS.

CAPTAIN ACTION: THE ORIGINAL SUPERHERO ACTION FIGURE

(240-page trade paperback) $27.95 US • ISBN: 9781605490045 Ships June 2009

(Hardcover 2nd Edition)

CAPTAIN ACTION was introduced in 1966 in the wake of the Batman TV show craze, and later received his own DC comic book with art by WALLY WOOD and GIL KANE. Able to assume the identities of 13 famous super-heroes, his initial career was short-lived, but continuing interest in the hero has led to two different returns to toy-store shelves. Lavishly illustrated with over 200 toy photos, this FULL-COLOR HARDCOVER SECOND EDITION chronicles the history of this quick-changing champion, including photos of virtually EVERY CAPTAIN ACTION PRODUCT ever released, spotlights on his allies ACTION BOY and the SUPER QUEENS and his arch enemy DR. EVIL, an examination of his comic-book appearances, and “Action facts” that even the most diehard Captain Action fan won’t know! The original softcover edition has been sold out for years, but this revised, full-color hardcover second edition includes behind-the-scenes coverage of CAPTAIN ACTION’S TRIUMPHANT 2008 RETURN to comics shelves in his new series from Moonstone Books, and spotlights the new wave of Captain Action collectibles. Written by MICHAEL EURY. (176-page FULL-COLOR HARDCOVER) $39.95 US • ISBN: 9781605490175 • Ships July 2009

MARVEL COMICS IN THE 1960s: An Issue-By-Issue Field Guide

The comic book industry experienced an unexpected flowering in the early 1960s, compliments of Marvel Comics, and this book presents a step-by-step look at how a company that had the reputation of being one of the least creative in a generally moribund industry, emerged as one of the most dynamic, slightly irreverent and downright original contributions to an era when pop-culture emerged as the dominant force in the artistic life of America. In scores of handy, easy to reference entries, MARVEL COMICS IN THE 1960s takes the reader from the legendary company’s first fumbling beginnings as helmed by savvy editor/writer STAN LEE (aided by such artists as JACK KIRBY and STEVE DITKO), to the full maturity of its wild, colorful, offbeat grandiosity.

With the history of Marvel Comics in the 1960s divided into four distinct phases, author PIERRE COMTOIS explains just how Lee, Kirby, Ditko, and others created a line of comic books that, while grounded in the traditional elements of panel-to-panel storytelling, broke through the juvenile mindset of a low brow industry and provided a tapestry of full blown pop culture icons.

(224-page trade paperback) $27.95 US • ISBN: 9781605490168 • Ships July 2009

GRAILPAGES:

Original Comic Book Art And The Collectors GRAILPAGES brings to light the burgeoning hobby of collecting the original, hand-drawn art that is used to create comic books! Beginning more as a novelty, the hobby of collecting original comic art has expanded to a point where some of the seminal pages commonly run more than $10,000 each. Author STEVEN ALAN PAYNE lets you meet collectors from around the globe and hear their passion in their own words, as they detail collections ranging from a few key pages, to broad, encompassing collections of literally hundreds of pages of original comic art by such artists as JACK KIRBY, JOHN ROMITA SR., and others! Balancing out the narratives are incisive interviews with industry pros, including writers GERRY CONWAY, STEVE ENGLEHART, and ROY THOMAS, and exclusive perspectives from Silver Age artists DICK GIORDANO, BOB McLEOD, ERNIE CHAN, TONY DeZUNIGA, and the unparalleled great, GENE COLAN! Completing the book is a diverse sampling of breathtakingly beautiful original comic art, some lavishly presented in full-page spreads, including pages not seen publicly for decades. Fans of comic art, comic books, and pop culture will find in GRAILPAGES an appreciation for a uniquely American form of art!

(128-page trade paperback) $15.95 US • ISBN: 9781605490151 Diamond Order Code: JAN094470 • Ships March 2009

MAGAZINES

DIEDGITIIOTANSL BL AVAILA

E

BRICKJOURNAL magazine is the ultimate resource for LEGO enthusiasts of all ages, spotlighting the LEGO Community with contributions and how-to articles by top builders worldwide, new product intros, and more. Edited by JOE MENO. ALTER EGO focuses on Golden and Silver Age comics and creators with articles, interviews and unseen art, plus FCA (Fawcett Collectors of America), Mr. Monster & more. Edited by ROY THOMAS.

BRICKJOURNAL #3

BRICKJOURNAL #4

BRICKJOURNAL #5

BRICKJOURNAL #6

Event Reports from BRICKWORLD, FIRST LEGO LEAGUE WORLD FESTIVAL and PIECE OF PEACE (Japan), spotlight on our cover model builder BRYCE McGLONE, and interviews with ARTHUR GUGICK and STEVEN CANVIN of LEGO MINDSTORMS to see where LEGO ROBOTICS is going!

There’s also STEP-BY-STEP BUILDING INSTRUCTIONS, TECHNIQUES, & more!

Interviews with LEGO BUILDERS including BREANN SLEDGE (BIONICLE BUILDER), Event Reports from BRICKFAIR and BRICKCON, plus reports on new MINDSTORMS PROJECTS, STEP-BY-STEP BUILDING INSTRUCTIONS and TECHNIQUES for all skill levels, NEW SET REVIEWS, and a report on constructing the Chinese Olympic Village in LEGO!

Features event reports from around the world, and the MINDSTORMS 10TH ANNIVERSARY at LEGO HEADQUARTERS! Plus an interview with the head of the LEGO GROUP’S 3D DEPARTMENT, a glimpse at the LEGO Group's past with the DIRECTOR OF LEGO'S IDEA HOUSE, instructions and spotlights on builders, and an idea section for Pirate builders!

Spotlight on CLASSIC SPACE SETS and a look at new ones with LEGO SET DESIGNERS, BRANDON GRIFFITH shows his STAR TREK MODELS, plus take a tour of the DUTCH MOONBASE with MIKE VAN LEEUWEN and MARCO BAAS. There's also coverage of BRICKFEST 2009 and FIRST LEGO LEAGUE'S WORLD FESTIVAL and photos from TOY FAIR NEW YORK!

(80-page COLOR magazine) $8.95 US Diamond Order Code: JUN084415

(80-page COLOR magazine) $8.95 US Diamond Order Code: SEP084428

(80-page COLOR magazine) $8.95 US Diamond Order Code: DEC084408 Ships March 2009

(80-page COLOR magazine) $8.95 US Ships June 2009

THE RETRO COMICS EXPERIENCE!

TM

BACK ISSUE celebrates comic books of the 1970s, 1980s, and today through a variety of recurring (and rotating) departments, plus rare and unpublished art. Edited by MICHAEL EURY. DRAW! is the professional “How-To” magazine on cartooning and animation, featuring in-depth interviews and step-bystep demonstrations from top comics professionals. Edited by MIKE MANLEY. ROUGH STUFF features never-seen pencil pages, sketches, layouts, roughs, and unused inked pages from throughout comics history, plus columns, critiques, and more!

Edited by BOB McLEOD. WRITE NOW! features writing tips from pros on both sides of the desk, interviews, sample scripts, reviews, exclusive Nuts & Bolts tutorials, and more!

Edited by DANNY FINGEROTH.

ALTER EGO #81

ALTER EGO #82

ALTER EGO #83

ALTER EGO #84

New FRANK BRUNNER Man-Thing cover, a look at the late-’60s horror comic WEB OF HORROR with early work by BRUNNER, WRIGHTSON, WINDSOR-SMITH, SIMONSON, & CHAYKIN, interview with comics & fine artist EVERETT RAYMOND KINTSLER, ROY THOMAS’ 1971 origin synopsis for the FIRST MAN-THING STORY, plus FCA, MR. MONSTER, and more!

MLJ ISSUE! Golden Age MLJ index illustrated with vintage images of The Shield, Hangman, Mr. Justice, Black Hood,

by IRV NOVICK, JACK COLE, CHARLES BIRO, MORT MESKIN, GIL KANE, & others—behind a marvelous MLJ-heroes cover

by BOB McLEOD! Plus interviews with IRV NOVICK and JOE EDWARDS, FCA, MR. MONSTER, and more!

SWORD & SORCERY PART 2! Cover by ARTHUR SUYDAM, in-depth art-filled look at Marvel’s Conan the Barbarian, DC’s Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, Dagar the Invincible, Ironjaw & Wulf, and Arak, Son of Thunder, plus the never-seen Valda the Iron Maiden by TODD McFARLANE! Plus JOE EDWARDS (Part 2), FCA, MR. MONSTER, and more!

Unseen JIM APARO cover, STEVE SKEATES discusses his early comics work, art & artifacts by ADKINS, APARO, ARAGONÉS, BOYETTE, DITKO, GIORDANO, KANE, KELLER, MORISI, ORLANDO, SEKOWSKY, STONE, THOMAS, WOOD, and the great WARREN SAVIN! Plus writer CHARLES SINCLAIR on his partnership with Batman co-creator BILL FINGER, FCA, and more!

(100-page magazine) $6.95 US Diamond Order Code: AUG084454

(100-page magazine) $6.95 US Diamond Order Code: OCT084483

(100-page magazine) $6.95 US Diamond Order Code: NOV084368

(100-page magazine) $6.95 US Diamond Order Code: JAN094555 Ships March 2009

C o l l e c t o r

The JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR magazine celebrates his life and career through INTERVIEWS WITH KIRBY and his contemporaries, FEATURE ARTICLES, RARE AND UNSEEN KIRBY ART, and more.

Edited by JOHN MORROW.

SUBSCRIBE TO THE PRINT EDITION, AND GET THE DIGITAL EDITION FREE, BEFORE THE PRINT ISSUE HITS STORES!

BACK ISSUE #29

BACK ISSUE #30

BACK ISSUE #31

BACK ISSUE #32

“Mutants” issue! CLAREMONT, BYRNE, SMITH, and ROMITA, JR.’s X-Men work, NOCENTI and ARTHUR ADAMS’ Longshot, McLEOD and SIENKIEWICZ’s New Mutants, the UK’s CAPTAIN BRITAIN series, lost Angel stories, Beast’s tenure with the Avengers, the return of the original X-Men in X-Factor, the revelation of Nightcrawler’s “original” father, a history of DC’s mutant, Captain Comet, and more! Cover by DAVE COCKRUM!

“Saturday Morning Heroes!” Interviews with TV Captain Marvels JACKSON BOSTWICK and JOHN DAVEY, MAGGIN and SAVIUK’s lost Superman/”Captain Thunder” sequel, Space Ghost interviews with GARY OWENS and STEVE RUDE, MARV WOLFMAN guest editorial, Super Friends, unproduced fourth wave Super Powers action figures, Astro Boy, ADAM HUGHES tribute to DAVE STEVENS, and a new cover by ALEX ROSS!

“STEVE GERBER Salute!” In-depth look at his Howard the Duck, Man-Thing, Omega the Unknown, Defenders, Metal Men, Mister Miracle, Thundarr the Barbarian, and more!

Plus: Creators pay tribute to Steve Gerber, featuring art by and commentary from BRUNNER, BUCKLER, COLAN, GOLDEN, STAN LEE, LEVITZ, MAYERIK, MOONEY, PLOOG, SIMONSON, and others. Cover painting by FRANK BRUNNER!

“Tech, Data, and Hardware!” The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe, WEIN, WOLFMAN, and GREENBERGER on DC’s Who’s Who, SAVIUK, STATON, and VAN SCIVER on Drawing Green Lantern, ED HANNIGAN Art Gallery, history of Rom: Spaceknight, story of BILL MANTLO, Dial H for Hero, Richie Rich’s Inventions, and a Spider-Mobile schematic cover by ELIOT BROWN and DUSTY ABELL!

(100-page magazine) $6.95 US Diamond Order Code: MAY084246

(100-page magazine) $6.95 US Diamond Order Code: JUL084393

(100-page magazine) $6.95 US Diamond Order Code: SEP084399

(100-page magazine) $6.95 US Diamond Order Code: NOV084369

DRAW! #17

DRAW! #18

ROUGH STUFF #10

ROUGH STUFF #11

ROUGH STUFF #12

Interview with Scott Pilgrim’s creator and artist BRYAN LEE O’MALLEY on how he creates the acclaimed series, plus learn how B.P.R.D.’s GUY DAVIS works on his series.

Also, more Comic Art Bootcamp: Learning from The Great Cartoonists by BRET BLEVINS and MIKE MANLEY, reviews, and more!

Features an in-depth interview and demo

by R.M. GUERA (the artist of Vertigo’s Scalped), behind-the-scenes in the Batcave with Cartoon Network’s JAMES TUCKER on the new hit show “Batman: The Brave and the Bold,” plus product reviews by JAMAR NICHOLAS, and Comic Book Boot Camp’s “Anatomy: Part 2” by BRET BLEVINS and MIKE MANLEY!

Interview with RON GARNEY, with copious examples of sketchwork and comments.

Also features on ANDY SMITH, MICHAEL JASON PAZ, and MATT HALEY, showing how their work evolves, excerpts from a new book on ALEX RAYMOND, secrets of teaching comic art by pro inker BOB McLEOD, new cover by GARNEY and McLEOD, newcomer critique, and more!

New cover by GREG HORN, plus interviews with HORN and TOM YEATES on how they produce their stellar work. Also features on GENE HA, JIMMY CHEUNG, and MIKE PERKINS, showing their sketchwork and commentary, tips on collecting sketches and commissions from artists, a “Rough Critique” of a newcomer’s work, and more!

Interview and cover by comic painter CHRIS MOELLER, features on New Zealand comic artist COLIN WILSON, G.I. Joe artist JEREMY DALE, and fan favorite TERRY DODSON, plus "GOOD GIRL ART" (a new article about everyone's favorite collectible art) by ROBERT PLUNKETT, a "Rough Critique" of an aspiring artist's work, and more!

(80-page magazine with COLOR) $6.95 US • Ships Spring 2009

(100-page magazine) $6.95 US Diamond Order Code: AUG084469

(100-page magazine) $6.95 US Diamond Order Code: NOV084404

(100-page magazine) $6.95 US Ships April 2009

(80-page magazine with COLOR) $6.95 US • Ships February 2009 Diamond Order Code: DEC084377

ALTER EGO #85

ALTER EGO #86

ALTER EGO #87

ALTER EGO #88

WRITE NOW! #20

Captain Marvel and Superman’s battles explored (in cosmic space, candy stories, and in court, with art by WALLY WOOD, CURT SWAN, and GIL KANE), an in-depth interview with Golden Age great LILY RENÉE, overview of CENTAUR COMICS (home of BILL EVERETT’s Amazing-Man and others), FCA, MR. MONSTER, new RICH BUCKLER cover, and more!

Spotlighting the Frantic Four-Color MAD WANNABES of 1953-55 that copied HARVEY KURTZMAN’S EC smash (see Captain Marble, Mighty Moose, Drag-ula, Prince Scallion, and more) with art by SIMON & KIRBY, KUBERT & MAURER, ANDRU & ESPOSITO, EVERETT, COLAN, and many others, plus Part 1 of a talk with Golden/ Silver Age artist FRANK BOLLE, and more!

The sensational 1954-1963 saga of Great Britain’s MARVELMAN (decades before he metamorphosed into Miracleman), plus an interview with writer/artist/co-creator MICK ANGLO, and rare Marvelman/ Miracleman work by ALAN DAVIS, ALAN MOORE, a new RICK VEITCH cover, plus FRANK BOLLE, Part 2, FCA, MR. MONSTER, and more!

First-ever in-depth look at National/DC’s founder MAJOR MALCOLM WHEELERNICHOLSON, and early editors WHITNEY ELLSWORTH, VIN SULLIVAN, and MORT WEISINGER, with rare art and artifacts by SIEGEL & SHUSTER, BOB KANE, CREIG FLESSEL, FRED GUARDINEER, GARDNER FOX, SHELDON MOLDOFF, and others, plus FCA, MR. MONSTER, and more!

Focus on THE SPIRIT movie, showing how FRANK MILLER transformed WILL EISNER’s comics into the smash-hit film, with interviews with key players behind the making of the movie, a look at what made Eisner’s comics so special, and more. Plus: an interview with COLLEEN DORAN, writer ALEX GRECIAN on how to get a pitch green lighted, script and art examples, and more!

(100-page magazine) $6.95 US Ships May 2009

(100-page magazine) $6.95 US Ships June 2009

(100-page magazine) $6.95 US Ships July 2009

(100-page magazine) $6.95 US Ships August 2009

(80-page magazine) $6.95 US FINAL ISSUE! Ships February 2009 Diamond Order Code: DEC084398

BACK ISSUE #33

BACK ISSUE #34

BACK ISSUE #35

KIRBY COLLECTOR #52

KIRBY COLLECTOR #53

“Teen Heroes!” Teen Titans in the 1970s & 1980s, with CARDY, GARCÍA-LÓPEZ, PÉREZ, TUSKA, and WOLFMAN, BARON and GUICE on the Flash, interviews with TV Billy Batson MICHAEL GRAY and writer STEVE SKEATES, NICIEZA and BAGLEY’s New Warriors, Legion of Super-Heroes 1970s art gallery, James Bond Jr., and… the Archies! New Teen Titans cover by GEORGE PÉREZ and colored by GENE HA!

“New World Order!” Adam Warlock examined with JIM STARLIN and ROY THOMAS, the history of Miracleman with ALAN DAVIS & GARRY LEACH, JIM SHOOTER interview, roundtable with Marvel’s post-STAN LEE editors-in-chief on the New Universe, Logan’s Run, Star Hunters, BOB WIACEK on Star Wars and Star-Lord, DICK GIORDANO revisits Crisis on Infinite Earths and “The Post-Crisis DC Universe You Didn’t See,” and a new cover by JIM STARLIN!

“Villains!” MIKE ZECK and J.M. DeMATTEIS discuss “Kraven’s Last Hunt” in a “Pro2Pro” interview, the history of the Hobgoblin is exposed, the Joker’s short-lived series, looks back at Secret Society of Super-Villains and Kobra, a Magneto biography, Luthor and Brainiac’s malevolent makeovers, interview with Secret Society artist MIKE VOSBURG, plus contributions from BYRNE, CONWAY, FRENZ, NOVICK, ROMITA JR., STERN, WOLFMAN, and a cover by MIKE ZECK!

Spotlights Kirby’s most obscure work, like an UNUSED THOR STORY, his BRUCE LEE comic, animation work, stage play, and see original unaltered versions of pages from KAMANDI, DEMON, DESTROYER DUCK, and more, including a feature examining the last page of his final issue of various series BEFORE EDITORIAL TAMPERING (with lots of surprises)! Color Kirby covers inked by DON HECK and PAUL SMITH!

Spotlights THE MAGIC OF STAN & JACK! There’s a new interview with STAN LEE, a walking tour of New York showing where Lee & Kirby lived and worked, a re-evaluation of the “Lost” FF #108 story (including a missing page that just surfaced), “What If Jack Hadn’t Left Marvel In 1970?”, plus MARK EVANIER’s regular column, a Kirby pencil art gallery, a complete Golden Age Kirby story, and more, behind a color Kirby cover inked by GEORGE PÉREZ!

(100-page magazine) $6.95 US Ships May 2009

(100-page magazine) $6.95 US Ships July 2009

(100-page magazine) $6.95 US Diamond Order Code: JAN094556 Ships March 2009

(84-page tabloid magazine) $9.95 US Diamond Order Code: DEC084397 Ships February 2009

(84-page tabloid magazine) $9.95 US Ships May 2009

NEW MODERN MASTERS VOLUMES Each book contains RARE AND UNSEEN ARTWORK direct from the artist’s files, a COMPREHENSIVE INTERVIEW, DELUXE SKETCHBOOK SECTIONS, and more!

Volume 19: MIKE PLOOG

Volume 20: KYLE BAKER

Volume 21: CHRIS SPROUSE

Volume 22: MARK BUCKINGHAM

Volume 23: DARWYN COOKE

by Eric Nolen-Weathington & Roger Ash (120-page TPB with COLOR) $14.95 ISBN: 9781605490076 Diamond Order Code: SEP084304 Now shipping

by Eric Nolen-Weathington (120-page TPB with COLOR) $14.95 ISBN: 9781605490083 Diamond Order Code: SEP084305 Ships February 2009

by Eric Nolen-Weathington & Todd DeZago (128-page trade paperback) $14.95 ISBN: 97801605490137 Diamond Order Code: NOV084298 Ships March 2008

by Eric Nolen-Weathington (128-page trade paperback) $14.95 ISBN: 9781605490144 Diamond Order Code: JUL088519 Ships May 2008

by Eric Nolen-Weathington (120-page TPB with COLOR) $15.95 ISBN: 9781605490205 Ships June 2008

AGE OF TV HEROES Examines the history of the live-action television adventures of everyone’s favorite comic book heroes! FULL-COLOR HARDCOVER features the in-depth stories of the actors and behind-thescene players that made the classic super-hero television programs we all grew up with.

Included are new and exclusive interviews and commentary from ADAM WEST (Batman), LYNDA CARTER (Wonder Woman), PATRICK WARBURTON (The Tick), NICHOLAS HAMMOND (Spider-Man), WILLIAM KATT (The Greatest American Hero), JACK LARSON (The Adventures of Superman), JOHN WESLEY SHIPP (The Flash), JACKSON BOSTWICK (Shazam!), and many more!

Written by JASON HOFIUS and GEORGE KHOURY, with a new cover by superstar painter ALEX ROSS! (192-page FULL-COLOR HARDCOVER) $39.95 US • ISBN: 9781605490106 Diamond Order Code: SEP084302 Rescheduled for July 2009

SUBSCRIPTION RATES 2009 SUBSCRIPTION RATES:

Media Mail

EXTRAORDINARY WORKS KIRBY FIVE-OH! OF ALAN MOORE: LIMITED HARDCOVER Indispensable Edition Limited to 500 copies, KIRBY FIVE-OH! The definitive biography of the co-creator of WATCHMEN and V FOR VENDETTA finally returns to print in a NEW EXPANDED AND UPDATED VERSION! Features an extensive series of interviews with MOORE about his entire career, including a new interview covering his work since the sold-out 2003 edition of this book was published.

Includes RARE STRIPS, SCRIPTS, ART, and private PHOTOS of the author, plus a series of tribute comic strips by many of Moore’s closest collaborators, a COLOR SECTION featuring a RARE MOORE STORY (remastered, and starring MR. MONSTER), and more! Edited by GEORGE KHOURY, with a cover by DAVE McKEAN! (240-page trade paperback) $29.95 US ISBN: 9781605490090 Diamond Order Code: OCT084400 Limited Hardcover Signed by Alan Moore (100 hardcover copies) $49.95 US Only available from TwoMorrows!

1st Class Canada 1st Class Priority Intl.

Intl.

US

JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR (4 issues)

$50

$60

$60

$84

$136

BACK ISSUE! (6 issues)

$44

$60

$70

$105

$115

DRAW! (4 issues)

$30

$40

$47

$70

$77

ALTER EGO (12 issues) Six-issue subs are half-price!

$88

$120

$140

$210

$230

BRICKJOURNAL (4 issues)

$38

$48

$55

$78

$85

LIMITED HARDCOVER EDITION covers the best of everything from Jack Kirby’s 50-year career in comics, including his 50 BEST STORIES, BEST COVERS, BEST EXAMPLES OF UNUSED KIRBY ART, BEST CHARACTER DESIGNS, and profiles of, and commentary by, 50 PEOPLE INFLUENCED BY KIRBY’S WORK! Plus there’s a 50-PAGE GALLERY of Kirby’s PENCIL ART, a DELUXE COLOR SECTION, a previously unseen Kirby Superman cover inked by DARWYN COOKE, and an introduction by MARK EVANIER! Includes a full-color wrapped hardcover, and an individuallynumbered extra Kirby pencil art plate not included in the softcover edition! It’s ONLY AVAILABLE FROM TWOMORROWS, and is not sold in stores! Edited by JOHN MORROW.

Reprints JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR #27-30, with looks at Jack’s 1970s and ‘80s work, plus a two-part focus on how widespread Kirby’s influence is! Features rare interviews with KIRBY himself, plus Watchmen’s ALAN MOORE and DAVE GIBBONS, NEIL GAIMAN, Bone’s JEFF SMITH, MARK HAMILL, and others! See page after page of rare Kirby art, including a NEW SPECIAL SECTION with over 30 PIECES OF KIRBY ART NEVER BEFORE PUBLISHED, and more!

(288-page trade paperback) $29.95 US ISBN: 9781605490120 Diamond Order Code: DEC084286 Ships February 2009

(168-page Limited Edition Hardcover) (500 hardcover copies) $34.95 US Only available from TwoMorrows!

SHIPPING COSTS: Order online for exact weight-based postage, or ADD $2 PER MAGAZINE OR DVD/$4 PER BOOK IN THE US for Media Mail shipping.

OUTSIDE THE US, PLEASE ORDER ONLINE TO CALCULATE YOUR EXACT POSTAGE COSTS & SAVE!

Subscriptions will start with the next available issue, but CURRENT AND OLDER ISSUES MUST BE PURCHASED AT THE BACK ISSUE PRICE (new issues ship in bulk, and we pass the savings on in our subscription rates). In the US, we generally ship back issues and books by MEDIA MAIL.

COLLECTED JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR Volume 7

For the latest news from TwoMorrows Publishing, log on to www.twomorrows.com/tnt To get periodic e-mail updates of what’s new from TwoMorrows Publishing, sign up for our mailing list! http://groups.yahoo.com/ group/twomorrows

TwoMorrows Publishing is a division of TwoMorrows, Inc. TM

TwoMorrows. Celebrating The Art & History Of Comics. (& LEGO! ) TwoMorrows • 10407 Bedfordtown Drive • Raleigh, NC 27614 USA • 919-449-0344 • FAX: 919-449-0327 • E-mail: twomorrow@aol.com • www.twomorrows.com

“HOW-TO” MAGAZINES Spinning off from the pages of BACK ISSUE! magazine comes ROUGH STUFF, celebrating the ART of creating comics! Edited by famed inker BOB McLEOD, each issue spotlights NEVER-BEFORE PUBLISHED penciled pages, preliminary sketches, detailed layouts, and even unused inked versions from artists throughout comics history. Included is commentary on the art, discussing what went right and wrong with it, and background information to put it all into historical perspective. Plus, before-and-after comparisons let you see firsthand how an image changes from initial concept to published version. So don’t miss this amazing magazine, featuring galleries of NEVER-BEFORE SEEN art, from some of your favorite series of all time, and the top pros in the industry!

DIEGDITITIOANL

DIEGDITITIOANL BL AVAILA

BL AVAILA

E

DIEGDITITIOANL BL AVAILA

E

ROUGH STUFF #1 Our debut issue features galleries of UNSEEN ART by a who’s who of Modern Masters including: ALAN DAVIS, GEORGE PÉREZ, BRUCE TIMM, KEVIN NOWLAN, JOSÉ LUIS GARCÍA-LÓPEZ, ARTHUR ADAMS, JOHN BYRNE, and WALTER SIMONSON, plus a KEVIN NOWLAN interview, art critiques, and a new BRUCE TIMM COVER!

BL AVAILA

E

E

ROUGH STUFF #2

ROUGH STUFF #3

ROUGH STUFF #4

The follow-up to our smash first issue features more galleries of UNSEEN ART by top industry professionals, including: BRIAN APTHORP, FRANK BRUNNER, PAUL GULACY, JERRY ORDWAY, ALEX TOTH, and MATT WAGNER, plus a PAUL GULACY interview, a look at art of the pros BEFORE they were pros, and a new GULACY “HEX” COVER!

Still more galleries of UNPUBLISHED ART

by MIKE ALLRED, JOHN BUSCEMA, YANICK PAQUETTE, JOHN ROMITA JR., P. CRAIG RUSSELL, and LEE WEEKS, plus a JOHN ROMITA JR. interview, looks at the process of creating a cover (with BILL SIENKIEWICZ and JOHN ROMITA JR.), and a new ROMITA JR. COVER, plus a FREE DRAW #13 PREVIEW!

More NEVER-PUBLISHED galleries (with detailed artist commentaries) by MICHAEL KALUTA, ANDREW “Starman” ROBINSON, GENE COLAN, HOWARD CHAYKIN, and STEVE BISSETTE, plus interview and art by JOHN TOTLEBEN, a look at the Wonder Woman Day charity auction (with rare art), art critiques, before-&-after art comparisons, and a FREE WRITE NOW #15 PREVIEW!

(100-page magazine) $6.95 Diamond Order Code: AUG063714

(100-page magazine) $6.95 Diamond Order Code: NOV064024

(100-page magazine) $6.95 Diamond Order Code: FEB073911

(116-page magazine) $6.95 Diamond Order Code: APR063497

ROUGH STUFF #5

DIGITITIOANL

DIEGDITITIOANL

ROUGH STUFF #6

NEVER-BEFORE-PUBLISHED galleries (complete with extensive commentaries by the artists) by PAUL SMITH, GIL KANE, CULLY HAMNER, DALE KEOWN, and ASHLEY WOOD, plus a feature interview and art by STEVE RUDE, an examination of JOHN ALBANO and TONY DeZUNIGA’s work on Jonah Hex, new STEVE RUDE COVER, plus a FREE BACK ISSUE #23 PREVIEW!

Features a new interview and cover by BRIAN STELFREEZE, interview with BUTCH GUICE, extensive art galleries/commentary by IAN CHURCHILL, DAVE COCKRUM, and COLLEEN DORAN, MIKE GAGNON looks at independent comics, with art and comments by ANDREW BARR, BRANDON GRAHAM, and ASAF HANUKA! Includes a FREE ALTER EGO #73 PREVIEW!

(100-page magazine) $6.95 Diamond Order Code: MAY073902

(100-page magazine) $6.95 Diamond Order Code: AUG074137

ED BLE AVAILA

ROUGH STUFF #7

DIEGDITITIOANL E

BL AVAILA

Features an in-depth interview and cover by TIM TOWNSEND, CRAIG HAMILTON, DAN JURGENS, and HOWARD PORTER offer preliminary art and commentaries, MARIE SEVERIN career retrospective, graphic novels feature with art and comments by DAWN BROWN, TOMER HANUKA, BEN TEMPLESMITH, and LANCE TOOKS, and more!

(100-page magazine) $6.95 Diamond Order Code: NOV073966

DIEGDITITIOANL BL AVAILA

E

ROUGH STUFF #9

DIEGDITITIOANL BLE AVAILA

ROUGH STUFF #8 Features an in-depth interview and cover painting by the extraordinary MIKE MAYHEW, preliminary and unpublished art

by ALEX HORLEY, TONY DeZUNIGA, NICK CARDY, and RAFAEL KAYANAN (including commentary by each artist), a look at the great Belgian comic book artists, a “Rough Critique” of MIKE MURDOCK’s work, and more!

(100-page magazine) $6.95 Diamond Order Code: FEB084188

Editor and pro inker BOB McLEOD features four interviews this issue: ROB HAYNES (interviewed by fellow professional TIM TOWNSEND), JOE JUSKO, MEL RUBI, and SCOTT WILLIAMS, with a new painted cover by JUSKO, and an article by McLEOD examining "Inkers: Who needs ’em?" along with other features, including a Rough Critique of RUDY VASQUEZ! (100-page magazine) $6.95 Diamond Order Code: MAY084263

4-ISSUE SUBSCRIPTIONS: $26 US Postpaid by Media Mail ($36 First Class, $44 Canada, $60 Surface, $72 Airmail).

DIEGDITITIOANL BL AVAILA

E

THE RETRO COMICS EXPERIENCE!

TM

Edited by MICHAEL EURY, BACK ISSUE magazine celebrates comic books of the 1970s, 1980s, and today through recurring (and rotating) departments like “Pro2Pro” (dialogue between professionals), “BackStage Pass” (behind-the-scenes of comicsbased media), “Greatest Stories Never Told” (spotlighting unrealized comics series or stories), and more!

Go online for an ULTIMATE BUNDLE, with all the issues at HALF-PRICE! 6-ISSUE SUBS: $44 US Postpaid by Media Mail ($60 First Class, $70 Canada, $105 1st Class Intl., $115 Priority Intl.).

BACK ISSUE #1

BACK ISSUE #2

BACK ISSUE #3

“PRO2PRO” interview between GEORGE PÉREZ & MARV WOLFMAN (with UNSEEN PÉREZ ART), “ROUGH STUFF” featuring JACK KIRBY’s PENCIL ART, “GREATEST STORIES NEVER TOLD” on the first JLA/AVENGERS, “BEYOND CAPES” on DC and Marvel’s TARZAN (with KUBERT and BUSCEMA ART), “OFF MY CHEST” editorial by INFANTINO, and more! PÉREZ cover!

“PRO2PRO” between ADAM HUGHES and MIKE W. BARR (with UNSEEN HUGHES ART) and MATT WAGNER and DIANA SCHUTZ, “ROUGH STUFF” HUGHES PENCIL ART, STEVE RUDE’s unseen SPACE GHOST/HERCULOIDS team-up, Bruce Jones’ ALIEN WORLDS and TWISTED TALES, “OFF MY CHEST” by MIKE W. BARR on the DC IMPLOSION, and more!

HUGHES cover!

“PRO2PRO” between KEITH GIFFEN, J.M. DeMATTEIS and KEVIN MAGUIRE on their JLA WORK, “ROUGH STUFF” PENCIL ART by ARAGONÉS, HERNANDEZ BROS., MIGNOLA, BYRNE, KIRBY, HUGHES, details on two unknown PLASTIC MAN movies, Joker’s history with O’NEIL, ADAMS, ENGLEHART, ROGERS and BOLLAND, editorial by MARK EVANIER, and more! BOLLAND cover!

(100-page magazine) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: SEP032621

(100-page magazine) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: NOV032696

(100-page magazine) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: JAN042880

BACK ISSUE #4

BACK ISSUE #5

BACK ISSUE #6

BACK ISSUE #7

BACK ISSUE #8

“PRO2PRO” between JOHN BYRNE and CHRIS CLAREMONT on their X-MEN WORK and WALT SIMONSON and JOE CASEY on Walter’s THOR, WOLVERINE PENCIL ART by BUSCEMA, LEE, COCKRUM, BYRNE, and GIL KANE, LEN WEIN’S TEEN WOLVERINE, PUNISHER’S 30TH and SECRET WARS’ 20TH ANNIVERSARIES (with UNSEEN ZECK ART), and more! BYRNE cover!

Wonder Woman TV series in-depth, LYNDA CARTER INTERVIEW, WONDER WOMAN TV ART GALLERY, Marvel’s TV Hulk, SpiderMan, Captain America, and Dr. Strange, LOU FERRIGNO INTERVIEW, super-hero cartoons you didn’t see, pencil gallery by JERRY ORDWAY, STAR TREK in comics, and ROMITA SR. editorial on Marvel’s movies!

Covers by ALEX ROSS and ADAM HUGHES!

TOMB OF DRACULA revealed with GENE COLAN and MARV WOLFMAN, LEN WEIN & BERNIE WRIGHTSON on Swamp Thing’s roots, STEVE BISSETTE & RICK VEITCH on their Swamp work, pencil art by BRUNNER, PLOOG, BISSETTE, COLAN, WRIGHTSON, and SMITH, editorial by ROY THOMAS, PREZ, GODZILLA comics (with TRIMPE art), CHARLTON horror, & more! COLAN cover!

History of BRAVE AND BOLD, JIM APARO interview, tribute to BOB HANEY, FANTASTIC FOUR ROUNDTABLE with STAN LEE, MARK WAID, and others, EVANIER and MEUGNIOT on DNAgents, pencil art by ROSS, TOTH, COCKRUM, HECK, ROBBINS, NEWTON, and BYRNE, DENNY O’NEIL editorial, a tour of METROPOLIS, IL, and more! SWAN/ANDERSON cover!

DENNY O’NEIL and Justice League Unlimited voice actor PHIL LaMARR discuss GL JOHN STEWART, NEW X-MEN pencil art by NEAL ADAMS, ARTHUR ADAMS, DAVID MAZZUCCHELLI, ALAN DAVIS, JIM LEE, ADAM HUGHES, STORM’s 30-year history, animated TV’s black heroes (with TOTH art), ISABELLA and TREVOR VON EEDEN on BLACK LIGHTNING, and more! KYLE BAKER cover!

(100-page magazine) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: MAR042973

(108-page magazine with COLOR) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: MAY043051

(100-page magazine) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: JUL043389

(100-page magazine) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: SEP043044

(100-page magazine) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: NOV043081

DIEGDITITIOANL ONLY!

BACK ISSUE #9

BACK ISSUE #10

BACK ISSUE #11

BACK ISSUE #12

BACK ISSUE #13

MIKE BARON and STEVE RUDE on NEXUS past and present, a colossal GIL KANE pencil art gallery, a look at Marvel’s STAR WARS comics, secrets of DC’s unseen CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS SEQUEL, TIM TRUMAN on his GRIMJACK SERIES, MIKE GOLD editorial, THANOS history, TIME WARP revisited, and more! All-new STEVE RUDE COVER!

NEAL ADAMS and DENNY O’NEIL on RA’S AL GHUL’s history (with Adams art), O’Neil and MICHAEL KALUTA on THE SHADOW, MIKE GRELL on JON SABLE FREELANCE, HOWIE CHAYKIN interview, DOC SAVAGE in comics, BATMAN ART GALLERY by PAUL SMITH, SIENKIEWICZ, SIMONSON, BOLLAND, HANNIGAN, MAZZUCCHELLI, and others! New cover by ADAMS!

ROY THOMAS, KURT BUSIEK, and JOE JUSKO on CONAN (with art by JOHN BUSCEMA, BARRY WINDSOR-SMITH, NEAL ADAMS, JUSKO, and others), SERGIO ARAGONÉS and MARK EVANIER on GROO, DC’s never-published KING ARTHUR, pencil art gallery by KIRBY, PÉREZ, MOEBIUS, GARCÍA-LÓPEZ, BOLLAND, and others, and a new BUSCEMA/JUSKO Conan cover!

‘70s and ‘80s character revamps with DAVE GIBBONS, ROY THOMAS and KURT BUSIEK, TOM DeFALCO and RON FRENZ on Spider-Man’s 1980s “black” costume change, DENNY O’NEIL on Superman’s 1970 revamp, JOHN BYRNE’s aborted SHAZAM! series detailed, pencil art gallery with FRANK MILLER, LEE WEEKS, DAVID MAZZUCCHELLI, CHARLES VESS, and more!

CARDY interview, ENGLEHART and MOENCH on kung-fu comics, “Pro2Pro” with STATON and CUTI on Charlton’s E-Man, pencil art gallery featuring MILLER, KUBERT, GIORDANO, SWAN, GIL KANE, COLAN, COCKRUM, and others, EISNER’s A Contract with God; “The Death of Romance (Comics)” (with art by ROMITA, SR. and TOTH), and more!

(100-page magazine) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: JAN053136

(100-page magazine) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: MAR053333

(108-page magazine) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: MAY053174

(100-page magazine) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: JUL053295

(100-page magazine) SOLD OUT (100-page Digital Edition) $2.95

DIEGDITITIOANL BL AVAILA

E

BACK ISSUE #14

BACK ISSUE #15

BACK ISSUE #16

BACK ISSUE #17

BACK ISSUE #18

DAVE COCKRUM and MIKE GRELL go “Pro2Pro” on the Legion, pencil art gallery

by BUSCEMA, BYRNE, MILLER, STARLIN, McFARLANE, ROMITA JR., SIENKIEWICZ, looks at Hercules Unbound, Hex, Killraven, Kamandi, MARS, Planet of the Apes, art and interviews with GARCÍA-LÓPEZ, KIRBY, WILLIAMSON, and more! New MIKE GRELL/BOB McLEOD cover!

“Weird Heroes” of the 1970s and ‘80s!

MIKE PLOOG discusses Ghost Rider, MATT WAGNER revisits The Demon, JOE KUBERT dusts off Ragman, GENE COLAN “Rough Stuff” pencil gallery, GARCÍALÓPEZ recalls Deadman, DC’s unpublished Gorilla Grodd series, PERLIN, CONWAY, and MOENCH on Werewolf by Night, and more! New ARTHUR ADAMS cover!

“Toy Stories!” Behind the Scenes of Marvel’s G.I. JOE™ and TRANSFORMERS with PAUL LEVITZ and GEORGE TUSKA, “Rough Stuff” MIKE ZECK pencil gallery, ARTHUR ADAMS on Gumby, HE-MAN, ROM, MICRONAUTS, SUPER POWERS, SUPER-HERO CARS, art by HAMA, SAL BUSCEMA, GUICE, GOLDEN, KIRBY, TRIMPE, and new ZECK sketch cover!

“Super Girls!” Supergirl retrospective with art by STELFREEZE, HAMNER, SpiderWoman, Flare, Tigra, DC’s unused Double Comics with unseen BARRETTO and INFANTINO art, WOLFMAN and JIMENEZ on Donna Troy, female comics pros, art by SEKOWSKY, OKSNER, PÉREZ, HUGHES, GIORDANO, plus a COLOR GALLERY and COVER by BRUCE TIMM!

“Big, Green Issue!” Tour of NEAL ADAMS’ studio (with interview and art gallery), DAVE GIBBONS “Rough Stuff” pencil art spotlight, interviews with MIKE GRELL (on Green Arrow), PETER DAVID (on Incredible Hulk), a “Pro2Pro” chat between GERRY CONWAY and JOHN ROMITA, SR. (on the Green Goblin), and more. New cover

by NEAL ADAMS!

(100-page magazine) $6.95 Diamond Order Code: NOV053296

(100-page magazine) $6.95 Diamond Order Code: JAN063431

(100-page magazine) $6.95 Diamond Order Code: MAR063547

(108-page magazine with COLOR) $6.95 Diamond Order Code: MAY063499

(100-page magazine) $6.95 Diamond Order Code: JUL063569

DIEGDITITIOANL

DIEGDITITIOANL

BL AVAILA

BLE AVAILA

E

DIEGDITITIOANL BL AVAILA

E

DIEGDITITIOANL BL AVAILA

E

DIEGDITITIOANL BL AVAILA

E

BACK ISSUE #19

BACK ISSUE #20

BACK ISSUE #21

BACK ISSUE #22

BACK ISSUE #23

“Unsung Heroes!” DON NEWTON spotlight, STEVE GERBER and GENE COLAN on Howard the Duck, MIKE CARLIN and DANNY FINGEROTH on Marvel’s Assistant Editors’ Month, the unrealized Unlimited Powers TV show, TONY ISABELLA’s aborted plans for The Champions, MARK GRUENWALD tribute, art by SAL BUSCEMA, JOHN BYRNE, and more! NEWTON/ RUBINSTEIN cover!

“Secret Identities!” Histories of characters with unusual alter egos: Firestorm, Moon Knight, the Question, and the “real-life” Human Fly! STEVE ENGLEHART and SAL BUSCEMA on Captain America, JERRY ORDWAY interview and cover, Superman roundtable with SIENKIEWICZ, NOWLAN, MOENCH, COWAN, MAGGIN, O’NEIL, MILGROM, CONWAY, ROBBINS, SWAN, plus FREE ALTER EGO #64 PREVIEW!

“The Devil You Say!” issue! A look at Daredevil in the 1980s and 1990s with interviews and art by KLAUS JANSON, JOHN ROMITA JR., and FRANK MILLER, MIKE MIGNOLA Hellboy interview, DAN MISHKIN and GARY COHN on Blue Devil, COLLEEN DORAN’s unpublished X-Men spin-off “Fallen Angels”, Son of Satan, Stig’s Inferno, DC’s Plop!, JACK KIRBY’s Devil Dinosaur, and cover by MIKE ZECK!

“Dynamic Duos!’ “Pro2Pro” interviews with Batman’s ALAN GRANT and NORM BREYFOGLE and the Legion’s PAUL LEVITZ and KEITH GIFFEN, a “Backstage Pass” to Dark Horse Comics, Robin’s history, EASTMAN and LAIRD’s Ninja Turtles, histories of duos Robin and Batgirl, Captain America and the Falcon, and Blue Beetle and Booster Gold, “Zot!” interview with SCOTT McCLOUD, and a new BREYFOGLE cover!

“Comics Go Hollywood!” Spider-Man roundtable with STAN LEE, JOHN ROMITA, SR., JIM SHOOTER, ERIK LARSEN, and others, STAR TREK comics writers’ roundtable Part 1, Gladstone’s Disney comics line, behindthe-scenes at TV’s ISIS and THE FLASH (plus an interview with Flash’s JOHN WESLEY SHIPP), TV tie-in comics, bonus 8-page color ADAM HUGHES ART GALLERY and cover, plus a FREE WRITE NOW #16 PREVIEW!

(100-page magazine) $6.95 Diamond Order Code: SEP063683

(104-page magazine) $6.95 Diamond Order Code: NOV063993

(100-page magazine) $6.95 Diamond Order Code: JAN073984

(100-page magazine) $6.95 Diamond Order Code: MAR073855

(108-page magazine) $6.95 Diamond Order Code: MAY073880

DIGDITITIOANL E BLE AVAILA

DIGITITIOANL ED BLE AVAILA

DIGDITITIOANL E BLE AVAILA

DIGDITITIOANL E BLE AVAILA

DIEGDITITIOANL BL AVAILA

E

BACK ISSUE #24

BACK ISSUE #25

BACK ISSUE #26

BACK ISSUE #27

BACK ISSUE #28

“Magic” issue! MICHAEL GOLDEN interview, GENE COLAN, PAUL SMITH, and FRANK BRUNNER on drawing Dr. Strange, Mystic Art Gallery with CARL POTTS & KEVIN NOWLAN, BILL WILLINGHAM’s Elementals, Zatanna history, Dr. Fate’s revival, a “Greatest Stories Never Told” look at Peter Pan, tribute to the late MARSHALL ROGERS, a new GOLDEN cover, plus a FREE ROUGH STUFF #6 PREVIEW!

“Men of Steel!’ BOB LAYTON and DAVID MICHELINIE on Iron Man, RICH BUCKLER on Deathlok, MIKE GRELL on Warlord, JOHN BYRNE on ROG 2000, Six Million Dollar Man and Bionic Woman, Machine Man, the World’s Greatest Super-Heroes comic strip, DC’s Steel, art by KIRBY, HECK, WINDSOR-SMITH, TUSKA, LAYTON cover, and bonus “Men of Steel” art gallery!

Includes a FREE DRAW! #15 PREVIEW!

“Spies and Tough Guys!’ PAUL GULACY and DOUG MOENCH in an art-packed “Pro2Pro” on Master of Kung Fu and their unrealized Shang-Chi/Nick Fury crossover, Suicide Squad spotlight, Ms. Tree, CHUCK DIXON and TIM TRUMAN’s Airboy, James Bond and Mr. T in comic books, Sgt. Rock’s oddball super-hero team-ups, Nathaniel Dusk, JOE KUBERT’s unpublished The Redeemer, and a new GULACY cover!

“Comic Book Royalty!” The ’70s/’80s careers of Aquaman and the Sub-Mariner explored, BARR and BOLLAND discuss CAMELOT 3000, comics pros tell “Why JACK KIRBY Was King,” “Dr. Doom: Monarch or Menace?” DON McGREGOR’s Black Panther; an exclusive ALAN WEISS art gallery; spotlights on ARION, LORD OF ATLANTIS; NIGHT FORCE; and more! New cover by NICK CARDY!

“Heroes Behaving Badly!” Hulk vs. Thing tirades with RON WILSON, HERB TRIMPE, and JIM SHOOTER; CARY BATES and CARMINE INFANTINO on “Trial of the Flash”; JOHN BYRNE’s heroes who cross the line; Teen Titan Terra, Kid Miracleman, Mark Shaw Manhunter, and others who went bad, featuring LAYTON, MICHELINIE, WOLFMAN, and PÉREZ, and more! New cover by DARWYN COOKE!

(100-page magazine) $6.95 Diamond Order Code: JUL073976

(100-page magazine) $6.95 Diamond Order Code: SEP074091

(100-page magazine) $6.95 Diamond Order Code: NOV073948

(100-page magazine) $6.95 Diamond Order Code: JAN084020

(100-page magazine) $6.95 Diamond Order Code: MAR084109

NEW STUFF FROM TWOMORROWS!

ALTER EGO #85

WRITE NOW! #20

ROUGH STUFF #12

DRAW! #17

BRICKJOURNAL #5

Captain Marvel and Superman’s battles explored (in cosmic space, candy stories, and in court, with art by WALLY WOOD, CURT SWAN, and GIL KANE), an in-depth interview with Golden Age great LILY RENÉE, overview of CENTAUR COMICS (home of BILL EVERETT’s Amazing-Man and others), FCA, MR. MONSTER, new RICH BUCKLER cover, and more!

Focus on THE SPIRIT movie, showing how FRANK MILLER transformed WILL EISNER’s comics into the smash-hit film, with interviews with key players behind the making of the movie, a look at what made Eisner’s comics so special, and more. Plus: an interview with COLLEEN DORAN, writer ALEX GRECIAN on how to get a pitch green lighted, script and art examples, and more!

Interview and cover by comic painter CHRIS MOELLER, features on New Zealand comic artist COLIN WILSON, G.I. Joe artist JEREMY DALE, and fan favorite TERRY DODSON, plus "GOOD GIRL ART" (a new article about everyone's favorite collectible art) by ROBERT PLUNKETT, a "Rough Critique" of an aspiring artist's work, and more!

Go behind the pages of the hit series of graphic novels starring Scott Pilgrim with his creator and artist, BRYAN LEE O’MALLEY, to see how he creates the acclaimed series! Then, learn how B.P.R.D.’s GUY DAVIS works on the series, plus more Comic Art Bootcamp: Learning from The Great Cartoonists by BRET BLEVINS and MIKE MANLEY, reviews, and more!

Features event reports from around the world, and the MINDSTORMS 10TH ANNIVERSARY at LEGO HEADQUARTERS! Plus an interview with the head of the LEGO GROUP’S 3D DEPARTMENT, a glimpse at the LEGO Group's past with the DIRECTOR OF LEGO'S IDEA HOUSE, instructions and spotlights on builders, and an idea section for Pirate builders!

(100-page magazine) $6.95 US (Digital Edition) $2.95 Diamond Order Code: MAR094514 Now shipping!

(80-page magazine) $6.95 US (Digital Edition) $2.95 Diamond Order Code: DEC084398 FINAL ISSUE! Now shipping!

(100-page magazine) $6.95 US (Digital Edition) $2.95 Diamond Order Code: FEB094564 FINAL ISSUE! Now shipping!

(80-page magazine with COLOR) $6.95 US • (Digital Edition) $2.95 Diamond Order Code: DEC084377 Now shipping!

(80-page COLOR magazine) $8.95 US (Digital Edition) $3.95 Diamond Order Code: DEC084408 Now shipping!

KIRBY COLLECTOR #52

EXTRAORDINARY WORKS OF ALAN MOORE:

BATCAVE COMPANION

Spotlights Kirby’s most obscure work, like an UNUSED THOR STORY, BRUCE LEE comic, animation work, stage play, unaltered versions of pages from KAMANDI, DEMON, & DESTROYER DUCK, a feature examining the last page of his final issue of various series BEFORE EDITORIAL TAMPERING, unseen Kirby covers & more!

(84-page tabloid magazine) $9.95 US Diamond Order Code: DEC084397 (Digital Edition) $3.95 • Now shipping!

COLLECTED KIRBY COLLECTOR VOL. 7 Reprints KIRBY COLLECTOR #27-30 plus over 30 pieces of Kirby art never published!

(288-page trade paperback) $29.95 ISBN: 9781605490120 Now shipping!

GRAILPAGES

The definitive autobiographical book on ALAN MOORE in a NEW EXPANDED AND UPDATED VERSION! Includes new interviews covering his work since the original 2003 edition of the book. From SWAMP THING, V FOR VENDETTA, WATCHMEN, and LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN and beyond – all are discussed by Alan. Plus, there’s RARE STRIPS, SCRIPTS, ARTWORK, and PHOTOGRAPHS, tribute comic strips by NEIL GAIMAN and other of Moore’s closest collaborators, a COLOR SECTION featuring the RARE MOORE STORY “The Riddle of the Recalcitrant Refuse” (newly remastered, and starring MR. MONSTER), and more! Edited by GEORGE KHOURY, with a cover by DAVE McKEAN!

Explore the Silver and Bronze Ages of Batman comic books in THE BATCAVE COMPANION! Two distinct sections of this book examine the Dark Knight’s progression from his campy “New Look” of the mid-1960s to his “creature of the night” reinvention of the 1970s. Features include issue-by-issue indexes, interviews with CARMINE INFANTINO, JOE GIELLA, DENNIS O’NEIL, and NEAL ADAMS, and guest essays by MIKE W. BARR and WILL MURRAY. Contributors include SHELDON MOLDOFF, LEN WEIN, STEVE ENGLEHART, and TERRY AUSTIN, with a special tribute to the late MARSHALL ROGERS. With its incisive introduction by DENNIS O’NEIL and its iconic cover painting by NEAL ADAMS, THE BATCAVE COMPANION is a must-have for every comics fan! By MICHAEL EURY and MICHAEL KRONENBERG.

(240-page trade paperback) $29.95 US ISBN: 9781605490090 Diamond Order Code: JAN088702 Now shipping!

(224-page trade paperback) $26.95 US ISBN: 9781893905788 Diamond Order Code: NOV068368 Now shipping!

Indispensable Edition

Go to www.twomorrows.com for FULL-COLOR downloadable PDF versions of our magazines for only $2.95! Subscribers to the print edition get the digital edition FREE, weeks before it hits stores!

2009 SUBSCRIPTION RATES:

Media Mail

Original Comic Book Art & The Collectors Examines the hobby of collecting original comic book art, letting you meet collectors from around the globe as they detail collections ranging from a few key pages, to hundreds of pages of original comic art

by JACK KIRBY, JOHN ROMITA SR., and others! Features interviews with industry pros, including writers GERRY CONWAY, STEVE ENGLEHART, and ROY THOMAS, and exclusive perspectives from Silver Age artists DICK GIORDANO, BOB McLEOD, ERNIE CHAN, TONY DeZUNIGA, and the unparalleled great, GENE COLAN! Completing the book is a diverse sampling of breathtakingly beautiful original comic art, some lavishly presented in full-page spreads, including pages not seen publicly for decades. Written by STEVEN ALAN PAYNE. (128-page trade paperback) $15.95 US ISBN: 9781605490151 Diamond Order Code: JAN094470 Now shipping!

VOLUME 20: KYLE BAKER

(120-page trade paperback with COLOR) $14.95 US • ISBN: 9781605490083 Now shipping!

VOLUME 21: CHRIS SPROUSE

(128-page trade paperback) $14.95 US • ISBN: 97801605490137 Ships May 2009 Each features an extensive, career-spanning interview lavishly illustrated with rare art from the artist’s files, plus huge sketchbook section, including unseen and unused art!

1st Class Canada 1st Class Priority US Intl.

Intl.

JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR (4 issues)

$50

$60

$60

$84

$136

BACK ISSUE! (6 issues)

$44

$60

$70

$105

$115

DRAW! (4 issues)

$30

$40

$47

$70

$77

ALTER EGO (12 issues) Six-issue subs are half-price!

$88

$120

$140

$210

$230

BRICKJOURNAL (4 issues)

$38

$48

$55

$78

$85

For the latest news from TwoMorrows Publishing, log on to www.twomorrows.com/tnt

TwoMorrows. Celebrating The Art & History Of Comics.

TwoMorrows • 10407 Bedfordtown Drive • Raleigh, NC 27614 USA • 919-449-0344 • FAX: 919-449-0327 • E-mail: twomorrow@aol.com • www.twomorrows.com