Comic Book Artist #23

FOR THE LOVE OF MIKE: THE ART OF MIGNOLA

™

No. 23 Dec. 2002

$6.95

In The US

Hellboy™&©2002 Mike Mignola

INSIDE: HARLAN ELLISON • JOSÉ DELBO

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At

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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

Last-minute bits about the Community of Comic Book Artists, Writers and Editors

ESCAPIST ENTERTAINMENT

The Strangest Man Alive meets the World’s Toughest Milkman?

Hey, why not? Perhaps the two most off-the-wall, over-the-top characters in comics history, Flaming Carrot and Reid Fleming, will be running into each other on a game show, and teaming-up to take on a horrendous evil, threatening Los Angeles itself, in an upcoming comic book to be published this Fall by Dark Horse!

The Plot: The two roughneck superheroes are together on Celebrity Standoff, a TV game show quizzing big shots in show biz. This installment features comic book tough guys facing off against tough guys of the stage and screen, and our heroes find themselves up against the intimidating trio of macho celebrities: Actor Christopher Walken, opera singer Lucciano Pavoratti and romance cover model Fabio!

Between show appearances, Reid and the Carrot cruise the City of Angels in the World’s Toughest Milkman’s delivery truck, hunting for a villain known as Vampire Lassie, who traverses the streets of on a skateboard who happens to be terrorizing the metropolis. (Folks who suffer through car wrecks think Lassie’s arrival spells their rescue, but instead his appearance seals their doom as he—gasp!— drinks their blood!)

The Creators: The story is written and drawn by both Flaming Carrot creator Bob Burden and Reid’s originator, David Boswell (the latter contributing most of the artwork).

Burden tells us, “I can’t tell you how happy I

am to see this all come together. The blending of styles has actually worked quite well, and artwork turned out great. David put a lot of work and detail into it. He’ s an amazing talent and he did even some of the writing. David pretty much wrote the ending himself.”

What’s Up with Bob: As for just where the hell Burden has been since the release of the film adaptation of his comic book Mystery Men, the raconteur explains to CBA, “To tell the truth, I’ve just been interested in writing these last few years, but as I sat with a finished book manuscript in front of me, I realized how much I’d missed doing the Carrot. If I can do even a few pages a week, maybe I can come out with an issue or two a year.”

We’re delighted to hear of Bob’s return to the funny book world (and damn proud of his achievements with Mystery Men, a vastly underappreciated and charming flick, by our reckoning), and as if to seal his fate, we’ve talked Bob into participating in an upcoming issue of Comic Book Artist to feature the definitive Burden interview as well as the most extensive coverage ever compiled of Flaming Carrot, just about the weirdest super-hero ever created!

We’re hoping to team Bob with a surprise guest for that issue (perhaps a certain creator who drives his fans ecstatic—if not downright mad— with his atomic-powered talents!) and will keep our readers informed about this special tribute to the wonkiest comic book characters ever!

SEDELMAIER COMICS Just as CBA was going to press, Ye Ed was delighted to receive via post a very special promotional comic book sent by the outfit which produces those Saturday Night Live animated shorts: The XPresidents, Fun With Real Audio, and (as so aptly represented by the cover of said comic, featured at left with a painting by none other than comic art master Alex Ross) The Ambiguously Gay Duo, as well as innumerable commercials and even a revival of Schoolhouse Rock, as well as the first season of Beavis and Butthead. J.J. Sedelmaier Productions must be appreciating the mag, as CBA can hardly hire the enormously talented J.J. and collaborating scribe Robert Smigel (go, Triumph!) for a gig.

But if these dudes (who so obviously love comics) continue to send us gems like this—featuring a pseudo-’60s tale starring Gary & Ace—we’ll keep plugging ’em anyway! Thanks, J.J.!

The Ambiguously Gay Duo ©1996 The Dana Carvey Show.

STERANKO MEETS SUPERCHABON! My San Diego Comic-Con pal Lee Hester, owner and proprietor of the sensational Lee’s Comics of Mountain View, California, called just the other day to lay on some blockbuster news he was hoping to be shared with readers of CBA: Jim Steranko, the legendary artist, writer, publisher, historian and magician (a man possessed with about a zillion other talents, as well) will meet the great Pulitzer Prize-winning author Michael Chabon for the first time at Lee’s shop on December 14. Of course, any reader of Chabon’s exquisite novel The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay (a volume looking at the experiences of a pair of comics creators in the early days of the medium) realizes that the book was partially inspired

by Steranko’s exploits as an escape artist (the tome’s metaphorical super-hero is aptly named The Escapist!), but the two men—each a giant in his respective field—have never met, making this rare event for any true fan of comics—and contemporary American literature—one not to miss!

To commemorate the event, Steranko is producing a magic-themed, full-color print that combines the mystery, spectacle and drama that have made both men pop culture icons! The limited edition print will be available free of charge to the first 500 people attending this fabulous event. The original art for the new image will also be unveiled for the first time, preceding an interview and public Q&A session with Chabon and Steranko, who will both be available for signings.

Lee tells us that the general public is invited to arrive starting at 2:00 P.M. on Saturday, Dec. 14, at his store, located at 1020-F N. Rengstorff, Mountain View, CA 94043, next to Costco. (From Rt. 101, take the Rengstorff exit.) Call Lee’s Comics at (650) 965-1800, and remember that seating is limited on a first come, first served basis.

As a young man, among many other accomplishments, Steranko was a world-renowned escape artist in the grand tradition of Harry Houdini. Comic book master Jack Kirby immortalized this aspect of multi-faceted Steranko’s career when the King was inspired to create the “super-escape artist” Mister Miracle in Jim’s image, in 1970, during Kirby’s lauded “Fourth World” reign at DC Comics.

Lee (with whom Ye Ed has shared a few “amazing adventures” himself!) tells us that Chabon has recently adapted Kavalier & Clay for the screen and his latest novel Summerland is currently available in hardback. The comic shop owner also says that the new book Steranko: Art Noir, the largest and most comprehensive collection of the creator’s work ever published, will debut at the event. Each copy of the slipcased limited edition (published by Vanguard Productions) will be signed by the artist.

In Memory of Gray Morrow March 7, 1934 - November 6, 2001 Deep within my heart, through all life’s changing seasons, I will always love and remember you—Pocho

Mister Miracle ©2002 DC Comics.

Flaming Carrot ©2002 Bob Burden. Reid Fleming ©2002 David Boswell.

Fleming Carrot! THE AMAZING

CBA’s Jon Cooke is back in April!

Make ready for COMIC BOOK CREATOR, the new voice of the comics medium!

TwoMorrows is proud to debut our newest magazine, COMIC BOOK CREATOR, devoted to the work and careers of the men and women who draw, write, edit, and publish comics, focusing always on the artists and not the artifacts, the creators and not the characters. Behind an ALEX ROSS cover painting, our frantic FIRST ISSUE features an investigation of the oft despicable treatment JACK KIRBY endured from the very business he helped establish. From being cheated out of royalties in the ’40s and bullied in the ’80s by the publisher he made great, to his estate’s current fight for equitable recognition against an entertainment monolith where his characters have generated billions of dollars, we present Kirby’s cautionary tale in the eternal struggle for creator’s rights. Plus, CBC #1 interviews artist ALEX ROSS and writer KURT BUSIEK, spotlights the last years of writer/artist FRANK ROBBINS, remembers comics historian LES DANIELS, sports a color gallery of WILL EISNER’s Valentines to his beloved, showcases a joint talk between NEAL ADAMS and DENNIS O’NEIL on their unforgettable collaborations, as well as throws a whole kit’n’caboodle of other creator-centric items atcha! Join us for the start of a new era as TwoMorrows welcomes back former Comic Book Artist editor JON B. COOKE, who helms the all-new, allcolor COMIC BOOK CREATOR!

80 pages • $8.95 All-color • Quarterly Digital Edition: $3.95 COMING THIS JULY: COMIC BOOK CREATOR #2 (double-size Summer Special) Former COMIC BOOK ARTIST editor JON B. COOKE returns to TwoMorrows with his new magazine! #1 features: An investigation of the treatment JACK KIRBY endured through FRANK ROBBINS spotlight, rememberreturns to TwoMorrows with his new magazine! #1 features: An investigation of the treatment JACK KIRBY endured through FRANK ROBBINS spotlight, remembertures: An investigation of the treatment JACK KIRBY ing LES DANIELS, WILL EISNER’s Valentines to his beloved, a talk between NEAL ADAMS and DENNIS O’NEIL, new ALEX ROSS cover, and more!

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $17.95 (Digital Edition) $6.95 • Ships July 2013

4-issue Subscriptions • PRINT: $36 US with FREE Digital Editions • DIGITAL: $15.80 ($45 First Class US • $50 Canada • $65 First Class International • $95 Priority International) Subscriptions include the double-size Summer Special

TwoMorrows. A New Day For Comics Fans!

TwoMorrows Publishing • 10407 Bedfordtown Drive • Raleigh, NC 27614 USA • 919-449-0344 • FAX: 919-449-0327 E-mail: store@twomorrowspubs.com • Visit us on the Web at www.twomorrows.com

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CELEBRATING THE LIVES & WORK OF THE GREAT CARTOONISTS, WRITERS & EDITORS

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THE FRONT PAGE: STERANKO, CHABON, AND BURDEN & BOSWELL’S “FLEMING CARROT”!

Pulitzer Prize-winning author Michael Chabon to meet the supreme “escapist” artist, Steranko! ......................1

Editor/Designer JON B. COOKE

KHOURY’S CORNER: LADRONN’S LOST ADVENTURE Our Man George, CBA’s new assistant editor, takes a look at the missing Silver Surfer story ..............................6

Publisher

RIDING SHOTGUN: TOM SUTTON AND “THE FADEAWAY WALK” Don McGregor, comics writer extraordinaire, debuts his new column with a look at the late horror artist..........8

JOHN & PAM MORROW

FRED HEMBECK’S DATELINE @!!?* Hembeck think him funny; put Hulk in strip to talk ’bout Harlan Ellison story. Hulk smash puny artist! ............9 TO HELLBOY AND BACK! THE MIKE MIGNOLA SPECIAL MIKE MIGNOLA INTERVIEW: FOR THE LOVE OF MIKE! IT’S THE MAGIC OF MIGNOLA In-depth, career-spanning interview with the creator of Hellboy and one of the world’s greatest cartoonists ....10 HELLBOUND: THE MIKE MIGNOLA PORTFOLIO Fourteen pages of magnificent Mignola artwork, including unpublished and rarely-seen work ..........................35 DEVIL IN THE DETAILS: THE MIKE MIGNOLA COMIC ART CATALOG Brian T. Rivers shares his exhaustive checklist on the work of the brilliant artist of Hellboy ..............................48 SPECIAL BONUS INTERVIEWS HARLAN ELLISON INTERVIEW: HELL-RAISIN’ HARLAN’S COMIC BOOK WORK The award-winning author on his forays into the four-color world of funny books ............................................63 JOSÉ DELBO INTERVIEW: THE AUTHENTIC ARTISTRY OF JOSÉ DELBO The ubiquitous artist on his illustrative career in comics, from Argentina to Gold Key to DC and beyond..........78

TWOMORROWS Assistant Editor GEORGE KHOURY Associate Editors CHRIS KNOWLES DAVID A. ROACH CHRISTOPHER IRVING Contributing Editors ROY THOMAS JOHN MORROW Cover Art MIKE MIGNOLA Cover Color DAVE STEWART Proofreader ERIC NOLEN-WEATHINGTON

COMIC BOOK ARTIST™ is published 10 times a year by TwoMorrows, 1812 Park Drive, Raleigh, NC 27605, USA. 919-833-8092. Jon B. Cooke, Editor. John Morrow, Publisher. Editorial Office: P.O. Box 204, West Kingston, RI 02892-0204 USA • 401-783-1669 • Fax: 401-783-1287. Send subscription funds to TwoMorrows, NOT the editorial office. Single issues: $9 postpaid ($11 Canada, $12 elsewhere). Six-issue subscriptions: $36 US, $66 Canada, $72 elsewhere. All characters © their respective owners. All material © their creators unless otherwise noted. All editorial matter © their respective authors. ©2002 Jon B. Cooke/TwoMorrows. Cover acknowledgement: Hellboy™ & ©2002 Mike Mignola. First Printing. PRINTED IN CANADA.

Editor’s Rant

The Hellman Cometh On Mike Mignola and yet more musings on CBA’s direction Transcribers JON B. KNUTSON BRIAN K. MORRIS SAM GAFFORD LONGBOX.COM STEVEN TICE Logo Designer/Title Originator ARLEN SCHUMER Mascot WOODY by J.D. King Issue Theme Song THE GAME OF LOVE Santana (with Michelle Branch) Visit CBA on our Website at:

www.twomorrows.com Contributors Mike Mignola • Jill Thompson Harlan Ellison • Jose Delbo Dave Stewart • Dan Martin Susan Ellison • Joe McCabe Dark Horse Comics • Ladronn Sirius Entertainment • J.D. King George Khoury • Scott Dunbier Kevin Nowlan • Michelle Nolan Fred Hembeck • Don McGregor Roger Stern • John Yon Bob Burden • Chris Day Lee Hester of Lee’s Comics J.J. Sedelmaier & Robert Smigel Richard Starkings & Comicraft www.hellboy.com This issue dedicated to

Katie Mignola DAUGHTER OF MIKE with our best wishes to the finest eight-year-old comics writer ever!

Certainly the greatest pleasure that comes from editing a magazine like Comic Book Artist is the chance not only to converse with many of the world’s greatest living storytellers, but also being blessed with the opportunity to study the work of those artists, down to the most minute detail.

While readers might imagine the offices of CBA to be a bustling beehive of activity with all sorts of workers scurrying about, the fact is, aside from work produced offsite by our esteemed contributors (super-heroes all, so take a bow, George, Fred, Michelle, Don, J.D., and all who share their talents with us!), the nerve-center of the mag is actually a 13' x 20' room off of Ye Ed’s bedroom, above the garage, in the Cooke house, located in West Kingston, a charming rural village in tiny ol’ Rhode Island. So 90% of the mag’s production is done here, by Ye Ed solo, using a high-speed Internet-connected Mac G-3 computer, and when not conducting interviews or editing the transcripts, our fearless leader spends many a night and day, often into the wee hours, endlessly scanning art to accompany the interviews. Now, it needs to be said that the job isn’t finished by simply scanning the material, but also spending often significant time “cleaning-up” the images, working sometimes at 2000% actual size. Talk about eye-openers!

Through this process of getting “into” the work on an almost subatomic level, Ye Ed often is struck by the incredible power of not only a given artist’s technique, but the sheer artistry and pure design sense. For instance, Ye Ed enjoyed the art of Arthur Adams, John Romita Jr., and Adam Hughes (and many others, natch) before devoting issues to them but after getting so close to their material—down to the pixel level—this editor walked away mesmerized, converting into a virtual disciple who espouses the enormity of their respective talents. But no one covered in these pages—and I mean no one—has struck me as effectively as Mike Mignola. The guy is simply a phenomenal cartoonist, whether we’re talking page design, economy of line, courageous use of blacks, story writing, character development, not to mention his sly and savvy marketing sense… it’s little wonder that Hollywood has sat up and taken notice of this genius, using him as a conceptual designer and now, with the Hellboy movie currently in production, exploiting his greatest asset: Mignola’s storytelling.

And, goldarnit, Mike earned his success the old-fashioned way, by trudging up out of the trenches as a Marvel super-hero artist in the 1980s, a slave to the page rates, ever building professional relationships, and often—horrors!—actually becoming friends with editors and writers in the business, being reliable, and getting whatever job entrusted to him done and in on time. What a radical approach!

Here’s hoping you become a mesmerized Mignola maniac, too!

One comic book historians I have great respect for is Richard Kyle, onetime owner of the most progressive comic book shop in America during the 1970s, editor-publisher of the extraordinary fanzine Graphic Story World (later Wonderworld) and a notable revival of Argosy, as well as an insightful critic of the field and frequent CBA correspondent. I had the pleasure to recently chat with Richard, obstentively calling to apologize for being too busy to properly respond to his letters, but I really phoned just to engage in stimulating conversation with the man, who was never one to mince words when it comes to calling ‘em as he sees ‘em.

Don’t get me wrong: If it’s valid criticism being offered, I’m grateful and happy to hear the comments, even if I don’t necessarily agree. Though he served as an inspiration for the TwoMorrows comics anthology, Streetwise—heck, I even dedicated the book in part to Richard because he was able to get Jack Kirby to write and draw the autobiographical story, “Street Code,” the tale which served as centerpiece for the tome—Richard frankly told me he didn’t care much for the effort (except for the aforementioned Kirby reprint, natch, and Sam Glanzman’s story). Me, I like the book a lot, from Sergio Aragonés’ Eisner-winning “The Gorilla Suit,” to Barry Windsor-Smith’s fantastic UFO confession, but—as I said—I respect Mr. Kyle’s opinion and certainly mull over what he has to say.

So, when I bitched to Richard how the theme issues—those devoted to comics publishers like last issue’s Gold Key retrospective— were exhausting and the single-subject CBAs were not only easier, but consistently better-selling (by a long shot!), I was very interested in Mr. Kyle’s response. “Well,” he said, “I never liked the theme issues much anyway. I think you should adopt a more eclectic, grab-bag approach that covers, in whole, a variety of subjects. I’d prefer it if, for instance, you covered an artist in the Golden Age—like Louis Glanzman—as well as a ’60s creator. You should later compile interviews with folks who worked at, say, DC in the ’50s, and make your themes as bona fide books.”

Much as I truly enjoy the anal-retentive approach of “carpetbombing” a subject, I’m now thinking ol’ Richard is right. In ways, the ’60s and ’70s are exhausted anyway. Sure, there’s room for an Arcade examination, for example, looking at the ”ground level” efforts of Crumb, Griffith and Spiegelman with that mid-’70s mag (or Crumb and Bagge’s ’80s effort, Weirdo, as well), but if the focus is specific and less broad, CBA might cover a subject with just a few interviews and include more art. So, I will. I’ll also prattle on this more next time. Now, you go turn the page, and go straight to hell, hear?

—Jon B. Cooke, Editorman

Previous page: Courtesy of the artist, the black-&-white line art to the cover of the most recent edition of Hellboy: Seed of Destruction, collecting the first mini-series featuring the character, by Mike Mignola. ©2002 Mike Mignola.

Above: CBA mascot Woody exposes a hellish nature of his boyish charms in J.D. King’s illustration. ©2002 J.D. King.

Please send all letters of comment, articles and artwork to: Jon B. Cooke, Editor, Comic Book Artist, P.O. Box 204, West Kingston, RI 02892-0204 Phone: (401) 783-1669 • Fax: (401) 783-1287 • E-mail: jonbcooke@aol.com

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TwoMorrows. A New Day For Comics Fans!

TwoMorrows Publishing • 10407 Bedfordtown Drive • Raleigh, NC 27614 USA • 919-449-0344 • FAX: 919-449-0327 E-mail: store@twomorrowspubs.com • Visit us on the Web at www.twomorrows.com

PRINTED IN CANADA

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Khoury’s Corner

Ladronn’s Lost Adventure Khoury’s Land of the Lost Tales: The missing Silver Surfer epic

by George Khoury

Below: The third page of Ladronn‘s exquisite, if unfinished, Silver Surfer story.

Courtesy of the artist. Silver Surfer ©2002 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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In 1997, Ladronn with his Kirbyesque style quickly became a fan favorite for the readers of Marvel Comics when he and thenunknown writer Joe Casey put the fledgling Cable title on the map for comics fandom. The Casey-Ladronn team produced fast-paced, over-the-top stories in the excellent Lee & Kirby tradition. The title earned the cover of Wizard magazine while Casey and Ladronn

became hot commodities, soon getting work on other Marvel books and even branching out to DC for projects. When they were working on their biggest Cable storyline (a final battle between the hero and his tormentor, Apocalypse), the pair was removed from the title to make way for Rob Liefeld’s—albeit short-lived—return to the character he created. The team was split up and Casey soon became one of comics’ busiest writers while Marvel concentrated on locking Ladronn into an exclusive contract.

For a while, Marvel had the artist drawing lackluster gigs like a Fantastic Four Annual and such. They had no idea what to do with him until editor Tom Brevoort let Ladronn roam free in a beautiful back-up strip for the Thor 2000 Annual. With this story and liberated from the monthly grind, he was able to demonstrate that he was more than just a penciler but a true artist, a master at penciling, inking and painting. What normally would have been traditional Marvel filler material became a lavishly painted story of epic proportions causing the editors at Marvel to finally reward him with an Inhumans limited series that would follow the Eisner-winning Inhumans series by Paul Jenkins and Jae Lee. Writers Carlos Pacheco and Rafael Marin wanted to tell a more traditional Marvel story about the Inhumans and in Ladronn they had an artist who would give the story scope. The series was a modest success but triggered the beginning of a falling out between Marvel Comics and Ladronn. In the beginning, the book was quickly green-lighted by editorial and solicited before the artist had completed the first book—that’s all fine and dandy but this wasn’t a typical comic book! Apparently Marvel expected Ladronn to paint all four issues in a few months—as if Alex Ross painted Kingdom Come in a day!—and they expected the same quality of work that they had seen in the Thor Annual. The pressure was on from the beginning and yet the artist still managed, with the help of friends, to produce an outstanding piece of work in the first three issues of the four-issue limited series. The stress and sheer volume of the work had already set him behind for the fourth issue, and when Ladronn requested additional time, the editor decided to get someone fast to meet the deadline.

Things got worse when Ladronn terminated his exclusive contract with Marvel because they did not hold up to their part of the bargain. There were numerous conditions and stipulations that were part of the deal but the most important one was that Marvel would help him in attaining a work visa. With all the bureaucracy going on at Marvel, the artist became a victim of their red tape when Marvel stuck to the excuse that all dealings with Ladronn’s visa were done without Bob Harras’ knowledge and thus removed this important provision to his contract. Already residing in California, Ladronn soon had to pay for the costly immigration legalities out of his own pocket because his immigration status was jeopardized in part to Marvel's sudden change in attitude. He decided that with the end of the Inhumans series so to would be his days at Marvel.

Another broken promise was a 64-page Silver Surfer graphic novel entitled The Lost Adventure written especially for the artist by writers Randy and Jean-Marc Lofficier which Marvel would proceed to also terminate. The Lofficiers had handed in a complete script and Ladronn had done preliminaries and finished the first four pages when Marvel decided to pull the plug on the project for no apparent reason, even after having paid for the full script. The four fully rendered pages are all that remain of a project that had so much potential. The artist was very excited about the book and looked at it as being a significant contribution to the Surfer’s legacy, Ladronn elaborated, “I felt that it was a big mistake on Marvel’s behalf COMIC BOOK ARTIST 23

December 2002

because they didn’t consider the importance of this project. The Silver Surfer book was going to be the third arc of the Silver Surfer’s trilogy.

The first one was the graphic novel by Kirby and Lee, the second one was with Moebius and Stan Lee, and this book was the third part, which would have completed the trilogy. When Jean-Marc and I approached Marvel with the book, we thought that we had to bring the Silver Surfer full circle. The story written by Jean-Marc and Randy Lofficier—on which I helped a bit—was a story with the Silver Surfer, Doctor Strange, Iron Man, Nick Fury, and a few villains. Marvel decided now wasn’t the time. I had completed a few pages in color, but nothing else.”

This Silver Surfer story was inspired by the fact that there was a major continuity gap between the Surfer’s appearances on Silver Surfer #18 (Sept. ’70) to his reemergence in Sub-Mariner #34 (Feb. ’71). Somewhere between those two issues various characteristics of the Surfer had changed including his trademark angst and torment.

It was as if he had taken Prozac. The Lost Adventure sought to fill in that gap and explain the Surfer’s maturation, co-writer Jean-Marc also added that the story would have been, “A science-fiction epic not encumbered by present-day continuity, that would have given Ladronn the chance to shine by offering the opportunity to draw what he does best: Vast sci-fi landscapes and concepts, futuristic worlds in ruins, aliens, etc.”

The story begins with the return of one of the Surfer’s most powerful villains, The Overlord, from Silver Surfer #6 (Oct. ’68).

The evil foe intends on ruling the universe with his acquisition of the power cosmic. Reading the script one can only imagine how beautiful Ladronn would have visualized these words, especially a hardcore Kirbyesque battle between Overlord and Galactus in which the devourer of worlds losses in rather dramatic fashion. (There’s even a Silver Surfer versus Iron Man scenario that’s highly amusing, even though we all know the rusted hero doesn’t stand a chance!) The finale involves Silver Surfer together with Iron Man and Dr. Strange as they meet up with the Overlord and his herald—Moebius’s incarnation of the Silver Surfer. As to how the Moebius Surfer entered the story Jean-Marc elaborated, “My theory being that the Moebius Surfer was the same Surfer as the one from the Lee-Kirby Simon and Schuster trade paperback from the ’70s—he was from an Earth which had no other super-heroes.” The tussle between the two Surfers is abounding with cosmic energy complete with Kirby-like krackle! And, in the end, the Surfer reflects on his past adventures and is reborn in spirit, no longer filled with resentment. It’s a very visual story, one that’s grandiose and filled with heart-pounding action. The new regime at Marvel apparently hasn’t noticed the appeal of this story or The Silver Surfer character but that could perhaps change one day.

Ladronn’s most recent work, Hip Flask: Unnatural Selection, reunites him with Joe Casey in what is a new milestone in comics and a revelation that received overwhelming praise from fandom and critics. The book involves much of the same techniques the artist employed on the Thor Annual, Inhumans and The Lost Adventure pages, but integrated with other new techniques that he has picked up along the way. Hip Flask creator and letterer extraordinaire, Richard Starkings, explained Ladronn’s style in detail: “What you must also realize is that the art you see in Hip Flask is a combination of airbrush, watercolor, color pencils, pastels, acrylics and gouache enhanced in Photoshop and Painter and therefore the finished work only exists in cyberspace. Even the boards to which Ladronn applies

the airbrush and watercolor base are Xeroxes of the original inked pages. Only when Ladronn’s work is printed does it exist in the material world as he has envisioned it. In a sense, everyone who has brought Unnatural Selection owns an original.”

This is a survivor because despite all the setbacks and obstacles he continues to make great comics with passion and drive stronger than I’ve ever seen. Working for major companies proved that they didn’t appreciate the hours of painstaking detail he puts in his art, but set free on Hip Flask and he has managed to produce a sciencefiction masterpiece about a twisted totalitarian world meeting its match in the form of a genetically-altered hippopotamus that is radiant! Having followed Ladronn’s career since his first issue of Cable, it is utterly amazing to see the progression from a once mere Marvel penciler to a truly refined pioneer who somehow successfully made a fusion of American comics and European comics in his work.

Left: Panel from page two of Ladronn’s unpublished Silver Surfer pages.

This tale is set between the events of Silver Surfer #18 (Sept. ’70) and the Moebius/Lee ’88 two-issue mini-series. Top: Page four. Courtesy of the artist. Right: Ladronn recently appeared in Comicraft’s Hip Flask Unnatural Selection (Sept. 2002). ©2002 Active Images.

December 2002

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7

Riding Shotgun

Tom Sutton and “The Fade-Away Walk” Comics scribe Don McGregor on the horror artist extraordinaire

by Don McGregor

Below: Panel detail from Tom Sutton’s splash page of Alexander Risk’s debut in Fantasy Illustrated #1 (Spring 1982). ©2002 Don McGregor and the Estate of Tom Sutton.

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Tom Sutton drew the very first Warren story I had published, “The Fade-Away Walk.” It wasn’t the first story I had written for Warren Publications, but I had not seen any of my comic scripts drawn and/or published before Creepy #40, July 1971. I didn’t even know any of them were being worked on, when the big envelope arrived at my home in Rhode Island. I had no idea what was inside the package.

I opened it, not knowing what to expect, and found Tom Sutton’s rendition of my script “The Fade-Away Walk.”

Tom had drawn it in a beautiful graphite texture. Everything I asked for in the script, Tom did it and more. Continuity shots, reverse angle panels, sniper scope sequences. His large panel of the two last people on Earth atop Mount Rushmore caught everything I’d hoped.

Now, remember, this is my first experience seeing one of my stories come to visual life. I am ecstatic. I’m energized. I think it’s always going to be this way. It will be even more than I hope when I’m writing the story.

But I am being spoiled here, in a way, because it has to be mentioned, my editor is Archie Goodwin.

And the artist is Tom Sutton.

An interesting note is that our names appear on the cover of Creepy #40. Credits had never appeared on Warren magazine covers before. I learned years later that some pros in the business were sure Don McGregor was a pseudonym, say, the way Adam Austin was for Gene Colan. Our names appeared on the cover because Billy Graham was managing editor at Warren at the time (the first black editor in comics, I’ve been informed). Archie Goodwin bought the story, but I guess by the time it saw print he was no longer editing at Warren.

Tom and I worked together many times over the next couple of years at Warren.

If you’ve seen the book Murder by Crowquill you have read a text piece I wrote entitled, Detectives Inc.: There’s Blood Between the Panels. The book was an anthology collection put together by Joe Zabel to help raise funds for the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund. I mention it because Joe wrote about my second published story, drawn

by Rich Corben, “A Tangible Hatred,” which featured police detective David Turner. Joe wrote in that edition that I “…went on to pen several more Detective David Turner stories, establishing the first modern adult mystery series in comics.”

Now, Joe probably knows more about this than I do.

I bring Turner up in this context for a reason, because after that first Corben story, all the others were done by Tom Sutton.

In Eerie #38, Tom illustrated “The Night the Snow Spilled Blood.”

Jim Salicrup has been very kind to me about this story. He recalls running across the sidewalks of New York to show a friend the story. I am so glad he has fond memories of it.

One of the things about Tom Sutton was he could draw whatever you asked of him. And he was always trying different approaches.

Whereas “The Fade-Away Walk” was done in a graphite pencil approach, this story was done entirely in brush-&-wash, as I recall.

Series characters weren’t really done in those early days at Warren. I am certain I did not at the time tell anyone I was bringing back Turner. There might have been some resistance. I’m sure I just did it, and didn’t make any reference to “A Tangible Hatred.” What a way to start out, though, my first story drawn by Tom Sutton, the second

by Rich Corben, with the beautifully talented Archie Goodwin at the helm. Man, was a due to get a wake-up call about what this medium could really be like!

It was in my head to do a yearly David Turner story, centered around the holidays. Tom so effectively did “The Night Spilled Blood,”

I hoped he’d be able to do them all.

The 12-panel sequence where the two cops discuss the Charlie Brown Christmas Special still makes me smile warmly, even during this grim time.

In Creepy #59, David Turner returned in “Not a Creature was Stirring.” Unfortunately, there was no Archie Goodwin or Billy Graham around Warren at the time, and so some of the script was mangled.

Tom Sutton, though, was still there. This time his approach to the story was almost entirely in pen and ink. If memory serves, he didn’t use any brush at all.

I first met Tom sometime after the publication of “The FadeAway Walk.” He lived way in deep woods. He came out of his house to greet me, and looked as massive as Paul Bunyan, dressed in a woodsman’s red-&-black checkered shirt.

Tom loved old radio shows, much as I did. He used to tell me, “Hey, you ought to listen to some I Love a Mystery shows by Carlton E. Morse while you’re working.

Like Tom, Gene Colan often listens to music or radio shows while drawing. Another advantage to being an artist in the comics medium.

Argh! I’d tell Tom—and Gene—as if they didn’t know, “A storyteller can’t be listening to other stories while trying to write a story!”

Well, at least I can’t. There are many stories told that Raymond Chandler towards the end of his career often had to be drunk to write.

There’s an incredible tale about this and Chandler on the writing of the movie The Blue Dahlia that delineates Chandler’s integrity and anguish. Sheesh, I couldn’t write my name if I was drunk.

When I had a chance to create “Alexander Risk, the Hounds of Hell Theory” in 1981, I chose Tom as the artist for the series I saw as a kind of combination of Sherlock Holmes and The Thin Man. Tom actually drew 20-some pages of the story that never saw print. The beginning of Alexander and Penelope Risk can be seen in Fantasy Illustrated #1, Spring 1982.

I personally believe it is one of the best horror/fantasy/mystery graphic novels I have ever done, and it is one of those disheartening storyteller experiences that none of you have ever had a chance to see it completed, see where I intended to go, and what themes and topics I wanted to cover that early in the comics medium.

In 1991, when I had the chance to do Risk again, for Epic, as a creator-owned vehicle, Tom wasn’t interested in doing the series.

Tom wanted to draw swamp monsters. Back around the time I was writing Panther’s Quest for Marvel Comics Presents, Tom was drawing a Steve Gerber “Man-Thing.” Tom kept calling me, because he didn’t want to draw Oliver North (who, I guess made an appearance, or maybe Steve was doing a parody of him, I don’t know). He didn’t care about politics, he just wanted to draw swamp creatures.

Where were the swamp creatures? I had no idea. I can’t remember the story, but I’m sure Steve had the Man-Thing in there, it’s just Tom really loved swamp creatures at that time, and anything else he had to draw was taking him away, I guess, from what he loved.

Tom was great to work with. We had even done a forty some page story together none of you have ever seen. Much of it took place in Manhattan, especially the Times Square district. It was before his time for loving swamp creatures (well, maybe he already loved them) but he did the city scenes as effectively as he did the deep woods and marshes settings.

He couldn’t understand, I think, how much I loved him for what he had done early on with my stories, or why I thought he had “spoiled” me, but he knew I respected him as an artist, and as a man.

The last fade-away walk.

I’ll miss you, Thomas. Hasta la vista, for now.

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©2002 Fred Hembeck. The Hulk ©2002 Marvel Characters, Inc. Be sure to see Fred’s weekly strip in The Comic Buyers’ Guide.

CBA Interview

Hellboy on Earth: The For the love of Mike, CBA talks to the ingenious artist-writer Conducted by Jon B. Cooke Transcribed by Steven Tice

Below: Mike Mignola’s cover art for Hellboy: Almost Colossus #2 (July 1997). Courtesy of the artist. ©2002 Mike Mignola.

As Ye Ed notes in the following interview (which took place on April 23, 2002), Mike Mignola appears to be—stylistically, of course—the ungodly spawn of Jack Kirby and Alex Toth, swiping from neither yet appropriating the best both comic book masters have to offer. Mike’s heavy use of blacks, extraordinary page design, and superb sense of pacing—the Toth approach, if you will—coupled with the sheer exhuberence and manic action found in the King’s work, might be an apt description of the Mignola magic. He is, simply, one of the finest comic book artists—and writers—working today. But no sorcery brought the creator such acclaim; as you will find, it took numerous years of hard labor, combined with a solid, inborn work ethic and sensible practicality. The talk was conducted by phone and was copy edited by Mike.

Comic Book Artist: How do you pronounce your name?

Mike Mignola: Minyo-la.

CBA: Is that Italian?

Mike: Yes. Swiss-Italian.

CBA: Where did you grow up?

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Mike: In Oakland, California.

CBA: Did you get an interest in art at a young age?

Mike: I drew as far back as I can remember, and it’s pretty much all I ever did. I just drew, and eventually I drew and read, but that was it.

No sports, no learning to drive a car, nothing. I just drew. [laughter] CBA: Do you have any brothers and sisters?

Mike: I have two younger brothers.

CBA: What kind of neighborhood was it? In Oakland, you said?

Mike: It was in the Oakland hills. It was very nice, middle class, residential-house kind of neighborhood, which all burned down in the big Oakland fire.

CBA: Did you get to San Francisco much?

Mike: No. Everything I needed was in Berkeley, so I never had any reason to go to San Francisco. In high school, I spent a lot of time in Berkeley once my brothers and I discovered used bookstores and comic book stores. So our weekends were spent haunting old record stores and bookstores.

CBA: How did you get there? Did your parents drop you off? Bus? Mike: We went on the bus.

CBA: Were your brothers like-minded?

Mike: Yeah, we had a strange relationship with this kind of stuff. I think it started with comics, where we collected everything Marvel put out. I don’t remember how we started, but everything Marvel did, one of us would collect. My youngest brother bought Daredevil, Spider-Man, Marvel Team-Up; the middle brother collected all the monster stuff, Captain America and Iron Man. Then I had the big stuff; you know, Fantastic Four, Thor. The bigger, cosmic kind of stuff. And that’s how we did it. I remember that Marvel would put out some new book and there would just be a discussion among us, like, who was going to collect that? Did it relate to this? Was it in some way related to Spider-Man? Was it a horror kind of thing? [laughter] So I saw everything Marvel did. We didn’t see anything of DC, though my youngest brother did get the Atlas/Seaboard stuff…

CBA: Because it looked like Marvel?

Mike: I don’t know why, but that was as much branching out as we did. We didn’t stray into DC at all.

CBA: Was that you dictating that, or was it a democratic agreement?

Mike: I think there was a brief period when we were all really into it, and our decision was all by mutual consent. Nobody was assigned a book they didn’t want. I don’t think it was more than two or three years of pretty intense comic book buying and reading. I remember around that time when we discovered our first comic book store.

Somebody told us about this place in downtown Oakland, and we ventured down there. It was a really intense period that went up through… I think I was a senior in high school when I stopped reading the stuff. I was still buying for a while, but… I remember looking in my drawer and there were the last five or six issues of The Avengers, and I hadn’t read them. I thought, “I’m buying out of habit at this point.” I remember Jim Starlin’s Warlock, and I was still buying comics after he’d finished, but that was the last thing that really had me that excited about comics. There was Paul Gulacy’s Master of Kung Fu and Jim’s Warlock. When that was over, I kind of went, “Enhhh, I think I’m done.”

CBA: What year were you born?

Mike: I was born in 1960.

CBA: Do you recall when you first got into comics, and what they were? How young were you?

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Magic of Mike Mignola on his comics career & current work in Hollywood movies Mike: I remember my cousin having comics. We’d visit him in Modesto, and I remember specific issues of the Fantastic Four. The issue with the cocoon on the cover [#67]. I loved that comic. I remember he had The Doom Patrol. I remember all those old Tales to Astonish with the Hulk and Sub-Mariner, and that stuff being around. And at the time, I don’t think I read any of that stuff, but I looked at and was fascinated by this really great, alien thing— “alien” as in fantastic, as in this wonderful world. I don’t know if I was really allowed to look at them. I remember going with my cousin to a drug store, where he was buying Sgt. Fury or something by Kirby—maybe Fantastic Four—and I was told, “There’s Richie Rich. That’s your stuff.” [laughter] I remember my cousin’s comics always looked more interesting. I don’t remember how things really started except I know when we were on car trips, my dad would stop at some place where my brothers and I could buy comics, and that might be how it started.

Again, I don’t know exactly what year that was, but I remember my brother picking up the first issue of [Amazing] Spider-Man that had the Punisher [#129], so whatever year that was [1974]. Around that time, it was car trip stuff. Occasionally, my brothers and I would be sent on a bus up to see my aunt, and I remember devouring an issue of Savage Tales, reading Barry Smith Conan stories, there was a Gil Kane Robert E. Howard thing, and then articles about the old Conan books, and just being fascinated by that whole thing. I remember Conan being a big hook when I first started seriously collecting comics.

CBA: It’s almost traditional for comic book artists to have started with the familiar. That is, they usually start out with Mickey Mouse, then go on to Superman, and if they’re of a certain age, they look at the Marvels as—there’s that word again—“alien,” as something that’s strange. But you obviously were introduced to them right off.

Mike: Yeah. I knew nothing about Batman and Superman and that kind of stuff.

CBA: At all?

Mike: Well, I mean, I knew the TV shows. I remember at one point—and I have no idea why, but it must have been because of the artist—I picked up an issue of the Justice League, and immediately I was lost, because there was more than one Batman in it, and there was reference to some Earth-Two thing, and I went, “Nahhh, this is too complicated, I can’t figure this out!” But we knew the Marvel universe, because between my brothers and I, we collected everything! It was familiar and made sense. The DC stuff was so bizarre to us.

CBA: That’s the first time I’ve heard that, usually it’s the other way around. So you never got into DC at all?

Mike: No. I remember, at the drugstore, seeing the Michael Kaluta Shadows. I remember seeing Bernie Wrightson’s Swamp Thing, and thinking, “That looks really cool, but they’re DCs. CBA: [laughter] They had the wrong emblem on them?

Mike: Yeah.

CBA: You clued into the art aspect of comics right off?

Mike: Yeah, definitely. Again, from the early days, seeing the ones December 2002

COMIC BOOK ARTIST 23

my cousin was reading, it was the art that attracted me.

CBA: And was it specifically Kirby that started it for you?

Mike: I don’t remember whether it was the way he drew, or what he was drawing. He was long gone from Marvel when I first started really collecting Marvel, but they were publishing all those Fantastic Four reprints [Marvel’s Greatest Comics], so before we discovered comic book stores, I was picking up those. And I loved that stuff. Again, it was the cosmic element of the Fantastic Four, and things like that.

CBA: With your brother collecting the b-&-w monster magazines or the Marvel/Atlas reprints?

Mike: Tomb of Dracula, Werewolf

by Night, and stuff like that.

CBA: So you didn’t buy the Kirby non-super-hero reprints?

Mike: Somewhere along the way, Marvel reprinted the Kirby monster stuff.

I love those comics.

CBA: You know, a lot of people look at your work and say it’s the ungodly spawn of Alex Toth and Jack Kirby. Did you have the influence of Toth at a young age?

Mike: I have no idea when I ever saw Alex’s stuff, but I certainly never bought it. And I don’t even know if I own a Toth comic now.

CBA: [Incredulous] Really?

Mike: I never consciously looked at Toth’s work. I think it’s a case of wandering down a similar path. I went through a lot of phases where there were different guys I wanted to be, and Alex was never one of them, because I really didn’t know who he was. I’d probably see something in the Warren magazines, things like that, but I never said, “Wow! This is the guy! I’m into this, I want to learn how to do this!” I never looked at him for that, because I was unfamiliar with him. I remember wanting to be Mike Ploog, and I wanted to be Frank Frazetta in high school, and then, when A Look Back came out about Wrightson, I copied that book from front to back. I desperately wanted to be Bernie Wrightson. But Toth, never.

Left inset: The logo for the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense, the investigative organization of which Hellboy is a member. ©2002 Mike Mignola.

Below: Mike Mignola, the artist/writer, poses for a rare pic.

Courtesy of the artist.

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Below: Mike Mignola’s rejected first attempt at the cover for Batman Black and White, Volume Two. (2002). Courtesy of the artist.

Art ©2002 Mike Mignola.

Batman ©2002 DC Comics.

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CBA: You were about 16 years old when A Look Back came out.

Mike: I was 17, maybe 18, because I was out of high school, going to a junior college in Modesto, and we had no money. I was living in a crappy little apartment and my roommate and I usually pooled our money to buy art supplies and some food, and that month we went without food, and we bought A Look Back book together.

CBA: So you still got nourishment. [laughter] My brother and I shared a collection, too. I would buy The Demon, he would buy Kamandi; he would buy Spider-Man and I would buy Fantastic Four.

When it came time, did you guys have the inevitable fight about who owned what in the collection, or did you all have your own caches?

Mike: Oh, it was completely segregated. We all had our separate cabinets where our comics were kept. There was a certain amount of reading each other’s stuff, but even that seemed very segregated.

CBA: So there wasn’t open access, so to speak?

Mike: You know, there must have been, because I am real familiar with what they had. But we never pooled anything. It wasn’t, like, “Oh, we’ll just buy the comics and share them.” Anybody who has brothers knows it doesn’t work like that. [laughter] CBA: Well, that was a wise decision. Were you competitive and collaborative?

Mike: I don’t know that it was really competitive. It really seemed to work real well because we didn’t step on each other’s toes. We worked out whose was whose. Even when we were getting outside of comics, just reading books, we did the same thing. My middle brother was into high fantasy—Lord of the Rings, that kind of stuff—and horror. My youngest brother was into Edgar Rice Burroughs and some science-fiction. And I was into Michael Moorcock and Robert E. Howard, those kinds of guys. Also, Doc Savage. At that point, we really weren’t reading what the other guy was reading. We kind of shared that Marvel universe, but when we got into literature, we all got going in our different directions.

It was very weird. But, the nice thing about it is, we were exposed to a lot of stuff we didn’t actually read, so it worked out well.

CBA: Were you drawing comics as a kid?

Mike: Never. I always wanted to draw monsters. I did go through a super-hero phase, when I was real young, wanting to draw that stuff, but I never really thought about drawing comics. I just wanted to draw monsters, especially when I got into Robert E. Howard and Michael Moorcock, that kind of fantasy stuff. The idea of actually drawing comics wasn’t really in the forefront of my mind. It wasn’t until I was in art school when I started thinking about, “Well, okay, you want to draw monsters? Where the hell are you going to get a job drawing monsters?”

Then it became, “Comics is where I would have to go.” By that time, I had stopped reading comics.

I’d gotten some distance from them. So, by the time I started looking at comics as a profession, it was like going back to something that had become a little bit more alien. I didn’t think I could draw comics, draw well enough, and to a certain extent, I was lazy. I’d never tried drawing comic pages, and rather than learn, I just said, “Oh, I can’t do that, so I’ll be an inker.” Because I was doing illustration-type work, and I thought maybe, somewhere down the line, I can parlay that into doing covers. By then, The Studio book had come out, and I was looking at Kaluta, Wrightson and those kind of guys, who had done comics and then spring-boarded off into portfolios. I thought, “Ahh, now, that sounds good.” I liked the idea of doing posters, portfolios, stuff like that. And if I could just weasel my way into the comics business, and if I’m around long enough, maybe I can

veer off in these other directions.

CBA: Were you exposed to H.P. Lovecraft when you were reading the Robert E. Howard Weird Tales stuff?

Mike: It was probably in reading articles about the old pulps when I discovered Lovecraft. I picked up some of the paperbacks somewhere between high school and art school, when we were spending a lot of time in Berkeley searching the used bookstores. That’s when I really started buying up Lovecraft and the other pulp writers.

CBA: Was the progression first Robert E. Howard, then Lin Carter, then H.P.L.?

Mike: I don’t know that I was ever into Lin Carter, but the Howard stuff was my entrance into the whole Weird Tales/pulp magazine reprint stuff.

CBA: Specifically Conan?

Mike: Yeah, Conan was where it started because I had the comic book connection. And, actually, that’s how I got into Michael Moorcock, because there was those couple of issues of Conan where he met Elric [#14 & 15]. I remember thinking, “That’s pretty cool,” and then DAW Books was putting out the Elric paperbacks around that time, and I grabbed those up, and that’s where I started my huge Moorcock obsession that went through high school, and the Howard stuff led me into the other Weird Tales stuff.

CBA: When I was about 16, I went through a big Moorcock obsession. As I look back at it, the appeal seems to be that not only was the material sophisticated but Moorcock also had this intense, enormous continuity, especially through the Eternal Champion incarnations. Was that an appeal for you?

Mike: Yeah, that and the doomed hero. There are a lot of elements in Hellboy where people say, “What about this? What about that?”

And I say, “That’s because I read a lot of Michael Moorcock in high school.” [laughter] There were so many things about the Moorcock stuff that were appealing. It was very exotic from a picture-making standpoint, there was just so much fantastic imagery.

CBA: Did you appreciate that Behold the Man and Alien Heat were sophisticated, more adult than Howard’s work?

Mike: Yeah, I remember that whole Dancers at the End of Time cycle of books, and of all the Moorcock material, those I do plan to go back and reread. That stuff I just loved. There’s bits of that imagery still in the forefront of my brain, that I’m dealing with in my own work, or plan to deal with. It made a big impression.

CBA: Starting with a pulp sensibility and then moving into more mature realms?

Mike: Right. It’s taking the simplistic barbarian material—and again, the Howard stuff was very well done—and going to places I wouldn’t say are more mature, but more sophisticated. The Lovecraft mythos is certainly a much more complicated world than, say, Conan’s world.

And while I was never an obsessive Lovecraft fan, there was imagery and a universe in the Lovecraft stuff that really appealed to me. The same with the Moorcock stuff.

CBA: As purple as Lovecraft’s prose is, some of the imagery is simply awesome, such as in “Call of Cthulhu,” with this huge, squidheaded creature, sitting on this giant throne. It’s just… astonishing.

Mike: Yeah, what you got in Lovecraft, and actually with a lot of the fantasy guys, is this amazing glimpse of this world, this universe, that is so much bigger and so much more horrifying, you can’t describe it. With Conan, you walk into a room and there’s a guy with an elephant head. And you go, “Oh, that’s pretty cool.” But the Lovecraft stuff, it’s a glimpse of this gigantic other thing, this other world, at which point then Lovecraft would immediately back off from. “Oh, if I described it, my readers would go insane.”

CBA: Right. [laughter] “The indescribable horror.”

Mike: That was very appealing to me, that… “What the hell is that?”

CBA: The nameless terror beyond time.

Mike: Yeah, that kind of stuff, the thing crouching at the threshold of our world. That was very appealing to me. And, obviously, I picked up on that stuff in Hellboy.

CBA: Obviously, you’re an art student who wanted to draw monsters. What kind of monsters?

Mike: Around this same time, and I don’t know exactly where it came from, but I developed this real interest in folklore, and I remember reading lots and lots of books of lots and lots of different folklore COMIC BOOK ARTIST 23

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from all over the world, and saying, “Ooh, I’d like to draw that guy.

Ooh, I’d like to draw this guy.” You know, this Tibetan blah-blah, whatever it was… any of those kinds creatures where you had the head of one thing and body of something else. I just loved that kind of stuff. So there was this mental list of all these characters I wanted to draw one of these days. And, again, that’s where Hellboy came from. That’s why you have characters like Baba Yaga showing up, because from the moment I heard about this Russian witch that flew around in a mortar and pestle, I said, “Wow! That’s good! I want to draw things like that.”

CBA: So the more esoteric, the better?

Mike: I don’t know if “esoteric” is the right word, but certainly the more unusual....

Well, I loved Dracula, it wasn’t just that I wanted to draw the Universal Monsters; I wanted to read about stuff I’d never heard of before.

CBA: Were your brothers creative? Did they draw?

Mike: They drew a little, but they became writers. I would be the artist.

CBA: You were frequenting Berkeley, which had the Berkeley Con in the Bay area, with San Francisco just next door. That city is renowned as the birthplace of underground comix. Were you exposed to that alternative kind of material?

Mike: I was aware of its existence, but it didn’t appeal to me at the time. I was still a kid who was reading super-hero comics, so my interest into conventions was what I was reading at the height of my Marvel period. So the underground stuff didn’t appeal to me. I remember Star*Reach was a big deal. I was probably a senior in high school when that happened, and I was really into that stuff. But that’s as close as I ever got to underground comix.

CBA: Did you stay away from provocative material? It wasn’t necessarily appealing to you? As a kid, you could learn a lot (not that it was all good) from the undergrounds and it could blow your mind.

Mike: Yeah, and it has since, but it just never really appealed to me then.

CBA: Did you have a very ordered sense of your universe at the time? Was it very calculated that you would pursue this or that, or were you very liberal, just grabbing stuff left and right, writing and art and illustration….

Mike: I was all over the map. I went through this thing where I wanted to be Frazetta. The great thing about it being the ’70s— and especially being in a place like Berkeley, having all the access to all the bookstores and things—there was so much fantasy artwork coming out around that period. The Brian Froud/Alan Lee Faeries book came out, there was a lot of reprints of old fantasy illustration, so I was eating that stuff up. I wanted to be Arthur Rackham, I wanted to be Brian Froud, I wanted to be Frank Frazetta. I was exposed to a lot. So, in a way, much of that period was just trying to assimilate all these different things. I was struggling to find out who I wanted to be as an artist. Do I want to be this guy or do I want to be that guy? I think I settled on a combination of a lot of different guys.

CBA: Star*Reach publisher Mike Friedrich was in Berkeley. Did you seek him out?

Mike: Not until much, much later, when I actually ended up doing some of the Michael Moorcock comics. I’m sure I met him once I started working as a professional, but as a fan, I didn’t know him.

CBA: When you got to art school, did you just ignore comics?

Mike: It was probably around my senior year of high school when I lost interest in comics.

CBA: What year did you graduate?

Mike: I graduated high school in ’78.

CBA: That was a pretty dry time for comics anyway, right?

Mike: I don’t remember specifics real well, but I remember that real interest in Starlin’s Warlock. I don’t know that there was anything that grabbed me like that December 2002

COMIC BOOK ARTIST 23

Left: To give you an idea of Mignola’s technique, here’s a halftone reproduction of Mike’s cover art for this issue. Courtesy of the artist. ©2002 Mike Mignola.

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Above: Two very early fan drawings by Mignola, snagged from the Internet. ©2002 Mike Mignola.

Below: An artist in search of a style. For a time, fan artist Mike Mignola was a frequent contributor to The Comic Reader. These back covers appeared in full color on TCR #184, 189, 190, 193, and 206, respectively. Warlock, Baron Zemo, Bucky, Captain America, and Master of Kung Fu ©2002 Marvel Characters, Inc. Aquaman and Batman ©2002 DC Comics.

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afterwards. So I wasn’t looking at comics much, I became obsessed with illustration. I went to this junior college for two years where I did a lot of painting, drawing, and trying to assimilate all these different artists I liked and come up with my own thing. I had the A Look Back book, so I was trying to be Bernie Wrightson. I went through this two-year period where I wanted to be somebody else every day, and learned a lot. I wanted to be Alex Niño for about three days.

Everything I was looking at, I wanted to be, and I was copying a lot and trying to do different things. I wanted to be Vaughn Bodé.

They’re styles that you just think are so radically different from each other, how could you assimilate all that stuff?

CBA: Were you exposed to Heavy Metal? Did you start buying the more sophisticated European work?

Mike: Yeah, the early Heavy Metals I did see. I discovered Bodé’s Cheech Wizard when I was in Berkeley, and that was the one underground that really appealed to me, because I liked the artwork so much. And Heavy Metal was more that middle-ground/Star*Reach kind of material.

CBA: Did you read any humor?

Mike: Not really. My brother picked up Plop! That was one of the few concessions to DC. It was different. It had nothing to do with those Earth-Twos and Threes and stuff like that. It was just a humor book. But I don’t remember any other humor stuff that we picked up.

CBA: Well, there is a degree of humor in your work. It never seems to take itself 100% seriously.

Mike: There’s a lot of reasons for that. The humor comics that I was exposed to, I usually didn’t think were very funny. Especially nowadays, I really think humor comics are not funny, because they tend to be overstated. But comic book humor… you know, the nudge-nudge, wink-wink, we-get-the-gags-because-we’re-comicspeople… man, that stuff is just not appealing to me at all. But, you know, my brothers were funny, I had good friends who were funny, so we tended to look at things in kind of a humorous way.

CBA: And would you say Scatterbrain is an exception to the nudge-nudge approach? Did you enjoy the contents of that?

Mike: Yeah. It was much more peculiar. It was guys doing what they like to do and not trying to manufacture “comic book humor.”

When I talk about “comic book humor,” I’m talking about those…

CBA: Not Brand Ecch?

Mike: Actually, I did see that when I was a kid. But, yeah, that kind of stuff done badly isn’t very funny. All those endless retreads of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles kind of thing… I never thought that stuff was funny at all.

CBA: Did you have any exposure to Harvey Kurtzman’s Mad comics?

Mike: Very little, though they would be reprinted periodically. I was never really a big Mad magazine guy. It wasn’t a huge thing, growing up.

CBA: Did you get into comic strip artists at all, at any particular time?

Mike: Not really.

CBA: You use a lot of black ink in your work, and it’s almost natural to think there’s some kind of connection to Toth and those newspaper strip artists. The use of so much black is labor-intensive. Most artists didn’t bother. Jack Kirby really didn’t use blacks.

Mike: I got a lot of that from Frazetta. I was trying to be Frank Frazetta, studying him, and I remember going to one of those Berkeley conventions… actually, in San Francisco, and meeting Jim Steranko, who said, “Add some black to your work.” Because I was into Frazetta for the subject matter at that point, I wasn’t really analyzing his technique. And there was another artist at the same show named Rick Bryant, and he sat down with me. It was one of those great moments. You know, guys like Steranko will give you a couple of minutes, but Rick Bryant, who had nothing to do, sat down with me and went over my stuff really intensely, and was just pointing out what was strong about it, what was weak about it, and he was saying, “Add shadows, it will make your work stronger.” So I went back and looked at Frazetta with a whole new agenda. Why is Frazetta’s stuff so solid and so strong? Why do those figures feel like they’re really rooted to the ground? It all came down to the amount of black.

Or, in his case, he was painting, but it was still these dark shapes and masses and things. I just started adding black that day, and the rest is history. I also discovered it was a good way to cover up things that you didn’t know how to draw or didn’t want to draw [laughter], and it worked out real well.

CBA: Do you literally use a lot of ink? Let’s say compared to your friend Arthur Adams, do you go through more ink than he?

Mike: Yeah! Well, for a lot of reasons. I also use a lot more paper than he does. [laughter] I do use a lot of ink. More all the time. Frank Miller and I used to kid about who uses more ink. Frank uses a lot more than I, but I do use a lot.

CBA: Is there a point where you’re going to start using just black sheets and opaque? [laughs] Mike: I don’t think so. In some of the books that have come out this summer, I’ve actually done things where I’ve had just gigantic black panels. It’s like, well, in this panel it’s the universe responding with silence, so it would be a gigantic black panel. [laughter] That’s as far as I can see pushing something like that.

CBA: You mentioned Frank Frazetta, Steranko, Rick Bryant… they’re guys whose output is only partially comics. Frazetta and Steranko are also painters (I don’t know about Rick). Steranko has a lot of experience as a graphic designer. Is that one of the things that you responded well to these guys, that they had more a commercial outlook, not just comics?

Mike: Well, I don’t know if that was it, specifically. With Frazetta, it was certainly the subject matter: Guys with swords, fighting monsters.

And then learning to appreciate different aspects of his work as I got older. I remember when Steranko was doing comics, it was really interesting. But the time that I met him, I don’t think I was thinking much more sophisticated than that. I wasn’t going, “Hey, Steranko’s doing this and this.” Actually, I take that back. About the time I really started thinking about going into comics, Steranko may have been a guy I was looking at as a guy who, like Wrightson, Kaluta, and those other guys, did a certain amount of comics and then went off into other things. So, yeah, I may have been thinking about that element.

I certainly never thought I’d end up in comics as long as I have been in comics. A lot of it was the guys I was exposed to, and the guys who were willing to talk to me. So I was desperate to get into this field somehow to do some things. I had—and have—no skills at all beyond drawing. So I was going to these shows and was desperate,

COMIC BOOK ARTIST 23

December 2002

talking to guys about how can I get into this thing. How can I get my work good enough to so I could get into that world?

CBA: Again, it was comics as a spring-board. You didn’t necessarily have a desire to do super-heroes?

Mike: No, not really. I didn’t think I could.

CBA: Why? Your anatomy wasn’t up to par?

Mike: I don’t think it was. I wasn’t looking at super-hero guys. I remember when I did start drawing super-heroes, I could never quite figure out how to get a super-hero costume onto the kind of figures I drew. Y’know, they have those little tiny waists, and I was giving them that big Michelangelo lump of meat on the hips. How does a super-hero belt fit over something like that? So it was very odd.

Certain guys like Jim Starlin have this wonderful stylized way of drawing that seemed completely geared toward doing super-hero comics.

And I hadn’t evolved that kind of stylization, so it was an awkward thing.

CBA: When you were in high school, did you have like-minded friends?

Mike: No. I think there was one guy I met that read comics, but, for the most part, no. I had my two brothers. So that was our little private world of comics, fantasy literature, and stuff like that, but that didn’t carry over into the people I knew at school.

CBA: When did you meet Arthur Adams?

Mike: Probably in art school. I met him at a convention.

CBA: Did you hit it off?

Mike: Yeah. We were in a very similar position: He wanted to do comics and I wanted to do comics. He was certainly much more directed to drawing comics. I remember he always had sample pages and paintings of Wolverine, things like that. If I was actually setting up at the conventions as a guest, then I had weird little fantasy drawings and things to show. So I wasn’t as directed toward breaking in. I was doing my weird little stuff and figuring I’d somehow get in as an inker.

CBA: So you didn’t look at Arthur’s efforts and say, “Ooh, I’d better catch up to him?”

Mike: No. He was dead set on doing what he was going to do, and I had a different agenda. I was aware of Arthur for a certain amount of time, but I don’t remember at what point we really became friends.

He was a guy trying to break into comics, and I knew about him. But we didn’t sit there and say, “Oh, you’re doing Wolverine sample pages? I’m gonna do Wolverine sample pages!” I certainly didn’t do that kind of thing.

CBA: But you guys did become closer over time?

Mike: Yeah. That period is like a blur to me. I don’t remember the time sequence, really, but I got out of junior college, came back and went to art school, went to New York, and I think it was after I came back from New York and I was starting to do inking work when we actually became better friends. When he moved out of his parents’ house, he moved to the same apartment complex that I was living in, as was Steve Purcell.

CBA: So you broke in first?

Mike: Yes, I did, as an inker. I went to New York, and I remember Arthur’s samples floating around while I was there. But when he broke in, he stayed. When I broke in as an inker, I had a tenuous grasp on the business. I was barely working when I moved back from New York after about six months, and I’d just kind of gotten an inking career going. But being a really bad inker, when I moved back to California, the inking career evaporated. By then, Arthur was a functioning professional, and my career was really floundering.

CBA: Arthur was a bombshell on the scene. New talent was also coming in from alternative comics, the Hernandez brothers, Dave Stevens. Did you think, oh wow, this guy’s hit it…?

Mike: I don’t know. You know, I think I was probably too close to it because I was around… I knew him before Longshot, knew him while he was doing Longshot, so I just don’t think I was looking at it like that. I think I was obsessed with trying to find work at the time, so I wasn’t looking at it in those terms.

CBA: So it really wasn’t competitive?

Mike: No, not really. He always had a different thing that he was going to do than I. He was going to do super-hero comics, and I never had any interest in them. So there was never any competition.

We were never trying out for the same job.

December 2002

COMIC BOOK ARTIST 23

CBA: Arthur was satisfied doing comics, and you were looking at this as one career move in a series that was going to take place, not necessarily all in comics?

Mike: Yeah. I never really wanted to draw comics. I wanted to be in that business, I liked the business, I liked the people I met in the business, but I never really wanted to draw comics.

CBA: Out of your own preferences, were you just specifically looking for work at Marvel?

Mike: I wanted to be at Marvel because those characters were the ones I was familiar with. At the Bay area conventions, Marvel sent editors out and I would meet them. The artists I knew in the Bay area were working for Marvel. I didn’t really know anybody who was doing anything for DC. And I didn’t know anything about DC comics, so it just made sense that I would go to Marvel. And there was actually a woman I knew from the Berkeley area who went to work at Marvel in some capacity. I don’t remember what she was doing there, but she

Above: Sporting an obvious Bernie Wrightson influence, this print by Mike Mignola appeared in 1987.

Courtesy of the artist. ©2002 Mike Mignola.

Below: Rocket Raccoon flanked by his compadres, Blackjack O’Hare (left) and Wal Rus in a panel detail

by Mike Mignola (pencils) and Al Gordon (inks), from Rocket Raccoon #4 (Aug. 1985). ©2002 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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Above: Penciler Mike Mignola and inker Al Gordon’s quartet of covers from the 1985 Rocket Raccoon mini-series, scripted by Mike’s frequent 1980s writing partner, Bill Mantlo. ©2002 Marvel Characters, Inc.

Above: Yeah, yeah, so maybe some of you might have seen this, an Art Adams and Mike Mignola collaboration for the cover of The Telegraph Wire (1985) featuring their respective heroes, Longshot and Rocket Raccoon, in CBA #17, but ain’t it pretty enough to show again? Longshot, Rocket Raccoon ©2002 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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actually took my samples to Marvel and she showed them to people, so there were a lot of reasons to lean toward Marvel. And the connections were all made with people at Marvel.

CBA: And Marvel was really happening at the time, too, right?

Mike: Yeah. Again, DC was just this other company that I knew nothing about. It wasn’t actually until the inking work was going very slowly at Marvel, when I did go up to DC once with inking samples, and got a pretty lukewarm response. So it just never clicked after that.

CBA: On your initial pitch to Marvel, was it inking assignments you wanted?

Mike: Yeah. I’d inked a John Byrne convention sketch, and that was the only sample I had of my inking other people. My portfolio included covers by me of John Carter of Mars and some Conan pieces, things like that. They were just pin-ups, or my spin on published covers. So when I would go in to talk to these editors, they’d say, “Well, what do you want to do? I don’t see any pages here.” I’d say, “I’m not trying to draw comics. This is what I do, but I’d like to get a job inking other people.” There were people early on who said, “Well, why don’t you draw sample pages?” I said, “I can’t do that. I just

want inking work.” It was Al Milgrom specifically who gave me my break. Al was great. He spent a lot of time with me trying to get me to figure out how to do certain things, and he gave me my first inking assignment. Before I moved to New York, I inked five pages of Don Perlin, and just butchered them. I just didn’t have any idea what I was doing. Then I flew to New York, and that job put Al in a weird spot, because he had talked about me inking Butch Guice on Micronauts, and then I inked these five pages, and he must have said, “Oops! This ain’t going to work.” But I was in New York, so I think there might have been some guilt on his part. There just wasn’t any work, because the only thing I’d done, I’d done such a bad job on. But I hung around the offices. I did ink one Butch Guice Micronauts pin-up, but I don’t know if it was ever published. I don’t think I did a very good job. But at the time, up at Marvel, they were doing a lot of stuff, and they needed a lot of help. So just the fact that I was around, eventually I got inking work. And since I was living in the area and I could come up to the office at a moment’s notice, as long as I could do that, I was kept busy.

I lived in New York for about six months, specifically to break into comics. I had never been to New York before, I just knew that’s where Marvel Comics was, I knew the minute I got out of school that that was where I was going to go. I met a guy in art school who was planning to go to New York, and he’d supposedly been there before and supposedly knew people, so I immediately grabbed onto this guy like he was a life jacket. “I’m going where you’re going! Take me with you!” And I went there and it turned out he didn’t really know anybody, and was kind of nuts. So I was stuck in New York, getting there on a one-way ticket, and I thought, “Oh, what am I going to do?” I wasn’t getting work and didn’t have that much money, and it was a pretty scary couple of months. I ended up running into Luke McDonnell, who was penciling Iron Man at the time, and I knew his twin brother. That’s how I recognized him, by knowing his twin brother in San Francisco. So Luke ended up inviting me to live in this house in Yorktown Heights. That saved my life, because I was living in a crappy residence/hotel room that wasn’t far from Marvel, wasn’t getting any work, the traveler’s checks were going quick, and I was, like, “I’m gonna die here!” Then I moved into this house, which gave me a lot more breathing room. This gave me exposure to a guy who was actually drawing comics. Every time Luke would go in to Marvel—I think once a week—I’d go in with him, so I got to know the editors through him, and then eventually picked up inking work.

CBA: Was this the second going around or the first?

Mike: This was the first trip to New York.

CBA: Did you see Luke in the offices or on the street?

Mike: It was such a horrible day. I don’t know if it was the worst day of my life, but it was right up there. I’d been in New York, I hadn’t gotten any work. I’d done those five pages of Defenders which were just god-awful, and I was living in this residence/hotel around the corner from Marvel. I remember going in that day to Marvel, and Ann Nocenti gave me this Micronauts pin-up to ink. I didn’t even have a drawing table, I was going to have to go out and buy a drawing table to do this one sample pin-up thing. And I said, “When do you need it?” She said, “Take your time, because if you turn in another job like that Defenders job…” And she left it hanging like that.

CBA: [laughter] Take your time.

Mike: I didn’t wet my pants, but I was that close. I was, like, “Holy sh*t, I’m just so screwed. This is not working.” And I went outside, it was raining and miserable and gloomy.... It can’t have really happened this way, but the way I remember it is it was that day, I walked onto the street and I ran into Luke McDonnell, who took me out to lunch and said, “I’ve got this house I’m living in and it’s $90 a month.

If you want this extra room…” And I went that afternoon and lived there. That couldn’t have happened, because I did ink that pin-up before I moved up to Yorktown Heights, but I’ve condensed the whole experience so that it all took place in one day. It certainly felt that way! You’re done, you’re finished, you’re screwed, you’re gonna die here, and then Luke just plucked me away and took me to this nice old house!

CBA: But you recognized him by his brother, right?

Mike: I guess I’d actually met him once. I knew Pete McDonnell, COMIC BOOK ARTIST 23

December 2002

who lived in San Francisco, and Luke had visited once, so I met him. But that’s certainly how I recognized him, from his brother.

CBA: What did you do with the job?

Mike: I inked it and I don’t think I did a very good job. I don’t think I’ve ever seen it published. It was just horrible.

CBA: But you tried, right?

Mike: I tried. I tried. The thing is, I had no skills. There was nothing I could do. And that’s what made this whole experience so scary. I thought I was just going to go break into the comics business. I didn’t think I was great, but I thought, “Well, I’m good enough to be an inker.”

And then to find out that I couldn’t be an inker was not good. I thought “I’ll be an inker,” and suddenly, “Oh sh*t! What if I can’t be an inker? What am I gonna do then?” And so the inking career actually did finally crap out when I moved back to California, and I was in that position of, “What the hell am I gonna do?” I met Al Milgrom again, this time at a San Diego convention, and he was just sitting there and said, “Well, are you ready to try penciling now?” I think Al always thought, “Well, if this guy applies himself, he could actually draw this material.” In Marvel Fanfare once, he actually said that as an inker, I make a good penciler. Which I guess was his way of saying, “You were really sh*tty as an inker.” [laughter] CBA: But being nice?

Mike: But having no choice! He said, “Do it for Marvel Fanfare.” I said, “Ooookay.” What else was I going to do? By having no option, that’s what it took for me to draw comics.

CBA: Did Allen really see something there, or was he being nice?

Mike: I don’t know. There must have been some naive appeal to the pin-up kind of shots that I had in my portfolio. I don’t know what he saw there.

CBA: But it was obviously gratuitous, right, otherwise you probably would never have been in the field?

Mike: Yeah. I think, like so many other people, if there was something else I could do, if I was working in a grocery store, I could say, “This comics business isn’t working out, so I will just put all my energy into working at a grocery store.” But I really didn’t do anything else. All I did was draw. And for years, at this point, all I wanted to do was break into the comics field. So, I had to try penciling. It wasn’t the Art Adams kind of experience of walking in and people going, “Hey, this guy’s great, let’s give him a job. Give him X-Men if he wants!” Mine was more of a slow crawl up through the business.

CBA: “Uh-oh, he’s back again.”

Mike: Well, it wasn’t even that! I did Marvel Fanfare, and they must have thought, “Okay, we kind of like this guy’s stuff, so what are we gonna give him? Well, we’ve got this Vision and the Scarlet Witch stuff.” And that didn’t turn out very good. “Well, how about this Rocket Raccoon thing?” Nobody really knew what to do with me, and I was just trying to figure out what I was doing, so I was lucky to get anything. And Rocket Raccoon wasn’t super-heroes, and obviously I was not suited to do super-heroes. A funny animal book?

Maybe I could do that. From there, I got The Incredible Hulk. “Well, it’s not really a super-hero thing, it’s kind of monsters, and Mike does this mushy monsters kind of thing, so we’ll give him a monster book.” And then it was Alpha Flight where it was just, like, “Aaaahh!

I don’t want to wake up in the morning because my life stinks so much. I’m drawing Alpha Flight, but I don’t know what the hell I’m December 2002

COMIC BOOK ARTIST 23

doing.”

CBA: Backing up just a little bit, where’d you go to art school?

Mike: I went to the California College of Arts and Crafts.

CBA: How was your experience there?

Mike: If I had it to do over again, I would do it differently.

After high school, I went to the junior college for two years. Then I moved back home and went to art school. I went in as an Illustration major. And the College of Arts and Crafts is a pretty good general Fine Arts school, not a great Illustration school.

CBA: Where was it located?

Mike: It’s in Oakland. So I could live at home. I went to art school where I met Steve Purcell, who did it right. He went in as a general Fine Arts major, and at the end of his years there, he took a few illustration classes.

Me, I went through the whole Illustration program, which meant I didn’t do enough painting, didn’t do enough drawing, I took some anatomy and some life drawing classes, but that wasn’t the focus of my education. And, unfortunately, the illustration department there was gearing you toward working in an illustration studio in San Francisco. I remember teachers saying, “Well, there’s no point to doing color in class, because you’re in the San Francisco Bay area, and you’re not going to be one of the big illustrators, so you’ll end up doing these crappy little newspaper ads.” They were setting you up to do really menial stuff. “Oh, what’s the point of deluding you kids that you’re ever going to amount to anything? So we’ll give you a portfolio full of ink drawings of state birds and flowers.” It was really a pretty grim experience.

CBA: Did you take advantage of the situation in California, at the time, about having the state pay for higher education?

Mike: No. I had a student loan.

CBA: Were your parents supportive of you going to art school?

Mike: Actually, I don’t know if my father insisted, but he was the person who said, “Go to art school,” after having gone to the junior college for a couple of years.

CBA: What did you take at junior college?

Mike: A little bit of everything. I don’t know that I was going in gearing for college or whatever it was, I don’t remember much about that period of my life (and that isn’t because of drugs or anything; I just have a sh*tty memory). But my uncle taught in the art department, so I did a lot in the art department. I took oil painting, watercolor, and did a lot of different stuff. After this, my roommate and I were going to move somewhere in the Midwest. I don’t remember why, I think he had relatives there and we were just going to try to be

Inset left: While Mike Mignola did the bulk of his cover work for Marvel in the ’80s, his series on X-Men Classic from 1991-92 were stunners. This cover art to #64 appears courtesy of the artist. ©2002 Marvel Characters, Inc.

Below: The artist began flexing his artistic chops on The Chronicles of Corum mini-series published by First Comics in 1987. This cover detail by Mike Mignola is from #5 (Sept.). Art ©2002 First Comics, Inc., and Star*Reach Productions.

Corum ©2002 Michael Moorcock.

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Above: By the late 1980s, Mike Mignola’s artistic abilities were improving in leaps and bounds and, for a time, particularly effective when inked by the sensitive pen of P. Craig Russell. A prime Mignola/Russell collaboration was The Phantom Stranger four-issue mini-series of 1987. Here’s a detail of their cover to the first issue. ©2002 DC Comics.

Inset right: Perhaps the artist’s greatest creative breakthrough took place while penciling Jim Starlin’s scripts on the Cosmic Odyssey mini-series of 1988, when Mike Mignola was surrounded by Jack Kirby artwork during Mike’s tenure on the book. In studying the King’s technique for such a lengthy period, Mike took his artistic approach to an entirely new level.

This detail is from the first issue’s cover as penciled by Mike and inked by Carlos Garzon. ©2002 DC Comics.

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illustrators. At the time (and I don’t know if they still do them), there was the Artists Market or Illustrators Market, whatever it was, where they would just list all the magazines using illustrators. So that was what we were going to do: We were going to live someplace in the Midwest and we were going to just submit illustrations to all these different magazines. When my dad heard that plan, he suggested, “Or you could stay home, go to the art school near us, and you could get a teaching credential.” Because that was a big thing. “Well, you’ll probably never make it as an artist, but get a teaching credential and I won’t have to worry about you starving.”

CBA: Is your father a pragmatic guy?

Mike: Yeah. He’s a very regular working stiff.

He’s a cabinet maker, and he didn’t really understand his three sons. At that point, one son was going to be an actor, one son was going to be a writer, and one son was going to be an artist. He was, like, “Why couldn’t I have gotten an electrician?” [laughter] CBA: You could help around the house. [laughter] Mike: Yeah, he was remodeling the whole house. “Why didn’t I get a kid who wanted to work with bricks? Somebody I could put to work on Saturday morning building the driveway?” But he got these Berkeley art kids. He couldn’t understand.

CBA: Was your mother artistic at all?

Mike: She died when I was really young, but I understand that she did do some painting. But I’ve never seen any work she did.

CBA: Was your father single or did he remarry?

Mike: He was single.

CBA: Were you a latchkey kid?

Mike: Yeah. My brothers and I kind of took care of ourselves. When my mother died, we had live-in housekeepers for a while, but little by little we ended up just taking care of ourselves.

CBA: How old were you when she passed away?

Mike: I was seven.

CBA: Was it a profound experience? I would assume it was.

Mike: It must have been.

Certainly, it shaped a lot of stuff, but it was just my reality. I didn’t have a lot of friends outside of my immediate family, so I don’t think I saw what the other families were like, so much. It was just the reality that my brothers and I lived with, and we had very little to compare it to. So it seemed normal to us.

CBA: You and your brothers weren’t any trouble for your father?

Mike: No, we were good kids. A couple of little shoplifting incidents. Getting caught once solved that problem.

CBA: It wasn’t comics you were stealing, was it?

Mike: Yeah, I got caught shoplifting comics. [laughter] I was falling in with the wrong crowd in high school. One of my brothers lifted a pack of gum and got caught. Getting caught once doing that was enough to say, “Well, I don’t want to get in trouble anymore, I’m not going to do that.”

CBA: Crime was not the life for you.

Mike: Yeah, we were bad at it, so we weren’t going to do that. [laughter] We just hung out in bookstores and went to the movies.

That’s all we did.

CBA: When you were into illustration, were you looking at the old-time illustrators, like Flagg and Booth?

Mike: Yeah, I was looking at those guys because I was exposed to that stuff. But, again, I wasn’t looking into careers; I was looking at them as artists, so I wasn’t saying, “Ooh, I want to do what this guy’s doing.” I’d go through days where I’d be saying, “I’d kind of like to draw like that guy.”

CBA: Did you have any realization that the Golden Age of illustration had come and gone?

Mike: Oh, sure. Looking at N.C. Wyeth, I knew what he had done and that they just weren’t doing that kind of stuff anymore. I don’t know if I ever seriously thought about book illustration. In the ’70s, there was a period where there were a lot of illustrated books. With the success of the Brian Froud book, Faeries, there was a whole string of books like that. But I realized that I was a new guy, would never get that kind of a job. So I set my sights lower. I would kind of weasel my way in through the comics business. Because, again, you had guys like Mike Kaluta, Bernie Wrightson doing Frankenstein, and I thought, “Ah, geez, apparently you can weasel your way in through comics to getting this higher end stuff.” But I never had a really conscious plan. I just wanted to draw monsters.

CBA: Did you go down to San Diego?

Mike: I did go. The first year I went to San Diego must have been the last year of art school. Steve Purcell and I went down. We drove all night to get there, we checked into a hotel, walk into the convention, and I ran into Steve Leialoha, who I knew from San Francisco. Steve’s standing next to Jim Shooter, and Steve says to Shooter, “Hey, Jim, you should hire this guy.” Jim said to me, “Do you have a portfolio?” I showed him my portfolio, and he said, “Do you have a number where I could call you and send work?” I told Jim, and he said, “Okay,” and I was like, “That’s it? I’m in the comics business now?” I went back to my room and went to sleep because I hadn’t slept all night. And, of course, the work never really materialized, but that’s when the talking started.

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December 2002

CBA: Would you characterize yourself as a fatalist as a young man?

Mike: Do I give you that impression? [laughter] I guess so. I don’t know. It’s not as simple as that, because I certainly never gave up… I never gave up because I had no choice. There really was only this one thing that I could do. Certainly, at that point, I wasn’t super-optimistic. I wasn’t thinking, “I’m going to go in and set the world on fire. I’m going to do all these wonderful things.” The last time I made a really conscious goal for myself was around that time, when I said, “Well, I’ll be an inker, and maybe sometime before I die....” There’s always “before I die,” that’s always a big thing with me. “Before I die, I’ll draw somewhere, maybe in the back of Savage Sword of Conan or something, I’ll do a ten-page story, so on my deathbed I can say, ‘I did it. I drew a comic.’” And that was really the last time I made any kind of conscious goal for myself.

CBA: And then it was just riding whatever wave you were on?

Mike: Yeah, and then it was just whatever happened.

All through my career, it’s always been a case of, “Well, that sounds good.” Or “Well, that’s a job where I’d probably get to draw a monster.” And that was as much thought as I gave it.

CBA: And it’s worked for you.

Mike: It’s worked pretty well. When people ask for advice, I always say, “Hey, I’m the wrong guy to ask, because I never had any idea what I was doing.”

CBA: Your art certainly took a dramatic turn for the better at a certain point. Was that due to increased selfconfidence at the time?

Mike: Yes. It came about after my first bout at Marvel, after I did Rocket Raccoon, then I wandered off into The Hulk, and then I got transferred over to Alpha Flight. It was a horrible period when I had no idea what I was doing, and I was constantly trying to second-guess what the editors wanted, and I just thought I couldn’t do it.

And somehow, after I did Alpha Flight, I’d come up with an idea for a Sub-Mariner graphic novel. I talked about it, and it somehow turned into an Avengers graphic novel, then it was the death of the Sub-Mariner. It ballooned into something out of my control and it got axed and didn’t happen. I remember being very frustrated when that thing fell apart, because it was actually going to be a really good gig. I left, almost in a huff—not quitting, because I think I was doing a few jobs anyway—but I went to Mike Friedrich, who’d called me probably about a year before and asked me to do one of the Moorcock books. And I couldn’t do it, because I was doing a bit at Marvel. So I went back to him and said, “Listen, do you have the rights to do Corum?” Mike said, “Yeah.” I said, “Let me do that.” So suddenly I went from working at Marvel Comics, where there was always this idea that the editors knew what they wanted, to going to work for First Comics, where, certainly the experience I had, the editor had no idea what she wanted. And I was doing something that nobody had done before. I wasn’t drawing somebody else’s character (well, I was doing Moorcock’s character, but it was mine visually). So suddenly I was like, “Well, gee. Instead of having to do a Marvel Comics forest, I could draw an Arthur Rackham forest. I could design the characters, and there was a lot of creative freedom. It was great. I mean, I did a horrible job, because I had no idea what I was doing, but at least there was the sense that I was getting to invent something. I did that for a year, and when I came back from that experience, there was definitely the feeling that I was starting to figure out what I was doing. From there, I went to work for DC Comics.

I think the idea was, when they asked me to do something now, they were going to get what I give them. I’m not going in saying, “What do you want it to look like?” I’m saying, “Okay, you’re hiring me to do this. You are going to get a Mike Mignola whatever.”

CBA: So it was a year of working for First?

Mike: Working for myself is really what it felt like. So, yeah, that did make for a lot of confidence. And I was busy. I mean, I was still December 2002

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no good, but I had a lot of good projects. I did this Doctor Strange/Doctor Doom graphic novel and did a couple of mini-series for DC, and then I did this Cosmic Odyssey mini-series. It was during Cosmic Odyssey where the style started coming in. I started really figuring out what I wanted my stuff to look like.

CBA: Were you offered Cosmic Odyssey, or were you lobbying for it?

Mike: It was offered by Mike Carlin at DC. I had known Mike when he was an assistant editor, so it was almost like we grew up in this business together. It was he who got me to come to DC. I did a Phantom Stranger mini-series and a World of Krypton mini-series for him. Starlin was going to draw Cosmic Odyssey himself, and I don’t remember what happened as to why he ended up not drawing it. But when it was offered to me, I jumped, because this was the guy who

wrote Warlock, you know? And it sounded like a great way to draw a billion super-heroes. So, in a way, Cosmic Odyssey got super-heroes out of my system. It was weird, because it happened with DC and not Marvel. I mean, I grew up on Marvel super-heroes. So Cosmic Odyssey, for the most part, I didn’t know who the hell these guys were. But it was my big, giant super-hero book. And when that was over, I felt, “Well, I don’t need to draw another big, giant super-hero book. I’ve done that. I’ve drawn guys that can fire beams out of their eyes. I don’t want to make a career out of that.”

CBA: Was it Jack Kirby’s characters which were appealing to you?

And Starlin, of course?

Mike: Starlin was the main appeal. The Kirby DC stuff I didn’t really know much about. I’d never been into the New Gods or anything like that. I was aware of it, but it was, again, too alien to me. I didn’t

Above: Another watershed moment for Mike Mignola was his work on Gotham by Gaslight, a 1989 Batman “Elseworlds” type graphic novel (featuring Jack the Ripper!) written by Brian Augustyn and inked by stalwart P. Craig Russell over Mike’s pencils. This previously unpublished commission piece appears courtesy of the artist.

Art ©2002 Mike Mignola. Batman ©2002 DC Comics.

19

Above: Gary Oldman as the Prince of Darkness, Vlad the Impaler, King of the Vampires… the Count himself! A Mignola-drawn piece from the first Topps’ comic book series, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, adapting the 1992 Francis Ford Coppola film. The artist’s use of negative black space comes on fullforce in this four-issue mini-series, yet another decisive step in Mignola’s development. ©2002 Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc.

Opposite page: Effective Mignola page from Bram Stoker’s Dracula #2 featuring hapless Jonathan Harker (as played by Keanu Reeves) being feasted on by the vampire brides of the malevolent count. Fellow TwoMorrow’s editor Roy Thomas scripted the miniseries, which was edited by CBA pal Jim Salicrup. ©2002 Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc.

Inset right: Courtesy of my favorite video/DVD store in the whole wide world, Campus Video of Kingston, Rhode Island (run by my pal, the able Jason Colonies), here’s the cover to Bram Stoker’s Dracula video. Mike Mignola not only drew the Topps’ comic book adaptation to the Francis Ford Coppola film, he also contributed production designs. ©2002 Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. 20

know who those guys were.

CBA: Have you ever gone back and re-educated yourself?

Mike: I’ve looked at the stuff. I’ve read The Demon. I’ve read some New Gods stuff, but I wasn’t exposed to it during those real formative years, so the hooks didn’t sink in. What did happen doing Cosmic Odyssey was I spent probably a year with Kirby art on my drawing table, because I was drawing his characters. And I learned a lot. I mean, I had an appreciation for Kirby before, growing up with Fantastic Four, and things like that. I always had this appreciation, but that was when I really started looking at his work as an artist and understanding the power of the exaggeration he was doing. I learned a lot. It wasn’t just, “Oh, Jack does this, so I’ll do this.” It was, “Wow! Jack is ballsy enough to draw a guy bent over like that. Well, you know what? That’s better than me using 32 layers of tracing paper to refine all the anatomy and make sure everything’s just so and very pretty and perfect. No, it’s better in this kind of crude, exaggerated form.”

And that’s where a lot of the exaggeration of my style came from, having Jack’s stuff in front of me.

CBA: So it was the spirit of Jack’s work you were trying to emulate?

Mike: It was the spirit of the work.

CBA: Did you perhaps, shaking your head, look at other people who were just trying to ape Jack’s style, missing the forest for the trees? I mean, a number of artists just out-and-out traced Jack’s work.

Mike: Yeah. I remember seeing that stuff when I was buying comics and when I was aware of comics and seeing Keith Giffen’s work, which I thought was ugly. It didn’t have the appeal of Jack’s art. In a way, Jack is easy to imitate, but most of the people I’ve seen imitate him, miss the point.

He’s not a guy to learn how to draw legs from, but he is a great guy to learn how to draw a fight scene from. To capture the power of Kirby without getting caught up in the weird stylistic quirks. It’s the same thing with Frazetta.

I’ve seen a lot of guys do beautiful imitations of Frazetta, but what you need to get to with guys like Frazetta is the solidity and the power that’s under all those surface details. And most artists only get as far as the surface details of these guys. And then that creates a style where you look at a guy and you go, “Oh, you do a nice so-and-so,” as opposed to being an artist where you go, “Wow, I don’t know where the hell that comes from, but you’ve got the same kind of power that this guy’s got or that guy’s got.”

CBA: You’re feeding off the energy?

Mike: Yeah, which is why it works. Not, “If I put these three lines together, it makes this nose.”

CBA: Perhaps you have a more well-rounded education, but you had the storytelling by reading a lot of fiction, looking at illustrators’ work also, all the while quite a number of your peers perhaps were learning from John Buscema and Gil Kane but not going further back.

Mike: Yeah, there is a lot of that.

CBA: Do you think it was an advantage having more exposure to more different fields?

Mike: Oh, definitely. And never settling on being influenced by one guy. Well, I wanted to be Frazetta, wanted to be Bernie Wrightson, but in-between I wanted to be a million different guys. So there was never a time when I said, “Man, you know what? I want to be Todd McFarlane, and I’m going to put all my energies into being Todd McFarlane, and I’ll end up being the third-best Todd McFarlane.”

I never settled on one guy for any length of time. Wrightson was big and Frazetta was big, but they were always mixed with a million other guys I wanted to be. So my head was always spinning, “Oh, I want to be Bernie Wrightson. Wait a minute… today, suddenly, Barry Smith seems like a good guy to be.”

There was that level of confusion and learning from all these different people. So when it came to working professionally, that’s when I had to make sense of all those different influences, and they all come out in different ways.

CBA: When you went through these myriad obsessions, would you literally go out and buy a chunk of their work?

Mike: Yeah! I was studying everybody and did a lot of copying.

Arthur Rackham, the Frazetta stuff, Alex Niño, almost everybody. Not the mainstream comics guys, really. I didn’t try to be John Buscema. I knew by looking at Buscema’s stuff that this guy could draw so well… that’s what I saw with John, just a guy who could really draw. It wasn’t stylized enough for me to grab onto. But Wrightson had a certain stylization, Mike Ploog had a certain stylization. Guys like Buscema and Joe Kubert, you just looked at it and said, “Ooh, there’s a comics guy who can really, really draw.” But there was no place for me to latch onto that stuff.

CBA: So they were craftsman, and perhaps you were looking for somebody who— Mike: I was probably looking for someone more illustrative.

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December 2002

CBA: You named some people who really put heart into their work—Wrightson and Ploog—the other guys are almost “Old School.” John Buscema didn’t really have an interest in comics.

He just liked to draw. But Wrightson was mired in the stuff, he loved it, and that passion came out through the work. You know, there’s very few artists for me, for a period of time between the ’80s and ’90s, who were coming out that I think were unique with a strong point of view. I would actually put Arthur Adams on that short list. He was one of the guys where I said, “Well, Adams has got a very interesting approach.” It was light on ink perhaps, but it was appropriately light. I remember first being impressed with your work with The Phantom Stranger mini-series, where I thought you were teamed with somebody very interesting, P. Craig Russell, who has an approach perhaps that’s arguably a bit similar to yours (Arthur Suydam to some degree, too), in that “Grimm’s fairy tale” point of view.

Mike: To be compared to Suydam (whose work I knew from Epic Illustrated), and Craig, whose artistry I was aware of from his “War of the Worlds” [in Amazing Adventures], is to be put in fine company. I love those guys. And it was such a thrill the first time Craig inked me, on my second Marvel Fanfare story. That was a thrill.

CBA: What story was that?

Mike: It was some Sub-Mariner story with pirates.

CBA: There was something about your work, at a certain stage, where… I guess it was Cosmic Odyssey where Kirby really came into play. It was as if you were combining that and your folklore obsession together and the result was Hellboy.

Mike: Yeah, and that’s true. Again, this was part of that having no particular direction to your career. There were periods before Cosmic Odyssey where I would kill to do Conan or some other fantasy thing. And, of course, I did the Moorcock fantasy stuff. Then, without any good direction, ending up doing a giant super-hero book. And then after I did that, I was at DC, and Karen Berger asked me to do a back-up feature in Swamp Thing. I was telling some other editor I was going to do this thing in Swamp Thing, and this person looked at me and said, “Really? But you’re such a good super-hero artist.” Which, of course, he meant as an insult, because he was a Vertigo guy. [laughter] I remember being horrified that I had become a super-hero artist. That’s when I ended up doing Batman: Gotham by Gaslight.

As I remember, that assignment came on that same day. I’m still stinging from this guy calling me a super-hero artist. They asked me, “Do you want to do Batman and Jack the Ripper?” I said, “Yes! That will get me out of that super-hero thing!” So, at that point, I did have a sense of, “I’ve got to direct myself away from super-heroes, because that’s not what I want to do.”

CBA: During those days in the ’80s, Marvel was so on top, the X-Men were everything, and it was super-heroes all around. There were some alternatives. Did you look at Vertigo—or, more correctly, the books at DC which would lead to Vertigo—as being, “Yeah, I’d like to go in that direction”?

Mike: Even the roots of Vertigo were way too hip for me. I was never going to be that hip a guy. But I think around that time I did start thinking, “Well, gee, the kind of work I’ve always been December 2002

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attracted to, the kind of literature I’ve always appreciated, is the dark, creepy, moody stuff. And if I’d made a significant foothold for myself in this business, maybe it’s time to try to attach myself to work that I have a bit more of a personal feeling for. Cosmic Odyssey was fun to do for a while.

About half of it was fun, and then it was a giant pain in the ass, because there were too many characters. It was okay, but it was a job, albeit a fun job. Then came the idea of doing work that would really suit my sensibilities a bit more. I’d been doing comics for six or seven years at that point, and it was like, “Well, I think it’s time to finally start moving in the direction of doing the work you’d like to be known for.”

CBA: Did it hit you like a bolt from the blue while you were doing Cosmic Odyssey? “Wow, I really am maturing here, there’s a real change that’s taking place.” An epiphany?

Mike: I think it really did. It wasn’t just Cosmic Odyssey. I did a couple issues of Superman also which I was happy with. Maybe those were after Cosmic Odyssey. I wish I had Xeroxes of the Cosmic Odyssey stuff, because the figures were becoming blocky, and there was more exaggeration and there was a lot more power in what I was doing. The exposure to the Kirby material was starting to become very liberating.

Unfortunately, the inker I was teamed with on Cosmic Odyssey was from the Al Williamson school, and he came in and softened the stuff, rendered and added lines. When I would draw Superman’s cape with three lines, he went in and inked it as 32 lines. So he was working against the style I was developing. That was unfortunate.

When you’re working in comics with an inker, some of your developments go unnoticed, it gets lost. So that was frustrating.

CBA: When you said that the guy said as a backhanded compliment that you’re a super-hero artist… you’re not really a pretentious guy, right?

Mike: Not really, no.

CBA: I see your work as quite unpretentious.

So you had no aversion to super-heroes per se; you just don’t want to go down that route?

Mike: I really didn’t want to be known as that kind of artist. But, again, I was never really thinking that far ahead. Cosmic Odyssey just seemed like it would be fun. It’d be fun to draw those characters. It’d be fun to work with Jim Starlin. It wasn’t until I was recognized as a super-hero artist that I thought, “Ah, maybe we should apply a little more direction to what I’m doing.” From then on, things became a bit more careful, as far as what I did.

CBA: By, say, Alpha Flight, were you contributing to the plotting?

Mike: No, I don’t believe so. Maybe there was some, “I’d like to draw this” or “I’d like to draw that.” But there was certainly no plot coming from me. On my earlier work, I was dealing with Bill Mantlo, and he had a million things he wanted to do. So I just said, “Yeah, that’s fine, whatever.”

I was just struggling to keep my head above water, just trying to be a working professional, so I wasn’t trying to give anybody any direction, because they knew what they were doing, and I was just some kid. Cosmic Odyssey was completely written by Jim, I had no input on that at all. But I think when we get to Gotham by Gaslight, I started having some input. These guys sat me down, they had the story. The editor, Mark 21

Waid, and the writer, Brian Augustyn (this might have been the first time Brian ever wrote), had this big, complex story, and I didn’t coplot at all, but I did a little bit of editing. That story did shrink a little bit, and there was a lot more of my input into that. That is the period where I started becoming more careful and being a bit more selective about what I did.

CBA: Did you start thinking of content, as well? Not only focusing on your artwork, but also beginning to focus on storytelling? Or had you been doing that all along?

Mike: The storytelling had already begun to evolve. Going back to

Above: While the artist completed the assignment for blatantly monetary reasons, the Aliens: Salvation one-shot (scribed by Brit comics guy Dave Gibbons) was a financial bust in the royalties department for Mike Mignola. This is Mike’s cover art for the 1993 trade paperback.

Courtesy of the artist. ©2002 Twentieth Century Fox, Inc. 22

when Starlin was doing Warlock, I was attracted to the way he told a story. I always had in mind certain storytelling things, but I’m not really sure when the focus on storytelling started. There was definitely a point I got to where I said, “The drawing can be less if the storytelling can be more.” Even when I was first breaking into comics, I was looking at guys like Steve Rude and Jerry Ordway, guys who could just draw beautifully. And there was a dawning recognition that I would never be able to draw like those guys. But then, at the same time, you had Frank Miller, and I started saying, “Well, this guy, he’s a good artist, but what’s interesting about his work is the storytelling.”

So fairly early on, I thought, “Well, I’m going to lean more toward that storytelling kind of artwork, where the drawing is good enough to tell the story, just telling the story with panels, not pretty pictures.”

I grew up looking at Wrightson and Kaluta, who are, for the most part, pretty picture guys. They did some nice storytelling, but primarily they were illustrative. Somewhere in that comic book evolution, I started moving away from the idea of just doing fine illustration on a page to actual sequential storytelling. The seeds of that were early with guys like Starlin, but breaking in and looking at Frank Miller when he first got started hitting his stride was when I said, “Ah, I see!

Now, there’s another way of doing this.”

CBA: There were real significant epiphanies in your life, of reapproaching what you’re doing?

Mike: Instead of having a big master plan, it seems I would just wander along, and if somebody would say something, I’d snap out of it and I would be dazed. “Oh! I don’t want to be a super-hero artist!

I’ll do this Jack the Ripper thing, I’ll do Victorian England or America,” or whatever that was, to establish something. And then I’d kind of just continue wandering for a few more years, and then something else would happen that would snap me awake. Little by little, I’d be going in a particular direction.

CBA: Would you always be reactive, or would you say, “I’m out for personal growth”?

Mike: I was pretty reactive in those days. It really wasn’t until Hellboy when I said, “Okay, now I’m ready to do something.”

Everything up until then was somebody coming up to me and saying, “Do you want to do this? Do you want to do that?” It was never, “What do I want to do?”

CBA: Just prior to Hellboy was the Dracula film adaptation?

Mike: Yeah, and that’s when things got really weird. Cosmic Odyssey was the turning point, when style starts coming in to play, and it was probably my first relatively big commercial book. Following that up with Gotham by Gaslight, also a quite commercial book, I did a Wolverine book that was commercial.... Actually, Wolverine was the first project where I had significant story input.

I was living back in New York, and as I walked down the hall at Marvel, somebody says, “Do you want to do a Wolverine annual?” I said, “No, but I want the money.” I was finally, after all these years, starting to think a little bit commercially. But not that commercial, because I said, “I’d like the money. Who’s writing it?” And they said, “Well, there’s no story.” I said, “Well, I’ll tell you what. I’ll do it if Walt Simonson writes it and it’s about Wolverine going to the Savage Land and becoming king of the cavemen.” [laughter] So I did want the money, but not enough to actually work for it. [laughter] I had a good laugh about that and went home. Then the next day, Walt called and said, “Hey, do you want to do this Wolverine thing?” I said, “Okay!” So that’s how that thing came about. But that was a good, professional chunk of time. Gotham by Gaslight and Wolverine came out the same month, or very close together. Then I was drifting around, and for about a year, I did nothing but covers. I was in New York, spending a lot of time at Marvel and DC, and I did some odds and ends. Then the Dracula book came along.

Bram Stoker’s Dracula was a weird project, because I knew movie adaptations were a nightmare—everybody I knew who had done one said they’d never do one again, I’d never heard anything good about it—but it was Dracula, my favorite book, and it was Francis Ford Coppola! I thought, “This might be a good thing.” I wasn’t floundering in my career, but was wandering from one job to the next, and this was something different. So it was one of those things that comes along and shakes you up a little bit. It wasn’t as much of a nightmare as most movie adaptations are. I was given so much access to reference. I was flown out to the set and met Coppola. Then I moved to San Francisco, near Zoetrope Pictures, so I would go up there and I would gather the reference. They called me in on a couple of things on the movie on a small consulting basis. I ended up watching the movie sitting between George Lucas and Francis Coppola. You know, I came out of that experience, like, “What the hell was that?” All this wandering in my career has led me to this, probably the strangest moment of my life, sitting between Lucas and Coppola, having to go to the bathroom, and wondering, “Do you ask the guy who made Star Wars, or the guy who made The Godfather where the bathroom is?” [laughter] I remember going COMIC BOOK ARTIST 23

December 2002

home that night thinking, I have no idea what I was going to do.

How do you top something like that? With no direction, this is where I’ve wandered.

CBA: But was it euphoric? Was it, like, “Wow! This is cool!”

Mike: It was just weird… yeah, it was great. It was so far beyond anything I had ever imagined. At the time, I think I was going to do an Aliens book, and there was a Legends of the Dark Knight story that I plotted I was real happy with, and the Dracula thing was good, and Image was going, and I just thought, “Maybe doing a creatorowned thing… maybe this is the right time.” Everything else I looked at… I could have done another Aliens book at Dark Horse, I could do another Batman project at DC, but everything I looked at was something I had done before. The only way to top that Dracula thing is to at least try doing a creator-owned project.

CBA: How many regular assignments did you have after Alpha Flight?

Mike: Corum was the last regular one. That was a bi-monthly book I did for six issues.

CBA: But that wasn’t “work” so much, right? You were dealing with one of your idols. It was a project of joy, right?

Mike: Sure, right.

CBA: The graphic novel and mini-series: Did they have set deadlines or were you able to work at your own pace?

Mike: I realized early on that I wasn’t a monthly-book guy. I’m not real good under pressure, and I was always looking for project on which I could set my own schedule. After Corum, I was looking for stuff that wouldn’t have that monthly grind pressure, so I did two mini-series at the same time for Mike Carlin. I did Phantom Stranger and World of Krypton simultaneously. He talked me into being able to do it, and I ended up doing just layouts. I did full pencils for the first issue of Phantom Stranger and the last three are layouts, which Craig Russell inked. World of Krypton was all layouts, and they didn’t turn out very good. Phantom Stranger turned out okay, and certainly that first issue that Craig inked over my full pencils was really nice, but I was working faster than I should have been and was just belting the stuff out, not really doing anything I was all that proud of. So, certainly after that experience, I said, “Well, let’s deal with one thing at a time, and do limited series kind of things, where theoretically they’ll wait until I’m done to publish it.

CBA: At one point could you see that you could start calling the shots in mainstream comics?

Mike: I don’t know. That is weird, because I don’t know when that happened. Because it seems like I was really sh*tty and struggling… well, actually, no. Even then, it just seemed like I was struggling. After I did that first really bad Sub-Mariner story for Marvel Fanfare, and did a couple half-issue things, I guess they were eventually published… The Vision and the Scarlet Witch things that were really horrible, then I did Rocket Raccoon, and from then on, I always had work. I don’t remember a time when I couldn’t find work, but certainly the idea of walking in and saying, “I want to do this, I want to do that”… came around the Cosmic Odyssey period. I remember walking in when Carl Potts, who had been my editor on The Hulk and Alpha Flight, when he took over Epic, I remember walking into his office and saying, “Let’s do Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser.” He said, “Okay.” So things certainly changed around that time.

Obviously, people liked my art enough that I could get the work, but I spent enough time in New York that I knew people well enough to just walk into their offices and talk to them. It wasn’t like I just had my reputation. I also had personal relationships with all these people, so it was a comfortable arrangement. In a lot of cases, these were the people I socialized with. I couldn’t imagine walking into the office of somebody I didn’t know and saying, “Hey, let’s do this or that.”

CBA: Were you receiving fan recognition?

Mike: I don’t think so. One compliment I got used to—at least, I took it as a compliment—was, “Wow! All my friends hate your stuff, but I tell them it’s just different.” And I go, “Well, thank you very much. If that’s the best I’m going to get, I’ll take that.” [laughter] At the same time, when I was hanging out with Art Adams and I’d be at these conventions, I would always just be “the guy sitting next to Art Adams.” He had a line of fans wrapped around the block, and I’m the guy who they dropped their backpacks on my artwork, or leaned all over my stuff, getting their Art Adams books out of plastic bags.

December 2002

COMIC BOOK ARTIST 23

But it was around that commercial period when I did Gotham by Gaslight, Wolverine, certainly that changed a little bit, but even then, that’s a weird period where they like your work because they’ll like anybody who happens to be drawing Wolverine, Batman or whatever the case may be.

CBA: At a time when a lot of artists looked the same, or really adhered to a Marvel “look,” you really didn’t have a Marvel look. As a reader, I could see that this guy Mignola had something, even if it was buried, but there was something there. Following your career, there are real watershed moments where—wow!—you really took leaps and bounds in approaches.

Mike: There are guys you look at, even in their earliest work, and

see, oh, John Byrne is this kind of guy, his earliest work has a real charm to it, a professionalism. My work certainly had none of that.

You look at stuff I did in ’82 compared to the stuff I did in ’92, and is there anything to let you know it’s the same guy? It seems like I’d been trying to find out what the hell I was doing for so many years, and the sad thing is, all the mistakes, all the false starts, all the false directions, are done in full view of the public. The biggest reason for the constant stylistic changes… not only did the fans not like it, I never liked it. It got to a point where every job I would do, I would say, “Well, that works, but this stuff doesn’t, so next time I’ll do this differently, I’ll do that differently.” One of the beauties of doing limit-

Above: Mignola cover art for the 1995 Harris comic book, The Rook. Courtesy of the artist.

The Rook ©2002 William DuBay.

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Above: Cover to Legends of the Dark Knight #54, “where Hellboy began,” says the artist. Courtesy of MM. Below and opposite bottom: Mike’s cover art during the “kill Robin” issues. ©2002 DC Comics.

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ed series and graphic novel projects is that I was able to say, “Okay, I will maintain this particular style through this project, and on the next project, I’ll try something different.” Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser was done different from Iron Wolf, which was done different from Dracula. They’re all different. It was just me trying to figure out what the hell works.

CBA: So there was a degree of luck in your career—from a chance meeting with Luke McDonnell, for instance—and because you had friends who were editors able to assign projects to work at your own pace.

You would basically learn on the job?

Mike: Oh, definitely, there’s luck from the moment I met Luke and had a place to live.

There’s a lot of happy accidents.

But also, I always conducted myself like a professional. It doesn’t seem that extraordinary

unless you look at the way much of the work is done in comics, but I always did the best I could and always tried not to leave anybody in a lurch. I tried to be very respectable to the editors. Whatever it took. I was always afraid of screwing up and being out on my ass. I was lucky to be in the industry, so I approached every job like, “If I don’t do a good job or if I don’t conduct myself well, then I’ll be out, and I have no skills, so I gotta behave myself.” [laughter] Is that luck? I was fortunate that so many of the people I hung out with were editors, but I wasn’t attaching myself to these guys in order to get work.

These are the people I ended up just being friends with. I do remember periods where there was some speculation that, “This guy gets this job because he’s having dinner with that guy.” Well, yeah, there is some truth to that, because over dinner somebody says, “Oh, I’m thinking about doing this project or that project.” “Ooh, that sounds good.” “Do you want to draw it?” “Yeah, okay.” Some of that did go on. But it wasn’t like I was having dinner with this guy in order to get that job; he just happened to be a friend of mine.

CBA: A part of professionalism is that you can be depended upon, to remain loyal to people you’re working for, get the job in on time, that there is no question that you’re dependable. You get rewarded for good work. That’s merit.

Mike: Again, I could be friends with these guys, but I’d like to think that if I couldn’t do it, I wouldn’t have gotten the job. It’s just the way it worked out.

CBA: What was the income situation like in the ’80s for you? Was it a struggle?

Mike: Certainly at first. The inking career bit was not particularly lucrative. I was living in some little house upstate with a bunch of different people, so it didn’t cost much. Then I went back to California, lived at home and was making okay money. Then the inking career fell apart, so I started drawing. I moved out of my dad’s house and into an inexpensive apartment. I always could make a living, I was always working. I’ve always worked seven days a week. It was interesting to live in the same building as Art Adams and Steve Purcell. I was the guy who was always working. Steve actually had a social life, and nobody knew what the hell Arthur Adams did. [laughter] People have asked for years, “What does he do?” I have no idea. I was the guy at the end of the evening, if we went out for pizza, went to the movies, whatever, everybody would go in their separate directions, and I would go home and I would just go back to work. And that’s all I ever did. All I’ve ever done is work.

CBA: Do you have a family now?

Mike: Yeah, I’m married and we have an eight-year-old daughter.

CBA: Were you responsible for childcare, or were you and your wife both home?

Mike: We move a lot. We were in New York when Katie was born.

My wife quit her job to stay home and raise the child. At that point, we moved to Portland, Oregon, and my wife stayed home, took care of this baby, and for that few years I did nothing but work.

CBA: Is it working eight hours a day?

Mike: It’s working from the time I get up until the time I go to bed, with various interruptions. But it’s the only thing I do.

CBA: Are you able to work right now, when you’re on the phone?

Mike: No, I’m actually pacing right now. But, yeah, there was a period in my life where I woke up every morning and I was like, “Oh, sh*t. I’ve got to sit at the drawing table all day.” I loved drawing, but there were days where I dreaded getting up and having to draw all day. Now there’s so much other crap I have to do, that when I wake up in the morning and I think, “Wow, today I have nothing to do but draw,” it’s a thrill. I still have to pick up my daughter at school, but until then I have nothing going on, I have no interviews to do.... If I can wake up and say, “Man, I’ve got the whole day until 3:30 or whatever it is to draw,” it’s still a thrill for me.

CBA: On a given day, how many pages can you draw?

Mike: I wish it were many. I wish it were more than one. “Pages,” I laugh at the plural! [laughter] If I draw a page in a day, I’m pretty damned happy. It doesn’t happen that often. I’ve gotten slower as I’ve gotten older.

CBA: Does that mean you’ve gotten more thoughtful?

Mike: Yeah, there’s a lot more thought. There’s a thing that happens, especially with Hellboy now, when I’m aware that there are people waiting for that next issue. It’s like, “Oh, crap, it’s got to be COMIC BOOK ARTIST 23

December 2002

that much better, or at least it’s got to be as good as the last one.” So there’s an element of… I can’t just belt this out, it’s got to be great, as good as I can make it.

So, yeah, there’s certainly a lot of pressure, which is slowing me down a bit.

CBA: What is the genesis of Hellboy?

Mike: I did this issue of Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight for Archie Goodwin. Somebody said, “You should do one of these, you should write it yourself.” I said, “Ennhh, I’m not a writer, I can’t come up with a story, blah blah blah.” Well, I did come up with an idea, and pitched it to Archie, and he liked it. A friend of mine, who happens to be an editor, scripted it, and I was really happy with the result. It was a ghost story that had Batman in it. I thought, “Well, I wouldn’t mind doing more stories like that. Do I come up with more stories like that and shoehorn Batman or Wolverine or somebody like that into them, or do I create a character specifically to be in these kind of stories?” At that same time, Image was going, I was in San Francisco, Art Adams and I were talking about doing something like this. So I said, “Okay, I’ll do something like this.” I had come up with this name “Hellboy” for some little character I drew for a convention book. The name was funny. I liked drawing these kind of monster guys. I said, “Well, this is what I’ll do.” That was it. Again, it was a case of really good, lucky timing that there were people who would actually do creator-owned stuff in those days, you could keep the rights and that kind of stuff. A bunch of us all started talking. Art Adams and I were going to do this thing. Image was discussed. Well, we were more comfortable with Dark Horse. Frank Miller was at Dark Horse. Somehow I met Frank. I mean, Arthur was the famous guy, so he knew more of these guys than I did. But this thing kind of happened where a bunch of guys started talking, we were all going to do the same thing, and we went into Dark Horse en masse and said, “Do you want all our stuff?

We want to do all these creator-owned books, and we want to do them for you, and you can lump us under this title.” And Dark Horse said, “Yeah, okay.” And I have to say, of all that group of guys—you had Geof Darrow, Dave Gibbons, Frank, John Byrne, Art Adams— all guys with track records except me. I really felt like, “I’m sneaking in among these guys.” I benefited from the whole Legend thing more than anybody else, because all these guys had solid reputations, big things they were synonymous with, and I was just Mike Mignola, artist of Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser, who did that one Batman… I didn’t have that one signature thing that so many of the other guys had. So I was very fortunate that Dark Horse didn’t ask what I was going to do. Well, they did say, “What are you gonna do?” I said, “Hellboy.” They said, “Fine.” It was very easy.

CBA: Were you pragmatic about this? Did you look at Image and see this incredible success that was going on, these guys suddenly becoming millionaires in the direct market? Was that an influence?

Mike: No. I was aware of that, and thought it would be nice. But I knew it couldn’t happen to me. I mean, there was some discussion of doing a book at Image. I had heard through channels that they would have published something I did, and do remember briefly trying to come up with something really commercial to do. But I knew damn well if I came up with something really commercial, nobody would buy it, and I would have spent a year or whatever drawing something that wasn’t really what I wanted to do, and the whole reason for doing it, the money, would end up not materializing. Dave Gibbons and I did an Aliens book, when we said, “Let’s just whore it up and make some money.” Well, what ended up happening was that we did this Aliens book—which I’m very proud of, I think we did a great job—but it never made a dime. So I had learned the lesson: Do not do something just for the money. I thought, instead of trying to make it something commercial, which I don’t really want to do, I will draw December 2002

COMIC BOOK ARTIST 23

the book I want to draw. I will probably only get a chance to do it once, probably no one will buy it. But I’ll do it once, so that, at the end, when I’m laying on my deathbed, I can say, “At least I did it once.” There’s always this deathbed thing with me. [laughter] CBA: See! The fatalism. [laughter] Mike: Yeah, there is a certain element of that....

CBA: But it’s being optimistic within the fatalism. [laughs] Mike: Yeah, it’s a magic combination. So that’s how it happened. I didn’t set out to write it. I thought, “I’ve got the kind of story I want to do.” That’s why I went to John Byrne, because I had this sense that John wouldn’t try to make it his book. We had a good working relationship in the past on a couple of different things, and I thought, “Well, this might work

Above: MM cover art for Batman/ Hellboy/Starman #1, written by James Robinson. Hellboy ©2002 Mike Mignola. Batman, Starman ©2002 DC Comics.

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Above: The first Hellboy drawing

by Mignola, done for a convention program book in 1991.

Inset right: The creator first envisioned Hellboy as part of a team. Below: This Hellboy sketch was used as a promotional bookmark by Dark Horse. Courtesy of the artist. All artwork and characters ©2002 Mike Mignola.

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out with John.” I said, “Here’s what I want to do. What do you think?” He said, “Fine,” and made some suggestions. But for the most part, he kept his distance and said, “It’s your book.” In fact, I don’t think I ever told him the whole plot for the first mini-series. I would talk to him a lot, tell him various things, and he’d say, “Yeah, that sounds fine.” He let me, and almost made me, do all the work myself. I think he had this sense, probably through our working experience, that eventually I would end up writing it myself anyway.

CBA: Because he recognized that you had the ability, or he didn’t have the time?

Mike: I had the ideas, I just didn’t have the confidence to write it. I didn’t know I had that much of the ideas. As I was drawing this thing, I didn’t tell him what the story was. I just made up the story. Then I had to script the book, sort of, because I never told John what the story was. So the only way he could tell what was going on, from the pictures, was I’d add all the dialogue. So, through that entire mini-series, I was probably writing most of it. Certainly, when you get to the magic spells and stuff, that was all mine. John came up with the names for characters and dialogue, but the gist of the dialogue was always there, I had to write it out for him. So a lot of what he did was just clean up what I did. And that was great. I couldn’t have done it without him. I couldn’t have faced the blank page. I needed to know that there was a professional involved somewhere.

So John was the safety net, and he was the clean-up guy.

CBA: Why didn’t you Legend guys do your own selfpublishing?

Mike: I think most of us realized that we had our hands full just drawing the books. I don’t want to be a businessman. I never did, and neither did anybody else.

We really just wanted to do our books. I don’t think any of us were looking at it as, “We want to be millionaires.”

No, we wanted somebody else to do the business end of stuff; we just wanted to draw the books.

CBA: Fans really like their books to be regular. Did you ever look at that as being a regular series, or was it always planned to be story arcs?

Mike: It was always going to be story arcs. I knew there was no way to do a monthly book. Physically, I could probably pencil a book monthly, but it wouldn’t be my best work. And I’d just gotten to the point where I’m not that impressed with most of the comics that are out there, and the last thing I need is to be another guy producing a half-assed comic book. If I’m going to do this, I want to do the best work I can. And this was the only format thing that seemed to work out.

CBA: After your first story arc, Seed of Destruction, where John helped dialogue the book, was that really the last obstacle to your self-confidence in comics?

Mike: Well, that’s hard to say. I still have a lot of issues.

It certainly was clear after Seed of Destruction that it wasn’t fair to have John script it, because I actually did a lot of editing on his script. Which I can’t believe John would put up with. I can’t believe anybody would put up with this. How he put up with me was extraordinary, because he would script the thing, and would send it to me in these adhesive patches. He was doing it on the computer, and he would just stick it onto your page. And

he would have, like, four paragraphs, and I would only use two of them. I never asked him to rewrite stuff, but I would say, “You’re writing too much, so I’ll just take some of these patches out. I won’t use them all.” And it was weird, and it was pretty ballsy of me to do that to somebody like John Byrne, who knew what the hell he was doing. But as that mini-series went on, I began to realize that I knew what I was doing. But, still, we came to a mutual understanding when the first one was over that I would write it myself. And that was a really hard thing. The next thing I did was The Wolves of Saint August, and that was a nightmare. The idea of just having no professionals involved in this book. Fortunately, I had a very good editor.

But it was all me, and that was terrifying.

CBA: Who was your editor?

Mike: Barbara Kesel. I never thought I would write this stuff.

It was fun to make up the stories and tell it to somebody over the phone, but you always knew there was someone who would come in at the last minute and turn it into a professional comic. When there was no person, it was just me; it was horrible. It was horrifying.

CBA: There’s an economy of words in your writing.

Mike: Well, it comes from knowing that I’m not a writer. I didn’t want to embarrass myself. That’s a lot of my motivation. I don’t want to try to do something that’s beyond what I can do. I can write dialogue. I don’t use giant lumps of prose; I’ll do that with pictures. I’m an artist, first, and that’s where I’m going to impress. If I’m going to impress you at all, it’s going to be with the pictures, and then just have fun with the dialogue, but keep it manageable.

CBA: Keep it sparse?

Mike: Yeah, and keep it kind of mysterious. It works out well with the kind of book I’m doing that it doesn’t call for a lot of dialogue.

CBA: There’s an epiphany with some people when they contemplate an economy of style… the quintessential example would be Noel Sickles, and then Milton Caniff, who would use a minimum amount of brush strokes for maximum effect. Do you have a minimalistic approach to your work?

Mike: Very much.

And more so all the time. In the writing and the drawing, it’s simply a case of how to do the thing most effectively and getting rid of the stuff that doesn’t need to be there.

My rendering has almost completely disappeared, as far as the fussy little feathering and stuff. That barely exists anymore. It isn’t adding anything. And the same with the writing. There’s a lot of script that gets done early on that I end up cutting out. It doesn’t need to be there. So, yeah, that’s definitely the direction I’m going in.

CBA: There’s a lot of work involved in that, right?

COMIC BOOK ARTIST 23

December 2002

Mike: Oh, yeah. It takes forever.

CBA: It’s actually easier to over-render or overwrite.

Mike: Yeah, if you’re only using a few lines, they’ve got to be in the right place. I remember one particular artist coming to me once and saying, “I’ve really been looking at your work because I’ve got to do my book really fast.” [laughter] I remember thinking, “Man, if you figure out how to do what I do fast, please tell me, because I’d love to know!” I spend nine-tenths of my time erasing.

CBA: In a nutshell, can you tell us, who is Hellboy?

Mike: Do you mean is he my father, or… [laughter] …as a character?

CBA: No, I just meant as a character.

Mike: He started out to be just an occult detective who happened to be, apparently, from Hell. And it turned out as the thing went on that he apparently is the Beast of the Apocalypse, who just happens to be a working stiff, an occult detective. It’s all very strange, I never expected this thing to happen. This whole story snowballed. This just started out to be a fun character to draw, he’d have no past beyond a couple of pages at the beginning of the first mini-series. Then, as happens sometimes when you’re writing stuff, characters start saying things, and you say, “Oh, I kind of like that, let me play up this and play up that,” and next thing you know, you’ve December 2002

COMIC BOOK ARTIST 23

got this snowball rolling downhill, picking up snow. And going, “It’s not supposed to be this, it’s not supposed to have all this baggage!

It’s supposed to be just some goofy, red guy who fights monsters.”

So now what I’m trying to do is stop the snowball from rolling and get rid of the snow. I’ve got to undo everything I’ve done in the first eight years of doing this comic. “Okay, you’ve turned him into the Beast of the Apocalypse, you did this, you did that, now we want to get him out of that. Solve that problem or find a way to live with that problem.” That’s part of why I did this thing recently where Hellboy leaves the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense, it’s just part of this baggage that’s become attached to this character. I just wanted to draw this guy… let him leave some of that behind, then let me deal with this Beast of the Apocalypse problem, and then hopefully get him back to something manageable.

CBA: Make him yours again?

Mike: Yeah, ’cause he became this other thing that he was never intended to be. It was interesting. Again, it’s from reading Michael Moorcock in high school. Oh, it’s not enough that he’s just a guy… he’s gotta be the guy who’s responsible for the end of the world, blah blah blah.... Oh, crap!

CBA: So he was just a cool character to draw in the beginning, with the hand and the sawed-off horns?

Mike: Yeah, it was just something that was fun to do.

And then, as you spend all your time working on this thing, you say, “Hey, you know what that hand is?” And the hand is this, and it’s that, and these stories grow.

And it’s all really cool and it’s a lot of fun, and then you go, “Oh, sh*t. I just made up 20 years worth of work.”

I don’t want to work on the same story for 20 years! I mean, in an average shower, I can plot a year’s worth of story ideas.... [laughter] You know, it really doesn’t take that long.

Above: Pencil and inked page from Hellboy’s latest mini-series, the two-issue arc, The Third Wish (2002). Courtesy of the artist.

Center inset: Kevin Nowlan (to be cover featured in CBA #25) designed the logo for Mike. Below: While Ye Ed was tracking down this never-reprinted Mignola page, introducing readers to Hellboy in a promo mag called Celebrate Diversity, Mike asked us not to use it in toto as it will be appearing fullsize in a forthcoming Mignola art book from Dark Horse. ©2002 Mike Mignola.

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Inset right: One of numerous Hellboy sketches the artist shared with CBA. ©2002 Mike Mignola.

Background image: Mike executed the Legend logo for the relatively short-lived Dark Horse Comics imprint of creator-owned titles. ©2002 Frank Miller, Inc. and John Byrne, Inc.

Below: Another evocative Hellboy sketch by Mike Mignola. Courtesy of the artist. ©2002 Mike Mignola.

CBA: Was that on your mind when you first said, “I’m going to do four-issue story arcs or three-issue story arcs?” Did you say, “We’re going to collect these. These are going to be graphic novel collections”?

Mike: Certainly I hoped that would be the case.

Again, I had no idea if anybody was going to buy the first mini-series, so I don’t know I was thinking that far ahead. Frank was already collecting Sin City, so that was certainly the model.

And it’s been nice, I have to say. It’s really been nice. It feels like my career… everything was practice up to doing Hellboy, and now I’m creating my own body of work.

CBA: From my point of view, you stood up with those Legend guys. I became an

immediate, intense fan of your work from the moment I encountered Hellboy.

Beforehand, I admired some of your work, but then something really happened with Hellboy.

He is a great, fun character, you were being minimalist in your approach, you had this coy, underlying humor to the work, not only the words that were coming out of Hellboy’s mouth, but there was a sense of fun to it as well as being this real, omnipresent doom kind of thing going on.

Mike: Well, a lot of that has to do with the fact that I’m older. If I had done this book ten years earlier, it would have been very different. I’m sure the humor probably wouldn’t have been there. As you get older, there’s a sense of, “Well, I don’t want anybody to think I’m taking it too seriously.” Which is why the only comic book title I’ve ever been able to come up with was “Hellboy.” It’s a cool name, but it’s funny, and it lets you know right off the bat that I’m not taking this thing that seriously. I was always thinking, gee, if I’m on the airplane, and the person next to me says, “What do you do?” If I said, “I draw Absalom, Slayer of Demons,” I’m going to want to jump off the plane, I’m going to be too embarrassed. You can laugh about the title, “Hellboy.” And the same with the way I write the stuff. Part of my brain wants to veer off and write these bad Shakespearian bad guy speeches, but fortunately, Hellboy’s the other side of my brain that says, “Shut up!” [laughter] CBA: You seem to have an internal editor that reaches out into a num28

ber of aspects in your life.

Minimalist, minimalist, minimalist. Simplify, simplify, simplify…”

Mike: Simplify and don’t embarrass yourself. “No, you’re embarrassing yourself! Hellboy needs to say something now to let the audience know that that character is an idiot.” It’s a very strange way of working, but it seems to work.

CBA: I look through the story arcs as they come out, and they’re so refreshingly simple. You have to say that there’s a complexity to Moorcock’s work. And in Marvel comics, while they can be entertaining, there’s also this huge continuity that needs to be dealt with.

It’s almost as if you’ve just simplified your character’s mythos to such a degree that it’s very accessible.

Mike: Yeah, which is why I want to solve these problems that I’ve started. The Hellboy stories I would like to do are more like The Corpse. When there’s a problem, Hellboy shows up.

We don’t need to know who he is, he’s really coollooking… I’d like to cover necessary stuff in just two sentences. “Ohhh, you’re Hellboy, who showed up in that church and you now work for the Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defense.” To say it in one paragraph, it sounds funny. But if there’s too much to that, it’s just boring. I don’t want to do a comic like those DC comics when I was a kid and there’s Earth-Two and there’s two Batmans talking to each other… aaaaaah, I don’t want that. I don’t want to create a book like that, where somebody picks it up and says, “There’s no way I can access this world.” I try to do all the story arcs so that they do stand by themselves. And if they’re referencing something else… I don’t want it to be something where you, the reader, really feel like, “Oh, I have to go read that first.” I’d like to think I’m going to give you everything you need to know.

CBA: There seemed to be a point a few years ago where the character was over-exposed, where Hellboy was almost getting out of your hands. The team-up with Painkiller Jane, the Starman/Batman/Hellboy mini-series, Ghost/Hellboy. He even appeared in Savage Dragon. When I interviewed you for The Jack Kirby Collector a few years back, I recall you being somewhat ambivalent about all that exposure.

Mike: It’s very tempting to say yes to certain things, because you’re thinking this will get the character out there. It’ll establish it more firmly as a legitimate thing. Because I’m always afraid that it’s all going to go away and I’m going to draw Teen Titans or something.

No, I want to do Hellboy, so anything I can do to keep Hellboy out there. Yet, at the same time, if I don’t do it myself, I’m not putting my best foot forward. Hellboy/Batman was okay. There were problems with that book. It was not done under ideal circumstances. The editor died right after we started the project and it went into limbo, and it just didn’t make the best atmosphere for me to do my work, or for James Robinson to do his work, I don’t think. So that was awkward. Painkiller Jane was just flat-out a mistake. Sometimes it’s just very difficult for me to say no.

CBA: What kind of input did you have on Painkiller Jane?

Mike: I don’t remember having any. Brian Augustyn wrote it, so COMIC BOOK ARTIST 23

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certainly I talked to him.

Rick Leonardi was going to draw the book, I always liked Rick’s work. I said, “Well, that’ll be fine. It’ll be a no-brainer.” And what I always do on those kinds of projects is reserve the right to go back in and rewrite Hellboy’s dialogue. So on everything I’ve done, I’ve done just that.

CBA: Did you reach a point with that particular project that, as you were rewriting the dialogue, you thought, “This was not a good idea!”?

Mike: Yeah… that one just… it seemed like just another story. I don’t know.

It was a mistake.

CBA: So you said Brian wrote that?

Mike: Yeah.

CBA: So that was also… he’s an old friend?

Mike: Just Painkiller Jane… it seemed like just another story. It was a mistake. Sometimes I think, “Okay, they want me to do this, I have to say yes.” But it wasn’t like I was pressured into it. It just seemed like a fine idea at the time.

I’d never heard of Painkiller Jane. It wasn’t, like, “Oh, boy, that’d be great!” It was just, “Well, sure.” I have learned to be much more cautious about the things I do. Ideally, I’d like to do everything myself, but I can’t. I can’t do everything. I can’t sculpt the Hellboy Christmas ornament. At one point I go, “It would be fun for that to exist,” and I have to make the choice of either it does or doesn’t, or it exists created by somebody else. That’s still a juggling act that I’m doing all the time. But a lot of times there’s stuff that I don’t like, but the public does like. I’m so picky.

CBA: For instance?

Mike: Apparently, people really like the PVC figures. And there have been other Hellboy merchandise things. But, to me, I’m such a perfectionist that I would have had the sculptor go back ten more times to get those things perfect, and it never would have been perfect. They wouldn’t be perfect if I did them, either, because I’m not a sculptor. But it’s never going to be good enough. So, in my case, I had to involve other people, where I’d have to say, “I don’t know, is it good enough? It’s never going to be good enough for me, but is it good enough for you?”

CBA: So can you say “no” more often now?

Mike: Well, I don’t know.

CBA: Did the character peak there for a while?

Mike: I don’t think he necessarily peaked. I’m so much in the middle of this thing, I’m unaware of, “Is he more popular; is he less popular?” I don’t know. I know I go to a convention, and I’m very busy talking to people who really like the comic. That’s what I have in mind, making those people I talk to at shows happy. I can’t be obsessed with sales figures. Hellboy doesn’t sell that well, but does it sell well enough so I can continue to do it? Yes. And that’s really all I want.

CBA: Do you plan to do a series once every 18 months or so?

Mike: It’s all very confused now, because there’s so many different things going on… We’re running into a case where there’s a lot of different stuff I want to do. I want to do Hellboy, but I just did Screw-On Head, which I had a lot of fun doing. I’d like to do more December 2002

COMIC BOOK ARTIST 23

one-shot or two-shot miniseries kind of things that aren’t Hellboy, but at the same time, I’m so slow, I want to keep Hellboy going but find time to do other stuff, too. Then there’s the non-comics stuff that pops up every now and then. So it’s a juggling act of trying to do all these different things. There’s just not enough hours in the day to do everything I want to do.

CBA: So how many story arcs have you done?

Mike: There’s three big mini-series, there’s a couple two-issue mini-series. I just finished another two-issue mini-series that came out in July and August, and then there’s a lot of these short stories. So there’s five collections of material.

CBA: And they’re still in print.

Mike: Right.

CBA: How does it sell?

Mike: In collection form, it sells great. That’s the thing that’s constantly amazing to me is that we’re still selling the first mini-series in compilation. So, it’s changed the entire way I work. I’m aware that I need to keep building on it so it does continue to sell. Hellboy is my main job, but at the same time I would like to do some non-Hellboy stuff, and I’d love to get to a point where I could just draw some pictures for myself, without having to make them into a comic, without having to make it into a series, without having to do illustrations for something specific.

I’ve gotten to the point where I now have a bunch of pictures that I just want to do, paintings I want to do. Unless I win the lottery, I don’t know when I’m going to get the time to do this stuff. I’ve got more work to do than I possibly have time to do it in.

CBA: So you obviously stay busy.

Mike: Yeah. Too damn busy.

CBA: You had that experience sitting between two giants of film-making. How does that segue into you working within the movie industry itself?

Mike: It’s very strange, and every experience I’ve had in film has been similar in that I never set out to be in any of these places, some big hand came from out of nowhere, grabbed me, and put me down in these weird places. I was picked up and dropped into Disney. I was picked up and dropped into the Blade II movie. And Dracula. It’s just some kind of fluke.

It’s just this weird thing, and I treat it as this funny, weird thing. It’s a wonderful experience, but I’m not saying, “Oh, boy, I want to drop comics and

Inset left: Hellboy compatriot Abe Sapien by Mike Mignola in an illustration from Hellboy: Odd Jobs, an anthology of prose stories written, as Mignola says, by “real” horror writers. Courtesy of the artist. ©2002 Mike Mignola.

Below: Hellboy sketch by Mignola.

Courtesy of the artist. ©2002 Mike Mignola.

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Above: Mignola completists need to check out Disney’s Atlantis The Lost Empire DVD which includes Mike’s production designs as extras. Courtesy of Jason Colonies and Campus Video. ©2002 Walt Disney.

Inset right: Mike contributed the cover to the Dark Horse Comics adaptation of the Disney animated feature Atlantis The Lost Empire, which also includes a few pages of the artist’s production designs. ©2002 Walt Disney.

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go do this other thing.” The other thing is weird. It’s a strange business. I will enjoy it, but I like to know that comics is there as my real job.

CBA: Oh, really? I thought that the threat could be in the other direction, that comics could become a hobby, so to speak.

Mike: Comics are what I understand. The beautiful thing about comics—which is why so many people in film want to do comics— is that it’s the one place where you can tell your story all by yourself. People say, “Atlantis wasn’t your picture and it could have been this and it could have been that,” but Atlantis was Disney’s movie. I was happy to go there, have the experience of working with really creative people, throwing ideas back and forth. But what keeps me sane working on a project like that is knowing that it’s their picture. I can make suggestions, and they can use them or not use them, but it’s their thing. Even as they make the Hellboy movie, it’s not my movie. It’s somebody else’s. If they want my input, if I can make suggestions, that’s great. But at the end of the day, the only thing that’ll keep you sane is knowing that you do not have control of that. When you sit and do comics, you have control. An editor will hopefully save me from making colossal mistakes, but if I say, “No, I want it this way,” then that’s the way it’s going to be published.

CBA: Whether by luck or by talent, you’re in a situation in comics of being in control. How do you rectify, with your ego, going back and being a hired gun?

Mike: It’s a different thing. It’s a fun experience. As hard work as it was, I had so much fun on Blade. It was like going to summer camp: Two months living in a hotel, sharing an office for the first time in my life (with somebody else who actually knew what they were doing), and just working on somebody else’s project. I thought that it would bother me, that after a couple of weeks, I would be so antsy to get back to drawing Hellboy.

Because usually, once I’d gotten a taste of doing my own stuff, that’s all I want to be doing.

That’s kind of what happened on Atlantis. If I was at Disney, it was great. But if I’d go home, after a couple of days, I’d say, “Well, that’s enough. I’m going to go draw my own comics.” But on Blade II, since I was there, since I was physically relocated to L.A., I lived entirely, 24 hours a day, in the world of making that movie.

And it was amazing. It was fascinating to watch something get built from the ground up.

CBA: Did your whole family move, or just you ?

Mike: I just went out there.

CBA: Obviously, it paid well enough to justify that.

Mike: It pays very well. But, at this point, it’s more just the experience. It’s the, “Wow, I never thought I’d be here.” To make a suggestion or to design something! On Atlantis, it was one thing to design something, come up with things, the guys draw it, then they can do a movie. But on Blade II, to design something and guys have to actually, physi-

cally build it. It was so weird to see things on the screen and say, “Wow, that was just some screwy little drawing that I did, somebody actually made that thing.” It’s fun.

CBA: Is it that this is your first real studio experience, of being truly collaborative and working shoulder-to-shoulder with film creatives?

Mike: The collaboration stuff is fun. And it’s fun because I don’t do it very much. Because when I’m doing my work, I’m alone, I have creative control, that’s great. But after years of sitting alone in a studio, the idea of going someplace else and bouncing ideas back and forth with people… that’s fun. And, ideally, I’d love to do that in between doing my own work.

CBA: So it really is the best of all worlds right now?

Mike: Yes! I’m just thrilled to death. The only thing I wish is that there was a hell of a lot more time, that there were more hours in the day, so I could do more of my own stuff.

CBA: Have you thought about a protègè?

Mike: That would never work. It’s got to be me. I’ve got a list of pictures I want to do. I’ve tried things in the past where I would write for other people, but the trouble is, if it’s my story, it needs to be done by me. Because the reason I created that story is because these stories usually start out as a list of pictures in my head. And there’s no satisfaction for me giving that list of pictures to somebody else, because those are things I want to draw. So what I have to reconcile is that there are more of these pictures than I’m ever going to get around to doing. It’s just finding a way to do as much as I can.

CBA: I think there’s almost a mixed feeling amongst your comic fans. If they’re anything like me, they’re passionate about having you work regularly out there. And also being very happy for you, personally, that you’re working in Hollywood, but also being forlorn that you’re not working in comics during that time, that you’re away from the field. Do you get that?

Mike: I do get that. But I also get people who want more Hellboy, but if it’s not me, then they’re disappointed. They want me to do a lot more work. “Could you do Hellboy monthly?” Well, I could, but you wouldn’t want it. Trust me, it wouldn’t be very good.

CBA: But you have pretty patient fans, right?

Mike: I’ve been very fortunate. I’ve structured the thing in such a way that I’m not leaving them hanging when I’m off doing something else. When I went off to work on Blade II, I was almost done with a mini-series. But, fortunately, it wasn’t scheduled. So we didn’t run into a case where the first three issues came out and you had to wait a couple of months for the fourth issue. The whole thing sat there in a drawer until I was finished working on the movie. I could come home, finish the mini-series, and then Dark Horse put it out monthly.

My focus is to do more one-issue comics, so that in-between other projects, I can just sit down, do this comic, when it’s done— boom!—it goes out. I don’t have to wait for a hundred pages of material to be finished before the comic can go out. All I can say is, I want to do the best work I can do, and hopefully people like it.

Hopefully people will feel that it’s something worth waiting for.

CBA: Was Hellboy Junior your idea?

Mike: That was Bill Wray’s idea.

CBA: Did you enjoy the results of that?

Mike: Yeah, it was an interesting experiment and I thought COMIC BOOK ARTIST 23

December 2002

some really good stuff came out of it. But it was always Bill’s thing, his idea, and he rounded up the people to do it, and I sat back and said, “Well, that’s a fun thing—not what I would do, necessarily—but it’s a fun thing.” I have to make it somebody else’s thing. Not that I’m ashamed of it and want to distance myself from it, but it was fun to turn that thing over to somebody else and see what happened. I would have been happy not doing any of the Hellboy Junior stuff. I liked what I did, but said, “Well, it’s a funny book. Let’s let real, good, funny, humorous cartoonists do those stories. Don’t make me be in these books.” Bill said, “No, no, you’ve got to be in there, it’s Hellboy! It’s your thing! You’ve got to do it.” And I did it. I think I did an okay job, but I’d rather see that stuff done by Dave Cooper and Stephen DiStefano, that’s what they do.

CBA: Let’s say, with Scatterbrain, that short story you did, made me realize your work is really quite wholesome. It’s real, genuine allages entertainment. It doesn’t take itself too seriously, but it’s scary in its own way….

Mike: Yeah, I like this middle ground, this kind of goofy, funny kind of horror stuff. I don’t want to be one of those real creepy, nasty, “adult” horror guys. I like pulp and fairy tale sensibilities. Yeah, there is kind of a “gosh-golly-aww-shucks” quality about that stuff, which I just personally find very comfortable.

CBA: Comic book success, whatever that is, doesn’t seem to have gone to your head. You seem to have kept your eye on the prize by focusing on the work. It’s the work that matters. Ego can often get in the way with so many people, the “what’s in it for me” attitude. So you have marketed Hellboy as a film project?

Mike: Yeah, I’m sitting here right now waiting for the phone call that says this movie is going to be made. [It did.] It’s very close at the moment. I’m just kind of sitting here. It would be a big chunk of time away from doing the comics, but it would be pretty interesting just to see something you created get turned into a film. It’s just so far beyond anything I ever imagined being involved in. It’d be like a fun ride.

CBA: But you don’t have any caveat of control at all?

Mike: Not real control. When people say, “control,” I take that to mean veto power. And if they’re making a movie, unless it’s my money that they’re using to make the movie, at the end of the day, it’s somebody else’s call. There’s producers, directors, a studio that’s put up the money, and it’s going to be their call. I can’t go into their office and say, “No, it’s got to be this.” It’s their money. All I can do is hope for the best. And currently there’s wonderful people attached to the Hellboy film.

I am very happy to see the property in their hands, and will love to see what they’ll do.

Maybe it’s just a self-defense thing on my part, but I view it as their movie. It’s their version of my comic. I’m not saying, “Here’s my comic. You must translate it onto the screen, as is.” No, I’m saying, “Put your spin on this.” And it’ll stand as an adaptation of the comic. It won’t stand as the comic translated to film. It’s a separate thing.

CBA: But hopefully the essence remains?

Mike: Yeah. With the people involved, it should stay true to the spirit of the comic, but comics and films are different things, there are things in comics that don’t work on films and vice versa. So I’m very happy to see it out there, but more to see how far Hellboy can be December 2002

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stretched. The comic is still here; the film will not change the way I do the comic. It’s just a separate entity. Just like when we did this collection of horror writers writing Hellboy stories. I didn’t want these guys to feel they had to do stories that they would have seen in the comics. The stories I was probably happiest with in that collection were so far beyond what I could have done in the comics… they were different takes. It was starting with my comic and then taking it someplace else. I like to see different spins on the stuff.

CBA: Speaking of the Christopher Golden books, was that your idea to do Hellboy novels?

Mike: It was Chris’s idea. At the time that the first Hellboy mini-series came out, Chris was writing comic book reviews for some magazine, and wrote a really nice review of Hellboy. I met him someplace and we were talking and he proposed doing some kind of a prose Hellboy thing. And, again, I am in awe of real writers, so I was, “Wow, that would be really interesting! That would be fun to see.” That turned into the first novel.

CBA: Do you enjoy just doing pure illustration for those books?

Mike: Y’know, I enjoyed it, but I have no interest in doing it again.

It’s a very strange process, doing the illustrations for those books, because the stuff that would be most fun to draw, I feel like I can’t draw, for a couple of reasons. It’s Chris Golden’s vision, not mine, so I don’t want to draw that particular character because I’m more comfortable as a reader reading Chris’s description of that character and having that image in their head. I don’t want to step on the prose. I don’t want to interpret certain things into pictures, so I do these more decorative kind of illustrations.

CBA: Did you still want control of Hellboy’s dialogue in the novels?

Mike: No, because I realized with the first book, it would be too huge a job. So I made a couple of comments on the first chapter of the first Hellboy novel, and then I said, “No, this is Chris’s thing. This guy wants to do it, I’ve seen that he can do it, I can’t nitpick.” We’ll talk about elements of the story… certainly on the second one, because I came up with the plot for that second novel. It was an unused Hellboy mini-series idea. So a lot of that novel was an idea I had, I turned it over to Chris, and he expanded it into something far beyond what I would have done with it. So we had our early conversations, and then, when it comes to the writing, it’s his.

Because there’s certain scenes he wrote when he said, “Well, I’m going to do this.” I’d say [reluctant voice] “Weeeell, okayyy…”

Then I would read what he’d done, and I’d say, “Okay, he pulled that off great.” But it’s his thing. On something like that, I do actually have veto power, but he did a nice job.

CBA: What specifically did you do on Francis Ford Coppola’s Dracula?

Mike: Almost nothing. I did a

Above: Mike also recently worked extensively on the production design of Blade II. The DVD is now available and it contains a look at the artist’s work on the film.

Courtesy of Jason Colonies and Campus Video. ©2002 New Line Productions, Inc.

Background image: Mike sent us this inked sketch of Hellboy in action. ©2002 Mike Mignola.

Inset left: The big news for Mignola fans is the production of—yep!—a Hellboy movie! This promotional poster featuring Mignola artwork (of Ron Perlman as our hero) was given away gratis at the 2002 International ComicCon: San Diego this past August.

Hellboy ©2002 Mike Mignola.

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little work on the ruins of Castle Dracula, because Francis wasn’t happy with the model. There were things that weren’t quite right, so I was brought in because I lived around the corner from Zoetrope. I came in to do some studies of that castle and go back to the model-makers just so Coppola could hand them something that said, “Make it more like this.” So that was a simple kind of a job, but it was interesting. “Change this.” “No, it would be too expensive to change the model that much.” So it was these weird, fine-tuning kinds of adjustments.

CBA: You did production designs?

Above: Mike’s back cover art for Dave Cooper’s Weasel #4.

Courtesy of the artist. ©2002 Mike Mignola.

Inset right: Mike Mignola tells us this is a rare drawing done just for fun, though eventually used as the cover for a rare book catalog.

Courtesy of the artist. ©2002 Mike Mignola.

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Mike: No, That’s a huge job. I just did little stuff. I did some design work. There was a castle you see for like a millisecond in a flashback.

Somehow, there was a day where somebody somewhere would fax me their version of that castle, then I would do my version, and it just went back and forth between us by fax. And, between the two of us, we designed that castle. Then, after that rough cut I saw with George Lucas, there were conversations that evening about adding this scene or adding that scene, and I sort of story-boarded those scenes.

CBA: Obviously, you didn’t work at all with Steranko on his storyboarding?

Mike: Nah, Jim was the early concept guy on that.

CBA: Did you see that stuff?

Mike: No, but I heard about it. It sounded pretty darned weird. [laughter] CBA: What did you think of the movie as it came out?

Mike: I thought it was interesting. Again, of all the things I have worked on, I find it impossible to really have an opinion, because even on Dracula, where I was involved so little, I saw stuff that wasn’t on the screen. I saw scenes that were cut and I read the script, so I had preconceived notions of what certain things were going to be. A lot of times, I look at it and go, “Oh, it would’ve been better if they had done this, or it would have been better if they had used that scene,” or “Why did they cut that scene?”

CBA: You’re a bit too intimate.

Mike: Yes. CBA: And how did Disney hear about you? Was Atlantis your next film project?

Mike: I did a little work on the Batman TV animated series.

CBA: What, with [producer/designer] Bruce Timm?

Mike: Yeah, but just in the first season. And then out of the blue, I got this call from the Disney producer on Atlantis. I got the impression that one of the directors was a big Hellboy fan.

CBA: You never specifically found out?

Mike: Well, I would hear, “Oh, we’re all big Mignola fans here.”

Weeeelll… I don’t know if that’s true. I know that one director, possibly both of them, were big fans of Hellboy. So they wanted to do this film, they had already come up with the idea of applying my style to that film. So when I actually, physically went up to Disney, they had

already started to work along in this direction of applying my style, whatever the hell that is.

CBA: They appropriated your style even before hiring you?

Mike: Yes. When I got there, the characters were already designed.

You’d look at one drawing that was the Disney version of these characters, and then the next one would be them translated into the Mignola version.

CBA: Did they capture you style?

Mike: Pretty much. They went through work I’d done in the past, and tried to make some sense out of what I do. And me, I don’t even know what the hell I do. [laughter] There were Dracula pages and Hellboy pages with diagrams all over them explaining how to do what I do and I didn’t even understand what they were talking about most of the time. “Oh, that’s why I do that? Oh, that makes me sound like a genius.” [laughter] So that was very weird. That’s right up there with the most surreal things, walking into Disney and seeing Hellboy art on the walls. It was fun. Mostly I just sat back and said, “Yeah, that would be cool.” I didn’t do that much drawing on Atlantis. Mostly, I was there in a consulting capacity.

CBA: What specifically was your title on that film?

Mike: I was credited as one of the production designers.

CBA: And how long ago was that?

Mike: Five years ago?

CBA: It takes a long time to make an animated film!

Mike: Yeah, because when I was up there it was really early in the preproduction phase.

CBA: Did you have any input on the story?

Mike: I did. I don’t know that they brought me in for that, but they sat me down, gave me the script. And at the next meeting, I said, “What about this, and what about that, and, hey, what if you had these…” We were talking about these ruins. “What if, at the climax of this movie, these ruins turn out to be actually Atlantean flying things?” That was probably one of my biggest contributions, the idea

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December 2002

of the whole flying fish armada. Again, it’s just so weird. You throw out this suggestion and it sticks. I always think everybody’s just humoring me. “Oh, yeah, that’s a good idea.” And then I get on the plane and go home. I’d go back a month later and, “Holy sh*t! Are you going to really put those in the movie?” It was fun.

CBA: So you sat in on story conferences. Did you do endless production designs?

Mike: I didn’t do that much.

I’d go for two or three days at a time, and at the end of my first stretch, the first get-to-knowyou meeting, they said, “Well, what do you want to work on?” A lot of stuff had been done on the character design.

What was still in the embryonic phase was the city itself. I said, “Well, let me work on the city.”

So that’s where most of my focus went. Design for the Atlanteans and design for the city itself. I did lots of drawings for the ruins and the flying fish things, stuff like that. You can see my production designs on the two-disc DVD. CBA: There’s a perception within comics of while it’s not that it’s a Mike Mignola film per se, but that it has Mignola all over it. Is that a proper characterization?

Mike: Well, it was in a way because they were trying to “do” me.

They didn’t say, “We want to do a movie about Atlantis, guide us.”

They said, “We want to do this particular movie about Atlantis and we want your influence felt.” And I’d like to think that they said, “We can get X-amount by just aping this guy and studying his work, but we will get more out of him if we actually bring him in and pick his brain.” On the one hand, it was a stylistic thing. On the other hand, they did get some of my ideas.

CBA: They didn’t have to hire you, right? But that was a cool thing for them to do?

Mike: I thought it was nice, because I had heard various stories about various animation things out there where people are “doing Mignola.” I don’t usually see that or don’t usually recognize that. But I’m always hearing, “Oh, this cartoon looks like they were trying to do you.” But Disney was very nice to bring me in, because they didn’t need to.

CBA: Were you flush from that project?

Mike: No. I didn’t work on it that long. It was just a weird novelty “never thought I’d be here” feeling.

CBA: How did Blade II come about?

Mike: Because the director was Guillermo Del Toro, with whom I have been speaking for years about the Hellboy movie.

CBA: He did an introduction for one your Hellboy collections, right?

Mike: Yes, for Conqueror Worm, the latest Hellboy book. He is a big fan of my work and has been trying to make a Hellboy movie for four or five years. Finally, he agreed to do Blade II, and he brought me in. I was visual consultant, which means I wasn’t really a production designer, wasn’t really attached to any particular aspect of the film. He’d say, “I want a bathroom to look like this,” would describe it, and my job would be to try to put it on paper. “I want an autopsy room, I want this, I want that,” and it was trying to make sense of what he was describing. So I was his wrist, and then what I did would be handed over to the real costume designer, real production designer, and their job would be to either ignore what I did or to translate it into something that was filmable.

CBA: What did you think about the final product?

Mike: Again, I’m too close.

CBA: Did you like it?

December 2002

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Mike: I thought it was great, a really fun, fast, creepy thing.

Certainly, there were scenes that we came up with that ended up not being in the film. You’re going, “Oh, maybe it would have been better if this were in there or that were in there,” but I thought it was great.

CBA: And how about your experience on Atlantis?

Mike: Again, I thought it was a lot of fun.

CBA: Were you disappointed with the box office on that? Or didn’t you care?

Mike: It would have been great if it was a huge picture, but it’s a completely separate thing. I was happy to have the experience, but if that movie had made $60 billion, it wouldn’t have changed my life. None of that money would be going into my pocket.

CBA: In the reviews I read, you were named specifically and in a positive light, one of the few aspects a number of critics enjoyed.

Mike: That certainly was very, very weird. I was very surprised that Disney kept my name out there the way they did, because my perception of Disney was that everything is done by Disney. But they certainly hung me out there and used me in promotion and the reviewers were certainly made to understand whose style this was. It was very nice. It was very, very surreal. To read a Roger Ebert review that talks about me, how weird is that? So it was an all-win situation for me.

CBA: Generally speaking, if Disney calls again, you’d say, “Sure!”?

Mike: Well, it would depend on the project.

CBA: But it was not an unhappy experience.

Mike: No. I didn’t come out of it feeling that I got screwed. It would be fun to do another one. I’ve done it once—and I would have probably done any Disney picture, because of just that weird, “Wow! Disney called? Sure, what the hell, that would be interesting”—so now, I can say, “Well, I’ve already done it.” So if it’s a project where I really thought I could make a difference (or they were offering me $60 billion [laughter]), I would say, “Oh yeah, sure, I’ll do it.” But there’s a certain comfort in having done it, so you don’t need to do it. It’s like you lost your virginity.

“Okay, the first time’s over with, now we can enjoy it.” And we can be a bit more selective. [laughter] CBA: Hellboy’s going to be a live action motion picture?

Mike: Yes. CBA: Abe Sapien and Jenny Finn, these were Hellboy spin-offs?

Mike: Well, Jenny Finn was this completely separate project with Troy Nixey, which was never finished. But there was an Abe Sapien one-shot a few years back that somebody else did, and then there was just this B.P.R.D. mini-series. I’ve created characters like Abe Sapien, which I really like visually. I don’t have a lot of stories for them. They surrounded the Hellboy character, but they had enough of a life of their own and there are enough fans

Inset left: Another Mignola sketch done, as Mike tells us, “just for the fun of it.” Courtesy of the artist. ©2002 Mike Mignola.

Inset left: Mignola tells us this sketch of a Cthulhu-like gent was done for kicks but he now considers it to be “My favorite drawing I’ve ever done.” Courtesy of the artist. ©2002 Mike Mignola.

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Above: We’ve dedicated this issue to Mike’s daughter, Katie, because she scripted such a delightful story (drawn by Dad) for the Dark Horse anthology, Happy Endings. Here’s the splash page, courtesy of Mike. ©2002 Mike & Katie Mignola.

who like these peripheral characters that I thought, “If I could get Hellboy out of this B.P.R.D. thing, take him off and do him by himself, I’ve left all the other characters behind.” And, while I may not have stories for them, maybe somebody else does. So the idea with B.P.R.D. is to take all the—I don’t want to call it the “scraps,” but the other stuff—peripheral stuff, and say, “Is this stuff strong enough to function without Hellboy in the center of it?”

CBA: And you’ve been satisfied?

Mike: Yes. CBA: Would you like to do it more?

Mike: Yeah, the first one I was real happy with. The tricky thing is, with the first one, I came up with the plot. Chris Golden fleshed that out, and it was fine, but what I would love, ideally, is just to see somebody come along and do that book without my involvement at all. If I’m involved, then it’s always going to be… I don’t know how to describe it. I’d like to see it take on a life of its own, completely, without my direct, hands-on involvement. The only way to do that is to take those characters to somebody else and say, “I trust you. Go,” and consciously say to myself, “Do not think about these guys anymore.” Or think about them in a real limited capacity and say, “No, you can’t do this” or “No, you can’t do that.” But I can’t nitpick. It’s like letting your children go.

CBA: Throughout your life, you had opportunities. Some people say, the harder you work, the better luck you have. How much do you think personality was involved in the opportunities you were awarded? Do you work well with others?

Mike: I work okay with others. Usually, I don’t work with others, I work by myself. I’m not trouble. I’m pretty well-behaved. I’ve worked my ass off to do what I’ve done, and I’ve been fortunate that people have recognized it, and it’s been this half-luck, half-hard work kind of a thing. But I certainly didn’t just do my thing and sit back and wait for somebody to discover and appreciate what I did. I worked my ass off. And I took jobs as they appealed to me, and I tried to do a good job on everything. So I guess that kind of all paid off eventually.

CBA: The life of a comic book artist many times can be somewhat tragic, but you seem to have had a— Mike: Hey, it ain’t over yet. [laughter] There’s plenty of time for the real tragic stuff.

CBA: But you’ve really been able to get pretty much what you wanted thus far.

Mike: I’ve really been very fortunate. I spent probably the first ten years doing work that, for the most part, I’m not too proud of. Now I want to create a body of work that will overshadow what went before. There’s the ten years of learning. And there’s a couple nice bits in there, but it was building stuff. Now it’s the process of making the stuff that sticks. I even look back and the first and second Hellboy mini-series, and there’s a lot of stuff that I’m not happy with. I want to go back and redo it, but instead I’ll just keep building on it.

CBA: There’s seems to be a maturity to your style. Do you think that you’re going to continue to grow as an artist and develop new approaches?

Mike: I would think so. Personally, I think there’s some guys that get where they’re going, and they stick there. There’re days where I’d like to say, “Okay, this is how I draw. This is how I tell a story. I’m done growing or evolving or whatever, I just want to stay here.” Of course, I just don’t think that I can. I’m never so content with my stuff that I would go, “Man, I would be happy doing that same thing over and over forever.” I need to try something a little different.

CBA: Do you have any advice for artists coming in?

Mike: You know, it’s so hard to give advice anymore, because it so much depends on the person. I was asked this at a convention a little while ago, and I just said, “It helps if the guy knows what he wants to do.” Once upon a time, I would have said, “Do whatever you need to do to get into the mainstream comics business, build some kind of reputation for yourself, and then it’s easier to branch off into other stuff.” That worked fine for me, and it worked fine for Bill Sienkiewicz and all these other guys who came into their own while they were functioning at Marvel or DC. But the industry’s completely different now. So, I would say, if a guy really knew what he was doing, then maybe self-publishing or whatever. All I know is my experience. I didn’t know what I wanted to do. I had a good time, sometimes a bad time working in professional comics, but when I eventually did figure out what I wanted to do, I had paid my dues. So a lot of doors were open for me. All I can say is, that’s what I did. Is that applicable? I don’t know.

Left: Ye Ed considers Mike’s latest comic book, The Amazing Screw-On Head (May 2002), the absurdist and eminently entertaining one-shot, to be about the best thing Mignola has ever done. Here’s a pair of panels, featuring a jittery vampire, courtesy of the artist. ©2002 Mike Mignola.

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COMIC BOOK ARTIST 23

December 2002

PORTFOLIO

Above: Cover art to the first Hellboy comic book, Hellboy: Seed of Destruction #1. Courtesy of the artist.

Inset right: Self-portrait of Mike done for a Witchblade trading card. ©2002 Mike Mignola.

This page and opposite: Mike Mignola’s cover art for the unpublished Jenny Finn #4, and opposite is for the unpublished trade paperback. Courtesy of the artist. ©2002 Mike Mignola.

This page: 2002 Mignola commission drawing featuring the cast of The Avengers #1. Courtesy of the artist. Art ©2002 Mike Mignola. The Avengers, Loki ©2002 Marvel Characters, Inc.

This page: Mignola’s cover art for the first issue of Scatterbrain (June 1998), depicting characters from his delightful story in that issue, “Abu Gung and the Beanstalk.” Courtesy of the artist. ©2002 Mike Mignola.

This page: Mignola’s cover art for Hellboy: Wake the Devil #2 (July 1996). Courtesy of the artist. ©2002 Mike Mignola.

Above: Hellboy sketch by Mignola. Courtesy of the artist. ©2002 Mike Mignola.

This page: The Warren horror hosts in a Mignola commission drawing. Courtesy of the artist. Uncle Creepy and Cousin Eerie ©2002 Warren Publications, Inc. Vampirella ©2002 Harris Pubs.

Above: Mignola illustration for Christopher Golden’s novel Straight on till Morning. Courtesy of the artist. ©2002 Mike Mignola.

Above: Mignola pin-up illustration for Happy Endings, the 2002 Dark Horse comics anthology featuring Katie & Mike’s “The Magician and the Snake.”

Courtesy of the artist. ©2002 Mike Mignola.

This page: Lovecraft lives! Mignola cover art for Dark Horse Presents #142, the issue dedicated to Rhode Island’s own celebrated horror writer, HPL. Courtesy of the artist. ©2002 Mike Mignola.

Above: Mignola cover art for The Wolves of Saint August collection (1995). Courtesy of the artist. ©2002 Mike Mignola.

Below: Mignola cover art to Hellboy: Box Full of Evil #2 (Sept. 1999).

Courtesy of the artist. ©2002 Mike Mignola.

Devil in the Details

Mike Mignola Comic Art Catalog Brian T. River’s exhaustive listing of just about all of the artist’s work

COMICS ABE SAPIEN: DRUMS OF THE DEAD (Dark Horse) (3/98) Book design: MM & Cary Grazzini; This incredible checklist of the art of Mike Mignola is Story: Hellboy - ”Heads” Writer, pencils & inks: MM. the work of Brian T. Rivers, a meticulous and informed 10 pp.; front & back covers: MM researcher (and obvious lover of comics), who came to ACTION COMICS (…WEEKLY #614) (DC) my attention when Ye Ed met the gentleman at this year’s 600 (5/88) Story: “The Dark Where Madness Lies” Writer: John Byrne. Pencils & inks: MM. 8 pp.

International Comic-Con: San Diego. What must be the 614 (8/23/88) Cover: MM/Ty Templeton (Green Lantern) most comprehensive listing of Mignola’s incredible body of work is only one of many compiled by Mr. Rivers, and ACTION COMICS ANNUAL (DC) 2 (1989) Story: “Memories of Krypton’s Past” CBA is proud to welcome Brian onboard as our Official Writer: George Pérez. Pencils: MM. Inks: George Pérez.

Cataloger/Checklist Dude, whose listings will be regularly 19 pp. (pp. 5, 6, 10, 11 (except panel two—color effect), 17, 18, 24, 25, 27 (except panel three—color effect), 28 featured in this magazine. Ye Ed has slightly modified (right-side panel), 31 (panel 8), 32, 33 (except panel 7), 37, BTR’s original list (eliminating the complete names of 38, 42, 43, 46 (middle tier), 48 (left-side panel)); Article: publishers, for instance—simply listing “Marvel,” rather “How I Spent My Super-Summer Vacation” Writer: George than “Marvel Comics, Inc.”—as well as deleting the Pérez. Two character sketches (The Cleric & Cellkeeper 385): MM month’s names in favor of numerical designations (e.g., 6 (1994) Cover: MM March 1990 becomes 3/90), along with some other THE ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN ANNUAL (DC) minor alterations). Our thanks to Brian for sharing his incredible work. Catalog ©2002 Brian T. Rivers.—Ye Ed.] 6 (1994) Cover: MM THE ADVENTURES OF THE THING (Marvel) 3 (6/92) Cover: Joe Quesada/MM Abbreviation Key: MM: Mike Mignola ALIENS: SALVATION (Dark Horse) (11/93) Writer: Dave Gibbons. Pencils: MM. */*: Names separated by slash conotes penciler/inker respectively Inks: Kevin Nowlan. 48 pp. (including title pg.); cover: MM Artist: Usually denotes a painted illustration ALIENS: SALVATION AND SACRIFICE (Dark Horse) ibc: Inside back cover (3/01) (trade paperback) Front cover: MM; ifc: Inside front cover R: Aliens: Salvation pg.: Page ALIENS VS. PREDATOR (Dark Horse) pp.: Printed pages 0 (7/90) Inside back cover (alternate cover): MM; R: Reprints cover: MM re: In regards to ALIEN WORLDS (Pacific) 6 (2/84) Story: “Pride of the Fleet” Writer: Bruce Jones.

Pencils: Frank Brunner. Inks: MM. 19 pp.

Researched and written by Brian T. Rivers

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ALPHA FLIGHT (Marvel) 29 (12/85) Story: “Cut Bait & Run!” Writer: Bill Mantlo.

Pencils: MM. Inks: Gerry Talaoc. 22 pp.; cover: MM/ Bob Wiacek 30 (1/86) Story: “Enter… Scramble!” Writer: Bill Mantlo.

Pencils: MM. Inks: Gerry Talaoc. 23 pp.; cover: MM 31 (2/86) Story: “The Grateful Dead!” Writer: Bill Mantlo.

Pencils: MM. Inks: Gerry Talaoc. 22 pp.; cover: MM 32 (3/86) Cover (including masthead illo of Vindicator): MM 33 (4/86) Cover (including masthead illo of Aurora): MM 34 (5/86) Cover (including masthead illo of Puck): MM 35 (6/86) Cover (masthead illustration of Box only): MM 36 (7/86) Cover: MM/Al Milgrom 39 (10/86) Cover: MM/P. Craig Russell 47 (6/87) Story: “You Can’t Tell the Forest from the Trees!”

Writer: Bill Mantlo. Pencils: Craig Brasfield, MM & Steve Purcell. Inks: Whilce Portacio & Terry Austin. 23 pp. (total # of story pp.; exact # of MM pp. unknown) 51 (10/87) Cover (masthead illo of Sasquatch only): MM 52 (11/87) Cover (masthead illo of Box (new costume) only): MM 57 (4/88) Cover (masthead illo of Purple Girl only): MM AMAZING HIGH ADVENTURE (Marvel) 2 (9/85) One-pg. pin-up: The American Civil War (pencils & inks: MM) 3 (10/86) Story: “Monkey See, Monkey Die!” Writer: Steve Englehart. Pencils & inks: MM. 12 pp.

THE AMAZING SCREW-ON HEAD (Dark Horse) 1 (5/02) Writer, pencils & inks: MM. 31 pp.; Inside front, front & back covers: MM THE AMERICAN: LOST IN AMERICA (Dark Horse) 3 (9/92) Cover: MM ANGEL (Dark Horse) 12 (10/00) Cover: MM ANGEL: AUTUMNAL (Dark Horse) nn (12/01) (trade paperback) R: Cover of Angel #12 as onepg. pin-up (sans type)

COMIC BOOK ARTIST 23

December 2002

A1 (Atomeka Press) 2 (1989) illustration (pg. 20) (pencils & inks: MM) AQUAMAN (DC) 6 (2/95) Cover: MM THE ART OF ZEN INTERGALACTIC NINJA (Entity) 1 (1994) R: Cover of Zen Intergalactic Ninja Vol. 3, #5 as one-pg. pin-up (sans type) ASH (Event Comics) 2 (1/95) Two-pg. pin-up: Ash & Hellboy (pencils & inks: MM) ATLANTIS, THE LOST EMPIRE (DISNEY’S…) (Dark Horse) nn (6/01) Eight-pg. sketchbook with text commentary: MM; front cover: MM THE AVENGERS ANNUAL (Marvel) 20 (1991) One-pg. pin-up (also appears in Namor, the SubMariner Annual #1) (pencils & inks: MM) BATGIRL SPECIAL (DC) 1 (1988) Cover: MM/Karl Kesel BATMAN (DC) 426 (12/88) Cover: MM 427 (Winter/88) Cover: MM 428 (Holiday/88) Cover: MM 429 (1/89) Cover: MM 452 (Early 8/90) Cover: MM/George Pratt 453 (Late 8/90) Cover: MM/George Pratt 454 (9/90) Cover: MM/George Pratt BATMAN ANNUAL (DC) 18 (1994) Cover: MM BATMAN: A DEATH IN THE FAMILY (DC) nn (1988) (trade paperback) R: Covers of Batman #426-429 THE BATMAN ADVENTURES (DC) 25 (Early 11/94) One-pg. pin-up (pencils & inks: MM) BATMAN BLACK AND WHITE (DC) V2 (2002) (hardcover) Back cover: MM BATMAN: BLIND JUSTICE (DC) nn (1992) (trade paperback) R: One-pg. pin-up from Detective Comics #599 BATMAN: DARK LEGENDS (DC) nn (1996) (trade paperback) R: Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #54 (including cover) BATMAN: GOTHAM BY GASLIGHT (see Gotham by Gaslight: An Alternative History of the Batman)

December 2002

BATMAN/HELLBOY/STARMAN (DC) 1 (1/99) Story: “Gotham Grey Evil” Writer: James Robinson.

Pencils & inks: MM. Special thanks: Archie Goodwin (reason unknown). 32 pp.; front cover: MM 2 (2/99) Story: “Jungle Green Horror” Writer: James Robinson. Pencils & inks: MM. 32 pp.

BATMAN/JUDGE DREDD: VENDETTA IN GOTHAM (DC) nn (1993) Cover: MM BATMAN: LEGENDS OF THE DARK KNIGHT (DC) 54 (11/93) Story: “Sanctum” Plot & script: Dan Raspler. Plot, pencils & inks: MM. 25 pp.; cover: MM 62 (7/94) Cover: MM 100 (11/97) One-pg. pin-up: Batman & Ragman (pencils & inks: MM); R: Cover of Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #54. (see also Legends of the Dark Knight) BATMAN: THE DOOM THAT CAME TO GOTHAM (DC) 1 (2000) Plot: Richard Pace. Plot & script: MM. Pencils: Troy Nixey. Inks: Dennis Janke. 48 pp.; front cover: MM 2 (2000) Plot: Richard Pace. Plot & script: MM. Pencils: Troy Nixey. Inks: Dennis Janke. 48 pp.; front cover: MM 3 (2001) Plot: Richard Pace. Plot & script: MM. Pencils: Troy Nixey. Inks: Dennis Janke. 48 pp.; front cover: MM BATMAN 3-D (DC) nn (1990) (softcover graphic novel) One-pg. pin-up: Batman & Man-Bat (pencils & inks: MM) BATMAN VERSUS PREDATOR (DC/Dark Horse) 1 (1991) (Prestige format) bound-in trading card #5 (pencils & inks: MM) 2 (1992) (Prestige format) R: Bound-in trading card #5 from Batman versus Predator #1 as one-pg. pin-up BATMAN VERSUS PREDATOR: THE COLLECTED EDITION (DC) nn (1993) (trade paperback) R: Bound-in trading card #5 from Batman versus Predator #1 as one-pg. pin-up BLUE BEETLE (DC) 19 (12/87) Cover: MM/Dick Giordano THE BOOK OF TWILIGHT BY MARK RICKETTS (Caliber) nn (1994) (trade paperback; black-&-white) Interior illustration(s?) (pencils & inks: MM) BPRD: HOLLOW EARTH (MIKE MIGNOLA’S…) (Dark Horse) 1 (1/02) Writers: MM, Christopher Golden & Tom Sniegoski.

Pencils & inks: Ryan Sook. 22 pp.; cover: MM 2 (4/02) Writers: MM, Christopher Golden & Tom Sniegoski.

Pencils: Ryan Sook. Inks: Curtis P. Arnold. 22 pp.; cover: MM 3 (6/02) Writers: MM, Christopher Golden & Tom Sniegoski.

Pencils: Ryan Sook. Inks: Curtis P. Arnold. 22 pp.; cover: MM

COMIC BOOK ARTIST 23

BRAM STOKER’S DRACULA (Topps) 1 (10/92) Writer: Roy Thomas (based on screenplay by James V. Hart). Pencils: MM. Inks: John Nyberg. 28 pp.; Inside front cover (used throughout series), front & back covers: MM; R: Cover of Bram Stoker’s Dracula #2 as trading card #2 2 (11/92) Writer: Roy Thomas (based on screenplay by James V. Hart). Pencils: MM. Inks: John Nyberg. 28 pp.; Two-pg. bound-in poster: MM; front & back covers: MM; R: Cover of Bram Stoker’s Dracula #3 as trading card #6 3 (12/92) Writer: Roy Thomas (based on screenplay by James V. Hart). Pencils: MM. Inks: John Nyberg. 28 pp.; front & back covers: MM; R: Cover of Bram Stoker’s Dracula #4 as trading card #10 4 (1/93) Writer: Roy Thomas (based on screenplay by James V. Hart). Pencils: MM. Inks: John Nyberg. 31 pp.; front & back covers: MM; R: Cover of Bram Stoker’s Dracula #1 as trading card #14 BRAM STOKER’S DRACULA (Topps) nn (3/93) (trade paperback) One-pg. afterword contains MM’s storyboards for proposed ending of film; Wraparound cover: MM; R: Bram Stoker’s Dracula 1-4, including front cover of #2 (sans type, as the inside front cover) CAPTAIN AMERICA ANNUAL (Marvel) 10 (1991) Cover: MM CATWOMAN: SELINA’S BIG SCORE (DC) nn (2002) (hardcover) one-pg. pin-up (pencils & inks: MM) CHEVAL NOIR (Dark Horse) 12 (10/90) Front cover: MM THE CHRONICLES OF CORUM (MICHAEL MOORCOCK’S…) (First) 1 (1/87) Story: “The Knight of the Swords” Part 1. Writer: Mike Baron (adapted from Moorcock story). Pencils: MM. Inks: Rick Burchett. 26 pp.; cover: MM 2 (3/87) Story: “The Knight of the Swords” Part 2: “The Summoning” Writer: Mike Baron (adapted from Moorcock story). Pencils: MM. Inks: Kelley Jones. 26 pp.; cover: MM 3 (5/87) Story: “The Knight of the Swords” Part 3: “The Eye of Rhynn and the Hand of Kwll” Writer: Mike Baron (adapted from Moorcock story). Pencils: MM. Inks: Kelley Jones. 26 pp.; cover: MM 4 (7/87) Story: “The Knight of the Swords” Part 4: “The Heart of Chaos” Writer: Mike Baron (adapted from Moorcock story). Pencils: MM. Inks: Kelley Jones. 26 pp.; cover: MM 5 (9/87) Story: “The Queen of the Swords” Part 1: “The Dog and the Bear” Writer: Mike Baron (adapted from Moorcock story). Pencils: MM. Inks: Kelley Jones. 26 pp.; cover: MM 6 (11/87) Story: “The Queen of the Swords” Part 2:

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CRIMSON SOURCEBOOK (WildStorm) 1 (11/99) One-pg. entry: Lucifer (pencils & inks: MM) CRITICAL MASS: A SHADOWLINE SAGA (see A Shadowline Saga: “Critical Mass”) DAREDEVIL (Marvel) 197 (8/83) Story: “Journey” Writer: Denny O’Neil. Pencils: William Johnson. Inks: MM. 17 pp. (pp. 1, 7-22) DAREDEVIL ANNUAL (Marvel) 7 (1991) Cover: MM THE DARK CONVENTION BOOK (Continüm) V1 (Fall 1992) One-pg. pin-up (pencils & inks: MM) DARK HORSE COMICS (Dark Horse) 2 (9/92) Cover (Robocop): MM DARK HORSE MAVERICK: HAPPY ENDINGS (Dark Horse) nn (9/02) (trade paperback) Story: “The Magician and the Snake” Writer: Katie Mignola. Writer, pencils & inks: MM. 6 pp.

DARK HORSE MAVERICK 2001 (Dark Horse) nn (7/01) One-pg. pin-up: Hellboy (pencils & inks: MM) DARK HORSE PRESENTS (Dark Horse) 88 (8/94) Story: Hellboy - “The Wolves of Saint August” Part 1. Writer, pencils & inks: MM. 8 pp.; cover: MM 89 (9/94) Story: Hellboy - “The Wolves of Saint August” Part 2. Writer, pencils & inks: MM. 8 pp.; cover: MM 90 (10/94) Story: Hellboy - “The Wolves of Saint August” Part 3. Writer, pencils & inks: MM. 8 pp.; cover: MM 91 (11/94) Story: Hellboy - “The Wolves of Saint August” Part 4. Writer, pencils & inks: MM. 8 pp.; cover: MM 100-2 (8/95) Story: Hellboy - ”The Chained Coffin” Writer, pencils & inks: MM. 10 pp.

107 (3/96) Story: “Rusty Razorclam President of Neptune” Writer: Steve Purcell. Pencils & inks: MM. 7 pp.; front cover: MM 142 (4/99) Story: Dr. Gosburo Coffin - ”The Bookroom Horror” Writer: MM. Pencils & inks: Ryan Sook. 8 pp.; cover: MM 151 (2/00) Story: Hellboy ”The Nature of the Beast” Writer, pencils & inks: MM. 8 pp.; cover: MM DARK HORSE PRESENTS ANNUAL (Dark Horse) 1998 (9/98) Story: Hellboy “The Right Hand of Doom” Writer, pencils & inks: MM. 10 pp.; front cover: MM 1999(8/99) Story: Hellboy ”Pancakes” Writer, pencils & inks: MM. 2 pp.; front cover (vignette of Hellboy only): MM DAVE COOPER’S WEASEL (see Weasel) DEADMAN (DC) 3 (4/02) Cover: MM 4 (5/02) Cover: MM

French edition

Ashcan edition

“Xiombarg’s Beasts” Writer: Mike Baron (adapted from Moorcock story). Pencils: MM. Inks: Kelley Jones. 26 pp.; cover: MM 9 (5/88) Cover: Ken Hooper/MM 11 (9/88) Cover: MM/P. Craig Russell 12 (11/88) Cover: MM/P. Craig Russell CLASSIC X-MEN (Marvel) 11 (7/87) Frontispiece (Black Tom Cassidy & Juggernaut): MM (see also X-Men Classic) CLIVE BARKER’S HELLRAISER (Marvel/Epic) 2 (1990) One-pg. pin-up (Artist: MM ) 13 (1992)Story: “Dead Things Rot” PIot & script: D.G. Chichester. PIot & pencils: MM. Inks: Mark Nelson. 15 pp.

CLIVE BARKER’S HELLRAISER: COLLECTED BEST (Checker) nn (2002) (Two editions: Trade paperback & hardcover) R: Clive Barker’s Hellraiser #13 CLOAK AND DAGGER (Marvel) 7 (7/86) Cover: MM/Terry Austin 8 (9/86) Story: “Vacation” Writer: Bill Mantlo. Pencils: MM. Inks: Terry Austin. 22 pp.; cover: MM/Terry Austin COLOSSUS (Crazyfish/MJ-12) nn (2000) (Two editions: Trade paperback & limited hardcover; b-&-w) One-pg. pin-up (pencils & inks: MM) COMICS’ GREATEST WORLD: OUT OF THE VORTEX (Dark Horse) 2 (11/93) Cover: MM COMICS’ GREATEST WORLD: THE MACHINE (Dark Horse) nn (8/93) Cover: MM CONAN THE BARBARIAN (Marvel) 236 (9/90) Cover: MM 237 (10/90) Cover: MM CORUM: THE BULL AND THE SPEAR (MICHAEL MOORCOCK’S…) (First) 1 (1/89) Cover: MM/P. Craig Russell COSMIC ODYSSEY (DC ) 1 (1988) Story: “Discovery” Writer: Jim Starlin. Pencils: MM. Inks: Carlos Garzon. 48 pp.; Inside back cover (used throughout series) & front cover: MM 2 (1988) Story: “Disaster” Writer: Jim Starlin. Pencils: MM. Inks: Carlos Garzon. 48 pp.; front cover: MM 3 (1988) Story: “Decisions” Writer: Jim Starlin. Pencils: MM. Inks: Carlos Garzon. 48 pp.; front cover: MM 4 (1988) Story: “Death” Writer: Jim Starlin. Pencils: MM. Inks: Carlos Garzon. 48 pp.; front cover: MM (see also MISCELLANEOUS: …Promotional illustration) COSMIC ODYSSEY (DC) nn (1992) (trade paperback) Front cover: MM; R: Cosmic Odyssey #1-4 (including front covers)

5 (6/02) Cover: MM DEADTIME STORIES (New Comics Group) 1 (11/87) One-pg. pin-up: Werewolf (pencils & inks: MM) DEATH OF LADY VAMPRÉ (THE…) (Blackout) 1 (1995) Front cover: MM DEFENDERS (THE NEW… #128,139) (Marvel) 116 (2/83) Story: “Two By Two” Writer: J.M. DeMatteis.

Pencils: Don Perlin. Inks (uncredited): MM (credited to “Diverse Hands”) 5 pp. (story pp. 6-10); (Note: MM’s first professional comics work) 128 (2/84) Story: “Assault On The Empire!” Writer: J.M. DeMatteis. Pencils: Alan Kupperberg. Inks: MM. 22 pp.

139 (1/85) Cover: MM/Kevin Nowlan (signed as “Mundelo”) (see also The New Defenders) DETECTIVE COMICS (DC) 583 (2/88) Cover: MM 599 (4/89) One-pg. pin-up (pencils & inks: MM) 600 (5/89) R: Cover of Batman #427 as one-pg. pin-up DETECTIVE COMICS ANNUAL (DC) 2 (1989) One-pg. Who’s Who entry: Two-Face (pencils & inks: MM) DISNEY’S ATLANTIS: THE LOST EMPIRE (see Atlantis: The Lost Empire) DOCTOR STRANGE (Marvel) 75 (2/86) Cover: MM DOCTOR STRANGE AND DOCTOR DOOM: TRIUMPH AND TORMENT (Marvel) nn (1989, hardcover; 1990, softcover graphic novel) Writer: Roger Stern. Pencils: MM. Inks & colors: Mark Badger. 78 pp.; cover/dustjacket (hard) & front cover (soft): MM DOCTOR TOMORROW (Valiant) 1 (9/97) Cover: MM DOOM FORCE SPECIAL (DC) 1 (7/92) Cover: Keith Giffen/MM DRACULA: VLAD THE IMPALER (Topps) 1 (2/93) trading card #3—Dracula’s Father (pencils & inks: MM); Count Dracula illustration on backs of trading cards #1-3 (Pencils: Jack Kirby. Inks: MM) 2 (3/93) Count Dracula illustration on the backs of trading cards #4-6 (Pencils: Jack Kirby. Inks: MM) 3 (4/93) Count Dracula illustration on the backs of trading cards #’s 7-9 (Pencils: Jack Kirby. Inks: MM) (Note: Backs of nine trading cards form a single illustration when assembled) DYLAN DOG (Dark Horse) 1 (3/99) Cover: MM

COMIC BOOK ARTIST 23

December 2002

German edition

2 (4/99) Cover: MM 3 (5/99) Cover: MM 4 (6/99) Cover: MM 5 (7/99) Cover: MM 6 (8/99) Cover: MM ELEMENTALS (Comico) 9 (8/86) Story: “Fame” Plot: Bill Willingham. Script: Jack Herman. Pencils: MM. Inks: Rich Rankin. 2 pp. (pp. 22, 23) THE ESSENTIAL WOLVERINE (Marvel) V2 (3/97) (trade paperback; black-&-white) R: Cover of Wolverine #28 & two-pg. pin-up from Wolverine #41 as one-pg. pin-ups FAFHRD AND THE GRAY MOUSER (Marvel) 1 (10/90) Story: “Ill Met In Lankhmar” Writer: Howard Chaykin. Pencils: MM. Inks: Al Williamson. 45 pp.; one-pg. pin-up (pencils & inks: MM); Inside front, inside back & front covers (ifc, ibc: Single illustration; used throughout series): MM 2 (1991) Story: “The Circle Curse” Writer: Howard Chaykin.

Pencils: MM. Inks: Al Williamson. 14 pp.; Story: “The Howling Tower” Writer: Howard Chaykin. Pencils: MM. Inks: Al Williamson. 32 pp.; two one-pg. pin-ups (pencils & inks: MM); front cover: MM 3 (1991) Story: “The Price of Pain Ease” Writer: Howard Chaykin. Pencils: MM. Inks: Al Williamson. 20 pp.; Story: “Bazaar of the Bizarre” Writer: Howard Chaykin. Pencils: MM. Inks: Al Williamson. 28 pp.; front cover: MM 4 (1991) Story: “Lean Times In Lankhmar” Writer: Howard Chaykin. Pencils: MM. Inks: Al Williamson. 29 pp.; Story: “When The Sea King’s Away…” Writer: Howard Chaykin.

Pencils: MM. Inks: Al Williamson. 19 pp.; front cover: MM FALLEN ANGELS (Marvel) 6 (9/87) Cover: MM/Al Williamson FANTASTIC FOUR (Marvel) 358 (11/91) One-pg. pin-up: Blastaar (pencils & inks: MM); one-pg. pin-up: Annihilus (pencils & inks: MM) FANTASTIC FOUR ASHCAN (Marvel) nn (1994) Wraparound cover: MM FEMFORCE PIN-UP SPECIAL (AC Comics) 2 (1985?) One-pg. pin-up: Lone Star & Yellow Rose (pencils & inks: MM) FISH POLICE SPECIAL (Comico) 1 (7/87) Inside back cover: MM (see also Inspector Gill of the Fish Police) THE FISH POLICE: HAIRBALLS (Comico) nn (10/87) (softcover graphic novel) R: Inside back cover of Fish Police Special #1 on inside front cover

December 2002

THE FOOT SOLDIERS (Dark Horse) 1 (1/96) One-pg. pin-up (pencils & inks: MM) THE FOOT SOLDIERS (AiT/Planet Lar) V1 (2/01) (trade paperback) quote by MM THE FRANKENSTEIN/DRACULA WAR (Topps) 1 (2/95) Cover: MM 2 (3/95) Cover: MM 3 (4/95) Cover: MM FREAKS’ AMOUR (Dark Horse) 3 (11/92) Cover: MM FREE SPEECHES (Oni Press) nn (8/98) illustration: Hellboy (pg. 24) (pencils & inks: MM) GARY GIANNI’S THE MONSTERMEN (Dark Horse) nn (8/99) Story: Hellboy - ”Goodbye Mister Tod” Writer, pencils & inks: MM. 8 pp.; front cover (vignette of Hellboy only): MM GHOST/HELLBOY SPECIAL (Dark Horse) 1 (5/96) Writer & layouts: MM. Pencils: Scott Benefiel. Inks: Jasen Rodriguez. 23 pp.; cover: MM 2 (6/96) Writer & layouts: MM. Pencils: Scott Benefiel. Inks: Jasen Rodriguez. 22 pp.; cover: MM GHOST/HELLBOY SPECIAL (Dark Horse) nn (6/97) Two pp. of thumbnails: MM; front cover: MM; R: Ghost/Hellboy Special #1 & 2 (including covers) GODZILLA (DARK HORSE COMICS, INC.) nn (5/95) (Second edition, trade paperback) R: Plate from Godzilla Portfolio II GO POWER! THE COMPLETE ATOMIC CITY TALES (Kitchen Sink) V1 (1/97) (trade paperback) Introduction writer: MM. One pg.

GOTHAM BY GASLIGHT: AN ALTERNATIVE HISTORY OF THE BATMAN (DC) nn (1989) Writer: Brian Augustyn. Pencils: MM. Inks: P. Craig Russell. 47 pp.; front cover: MM/P. Craig Russell (see also MISCELLANEOUS: …Promotional Illustration) HELLBOY: ALMOST COLOSSUS (Dark Horse) 1 (6/97) (Hellboy #12 on ifc) Book design: MM & Cary Grazzini; Writer, pencils & inks: MM. 22 pp.; Inside front cover (used throughout series) & front cover: MM 2 (7/97) (Hellboy #13 on ifc) Book design: MM & Cary Grazzini; Writer, pencils & inks: MM. 21 pp.; Front cover: MM HELLBOY: BOX FULL OF EVIL (Dark Horse) 1 (8/99) (Hellboy #15 on ifc) Book design: MM & Cary Grazzini; Story: Hellboy - “Box Full of Evil” Writer, pencils & inks: MM. 20 pp.; Story: Lobster Johnson ”The Killer in My

COMIC BOOK ARTIST 23

Skull” Writer: MM. Pencils: Matt Smith. Inks: Ryan Sook.

10 pp.; inside front cover (used throughout series) & front cover: MM; “Dark Horse Maverick” logo design: MM (first appears on this issue) 2 (9/99) (Hellboy #16 on ifc) Book design: MM & Cary Grazzini; Story: Hellboy - “Box Full of Evil” Writer, pencils & inks: MM. 23 pp.; Story: “Abe Sapien versus Science” Writer & inks: MM. Pencils: Matt Smith. 8 pp.; inside back cover (Hellboy: Conqueror Worm promotional illustration) & front cover: MM HELLBOY CHRISTMAS SPECIAL (Dark Horse) nn (12/97) (Hellboy #14 on ifc) Book design: MM & Cary Grazzini; Story: “A Christmas Underground” Writer, pencils & inks: MM. 21 pp.; One pg. “Further Reading” text piece, includes one Hellboy illustration (Writer, pencils & inks: MM); back cover: MM HELLBOY: CONQUEROR WORM (Dark Horse) 1 (5/01) (Hellboy #17 on ifc) Book design: MM & Cary Grazzini; Writer, pencils & inks: MM. 29 pp.; inside front, front & back covers: MM (ifc & back cover used throughout series) 2 (6/01) (Hellboy #18 on ifc) Book design: MM & Cary Grazzini; Writer, pencils & inks: MM. 28 pp.; front cover: MM 3 (7/01) (Hellboy #19 on ifc) Book design: MM & Cary Grazzini; Writer, pencils & inks: MM. 28 pp.; front cover: MM 4 (8/01) (Hellboy #20 on ifc) Book design: MM & Cary Grazzini; Writer, pencils & inks: MM. 29 pp.; front cover: MM HELLBOY: CONQUEROR WORM (Dark Horse) nn (2/02) (trade paperback) Collection design: MM & Cary Grazzini; new nine-pg. epilogue (Writer, pencils & inks: MM); book pg. one illustration & five-pg. sketchbook with text commentary: MM; front & back covers: MM; R: Hellboy: Conqueror Worm #1-4 (including front covers, sans type, as one-pg. pin-ups) & Hellboy: Conqueror Worm promo illustration (sans type, as one-pg. pin-up) HELLBOY, JR. (Dark Horse) 1 (10/99) Story: “Squid of Man” Writer: Bill Wray. Pencils & inks: MM. 6 pp.; One-pg. promotional illustration for next issue (pencils & inks: MM) 2 (11/99) Story: “Hellboy Jr. Gets A Car” Writer, pencils & inks: MM. 6 pp.; inside back cover (Hellboy: Conqueror Worm promotional illustration): MM HELLBOY, JR., HALLOWEEN SPECIAL (Dark Horse) nn (10/97) Story: “The Creation of Hellboy Jr.: A Short Origin Story” Writer: Bill Wray. Pencils & inks: MM. One pg.; Story: Hellboy Jr. - “The Devil Don’t Smoke” Writer, pencils & inks: MM (additional dialogue: Bill Wray). 5 pp.

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HELLBOY: LE DIABLE DANS LA BOÎTE (Delcourt) nn (11/99) (hardcover; French edition) Cover: MM HELLBOY: SEED OF DESTRUCTION (Dark Horse) 1 (3/94) Plot, pencils & inks: MM. Script: John Byrne. 23 pp.; One-pg. “Hellmail” illustration (pencils & inks: MM); inside front cover (used throughout series) & cover: MM 2 (4/94) Plot, pencils & inks: MM. Script: John Byrne. 24 pp.; cover: MM 3 (5/94) Plot, pencils & inks: MM. Script: John Byrne. 24 pp.; cover: MM 4 (6/94) Plot, pencils & inks: MM. Script: John Byrne. 23 pp.; One-pg. “Hellmail” text piece, with illustration (writer, pencils & inks: MM); cover: MM (Note: Cover says Mike Mignola’s Hellboy: Seeds…)

HELLBOY: SEED OF DESTRUCTION (Dark Horse) nn (10/94) (Two editions: Trade paperback & limited signed-&numbered hardcover) book pg. two illustration, two chapter heading illustrations, illustration for “An African Myth About A Frog” & illustration for “Images of Hellboy” (pencils & inks: MM); feature: “Where The Hell Did He Come From?: Personal reminiscences by Mike Mignola.” Writer (text commentary), pencils & inks: MM. 2 pp. (illustrations include: Convention program book illustration & two previously unpublished illustrations); one pg. of text commentary: MM; signature plate illustration of Hellboy (hardcover only) (Artist: MM); 15 one-pg. illustrations (hardcover only) (pencils & inks: MM); inside front, inside back & front covers: MM (all trade paperback only; ifc, ibc: single illustration); R: Hellboy: Seed of Destruction #1-4 (including covers, sans type, as one-pg. pin-ups & “Hellmail” illustrations from #1 & 4 (printed in their entirety, sans type, as “Chapter Two” & “Chapter Four” illustrations), Hellboy poster from Media Arts (as a one-pg. pin-up; the first Hellboy promotional illustration), San Diego Comic-Con Comics #2 & Hellboy story from Comics Buyer’s Guide #1070 nn (6/97, second edition) (trade paperback) Collection design: MM & Cary Grazzini; front cover: MM; R: Hellboy: Seed of Destruction #1-4 (including covers, sans type, as one-pg. pin-ups & “Hellmail” illustrations from #1 & 4 (printed in their entirety, sans type, as “Chapter Two” & “Chapter Four” illustrations), Hellboy poster from Media Arts (as a one-pg. pin-up; the first Hellboy promotional illustration), San Diego Comic-Con Comics #2, Hellboy story from Comics Buyer’s Guide #1070 & 10/94 edition front cover (portion only) nn (1999, unnumbered third edition) (trade paperback) Collection design: MM & Cary Grazzini; “Hellboy Gallery” illustration (pencils & inks: MM); front cover: MM; R: Hellboy: Seed of Destruction #1-4 (including covers, sans

52

type, as one-pg. pin-ups & “Hellmail” illustrations from #1 & 4 (printed in their entirety, sans type, as “Chapter Two” & “Chapter Four” illustrations), Hellboy poster from Media Arts (as a one-pg. pin-up; the first Hellboy promotional illustration), San Diego Comic-Con Comics #2, Hellboy story from Comics Buyer’s Guide #1070 & front cover of Hellboy: Seed of Destruction 6/97 second edition as onepg. pin-up, sans type HELLBOY: THE CHAINED COFFIN AND OTHERS (Dark Horse) nn (8/98) (trade paperback) Collection design: MM & Cary Grazzini; Story: “The Baba Yaga” Writer, pencils & inks: MM. 8 pp.; new additional material: Three new pp. in “Hellboy: Almost Colossus” & slightly different first pg. in “The Chained Coffin” (writer, pencils & inks: MM); book pg. one illustration & 4 pp. of text commentary: MM; front cover: MM; R: “Hellboy: The Wolves of Saint August” (Dark Horse Presents #88-91), Hellboy: The Corpse and the Iron Shoes (including front cover, sans type, as one-pg. pinup), Hellboy: Almost Colossus #1 & 2 (including #1 front cover, sans type, as one-pg. pin-up), Dark Horse Presents #100-2 (first color appearance) & “A Christmas Underground” from Hellboy Christmas Special HELLBOY: THE CORPSE AND THE IRON SHOES (Dark Horse) nn (1996) (Hellboy #6 on ifc) Story: “The Corpse” Writer, pencils & inks: MM. 25 pp.; Story: “The Iron Shoes” Writer, pencils & inks: MM. 6 pp.; inside front cover (spot illustration) & front cover: MM (Note: pp. 2-17 of “The Corpse” originally serialized in Advance Comics #75-82) HELLBOY: THE RIGHT HAND OF DOOM (Dark Horse) nn (4/00) (trade paperback) three one-pg. story introductions: MM; Story: “King Vold” Writer, pencils & inks: MM. 14 pp.; Story: “The Vârcolac” Writer, pencils & inks: MM. 12 pp.; illustration for “The Right Hand of Doom” (pencils & inks: MM); Story: “Box Full of Evil” epilogue. Writer, pencils & inks: MM. 4 pp.; 19-pg. sketchbook: MM; front cover: MM; R: Dark Horse Presents #151 (excluding cover), Dark Horse Presents Annual 1998 (including front cover, sans type, as one-pg. pin-up), Dark Horse Presents Annual 1999 (including front cover, vignette of Hellboy only), Abe Sapien: Drums of the Dead (including front cover, vignette of Hellboy only), Gary Gianni’s The MonsterMen (excluding front cover) & Hellboy: Box Full of Evil #1 & 2 (including #1 front cover & cover to French edition (Hellboy: Le Diable dans la Boîte), both sans type, as one-pg. pin-ups) HELLBOY: THE THIRD WISH (Dark Horse) 1 (7/02) (Hellboy #21 on ifc) Book design: MM & Cary Grazzini; writer, pencils & inks: MM. 28 pp.; inside front, front & back covers: MM (ifc & back cover used throughout series) 2 (8/02) (Hellboy #22 on ifc) Book design: MM & Cary

Grazzini; Writer, pencils & inks: MM. 28 pp.; Inside back & front covers: MM HELLBOY: THE WOLVES OF SAINT AUGUST (Dark Horse) nn (1995) (Hellboy #5 on ifc) New additional material: pp. 1 (title pg.), 2, 3 (panel one only), 11 (panel one only), 16, 20 (panel one only), 28-32, 33 (panel one only) & 35 (pencils & inks: MM); One-pg. text commentary by MM; one-pg. pin-up: Alternate cover for Dark Horse Presents #91 (pencils & inks: MM); front cover: MM; R: Dark Horse Presents #88-91 (including covers, sans type, as one-pg. pin-ups) HELLBOY: WAKE THE DEVIL (Dark Horse) 1 (6/96) (Hellboy #7 on ifc) Writer, pencils & inks: MM. 22 pp.; inside front cover (used throughout series) & front cover: MM 2 (7/96) (Hellboy #8 on ifc) Writer, pencils & inks: MM. 22 pp.; front cover: MM 3 (8/96) (Hellboy #9 on ifc) Writer, pencils & inks: MM. 22 pp.; front cover: MM 4 (9/96) (Hellboy #10 on ifc) Writer, pencils & inks: MM. 22 pp.; front cover: MM 5 (10/96) (Hellboy #11 on ifc) Writer, pencils & inks: MM. 24 pp.; inside back cover (Hellboy: Almost Colossus promotional illustration) & front cover: MM HELLBOY: WAKE THE DEVIL (Dark Horse) nn (5/97) (trade paperback) Collection design: MM & Cary Grazzini; new seven-pg. epilogue (Writer, pencils & inks: MM); book pg. two illustration, five chapter heading spot illustrations, “Hellboy Gallery” illustration & one-pg. afterword: MM; front & back covers: MM; R: Hellboy: Wake the Devil #1-5 (including front covers, sans type, as one-pg. pin-ups) THE HERETIC (Dark Horse) 4 (3/97) Special thanks: MM (reason unknown; for use of Hellboy characters only?)

HOT SHOTS: SPIDER-MAN (Marvel) nn (1/96) Two-pg. poster: Spider-Man, the Prowler & Carnage (pencils & inks: MM) THE INCREDIBLE HULK (Marvel) 302 (12/84) Cover: MM/Terry Austin 304 (2/85) Cover: MM/Kevin Nowlan (signed as “Mundelo”) 305 (3/85) Cover: MM/Al Gordon 306 (4/85) Cover: MM 307 (5/85) Cover: MM/Steve Leialoha 308 (6/85) Cover: MM 309 (7/85) Cover: MM 311 (9/85) Story: “Life Is A Four-Letter Word!” Writer: Bill Mantlo. Pencils: MM. Inks: Gerry Talaoc. 22 pp.; cover: MM/Al Williamson 312 (10/85) Story: “Monster” Writer: Bill Mantlo. Pencils: MM.

COMIC BOOK ARTIST 23

December 2002

Seeds of Destruction limited edition Inks: Gerry Talaoc. 26 pp.; cover: MM/Bill Sienkiewicz 313 (11/85) Story: “Hook, Line & Sinker!” Writer: Bill Mantlo.

Pencils: MM. Inks: Gerry Talaoc. 22 pp.; cover: MM INSPECTOR GILL OF THE FISH POLICE (Fishwrap) 3 (4/86) Inside back cover (“Here’s Looking At You, S.Q.U.I.D.”): MM (see also Fish Police) IRONWOLF — FIRES OF THE REVOLUTION (DC) nn (1992, hardcover; 1993, trade paperback) Writers: Howard Chaykin & John Francis Moore. Pencils: MM. Inks: P. Craig Russell. 96 pp.; front covers on both (hard: painted): MM JENNY FINN (Oni) 1 (6/99) Writer: MM. Writer, pencils & inks: Troy Nixey. 26 pp.; cover: MM 2 (9/99) Writer: MM. Writer, pencils & inks: Troy Nixey. 24 pp.; cover: MM (Note: Unfinished mini-series; #3 & 4 remain unpublished) JOHN BYRNE’S NEXT MEN (Dark Horse) 21 (12/93) Story: “Faith” Part 3. Writer: John Byrne. Pencils & inks: MM. 10 pp. (pp. 12-21); cover: MM 30 (12/94) (Lies #4) R: Cover of John Byrne’s Next Men #21 on back cover JOHN BYRNE’S NEXT MEN: FAITH (Dark Horse) nn (2/95) (Two editions: Trade paperback & limited hardcover) R: John Byrne’s Next Men #21 (excluding cover) JONNY QUEST (Comico) 21 (2/88) Back cover: MM/Steve Leialoha JUSTICE LEAGUE INTERNATIONAL QUARTERLY (DC) 14 (Spring/94) Cover: MM JUSTICE LEAGUE QUARTERLY (See Justice League International Quarterly) KABUKI—IMAGES (Image) nn (6/98) One-pg. pin-up (pencils & inks: MM) KA-ZAR THE SAVAGE (Marvel) 28 (10/83) Story: “Trouble In Paradise!” Writer: Michael Carlin (from an idea by Bruce Jones). Pencils: Armando Gil. Inks: MM. 28 pp.

KICKERS, INC. (Marvel) 9 (7/87) Cover: MM/Walt Simonson 12 (10/87) Cover: MM/Kevin Nowlan LEGENDS OF THE DARK KNIGHT ANNUAL (BATMAN:...) (DC) 1 (1991) Cover: MM (see also Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight) LETHARGIC LAD (Lethargic) 6 (9/98) “LETHARGiC” Logo Design: MM (first appears on this issue)

December 2002

LOBO: UN-AMERICAN GLADIATORS (DC) 1 (6/93) Cover: MM 2 (7/93) Cover: MM 3 (8/93) Cover: MM 4 (9/93) Cover: MM MADMAN ADVENTURES (Tundra) 1 (1993) Back cover: MM MADMAN COMICS: YEARBOOK ‘95 (Dark Horse) nn (1/96) (Two editions: Trade paperback & limited hardcover) R: Back cover of Madman Adventures #1 MADMAN PICTURE EXHIBITION (AAA Pop) 3 (6/02) R: Back cover of Madman Adventures #1 as one-pg. pin-up MADMAN PICTURE EXHIBITION (AAA Pop) nn (2002) (limited hardcover edition) R: Back cover of Madman Adventures #1 as one-pg. pin-up THE MARQUIS: DANSE MACABRE (Oni) 2 (7/00) Front cover: MM MARTHA WASHINGTON GOES TO WAR (Dark Horse) 5 (11/94) One-pg. pin-up (pencils & inks: MM) MARVEL CHILLERS: BLOOD STORM (Marvel) nn (1996) R: Cover of X-Men Classic #63 MARVEL COMICS PRESENTS (Marvel) 20 (5/89) Wraparound cover (Cyclops, Black Panther, Doctor Strange & Clea): MM 79 (6/91) Back cover (Doctor Strange, Sunspot & Sgt. Fury vs.

Dracula): MM 81 (7/91) Back cover (Daredevil, Captain America & Ant-Man): Mark Chiarello/MM MARVEL FANFARE (Marvel) 16 (9/84) Story: Namor, the Sub-Mariner - “A Fable” Writer: Bill Mantlo. Pencils & inks: MM. 10 pp.; One-pg. pin-up: Namor, the Sub-Mariner (pencils & inks: MM) 34 (9/87) Six one-pg. pin-ups: Attuma, Nightmare, Baron Zemo & the Red Skull, Kraven, Dormammu & Kang (pencils & inks: MM) 43 (4/89) Story: Namor, the Sub-Mariner - “Time After Time” Writer: Bill Mantlo. Pencils: MM. Inks: P. Craig Russell. 12 pp.; front cover: MM/P. Craig Russell 45 (8/89) One-pg. pin-up: Namor, the Sub-Mariner (pencils & inks: MM) MARVEL SUPER-HEROES (Marvel) 10 (7/92) Story: The Vision & the Scarlet Witch - “The Terror!”

Writer: Bill Mantlo. Pencils: MM. Inks: Armando Gil. 22 pp.

MARVEL TEAM-UP (Marvel) 141 (5/84) Cover (Spider-Man, Daredevil & the Black Widow): Arthur Adams/MM

COMIC BOOK ARTIST 23

THE MASK: VIRTUAL SURREALITY (Dark Horse) nn (7/97) Story: “Gug Soth-Yog Sugoth” Writer, pencils & inks: MM. 3 pp.

MASTER OF KUNG FU (Marvel) 123 (4/83) Story: “The Sins of the Son!” Writer: Alan Zelenetz.

Pencils: William Johnson. Inks: MM. 22 pp.

124 (5/83) Story: “Retribution!” Writer: Alan Zelenetz. Pencils: William Johnson. Inks: MM. 22 pp.

125 (6/83) Story: “Atonement” Writer: Alan Zelenetz. Pencils: William Johnson. Inks: MM. 27 pp. (story pp. 1-18, 30-38); cover: Ron Wilson/MM MICHAEL MOORCOCK’S CORUM: THE BULL AND THE SPEAR (see Corum: The Bull And The Spear) MICHAEL MOORCOCK’S THE CHRONICLES OF CORUM (see The Chronicles of Corum) THE MICRONAUTS (Marvel) 51 (3/83) Story: “He Who Turns and Runs Away…!” Writer: Bill Mantlo. Pencils: Jackson Guice. Inks (uncredited): MM. 7 pp. (story pp. 16, 19-22, 26, 27; exact # of pp. unknown) THE MIGHTY THOR (Marvel) 408 (10/89) Story: Tales of Asgard - “There Dwells A Monster!”

Writer: Tom DeFalco. Pencils: MM. Inks: Bob Wiacek. 5 pp.

409 (11/89) Story: Tales of Asgard - “To Fight The Unbeatable Foe--!” Writer: Tom DeFalco. Pencils: MM. Inks: Bob Wiacek. 5 pp.

THE MIGHTY THOR ANNUAL (Marvel) 15 (1990) One-pg. pin-up: Ulik (pencils & inks: MM) MIKE MIGNOLA’S B.P.R.D.: HOLLOW EARTH (see BPRD: Hollow Earth) MIKE MIGNOLA’S HELLBOY: SEED OF DESTRUCTION (see Hellboy: Seed of Destruction) MINIMUM WAGE (Fantagraphics) V2#5(11/96) Back cover: MM MR. MONSTER’S THREE DIMENSIONAL HIGH-OCTANE HORROR (MR. MONSTER SUPER-DUPER SPECIAL #1) (Eclipse) 1 (May 1986) Story: “Mr. Monster’s 3-D Hi-Octane Horror” Writer & pencils: Michael T. Gilbert. Inks: MM & Steve Purcell. 4 pp.

NAMOR, THE SUB-MARINER ANNUAL (Marvel) 1 (1991) One-pg. pin-up (also appears in The Avengers Annual #20) (pencils & inks: MM) NEIL GAIMAN’S MIDNIGHT DAYS (DC) nn (1999) (trade paperback) R: Swamp Thing Annual #5 THE NEW DEFENDERS (Marvel) 141 (3/85) Cover: MM/Kevin Nowlan (signed as “Mundelo”) 142 (4/85) Cover: Arthur Adams/MM (see also The Defenders)

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Hellboy appearance only, No MM art

Japanese edition

NEW GODS SECRET FILES (…& ORIGINS) (DC) (1) (9/98) One-pg. pin-up (Profile Page: Darkseid) (pencils & inks: MM) THE NEW MUTANTS (Marvel) 54 (8/87) Cover: MM/Terry Austin THE NEW MUTANTS ANNUAL (Marvel) 7 (1991) Cover: MM THE NEW WARRIORS ANNUAL (Marvel) 1 (7/91 ) Cover: Mark Bagley/MM NEXUS (First) 28 (1/87) Story: “Uncle” Writer: Mike Baron. Pencils: MM. Inks: John Nyberg & Rick Burchett. 20 pp.; cover: MM NIGHTBREED: GENESIS (Marvel/Epic) nn (1991) (trade paperback) Front cover: MM 9-11 VOLUME 1: ARTISTS RESPOND (Dark Horse) V1 (1/02) (trade paperback) Story: “NYC: 9-11-01 and After” Pencils & inks: MM. 2 pp. (pp. 134, 135) THE NOCTURNALS: WITCHING HOUR (Dark Horse) nn (5/98) One-pg. pin-up: The Gunwitch (pencils & inks: MM) THE OFFICIAL HANDBOOK OF THE MARVEL UNIVERSE (Marvel) 3 (3/83) Deviants entry (Pencils: MM. Inks: Josef Rubinstein) 4 (4/83) Elders of the Universe entry (Pencils: MM. Inks: Josef Rubinstein) 5 5/83) Heliopolis Gods entry (Pencils: MM. Inks: Josef Rubinstein) 6 (6/83) Knights of Wundagore entry (Pencils: MM. Inks: Josef Rubinstein) 12 (12/83) Zodiac entry (Pencils: MM. Inks: Josef Rubinstein) THE OFFICIAL HANDBOOK OF THE MARVEL UNIVERSE (VOL. TWO; …DELUXE EDITION) (Marvel) 2 (1/86) Box entry (Pencils: MM. Inks: Josef Rubinstein) 4 (3/86; indicia date incorrectly given as 3/85) R: The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe V1, #4 (Elders of the Universe entry) 9 (8/86; indicia date incorrectly given as 8/85) Omega Flight entry (Pencils: MM. Inks: Josef Rubinstein) 11 (10/86) Rocket Raccoon entry (Pencils: MM. Inks: Josef Rubinstein) 13 (12/86) Talisman entry (Pencils: MM. Inks: Josef Rubinstein) THE OFFICIAL HANDBOOK OF THE MARVEL UNIVERSE (Marvel) V1 Abomination to Circus of Crime (1986) (trade paperback) R: The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe V2, #2 (Box entry)

V2 Clea to Gaea (1986) (trade paperback) R: The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe V1, #4 (Elders of the Universe entry) V6 Radioactive Man to Stiltman (1987) (trade paperback) R: The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe V2, #11 (Rocket Raccoon entry) THE OFFICIAL HANDBOOK OF THE MARVEL UNIVERSE UPDATE ‘89 (Marvel) 8 (Mid-Dec/89) Vishanti & Wong entries (Pencils: MM. Inks: Josef Rubinstein) THE OFFICIAL MARVEL INDEX TO THE X-MEN (VOL. 2) (Marvel) 5 (8/94) R: Cover of The Uncanny X-Men Annual #15 OUT OF THE VORTEX (see Comics’ Greatest World: Out of the Vortex) PAINKILLER JANE/HELLBOY (Event) 1 (8/98) Story: “Ancient Laughter” Writer: Brian Augustyn.

Plot assistance & Hellboy dialogue coach: MM. Pencils: Rick Leonardi. Inks: Jimmy Palmiotti. 22 pp.; Variant Cover: MM THE PHANTOM STRANGER (DC) 1 (10/87) Story: “The Heart of A Stranger” Writer: Paul Kupperberg. Pencils: MM. Inks: P. Craig Russell. 22 pp.; cover: MM/P. Craig Russell 2 (11/87) Story: “The Soul of The Man!” Writer: Paul Kupperberg. Breakdowns: MM. Finishes: P. Craig Russell.

23 pp.; cover: MM/P. Craig Russell 3 (12/87) Story: “Thunder In The Night!” Writer: Paul Kupperberg. Breakdowns: MM. Finishes: P. Craig Russell.

23 pp.; cover: MM/P. Craig Russell 4 (1/88) Story: “A World Full of Voices” Writer: Paul Kupperberg. Pencils: MM. Inks: P. Craig Russell. 23 pp.; cover: MM/P. Craig Russell POWER MAN AND IRON FIST (Marvel) 96 (8/83) Story: “Some Kind of Hero!” Writer: Kurt Busiek.

Pencils: Ernie Chan. Inks: MM. 22 pp.

97 (9/83) Story: “The Coming of the She-Beast!”

Writer: Kurt Busiek. Pencils: Ernie Chan. Inks: MM. 22 pp.

100 (12/83) Story: “Soul Games!” Writer: Kurt Busiek.

Pencils: Ernie Chan. Inks: MM. 38 pp.

POWER PACK (Marvel) 20 (3/86) Cover: MM/Terry Austin THE POWERPUFF GIRLS (DC) 25 (5/02) One-pg. pin-up (pencils & inks: MM) THE PUNISHER (MARVEL COMICS) 6 (2/88) Cover: MM/Kevin Nowlan QUASAR (Marvel) 15 (10/90) Cover: MM

Hellboy appearance only, No MM art

Hellboy appearance only, No MM art

Hellboy appearance only, No MM art

54

THE QUESTION QUARTERLY (DC) 5 (Spring/92) Story: “Outrage” Writer: Denny O’Neil. Pencils: Joe Quesada. Inks: Jan Harpes & MM (exact # of pp. unknown). 13 pp. (total # of Quesada pp.; pp. 1, 2, 30-40) RAGMOP (Planet Lucy Press) 4 (12/95) Front cover: MM RANDY BOWEN’S DECAPITATOR (Dark Horse) 3 (8/98) Story: “Decapitator And The Biogodz” Part 3.

Writers: Randy Bowen & Norm DePlume.

Pencils: Matt Smith. Inks: MM. 12 pp. (pp. 1-7, 10-13, 22) 4 (9/98) Story: “Decapitator And The Biogodz” Part 4.

Writers: Randy Bowen & Norm DePlume. Pencils: Matt Smith. Inks: MM. 8 pp. (pp. 4-11); cover: MM THE RAY BRADBURY CHRONICLES (NBM) V5(?) (hardcover; signed & numbered limited edition of 1000) R: “The City” from Ray Bradbury Comics #4 RAY BRADBURY COMICS (Topps) 4 (8/93) Story: “The City” Writer: Ray Bradbury. Adaptation, pencils & inks: MM. 10 pp.

THE ROCKETEER ADVENTURE MAGAZINE (Dark Horse) 3 (1/95) One-pg. pin-up (pencils & inks: MM) ROCKET RACCOON (Marvel) 1 (5/85) Story: “…Rocket Raccoon” Writer: Bill Mantlo.

Pencils: MM. Inks: Al Gordon. 22 pp.; cover: MM/Al Gordon 2 (6/85) Story: “The Masque of the Red Breath” Writer: Bill Mantlo. Pencils: MM. Inks: Al Gordon. 23 pp.; cover: MM/Al Gordon 3 (7/85) Story: “The Book of Revelations!”

Writer: Bill Mantlo. Pencils: MM. Inks: Al Milgrom. 23 pp.; cover: MM/Al Gordon 4 (8/85) Story: “The Age of Enlightenment” Writer: Bill Mantlo. Pencils: MM. Inks: Al Gordon. 23 pp.; cover: MM/Al Gordon (see also MISCELLANEOUS: ...Promotional Illustration) THE ROOK (Harris) 1 (8/95) Cover: MM 2 (9/95) Cover: MM SAN DIEGO COMIC-CON COMICS (Dark Horse) 2 (8/93) Story: Hellboy. Plot, pencils, inks & letters: MM. Script: John Byrne. 4 pp.

THE SANDMAN: A GALLERY OF DREAMS (DC) nn (1994) One-pg. pin-up (pencils & inks: MM) THE SAVAGE DRAGON (Image) 34 (12/96) Writer, pencils & inks: Erik Larsen.

Plot Assistance & Hellboy dialogue: MM. 22 pp.; two-pg. pin-up: The Savage Dragon & Hellboy (pencils & inks: MM)

COMIC BOOK ARTIST 23

December 2002

THE SPECTRE (DC) 7 (10/87) Cover: MM 8 (11/87) Cover: MM 9 (12/87) Cover: MM SPIDER-MAN: HOT SHOTS (see Hot Shots: Spider-Man) STARMAN (DC) 42 (1/92) Cover: MM 43 (2/92) Cover: MM 44 (3/92) Cover: MM 45 (4/92) Cover: MM STRANGE TALES (Marvel) 19 (10/88) Cover: MM/Steve Leialoha STRIKEFORCE: MORITURI (Marvel) 21 (9/88) Cover: MM/Kevin Nowlan SUPERMAN (DC) 18 (6/88) Story: “Return to Krypton” Writer: John Byrne.

Pencils: MM. Inks: Karl Kesel. 22 pp.; cover: MM 23 (11/88) Story: “Curse of the Banshee” Writer: Roger Stern.

Pencils: MM. Inks: P. Craig Russell. 22 pp.; cover: MM/P. Craig Russell SUPERMAN ANNUAL (DC) 6 (1994) Cover: MM SUPERMAN/BATMAN: ALTERNATE HISTORIES (DC) nn (1996) (trade paperback) R: Cover of Action Comics Annual #6 as one-pg. pin-up SUPERMAN: EXILE (DC) nn (1998) (trade paperback) R: “Memories of Krypton’s Past” from Action Comics Annual #2 SUPERMAN: MAN OF STEEL ANNUAL (DC) 3 (1994) Cover: MM SWAMP THING (DC) 137 (11/93) One-pg. pin-up (pencils & inks: MM) SWAMP THING ANNUAL (DC) 5 (1989) Story: “Shaggy God Stories” Writer: Neil Gaiman.

Pencils & inks: MM. 10 pp.

THE SWORD OF SOLOMON KANE (see Solomon Kane) TED MCKEEVER’S METROPOL (Marvel) 9 (12/91 ) Story: “The Resurrection of Eddy Current” Part 1: “A Thunder Like Drumming” Writer: Ted McKeever. Pencils & inks: MM. 8 pp.

10 (1/92) Story: “The Resurrection of Eddy Current” Part 2: “Playing With Coal” Writer: Ted McKeever. Pencils & inks: MM. 10 pp.

Hellboy appearance only, No MM art

Hellboy appearance only, No MM art

35 (2/97) Writer, pencils & inks: Erik Larsen. Hellboy dialogue assistance: MM. 22 pp. (Just collected as TPB at presstime) SCARY GODMOTHER: BLOODY VALENTINE (Sirius) 1 (2/98) One-pg. pin-up (pencils & inks: MM) SCATTERBRAIN (Dark Horse) 1 (6/98) Story: “Abu Gung and the Beanstalk” Writer, pencils & inks: MM. 5 pp.; front cover: MM SCATTERBRAIN, THE COLLECTION (Dark Horse) nn (two indicia dates: 9/01 & 11/01) (hardcover) R: Scatterbrain #1 (including front cover, sans type, as one-pg. pin-up) SECRET ORIGINS (DC) 41 (6/89) Cover (The Rogues’ Gallery of the Flash): MM A SHADOWLINE SAGA: “CRITICAL MASS” (Marvel) 1 (1/89) Front cover: MM/Mark Badger THE SHADOW STRIKES! (DC) 31 (5/92) Cover: MM SHIP OF FOOLS (Caliber) 1 (1996) Cover: MM/Michael Avon Oeming SHIP OF FOOLS (Image) 0 (8/97) (black-&-white) R: Cover of Ship of Fools #1 as one-pg. pin-up SHIP OF FOOLS: DANTE’S COMPASS (Image) 1 (1999) (trade paperback; black-&-white) R: Cover of Ship of Fools #1 (sans type) SHOWCASE ’94 (DC) 3 (3/94) Cover: MM SILVER SURFER (Marvel) 14 (8/88) Cover: MM/Joe Rubinstein SIN CITY: THE BIG FAT KILL (Dark Horse) 2 (12/94) One-pg. pin-up (pencils & inks: MM) SIN CITY: THE BIG FAT KILL (Dark Horse) nn (12/95) (hardcover) R: One-pg. pin-up from Sin City: The Big Fat Kill #2 SOLAR, MAN OF THE ATOM (Valiant) 24 (8/93) Cover: MM SOLOMON KANE (THE SWORD OF…) (Marvel) 4 (3/86) Story: “The Prophet!” Writer: Ralph Macchio.

Pencils: MM. Inks: Al Williamson. 23 pp.; cover: MM SOULWIND (Image) 1 (3/97) Special thanks: MM 2 (4/97) One-pg. pin-up (pencils & inks: MM) SPAWN (Image) 100 (11/00) Variant cover: MM

11 (2/92) Story: “The Resurrection of Eddy Current” Part 3: “Like an Ember Mist at Dusk.” Writer: Ted McKeever.

Pencils & inks: MM. 10 pp.

THOR (THE MIGHTY…) (Marvel) V2 26 (8/00) Cover: MM TOTAL WHITEOUT LIMITED HARDCOVER BOOK (Graphitti) nn (2000) (hardcover) R: Cover of Whiteout #2 UNCANNY X-MEN ANNUAL (Marvel) 9 (1985) Story: “There’s No Place Like Home” Writer: Chris Claremont. Pencils: Arthur Adams. Inks: Al Gordon, MM (exact # of pp. unknown) & Arthur Adams. 48 pp. (total # of story pp.)

15 (1991) Cover: MM VAMPIRELLA/DRACULA: THE CENTENNIAL (Harris) nn (10/97) three one-pg. chapter illustrations (pencils & inks: MM) VAMPIRES (Éditions Carabas; Dark Horse) nn (2001) (hardcover); 4/02 (hardcover; English-language adaptation) one-pg. pin-up (pencils & inks: MM) VISIONS OF ARZACH (Kitchen Sink) nn (1993) (hardcover) R: Plate from Legends of Arzach Gallery One as one-pg. pin-up (published in association with Starwatcher Graphics) WEASEL (DAVE COOPER’S…) (Fantagraphics) 4 (5/01) Writer, pencils & inks: MM. 5 pp.; Back cover: MM WEB OF SPIDER-MAN ANNUAL (Marvel) 2 (9/86) Story: “You’re Lying, Peter Parker!” Writer: Ann Nocenti. Pencils: MM. Inks: Geof Isherwood. 8 pp.

WHAT IF? (Marvel) 39 (6/83) Cover (“What If the Mighty Thor Battled Conan the Barbarian?”): Ron Wilson/MM WHAT THE--?! (Marvel) 2 (9/88) Story: “Woof ’R’eam!” Writer: Al Milgrom. Pencils: MM. Inks: Al Williamson. 8 pp.

WHITEOUT (Oni) 2 (8/98) Cover: MM WHITEOUT (Oni) nn (5/99) (trade paperback; black-&-white) R: Cover of Whiteout #2 as one-pg. pin-up (sans type) WHO’S WHO IN THE DC UNIVERSE (DC) 5 (12/90) Chemo entry (pencils & inks: MM); Toyman entry (Pencils: Steve Purcell. Inks: MM) WHO’S WHO IN THE LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES (DC) 4 (8/88) Lightning Lord entry (pencils & inks: MM)

1998 Dark Horse Christmas card

December 2002

COMIC BOOK ARTIST 23

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WHO’S WHO: THE DEFINITIVE DIRECTORY OF THE DC UNIVERSE (DC) 26 (4/87) Wotan entry (pencils & inks: MM) WHO’S WHO: UPDATE ’88 (DC) 3 (10/88) Silver Banshee entry (Pencils: MM. Inks: P. Craig Russell) WILDSTAR: SKY ZERO (Image) 4 (11/93) One-pg. pin-up (Pencils: MM. Inks: Al Gordon) WILDSTAR: SKY ZERO TRADE PAPERBACK (Image) nn (7/94) (trade paperback) R: One-pg. pin-up from WildStar: Sky Zero #4 WILL TO POWER (Dark Horse) 10 (8/94) Cover: MM 11 (8/94) Cover: MM 12 (8/94) Cover: MM WOLVERINE (Marvel) 28 (Early 8/90) Cover: Mark Chiarello/MM 41 (Early 7/91) Two-pg. pin-up: Wolverine & Cable (pencils & inks: MM) WOLVERINE: THE JUNGLE ADVENTURE (Marvel) nn (1990) Writer: Walt Simonson. Pencils: MM. Inks: Bob Wiacek. 48 pp.; front & back covers: MM WORLD OF KRYPTON (DC) 1 (12/87) Story: “Pieces” Writer: John Byrne. Breakdowns: MM. Finishes: Rick Bryant. 23 pp.

2 (1/88) Story: “After The Fall” Writer: John Byrne.

Breakdowns: MM. Finishes: Rick Bryant. 22 pp.

3 (2/88) Story: “History Lesson” Writer: John Byrne.

Breakdowns: MM. Finishes: Rick Bryant. 23 pp.

4 (3/88) Story: “Family History” Writer: John Byrne. Pencils: MM. Inks: Carlos Garzon. 23 pp.

XENA: WARRIOR PRINCESS (Dark Horse) 1 (9/99) Variant cover: MM X-FACTOR (Marvel) 55 (6/90) Cover: MM 70 (9/91) Cover: MM X-FACTOR ANNUAL (Marvel) 6 (1991) Cover: MM X-FORCE (Marvel) 4 (11/91) Two-pg. pin-up (pencils & inks: MM) 8 (3/92) Story: “Flashed Before My Eyes” Plot: Rob Liefeld.

Script: Fabian Nicieza. Pencils: MM. Inks: Bob Wiacek. 16 pp. (story pp. 2-17) THE X-MEN ANNUAL (Marvel) 1 (1992) One-pg. pin-up: Mojo (pencils & inks: MM)

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X-MEN CLASSIC (Marvel) 57 (3/91 ) Cover: MM/P. Craig Russell 58 (4/91) Cover: MM 59 (5/91) Cover: MM 60 (6/91) Cover: MM/P. Craig Russell 61 (7/91) Cover: MM/P. Craig Russell 62 (8/91 ) Cover: MM/P. Craig Russell 63 (9/91 ) Cover: MM/P. Craig Russell 64 (10/91) Cover: MM 65 (11/91) Cover: MM/P. Craig Russell 66 (12/91) Cover: MM 67 (1/92) Cover: MM 68 (2/92) Cover: MM 69 (3/92) Cover: MM 70 (4/92) Cover: MM (see also Classic X-Men) X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PRESENT (Marvel) nn (5/91) (trade paperback) Front cover: MM X-MEN: THE ASGARDIAN WARS (Marvel) nn (1988) (trade paperback) R: Uncanny X-Men Annual #9 ZEN INTERGALACTIC NINJA (Zen) V3#5 (1992) Cover: MM ZOMBIE WORLD: CHAMPION OF THE WORMS (Dark Horse) 1 (9/97) Writer: MM. Pencils & inks: Pat McEown. 22 pp.; front cover: MM 2 (10/97) Writer: MM. Pencils & inks: Pat McEown. 22 pp.; front cover: MM 3 (11/97) Writer: MM. Pencils & inks: Pat McEown. 22 pp.; front cover: MM (portion of cover also used as series’ inside front cover illustration, which features additional art cropped from front) ZOMBIE WORLD: CHAMPION OF THE WORMS (Dark Horse) nn (7/98) (trade paperback) 4 pp. of notes by MM; front cover: MM; R: Zombie World: Champion of the Worms #13 (including front covers, sans type, as one-pg. pin-ups) ZORRO (Topps) 6 (6/94) Cover: MM ZORRO’S RENEGADES TRADE PAPERBACK (Image) nn (2/99) (trade paperback) R: Cover of Zorro #6 as back cover MAGAZINES ADVANCE COMICS (Capital City) 46 (10/92) interview with MM 62 (2/94) Cover: MM 75 (3/95) Story: Hellboy - “The Corpse” Part 1. Writer, pencils & inks: MM. 3 pp.

76 (4/95) Story: Hellboy - “The Corpse” Part 2. Writer, pencils & inks: MM. 2 pp.

77 (5/95) Story: Hellboy - “The Corpse” Part 3. Writer, pencils & inks: MM. 2 pp.

78 (6/95) Story: Hellboy - “The Corpse” Part 4. Writer, pencils & inks: MM. 2 pp.

79 (7/95) Story: Hellboy - “The Corpse” Part 5. Writer, pencils & inks: MM. 2 pp.

80 (8/95) Story: Hellboy - “The Corpse” Part 6. Writer, pencils & inks: MM. 2 pp.

81 (9/95) Story: Hellboy - “The Corpse” Part 7. Writer, pencils & inks: MM. 2 pp.

82 (10/95) Story: Hellboy - “The Corpse” Part 8. Writer, pencils & inks: MM. 2 pp.

92 (8/96) interview with MM AMAZING HEROES (Redbeard/Fantagraphics) 60 (12/1/84) Cover (Rocket Raccoon portion only): MM/Al Gordon 76 (8/1/85) Cover (Alpha Flight/Hulk): MM/John Byrne 164 (5/1/89) One-pg. pin-up (pg. 23): Darkseid (pencils & inks: MM) 196 (11/91) Nine-pg. illustrated interview with MM (pp. 38-46); cover (Batman versus Predator): MM AMAZING HEROES SWIMSUIT SPECIAL (Fantagraphics) 2 (1991) One-pg. pin-up (book pg. 22): The Doom Patrol (Pencils, inks & letters: MM) THE BEST OF THE AMAZING HEROES SWIMSUIT SPECIAL (Fantagraphics) nn (4/93) R: One-pg. pin-up from Amazing Heroes #164 CLIVE BARKER’S HELLRAISER: POSTERBOOK (Marvel) 1 (1991) R: One-pg. pin-up from Clive Barker’s Hellraiser #2 COMBO (Century) 19 (8/96) Three-pg. illustrated interview with MM & Gary Gianni (pp. 108-110) (re: Hellboy: Wake the Devil) COMIC BOOK PROFILES (As You Like It ) 7 (Summer/99) Two-pg. interview with MM (pp. 48,49) (re: Michael W. Kaluta) THE COMIC READER (Street Enterprises) 183 (9/80) spot illustration: Red Sonja (pg. 9) (pencils & inks: MM) 184 (10/80) Four spot illustrations: Doctor Strange (pg. 2), Nightcrawler (pg. 6), Dominic Fortune (pg. 10) & Dominic Fortune as duck (pg. 10) (pencils & inks: MM); back cover (Adam Warlock): MM 187 (1/81) Nine spot illustrations: Dreadstar (pg. 6) (Pencils: ? (first name unknown) Reminio. Inks: MM), Warlord (pg. 7) (pencils & inks: MM), Batman (pg. 8) (pencils & inks: MM), Green Lantern (pg. 8) (pencils & inks: MM), “X-Dux” (pg.

10) (pencils & inks: MM), Iron Man (pg. 12) (pencils & inks: MM), Marvel Comics’ Captain Marvel (pg. 12) (Pencils: ?

COMIC BOOK ARTIST 23

December 2002

(first name unknown) Reminio. Inks: MM), Conan (pg. 13) (pencils & inks: MM) & Hawkman (pg. 22) (pencils & inks: MM) 189 (3/81) Back cover (Captain America, Bucky & Baron Zemo): MM 190 (4/81) Four spot illustrations: Modok (pg. 7) (pencils & inks: MM), Cyborg (pg. 8) (pencils & inks: MM), Adam Warlock as duck (pg. 11) (pencils & inks: MM) & Conan (pg. 12) (Pencils: Nequi Dharsee. Inks: MM); back cover (Master of Kung-Fu vs. Razor Fist): MM 193 (8/81) Spot illustration: Superman (pg. 15) (pencils & inks: MM); back cover (Aquaman): MM 195 (10/81) Spot illustration: Green Lantern (pg. 19) (Pencils: Larry Houston. Inks: MM) 196 (11/81) Front cover (Dominic Fortune, the Spirit & Doc Savage; MM’s first front cover): MM 199 (2-3/82) Back cover (Manhunter): MM 202 (6/82) Four spot illustrations: Spider-Man (pg. 35) (Pencils: Larry Houston. Inks: MM), Swamp Thing (pg. 40) (pencils & inks: MM), Magneto (pg. 53) (pencils & inks: MM) & Doctor Doom (pg. 53) (pencils & inks: MM) 203 (8/82) Front cover (Ghost Rider & the Son of Satan): MM 205 (10/82) spot illustration: Sentinel (pg. 28) (pencils & inks: MM) 206 (11/82) Back cover (Batman): MM 212 (8/83) spot illustration: John Carter Warlord of Mars (pg.

24) (pencils & inks: MM); front cover (Shang Chi & Daredevil): MM COMICS INTERVIEW (Fictioneer) 115 (1992) Cover (Bram Stoker’s Dracula): MM THE COMICS JOURNAL (Fantagraphics) 138 (10/90) 1990 Reading List contribution by MM (pg. 103) 181 (10/95) text tribute to Stan Lee by MM 189 (8/96) 27-pg. illustrated interview with MM (pp. 64-90); cover (Hellboy): MM COMICS SCENE (Starlog) 32 (Overall series #53) (#43) (6/94) Six-pg. illustrated interview with MM (book pp. 44-49; illustrations include: Three penciled panels from a rejected Secret Origins story featuring Clayface (re: Hellboy) COMICS VALUES MONTHLY (Attic Books) 76 (12/92) Three-pg. illustrated article on Bram Stoker’s Dracula, featuring an interview with MM (pp. 11-13) COMIC WORLD (?)

25 (?) interview with MM DARK HORSE INSIDER (Dark Horse) 27 (2/94) Three-pg. illustrated interview with MM (pp. 2-4) (re: Hellboy: Seed of Destruction)

December 2002

FLUX (Harris) 5 (Direct Market Edition) (1995) Two-pg. illustrated interview with MM (pp. 50,51); cover: MM & Joe Quesada/Jimmy Palmiotti (Ash portion only) (Note: Issue #2 on cover, because this is the second “direct market edition” published) HERO SPECIAL (HERO 1994 YEARBOOK) (Warrior) V8 #1 (1994: The Year In Review) (1994) brief interview with MM (pg. 59) THE JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR (TwoMorrows) 22 (12/98) Five-pg. illustrated interview with MM (pp. 25-29); R: Front cover of Hellboy: Almost Colossus #2, cover of Aquaman #6 & one-pg. pin-up from New Gods Secret Files 24 (4/99) Wraparound cover: Jack Kirby/MM MARVEL AGE ANNUAL (Marvel) 1 (1985) Story: Alpha Flight - “‘Information, Please…!’ (or…’When Destiny Calls!’)” Writer: Bill Mantlo. Pencils: MM. Inks: Gerry Talaoc. 1 pg. (pg. 6) 4 (1988) illustration: Fantastic Four (featuring the Thing, Ms. Marvel, Doctor Doom & the Human Torch; could be an unused cover intended for Fantastic Four #318 (9/88) (pg.

11) (Pencils: MM. Inks: Bob Wiacek) MARVEL ILLUSTRATED: SWIMSUIT ISSUE (Marvel) 1 (1991) One-pg. pin-up: The Scarlet Witch (pencils & inks: MM) MARVEL: 1989 THE YEAR IN REVIEW (Marvel) 1 (1990) One-pg. faux ad: Doctor Doom - “Come to Latveria, a Place of Beauty and Order” (pencils & inks: MM) MARVEL: 1990 THE YEAR IN REVIEW (Marvel) 2 (1991) One-pg. faux ad: Doctor Doom - “Latverian Express: Don’t Leave Home Without It” (pencils & inks: MM) MARVEL SWIMSUIT SPECIAL (Marvel) 1 (1992) One-pg. pin-up: The Beast, Wolverine & Sasquatch (pg. 39) (pencils & inks: MM) MEN’S ADVENTURE COMIX (Penthouse) 5 (12/95-1/96) R: Illustration from OMNI Comix #3 as onepg. pin-up MUSINGS (Calliope Comics) 4 (Fall/94) 12-pg. illustrated interview with MM (pp. 2-13); two one-pg. pin-ups: Hellboy (pencils & inks: MM); front cover (Hellboy): MM; R: Pg. 10 from Hellboy: Seed of Destruction #1; pp. 17 & 22 from Hellboy: Seed of Destruction #2; pp. 9,13 & 24 from Hellboy: Seed of Destruction #3 & cover of Dark Horse Presents #89 OMNI COMIX (Penthouse) 3 (10-11/95) Illustration for Larry Niven’s “Ringworld

COMIC BOOK ARTIST 23

Throne” (Ringworld Tech File: Ghoul) (pg. 51) (pencils & inks: MM) OVERSTREET’S COMIC BOOK PRICE UPDATE (Overstreet) 24 (11-12/92) Four-pg. illustrated interview with MM (pp. 1316); cover (Bram Stoker’s Dracula): MM OVERSTREET’S FAN (Gemstone) 13 (7/96) Three-pg. illustrated interview with MM (pp. 58-60) (re: Hellboy: Wake The Devil & Ghost/Hellboy Special); One-pg. illustration: Hellboy (FAN/Dark Horse Hellboy Original Art Contest) (pg. 61) (pencils & inks: MM) PREVIEWS (Diamond) V2 #8 (8/92) Two-pg. illustrated interview with MM (pp. 122, 123) (re: Bram Stoker’s Dracula) V4 #7 (7/94) Feature: illustrated profile of Hellboy. Writer: MM. 2 pp. (pp. 58, 59) THE PUNISHER MAGAZINE (Marvel) 6 (1/90) (black-&-white) R: Cover of Punisher #6 as one-pg. pin-up THE TELEGRAPH WIRE (Comics & Comix) 19 (1985) (giveaway) Cover (Rocket Raccoon portion only): MM TRIPWIRE (Tripwire) V1 #14 (Mid-Sum/96) Three-pg. illustrated interview with MM (pp. 18-20) V2 #9 (2-3/99) Seven-pg. illustrated interview with MM (pp. 2127) (re: MM’s 1999 projects); illustration: Hellboy (pg. 21) (pencils & inks: MM); cover (Hellboy): MM V4 #5 (4-5/01) Five-pg. illustrated interview with MM (pp. 2226) (re: Hellboy: Conqueror Worm); cover: MM THE WESTFIELD NEWSLETTER (Westfield) V11 #11 (whole #126) (11/92) Two-pg. illustrated interview with MM (pp. 7, 8) (re: Bram Stoker’s Dracula) WIZARD EDGE (Wizard) nn (2002) Three-pg. illustrated interview with MM (pp. 58-60) (re: Hellboy & BPRD: Hollow Earth) WIZARD’S POSTERMANIA! 2002 (Wizard) nn (2002) R: Front cover of Hellboy: The Bones of Giants as poster (poster #31) WIZARD: THE COMICS MAGAZINE (Wizard) 100 (1/00) R: Triple-gatefold cover of Wizard: The Guide to Comics #31, on poster polybagged with issue 122 (11/01) Feature: Last Man Standing - “Hellboy vs. Spawn”; pencils & inks: MM; 2 pp. (single illustration) 126 (3/02) Interview with MM (see also Wizard: The Guide to Comics) WIZARD: THE GUIDE TO COMICS (Wizard) 19 (3/93) Three-pg. illustrated interview with MM (pp. 80-82)

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(re: Bram Stoker’s Dracula) 31 (3/94) illustration: Hellboy (drawn exclusively for The Great Eastern Conventions’ Third Charity Art Auction; pg. 21) (pencils & inks: MM); seven-pg. illustrated interview with Legend imprint creators (including MM) (pp. 32-38); Triplegatefold cover (direct market edition; Hellboy character only): MM ? (1994?) One card polybagged with issue: Creator’s Portfolio #?: Mike Mignola’s Hellboy 53 (1/96) One-pg. interview with MM (pg. 21) 65 (1/97) Polybagged with issue: Hellboy holiday gift tag (pencils & inks: MM) 75 (11/97) Column: Basic Training - “How to Build a Better Graveyard” Writer, pencils & inks: MM. 4 pp. (pp. 76-79) (see also Wizard: The Comics Magazine) WORLDS OF WESTFIELD (Westfield) V20 #4 (whole #229) (6/01) One-pg. illustrated interview with MM (pg. 12; excerpt from longer interview on Westfield Comics’ Web site) (re: Hellboy: Conqueror Worm) X-MEN POSTER MAGAZINE (Marvel) 1 (1992) R: Two-pg. pin-up from Wolverine #41 TRADING CARDS ALIENS/PREDATOR UNIVERSE SUPER PREMIUM TRADING CARDS (Topps) (1994) R: Cover of Aliens: Salvation as card #12 ASH (Dynamic Forces) (1997) R: Two-pg. pin-up from Ash #2 as card #51: “Fire from Hell” BATMAN: SAGA OF THE DARK KNIGHT (SkyBox) (1994) The Penguin (#49), Ra’s Al Ghul (#50) & The Scarecrow (#51) (Artist: MM) BATMAN VERSUS PREDATOR (see COMICS) BRAM STOKER’S DRACULA (see COMICS) BRAM STOKER’S DRACULA TRADING CARD SET (Topps) (1992) R: ? as cards 89-100 COMICS’ GREATEST WORLD DELUXE TRADING CARDS (Topps) (1994) R: Cover of Comics’ Greatest World: The Machine as card #42 DRACULA: VLAD THE IMPALER (see COMICS) FREEDONIA FUNNYWORKS 10TH ANNIVERSARY (1982-1992) CARD SERIES (Freedonia Funnyworks) (1992) One card: #9: Hellboy (pencils & inks: MM) MADMAN X 50 BUBBLEGUM CARDS (Dark Horse) (8/94) R: Back cover of Madman Adventures #1 as card #20 THE MARVEL UNIVERSE INAUGURAL EDITION (Fleer) (1994) (“‘94 Flair” on card) R: One-pg. pin-up from The Avengers Annual #20 & Namor, the Sub-Mariner Annual #1 as card #11: Avengers Assemble (computer enhanced version) RAGE—THE WEREWOLF: THE APOCALYPSE COLLECTIBLE TRADING CARD GAME (White Wolf) The Wyrm Expansion Set (1995) One foil card: Caern: Trinity Hive Caern—Black Spiral Dancers (Artist: MM) STAR WARS GALAXY: SERIES ONE (Topps) (1993) One card: #110 (Artist: MM) UNIVERSAL MONSTERS ILLUSTRATED (Topps) (1994) 10 cards: #47-56: The Bride of Frankenstein (Artist: MM) THE VALIANT ERA II (Upper Deck) (1994) R: Cover of Solar, Man of the Atom #24 as card #136 WITCHBLADE TRADING CARDS (WildStorm) (1996) One card: #33 (Quote, pencils & inks: MM)

58

MISCELLANEOUS THE ADVENTURES OF FAFHRD AND THE GRAY MOUSER by Fritz Leiber (White Wolf) V1 III Met in Lankhmar (1995) (Two editions: Hardcover & paperback) 17 interior illustrations (pencils & inks: MM); front cover: MM V2 Lean Times In Lankhmar (1996) (paperback) 13 interior illustrations (pencils & inks: MM); front cover: MM V3 Return to Lankhmar (1997) (hardcover) 10 interior illustrations (pencils & inks: MM); front cover: MM V4 Farewell to Lankhmar (6/98) (hardcover) Six interior illustrations (pencils & inks: MM); front cover: MM “THE ALCHEMIST” PRINT (Peter and Pan Graphic Productions) (1985) (Signed & numbered limited edition of 300) Pencils & inks: MM ALPHA FLIGHT PRINT (?)

(1986) (Signed & numbered limited edition of 230; black-&white; measures 11" x 17") Pencils & inks: MM THE ART OF STAR WARS GALAXY (Topps) (11/93) (trade paperback) preliminary pencil design of card #110 from Star Wars Galaxy: Series One Trading Cards (pp.

72, 73; includes commentary by MM); R: Card from Star Wars Galaxy: Series One Trading Cards (on pp. 72, 73) AVENGERS IV T-SHIRT (Graphitti) (Aug. 1999) R: One-pg. pin-up from The Avengers Annual #20 & Namor, the Sub-Mariner Annual #1 BATMAN ANIMATED by Paul Dini & Chip Kidd (HarperEnt.) (Oct. 1998) (Two editions: Hardcover & softcover) character design of Mr. Freeze: MM BATMAN/HELLBOY/STARMAN PROMO ILLUSTRATION (DC) (1998) Pencils & inks: MM; (Note: Appears in Dark Horse Classics: Godzilla: King of the Monsters #6 (12/98; Dark Horse), etc.)

BATMAN IN DETECTIVE COMICS VOL. TWO: FEATURING THE COMPLETE COVERS OF THE SECOND 25 YEARS (Abbeville) V2 (1994) (softcover; “Tiny Folio” format) R: Cover of Detective Comics #583 BATMAN: THE COMPLETE HISTORY by Les Daniels (Chronicle) (1999) (hardcover) R: Front cover of Gotham by Gaslight: An Alternative History of the Batman (on pg. 161 ) CAPITAL CITY DISTRIBUTION CALENDAR (Capital City) (1995) (giveaway) Oct. illustration: Hellboy (pencils & inks: MM) COMICS BUYER’S GUIDE (Krause) 947 (1/10/92) Two-pg. interview with MM (pp. 72, 74) 978 (8/14/92) One-pg. illustrated interview with MM (pg. 22) (re: Bram Stoker’s Dracula) 989 (10/30/92) character designs by MM for Topps Comics’ Bram Stoker’s Dracula (featuring Dracula (Gary Oldman), Dracula (bat form), Van Helsing (Anthony Hopkins) & Renfield (Tom Waits)) (pp. 28, 36, 40) 1069(5/13/94) Three-pg. illustrated interview with MM (pp. 2628) 1070(5/20/94) Insertion: Mike Mignola’s Hellboy: World’s Greatest Paranormal Investigator. Plot, pencils, inks & letters: MM. Script: John Byrne. 4 pp.

1443(7/13/01) One-pg. illustrated article on Disney’s Atlantis: The Lost Empire, featuring conversation with MM (pg. 40) 1477(3/8/02) One-pg. article on The Amazing Screw-On Head, featuring conversation with MM (pg. 13) 1479(3/22/02) One-pg. article on Hellboy: Strange Places, featuring a conversation with MM (pg. 14) COMIC SHOP NEWS (Comic Shop News) 353 (3/30/94) Two-pg. illustrated interview with MM (pp. 8, 10) COOL CREATOR’S COASTER SET (Graphitti ) (1997) Three coasters featuring Hellboy (pencils & inks: MM) CORUM: THE PRINCE WITH THE SILVER HAND (see The Tale of the Eternal Champion)

COSMIC ODYSSEY PROMOTIONAL ILLUSTRATION (“The antilife equation is deadlier than they thought. Even the Gods fear for the fate of the universe… but Darkseid has a plan.”) (DC) (1988) Pencils & inks: MM (Note: Appears in most books with 10/88 cover date, i.e., Adventures of Superman #445, Animal Man #2 (back cover), Batman #424, Captain Atom #20, Detective Comics #591, The Doom Patrol #13, Firestorm, the Nuclear Man #76, Flash #17, Green Arrow #9 (back cover), Hawk and Dove #1, Justice League International #18, Legion of Super-Heroes #51 (back cover), Manhunter #4, Power of the Atom #3, Secret Origins #31, The Spectre #19 (back cover), Star Trek #55, Wonder Woman #21, World of Metropolis #3, Young AllStars #17 (back cover), etc.; also appears in Animal Man #3 (11/88) & Flash Annual #2 (1988), and as 22" x 27" promotional poster) CREATION FALL/WINTER 1985 (Creation Conventions) (1984) Front cover: MM DARK DESTINY: PROPRIETORS OF FATE EDITED by Edward E. Kramer (White Wolf) (1995) (hardcover) Interior illustrations (pencils & inks: MM); front cover: MM DARK HORSE COMICS CHRISTMAS CARD (Dark Horse) 12/98) Pencils & inks: MM (Hellboy) DARK HORSE DELUXE: HELLBOY ICONS T-SHIRT (Dark Horse) (7/02) Design: MM & Cary Grazzini; pencils & inks: MM DARK HORSE DELUXE: HELLBOY TRIPTYCH T-SHIRT (Dark Horse) (7/02) Design: MM & Cary Grazzini; pencils & inks: MM DARK HORSE DELUXE: RED HELLBOY WITH FIRE T-SHIRT (Dark Horse) (7/02) Design: MM & Cary Grazzini; pencils & inks: MM DARK HORSE EXTRA (Dark Horse) 14 (8/99) Story: Hellboy - “The Vârcolac” Part 1. Writer, pencils & inks: MM. One-pg. strip 15 (9/99) Story: Hellboy - “The Vârcolac” Part 2. Writer, pencils & inks: MM. One-pg. strip 16 (10/99) Story: Hellboy - “The Vârcolac” Part 3. Writer, pencils & inks: MM. One-pg. strip 17 (11/99) Story: Hellboy - “The Vârcolac” Part 4. Writer, pencils & inks: MM. One-pg. strip 18 (12/99) Story: Hellboy - “The Vârcolac” Part 5. Writer, pencils & inks: MM. One-pg. strip 19 (1/00) Story: Hellboy - “The Vârcolac” Part 6. Writer, pencils & inks: MM. One-pg. strip DARK HORSE PRESENTS: MONSTERS AND ALIENS 1999 CALENDAR (Golden Turtle Press) (1998) R: Front cover of Hellboy: The Lost Army (sans type) DC COMICS CHRISTMAS CARD (“SEASON’S GREETINGS”) (DC) (1989) Pencils & inks: MM (Batman) DC COMICS: SIXTY YEARS OF THE WORLD’S FAVORITE COMIC BOOK HEROES by Les Daniels (Little, Brown and Co.) (1995) (hardcover) R: Cover of Batman #428 (on pg.

200) DC HEROES ROLE PLAYING GAME (Mayfair Games) Supplement 244: The Apokolips Sourcebook (1989) Front Cover: MM “FACES OF DEATH” JAM PRINT (Tru Studios; Oct. ‘95) (1994) One illustration by MM “A FALL OF STARDUST” (NEIL GAIMAN AND CHARLES VESS’…) (Green Man Press) (1999) (portfolio) One plate: Plate #2 (Artist: MM) FAREWELL TO LANKHMAR (see The Adventures of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser) “THE FIRST CHALLENGE” PRINT (?)

(1985) (signed & numbered limited edition of 500) Pencils: Bernie Wrightson. Inks: MM

COMIC BOOK ARTIST 23

December 2002

FORBIDDEN ZONE PRINT (Forbidden Zone) Hellboy (1997; 1998 (second printing; sans “Forbidden Zone” on illustration) (limited edition of 2500) Pencils & inks: MM FRANKENSTEIN T-SHIRT (?) (?) Pencils & inks: MM GODZILLA PORTFOLIO II (Dark Horse) (1988) (black-&-white) One plate (pencils & inks: MM) GOTHAM BY GASLIGHT PROMOTIONAL ILLUSTRATION (DC) (1989) Pencils: MM. Inks: P. Craig Russell; (Note: Appears in most books with Dec. 1989 cover date, i.e., Animal Man #18, Doc Savage #15, Doctor Fate #12, Legends of the Dark Knight #2, L.E.G.I.O.N. #10, Legion of Super-Heroes #2, Swamp Thing #90, etc.; also appears in Animal Man #19 (1/90), Checkmate #24 (1/90) & The Shadow Strikes Annual #1 (1989) GRAPHIC COLLECTIBLES ORIGINAL ART CATALOG (Mitch Itkowitz) (Christmas ’91) Inside front cover illustration: “Nude & alien” (Artist: MM) HELLBOY: ANUNG UN RAMA LIMITED EDITION SERIGRAPH (Studio Ink) (2000) (Limited edition of 1000; measures 20" x 31") Pencils & inks: MM HELLBOY: ASYLUM SEEKER (see Hellboy: Dogs of the Night) HELLBOY CERAMIC PIN (Media Arts) (1994) Pencils & inks: MM HELLBOY CLOISONNE PIN (Graphitti) Head (Feb. 1996) Pencils & inks: MM HELLBOY COFFEE MUG (MIKE MIGNOLA) (1997) Pencils & inks: MM HELLBOY CONVENTION SKETCHBOOK (MIKE MIGNOLA) (2001) (signed & numbered limited edition of 1000; black&-white) All illustrations: MM. 24 pp.; cover: MM HELLBOY: DOGS OF THE NIGHT (Cryo Interactive) (2000) (Game for PC & Sony PlayStation (France PC, France PSX, Germany PC & Italy PC); a.k.a. Hellboy: Asylum Seeker (Germany PlayStation, Spain PC & U.K. PC)) Front cover: MM HELLBOY HEROES MINATURES (MIKE MIGNOLA’S HELLBOY HEROES MINATURE FIGURES) (Steve Jackson Games) (2002) Front cover: MM HELLBOY LIMITED-EDITION LITHOGRAPH (Dark Horse) (1998) (Signed & numbered limited edition of 250; measures 22" x 30") Artist: MM HELLBOY LIMITED-EDITION PRINT (Dynamic Forces) (1997) (Two editions: Regular & deluxe (signed & numbered limited edition of 500); black-&-white; measures 185/16" x 24"; pencils & inks: MM HELLBOY LITHOGRAPH (MIKE MIGNOLA) (1998) (Limited edition of 600; black-&-white; measures 12" x 18"); pencils & inks: MM HELLBOY LUNCH BOX (Dark Horse) (1999)Six illustrations: front (also used on the inserted postcard), back, sides, top & bottom (pencils & inks: MM) 2 (2002) Five illustrations: front, back, sides & bottom (pencils & inks: MM) HELLBOY MAGNET SET (Graphitti) 1 (9/97) Three magnets (pencils & inks: MM) HELLBOY MINIPRINT GALLERY CARDS (Dark Horse) (1997) Three cards (pencils & inks: MM) HELLBOY MOUSEPAD (Cryo Interactive)

December 2002

(2001) Pencils & inks: MM HELLBOY MOVIE TEASER POSTER (Dark Horse) (2002) Pencils & inks: MM HELLBOY: ODD JOBS edited by Christopher Golden (MIKE MIGNOLA’S...) (Dark Horse) (12/99) (Trade paperback fiction anthology featuring short stories starring Hellboy by horror writers) One-pg. introduction written by MM; 16 full-pg. illustrations (pencils & inks: MM); text story: “The Nuckelavee” Plot: MM. Script: Christopher Golden. 11 pp. (pp. 167-177); front cover: MM HELLBOY POSTER (Media Arts) (1994) Pencils, inks & letters: MM HELLBOY: THE BONES OF GIANTS by Christopher Golden (MIKE MIGNOLA’S...) (Dark Horse) (12/01) (Trade paperback novel starring Hellboy) One-page foreword written by MM.; 72 interior illustrations (five of which are full-pg.) (pencils & inks: MM); front cover: MM HELLBOY: THE LOST ARMY by Christopher Golden (MIKE MIGNOLA’S...) (Dark Horse) (6/97) (Trade paperback novel starring Hellboy) One-pg. foreword written by MM; 67 interior illustrations (11 of which are full-pg.) (pencils & inks: MM); front cover: MM HELLBOY T-SHIRT (“Hellboy: World’s Greatest Paranormal Investigator”) (Media Arts) (1994) Pencils & inks: MM HELLBOY T-SHIRT (Dark Horse) (1995) Pencils & inks: MM HELLBOY T-SHIRT (Graphitti) (1/96) Pencils & inks: MM ll (5/01) Pencils & inks: MM HELLBOY 2003 CALENDAR (TIDE-MARK) (2002) R: Front cover of Hellboy: The Wolves of Saint August, cover of Dark Horse Presents #151, front cover of Hellboy: The Right Hand of Doom, front cover of Hellboy: Almost Colossus #2, Hellboy Limited-Edition Lithograph, front cover of Hellboy: The Corpse and the Iron Shoes, front cover of Hellboy: Wake the Devil #2, front cover of Hellboy: Odd Jobs, front cover of Hellboy: Dogs of the Night, front cover of Hellboy: The Chained Coffin and Others (also reprinted as calendar cover), front cover of Hellboy: Box Full of Evil #2 & Dark Horse Comics Christmas Card as Jan.-Dec. illustrations & as reduced illustrations on back cover (all sans type) HELLBOY VILLAINS MINATURES (MIKE MIGNOLA’S HELLBOY VILLAINS MINATURE FIGURES) (Steve Jackson Games) (2002) Front cover: MM HELLBOY: WAKE THE DEVIL THREE-SHEET PROMOTIONAL POSTER (Dark Horse) (1996) (Full-image measures 70" x 37"; limited edition of 1000) Pencils & inks: MM HELLBOY WATCH (Dark Horse) (11/99) (Limited edition of 2000 pieces) Hellboy illustration (pencils & inks: MM) HELLBOY ZIPPO LIGHTER (Dark Horse) (6/97) R: “Hellboy Gallery” illustration from Hellboy: Wake the Devil (trade paperback) III MET IN LANKHMAR (see The Adventures of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser) JACK KIRBY’S HEROES AND VILLAINS (Pure Imagination) Black Magic Edition (1994) two one-pg. illustrations: Marvel Comics’ Sandman (pg. 139) & the Red Skull (pg.

151) (Pencils: Jack Kirby. Inks: MM)

COMIC BOOK ARTIST 23

JENNY FINN T-SHIRT (Graphitti) (8/99) R: Cover of Jenny Finn #1 LEAN TIMES IN LANKHMAR (see The Adventures of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser) “LEGEND” ICON ILLUSTRATION (Dark Horse) (1994) Pencils & inks: MM LEGENDS OF ARZACH (Tundra) Gallery One: The Charcoal Burner of Ravenwood (1992) One plate (also used as front cover) (Artist: MM) (published in association with Starwatcher Graphics) THE LOBO COLLECTION (DC) (1991; incorrectly dated 1990 on slipcase) Postcard #3: “Pest Control” (pencils & inks: MM) THE MADMAN ADVENTURES TIMEWARP POSTER (Tundra) (1993) Two objects on poster only: Razor & candle (pencils & inks: MM) MARVEL COMICS’ X-MEN (TOR Books) 3 The Brood Saga, Part 1 (Apr. 1996) (paperback) R: Cover of X-Men Classic #67 as front cover MARVEL HALLOWEEN PHONE CARDS (Global Telecommunication Solutions) (1995) One phone card: Morbius (pencils & inks: MM) MARVEL PRESS POSTER (Marvel) 77 The Fantastic Four (1990) Pencils & inks: MM 111 Wolverine and Cable (1992) Pencils & inks: MM MIKE MIGNOLA’S HELLBOY FULLY PAINTED LIMITED-EDITION BUST (Bowen Designs) (1996) Box illustration (side): MM MIKE MIGNOLA’S HELLBOY HEROES MINIATURE FIGURES (see Hellboy Heroes Miniatures) MIKE MIGNOLA’S HELLBOY NODDER-HEAD LIMITED EDITION COLLECTIBLE (Hourglass Studios) (2001) (Limited edition of 750) Designer: MM. Sculpter: Beverly Gilroy MIKE MIGNOLA’S HELLBOY: ODD JOBS (see Hellboy: Odd Jobs) MIKE MIGNOLA’S HELLBOY SEVEN-PIECE PVC SET (Dark Horse) (2001) Seven illustrations on back of box: Rasputin’s Ghost, Abe Sapien, Lobster Johnson, Hellboy, Kate Corrigan, Ualac the Demon & the Baba Yaga (pencils & inks: MM) MIKE MIGNOLA’S HELLBOY SOURCEBOOK AND ROLEPLAYING GAME (Steve Jackson Games) (2002) (Two editions: Trade paperback & limited hardcover) Front cover: MM MIKE MIGNOLA’S HELLBOY STATUE (Bowen Designs) (1998) (Two editions: Regular & signature) Sculpters: Randy Bowen & MM MIKE MIGNOLA’S HELLBOY: THE BONES OF GIANTS (see Hellboy: The Bones of Giants) MIKE MIGNOLA’S HELLBOY: THE LOST ARMY (see Hellboy: The Lost Army) MIKE MIGNOLA’S HELLBOY VILLAINS MINIATURE FIGURES (see Hellboy Villains Miniatures) MONSTERS: THE PORTFOLIO (Avalon Editions) (1988) (black-&-white) Two plates: Frankenstein & Spaceman (pencils & inks: MM) NEIL GAIMAN AND CHARLES VESS’ “A FALL OF STARDUST” (see “A Fall of Stardust”) NEW YORK COMIC BOOK SPECTACULAR CONVENTION GUIDE 1995 (Great Eastern Conventions) (1995) One-pg. pin-up: Hellboy (charity auction illustration; pg. 30) (pencils & inks: MM)

59

Will Eisner: Portrait of a Sequential Artist ©2013 Sequential Artisit, LLC. The distinctive Will Eisner signature is a trademark of Will Eisner Studios, Inc.

OFFICIAL UNIVERSAL STUDIOS UNIVERSAL MONSTERS PORTFOLIO (Avalon Fine Arts) (1991) (Signed & numbered limited edition of 500; black-&white; plates measure 12" x 17"); one plate: The Bride of Frankenstein (pencils & inks: MM) PAINKILLER JANE/HELLBOY LITHOGRAPH (Event Comics/ Dynamic Forces, Inc.) (1998) (Two editions: Regular & deluxe signed; measures 18" x 24") R: Variant cover of Painkiller Jane/Hellboy #1 (sans type) PANEL DISCUSSIONS: DESIGN IN SEQUENTIAL ART STORYTELLING by Durwin S. Talon (TwoMorrows) (2002) (Softcover) 12-pg. conversation with MM (Chapter 6; pp. 76-87); R: Cover of Will to Power #11, 5 pp. from Hellboy: The Wolves of Saint August; 5 pp. from “The Corpse,” front cover of Hellboy: Seed of Destruction (10/94 trade paperback edition); pg. 20 from Hellboy: Seed of Destruction #1 & pg. 6 from Hellboy: Seed of Destruction #3 PARAPHERNALIA (Graphitti) (Fall-Winter/97) (Catalog) Cover (Hellboy): MM THE PHOTO-JOURNAL GUIDE TO MARVEL COMICS by Ernst W. Gerber (Gerber Publishing) V3 Volume A-J (1991) (Two editions: Hardcover & deluxe) R: Covers of Alpha Flight #29-34, The Defenders #139, The New Defenders #141,142, Doctor Strange #75 & The Incredible Hulk #302, 304-309, 311-313 V4 Volume K-Z (1991) (Two editions: Hardcover & deluxe) R: Covers of Marvel Team-Up #141, Power Pack #20, The Punisher #6, Master of Kung-Fu #125 & What If? #39 RETURN TO LANKHMAR (see The Adventures of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser) ROCKET RACCOON PROMOTIONAL ILLUSTRATION (Marvel) (1985) Pencils: MM. Inks: Al Gordon; (Note: Appears in The Incredible Hulk #305 (3/85), The New Mutants #26 (4/85), etc.)

SAN DIEGO COMIC-CON SOUVENIR PROGRAM BOOK (San Diego Comic Convention) (1984) Illustration: Rocket Raccoon (pg. 56) (Pencils: MM. Inks: Al Gordon) (1985) Illustration: Namorita (pg. 27) (pencils & inks: MM)

A SHORT BIOGRAPHY OF ROBERT E. HOWARD (Cross Plains) (1999) R: Cover of Solomon Kane #4 (sans type; on pg 24) THE SOLOMON KANE SKETCHBOOK by Gary Gianni (Wandering Star) (1999) (Softcover; black-&-white) Foreword. Writer: MM SPACEMAN T-SHIRT (?) (?) Pencils & inks: MM SPECIAL LEGEND COMMEMORATIVE ART PRINT (Great Eastern Conventions) (2/94) (Measures 22" x 11") R: Triple-gatefold cover of Wizard: The Guide to Comics #31 SPECTRUM: THE BEST IN CONTEMPORARY FANTASTIC ART edited by Cathy Burnett & Arnie Fenner with Jim Loehr (Underwood Books) 3 (1996) (Two editions: Hardcover & softcover) R: WildStorm Fine Arts Iris Print Series: Hellboy (sans type; on pg. 137) STAR WARS 1/6TH SCALE PRE-PAINTED VINYL MODEL KIT (Polydata Resources) ? Gamorrean Guard (1995?) Cover: MM STRAIGHT ON ‘TIL MORNING by Christopher Golden (Cemetery Dance Publications) (4-5/01) (Two editions: Limited hardcover & traycased lettered hardcover) full-pg. illustration (pencils & inks: MM) TAINTED TREATS: A COLLECTION OF HORROR TALES, POEMS, AND DRAWINGS by R. Payne Cabeen (Streamline) (1/94) (Paperback) Chapter illustration (pencils & inks: MM) THE TALE OF THE ETERNAL CHAMPION by Michael Moorcock (White Wolf) V12 Corum: The Prince with the Silver Hand (2/99) (hardcover) Three interior illustrations (pencils & inks: MM); front cover: MM THE TERMINATOR PORTFOLIO (Dark Horse) No date (1990) (black-&-white) One plate (pencils & inks: MM) TOONAMI SKETCHBOOK (Cartoon Network) (2001) <http://www.cartoonnetwork.com/toonami/ignition/sketchbook/herculoids.html> Three illustrations of the Herculoids: Igoo, Gloop & Gleep; Zandor; and Zok (pencils & inks: MM)

“TWO OF A PERFECT PAIR” PRINT (?)

(1987) (Signed & numbered limited edition of 500; black-&white; features The Demon & Gargoyle) Pencils: Arthur Adams. Inks: MM WILD CARDS ILLUSTRATION (Marvel) (1990) Pencils & inks: MM (unused Wild Cards cover?); (Note: Appears in Amazing Heroes Preview Special #10 (2/90; Fantagraphics; pg. 129) & Marvel Age #91 (8/90; pg. 10); portion of illustration used as Wild Cards promotional illustration, which appears in Cadillacs & Dinosaurs #1 (11/90; Marvel/Epic) & Interface #7 (11/90)) WILDSTORM FINE ARTS IRIS PRINT SERIES (WildStorm) Hellboy (1996) (Signed & numbered limited edition of 300; measures 16" x 22") Artist: MM Avengers (1997) (Signed & numbered limited edition of 300; measures 10" x 15") R: One-pg. pin-up from The Avengers Annual #20 & Namor, the Sub-Mariner Annual #1 WONDERCON PROGRAM BOOK (WonderCon) 10 (1996) Cover (Batman, Concrete, the Spirit, Hellboy & Bone): MM NEED VERIFICATION AND/OR ADDITIONAL INFO ADVENTURESS (SJ Graphics) 11 & 12 THE FINAL FANTASY (Walt Disney) (Circa 1991) Cover: MM (published?)

HELLBOY & NATHAN NEVER ILLUSTRATION Pencils & inks: MM; cover to unknown publication HELLBOY T-SHIRT (?) (?) Pencils & inks: MM (illustration dated ‘93; Hellboy holding stake & hammer) LADY VAMPRÉ COLLECTOR’S CARD SET (Blackout Comics) (1997) R: Front cover of Death of Lady Vampré #1 as card (was this ever published?)

MANGOG ILLUSTRATION (Published?) Pencils & inks: MM SAM & MAX GO TO THE MOON (Published?) (polybagged edition?)

(UNKNOWN CONVENTION PROGRAM BOOK) Illustration: Hellboy (illo dated ‘91; reprinted in Hellboy: Seed of Destruction collection) (pencils & inks: MM) Entire catalog checklist ©2002 Brian T. Rivers

The Storyteller’s Story Official Selection in over 25 film festivals worldwide “The best comics bio I’ve ever seen… It’s wonderful, well done.”

Brian Michael Bendis “An essential doc for comics fans, ‘Portrait’ will also enlighten the curious.”

John DeFore, Austin American-Statesman “Entertaining and insightful. A great film about a visionary artist!”

Jeffrey Katzenberg Arguably the most influential person in American comics, Will Eisner, as artist, entrepreneur, innovator, and visual storyteller, enjoyed a career that encompassed comic books from their early beginnings in the 1930s to their development as graphic novels in the 1990s. During his sixty-year-plus career, Eisner introduced the now-traditional mode of comic book production; championed mature, sophisticated storytelling; was an early advocate for using the medium as a tool for education; pioneered the now-popular graphic novel, and served as inspiration for generations of artists. Without a doubt, Will Eisner was the godfather of the American comic book.

The award-winning full-length feature film documentary includes interviews with Eisner and many of the foremost creative talents in the U.S., including Kurt Vonnegut, Michael Chabon, Jules Feiffer, Jack Kirby, Art Spiegelman, Frank Miller, Stan Lee, Gil Kane, and others.

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BACK ISSUE #59

BACK ISSUE #60

BACK ISSUE #61

BACK ISSUE #62

BACK ISSUE #63

“Toon Comics!” History of Space Ghost in comics, Comico’s Jonny Quest and Star Blazers, Marvel’s Hanna-Barbera line and Dennis the Menace, behind the scenes at Marvel Productions, Ltd., and a look at the unpublished Plastic Man comic strip.

Art/comments by EVANIER, FOGLIO, HEMPEL and WHEATLEY, MARRS, RUDE, TOTH, WILDEY, and more. All-new painted Space Ghost cover by STEVE RUDE!

“Halloween Heroes and Villains”! JEPH LOEB and TIM SALE’s chiller Batman: The Long Halloween, the Scarecrow (both the DC and Marvel versions), Solomon Grundy, Man-Wolf, Lord Pumpkin, Rutland, Vermont’s Halloween parades, and… the Korvac Saga’s Dead Avengers! With commentary from and/or art by CONWAY, GIL KANE, LOPRESTI, MOENCH, PÉREZ, DAVE WENZEL, and more. Cover by TIM SALE!

“Tabloids and Treasuries,” spotlighting every all-new tabloid from the 1970s. Superman vs. the Amazing Spider-Man, The Bible, Captain America’s Bicentennial Battles, The Wizard of Oz, even the PAUL DINI/ALEX ROSS World’s Greatest Super-Heroes editions! Commentary and art by ADAMS, GARCIA-LOPEZ, GRELL, KIRBY, KUBERT, MAYER, ROMITA SR., TOTH, and more.

Wraparound cover by ALEX ROSS!

“Superman in the Bronze Age”! JULIUS SCHWARTZ, CURT SWAN, Superman Family, World of Krypton miniseries, and ALAN MOORE’s “Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?”, art & comments

by ADAMS, ANDERSON, CARDY, CHAYKIN, PAUL KUPPERBERG, OKSNER, O’NEIL, PASKO, ROZAKIS, SAVIUK, and more. Cover by GARCÍA-LÓPEZ and SCOTT WILLIAMS! Edited by MICHAEL EURY.

“British Invasion” issue! History of Marvel UK, Beatles in comics, DC’s ‘80s British talent pool, V for Vendetta, Excalibur, Marshal Law, Doctor Who, “Pro2Pro” interview with PETER MILLIGAN & BRENDAN McCARTHY, plus BERGER, BOLLAND, DAVIS, GIBBONS, STAN LEE, LLOYD, MOORE, DEZ SKINN, and others. Fold-out triptych cover by RON WILSON and DAVE HUNT of Marvel UK’s rare 1970s “Quadra-Poster”!

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Edited by ROY THOMAS The greatest ‘zine of the 1960s is back, ALL-NEW, and focusing on GOLDEN AND SILVER AGE comics and creators with ARTICLES, INTERVIEWS, UNSEEN ART, P.C. Hamerlinck’s FCA (Fawcett Collectors of America, featuring the archives of C.C. BECK and recollections by Fawcett artist MARCUS SWAYZE), Michael T. Gilbert’s MR. MONSTER, and more!

2012 EISNER AWARD Nominee Best Comics-Related Journalism

Other issues available, & an ULTIMATE BUNDLE with all issues at HALF-PRICE!

ALTER EGO #107

ALTER EGO #108

DIEDGITIIOTANSL E

BL AVAILA

ALTER EGO #104

ALTER EGO #105

ALTER EGO #106

Celebrates the 50th anniversary of FANTASTIC FOUR #1 and the birth of Marvel Comics! New, never-beforepublished STAN LEE interview, art and artifacts by KIRBY, DITKO, SINNOTT, AYERS, THOMAS, and secrets behind the Marvel Mythos! Also: JIM AMASH interviews 1940s Timely editor AL SULMAN, FCA, MR. MONSTER’S COMIC CRYPT, and a new cover by FRENZ and SINNOTT!

See comic art and script BEFORE and AFTER the Comics Code changes, with art

by SIMON & KIRBY, DITKO, BUSCEMA, SINNOTT, GOULD, COLE, STERANKO, KRIGSTEIN, O’NEIL, GLANZMAN, ORLANDO, WILLIAMSON, HEATH, and others! Plus: FCA, Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt, BILL SCHELLY, JIM AMASH interviews Timely/Atlas artist CAL MASSEY, and a new cover by JOSH MEDORS!

DICK GIORDANO through the 1960s—from freelance years and Charlton “Action-Heroes” to his first stint at DC! Art by DITKO, APARO, BOYETTE, MORISI, McLAUGHLIN, GIL KANE, and others, Dick’s final convention panel with STEVE SKEATES and ROY THOMAS, JIM AMASH interviews Charlton artist TONY TALLARICO, FCA with MARC SWAYZE and ROY ALD, MR. MONSTER’S COMIC CRYPT, BILL SCHELLY, & DITKO/GIORDANO cover!

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ALTER EGO #109

ALTER EGO #110

ALTER EGO #111

Big BATMAN issue, with an unused Golden Age cover by DICK SPRANG! Interviews SPRANG and JIM MOONEY, with rare and unseen Batman art by BOB KANE, JERRY ROBINSON, WIN MORTIMER, SHELLY MOLDOFF, CHARLES PARIS, and others! Part II of the TONY TALLARICO interview by JIM AMASH! Plus FCA, MR. MONSTER’S COMIC CRYPT, BILL SCHELLY, and more!

1970s Bullpenner WARREN REECE talks about Marvel Comics and working with EVERETT, BURGOS, ROMITA, STAN LEE, MARIE SEVERIN, ADAMS, FRIEDRICH, ROY THOMAS, and others, with rare art!

DEWEY CASSELL spotlights Golden Age artist MIKE PEPPE, with art by TOTH, TUSKA, SEKOWSKY, TALLARICO Part 3, plus FCA, MR. MONSTER, BILL SCHELLY, cover by EVERETT & BURGOS, and more!

Spectre/Hour-Man creator BERNARD BAILY, ‘40s super-groups that might have been, art by ORDWAY, INFANTINO, KUBERT, HASEN, ROBINSON, and BURNLEY, conclusion of the TONY TALLARICO interview by JIM AMASH, MIKE PEPPE interview by DEWEY CASSELL, BILL SCHELLY on “50 Years of Fandom” at San Diego 2011, FCA, Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt, PÉREZ cover, and more!

SHAZAM!/FAWCETT issue! The 1940s “CAPTAIN MARVEL” RADIO SHOW, interview with radio’s “Billy Batson” BURT BOYAR, P.C. HAMERLINCK and C.C. BECK on the origin of Captain Marvel, ROY THOMAS and JERRY BINGHAM on their Secret Origins “Shazam!”, FCA with MARC SWAYZE, LEONARD STARR interview, Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt, BILL SCHELLY, and more!

GOLDEN AGE NEDOR super-heroes are spotlighted, with MIKE NOLAN’s Nedor Index, and art by MORT MESKIN, JERRY ROBINSON, GEORGE TUSKA, RUBEN MOIRERA, ALEX SHOMBURG, and others!

Plus FCA, MR. MONSTER, more 2011 Fandom Celebration, and part II of JIM AMASH’s interview with Golden Age artist LEONARD STARR! Cover by SHANE FOLEY!

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ALTER EGO #112

ALTER EGO #113

ALTER EGO #114

ALTER EGO #115

ALTER EGO #116

SUPERMAN issue! PAUL CASSIDY (early Superman artist), Italian Nembo Kid, and ARLEN SCHUMER’s look at the MORT WEISINGER era, plus an interview with son HANK WEISINGER! Art by SHUSTER, BORING, ANDERSON, PLASTINO, and others! LEONARD STARR interview Part III—FCA—Mr. Monster—more 2011 Fandom Celebration, and a MURPHY ANDERSON/ARLEN SCHUMER cover!

MARV WOLFMAN talks to RICHARD ARNDT about his first decade in comics on Tomb of Dracula, Teen Titans, Captain Marvel, John Carter, Daredevil, Nova, Batman, etc., behind a GENE COLAN cover! Art by COLAN, ANDERSON, CARDY, BORING, MOONEY, and more!

Plus: the conclusion of our LEONARD STARR interview by JIM AMASH, FCA, MR. MONSTER, BILL SCHELLY, and more!

MARVEL ISSUE on Captain America and Fantastic Four! MARTIN GOODMAN’s Broadway debut, speculations about FF #1, history of the MMMS, interview with Golden Age writer/artist DON RICO, art

by KIRBY, AVISON, SHORES, ROMITA, SEVERIN, TUSKA, ALLEN BELLMAN, and others! Plus FCA, MR. MONSTER and BILL SCHELLY! Cover by BELLMAN and MITCH BREITWEISER!

3-D COMICS OF THE 1950S! In-depth feature by RAY (3-D) ZONE, actual red and green 1950s 3-D art (includes free glasses!) by SIMON & KIRBY, KUBERT, MESKIN, POWELL, MAURER, NOSTRAND, SWAN, BORING, SCHWARTZ, MOONEY, SHORES, TUSKA and many others! Plus FCA, Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt, BILL SCHELLY, and more! Cover by JOE SIMON and JACK KIRBY!

JOE KUBERT TRIBUTE! Four Kubert interviews, art by RUSS HEATH, NEAL ADAMS, MURPHY ANDERSON, MICHAEL KALUTA, SAM GLANZMAN, and others, MR. MONSTER’S COMIC CRYPT, BILL SCHELLY’s Comic Fandom Archive, FCA’s Captain Video conclusion by GEORGE EVANS that inspired Avengers foe Ultron, cover by KUBERT, with a portrait by DANIEL JAMES COX!

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(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $3.95 • Ships April 2013

CBA Interview

Hell-Raisin’ Harlan Ellison An interview with the award-winning author on his comics work Conducted by Jon B. Cooke Transcribed by Steven Tice Harlan Ellison is one of the most celebrated—and award-winning— authors in contemporary literature, as well as in television and motion pictures (not to mention TV criticism, as The Glass Teat and The Other Glass Teat essays remain Ye Ed’s favorite non-fiction works by Harlan); and he has been a vocal and enthusiastic advocate for comics as entertainment, and as an art-form, since the 1950s. While still in his teens, the writer had his first comic book story published by the legendary EC Comics, in Weird Science-Fantasy. He loyally continues to make occasional happy forays in the field, having, over the last 30 years, scripted issues of The Incredible Hulk, Daredevil, Twilight Zone, The Avengers and Batman, as well as having originated and co-edited a series of comics anthologies based on his own work, Harlan Ellison’s Dream Corridor, published by Dark Horse. Harlan has also scribed articles on particular favorite comics (in All in Color For a Dime and Playboy, for instance), as well as having contributed innumerable introductions to many comic book collections (The Rocketeer, Anthology of Slow Death, Fish Police, etc.). He counts many professionals in the field as long-time friends. Currently, the writer is developing scripts for Doctor Fate and Tom Strong, and he continues to have passionate opinions regarding the contemporary comics scene. The author was interviewed via telephone on Sept. 24, 2002, and he approved the final transcript. Thanks to Chris Day and Susan Ellison for their assistance.

Comic Book Artist: Did you collect comics as a child?

Harlan Ellison: Yes, I did. The first comic I ever got was World’s Fair Comics from 1939. (I couldn’t have bought it, as I was only five years old, so it must have been given to me.) I was staying in North Carolina at the time, though I’m from Ohio. My parents had to have time-off from me at least two or three times a year (otherwise they would have gone completely up the chimney), so they fired me off to a relative in Shelby, North Carolina (which is where, in later years, I found myself driving a dynamite truck… but that was when I was 14). I remember that comic very clearly. There were sugar cane fields in Shelby, and there were black men (whom I had never seen in Ohio) cutting the cane with huge machetes. I was fascinated, and used to hang out with them. I liked them a lot. I thought they were just terrific guys. They were always saying something interesting, and were singing and they looked magical to me. One of the gentlemen asked if I had ever sucked on a sugar cane stalk, and I said no, I hadn’t. So he cut me one, and it was just wonderful. I was just sucking on the sugar cane, and remember very distinctly taking my comic, lying down in the tall grass, making a big angel—you know how you flatten the grass by moving your arms up and down like wings—well, there I was lying in the middle of the field, like something out of a Kurosawa film, reading the 1939 World’s Fair Comics while dripping the ambrosia of a sugar cane onto my face. That was my first memoDecember 2002

COMIC BOOK ARTIST 23

ry of comics. Can’t do much better than that; no wonder it’s been a lifelong love affair.

CBA: Did you get into comics from then on?

Harlan: Oh, absolutely. I’ve still got most of my comics in my collection from when I was a kid. And also, I’ve told this story a number of times: it’s what brought Mart Nodell back into the fold. When I was a kid, as I said, every summer my parents would have to farm me out somewhere just so they could recover from the other eight months of existence with me. My parents loved me, but I was a handful. I was my generation’s Bart Simpson. We lived in Ohio, thirty miles northeast of Cleveland in a little town called Painesville, and my parents somehow got conned into believing that this place called Bellevue was a summer camp; but it was actually a big stone orphanage on the outskirts of Cleveland where, in the summertime, they sent the orphans off to “real” camp, and Bellevue was empty. So they had to bring in kids to keep it going until September, I guess, or the end of summer vacation. Here I was in this gulag, and I remember very distinctly, it’s almost like something out of Little Andy Rooney or Little Orphan Annie, where I actually had to wash down stone steps with lye soap and a horsehair brush. I swear, when I tell people this, they say, “You’re making it up!”

And I say, “Nooo, that’s exactly what happened!”

CBA: “It’s a hard-knock life… for us!” [laughs] Harlan: That’s exactly what it was! It was a hard-knock life, and yet we were supposed to be Summer campers! I mean, I had an older sister, a mother and a father and a home, but here I was in… how shall I put it delicately… It was Perdition! And I wanted out.

I was forever going over the wall. Literally, over the wall. Like Burt Lancaster in Brute Force. They had this huge stone wall, and I would scale it, one way or the other. I would get branches that had fallen and pick out the ones that were hook-like, and I would toss them up, they would stick to the top like a claw, and I would crawl up. Of course, I was a very small kid. I was very, very, very small all my life, so every time I would run away, they would catch me.

But one day, it was raining, I went out when everybody else was inside, and somehow I got over. I think I took a bunch of dirty towels I was supposed to be trundling in a tumbrel, a smaller version of

Inset left: Harlan Ellison’s first published work was a letter in Real Fact Comics #6 (Jan.-Feb. 1947), when the author was a young teen. ©2002 DC Comics.

Below: Neal Adams contributed portraits of Frank Frazetta, himself and Harlan Ellison (the latter seen here) for the text piece “The Story Behind the Story of Rock God,” in Creepy #32 (April 1970). ©2002 the respective copyright holder.

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Above: Recent Mart Nodell drawing of his creation, the Golden Age Green Lantern.

Art ©2002 Mart Nodell.

Green Lantern ©2002 DC Comics. Below: Ellison is a huge fan of the work of George Carlson, the cartoonist genius behind Jingle Jangle Comics. This splash page (repro’d from The Smithsonian Book of Comic-Book Comics (’81)) originally appeared in #5 (Oct. ’43). Inset right: In his devotion to Carlson’s work, Ellison wrote an article for All in Color for a Dime (1970), “Comic of the Absurd.” ©2002 Richard A. Lupoff & Don Thompson.

64

what they used in the French Revolution, and I tied them together and got them soaking wet, so they had adhering ability, and I threw the “towelrope” over the wall and it stuck. I managed to pull myself up, “rappelled” up the towels and got the hell out; and I ran like a sonovabitch. I ran and ran and ran. Now, you’ve got to understand. I am not in the middle of Tanzania or the Congo. I’m in the middle of Cleveland somewhere. But in 1939—’40, there was a lot of undeveloped land around there. It was a different country then. I walked and walked and walked. I walked for a whole day, and the rain went away, and then the sun dried my clothes. I walked and walked and walked.

I ate berries, there were wild berries everywhere. I was on the street. I wasn’t in the woods, I was on the street. Then, as I was walking, I came to a stretch of sidewalk beside a heavily wooded area… and I saw it. It was lying on the sidewalk face-up: a copy of either All-American Comics or Green Lantern. It had obviously been dropped by someone fairly recently because it wasn’t damaged in any way. It was in perfect, mint condition (it’d probably be worth $30,000 today). By that time, I loved comics, and I had lots and lots of comics, so I picked it up, and read it while I walked. I read that comic maybe fifty times during that long wander. I was walking for two days until somebody in a car stopped and picked me up and took me to my grandmother’s house, which was in Cleveland Heights. That was my second really big memory of comics. Love affair!

I also read Supersnipe, All-Star Comics, and Plastic Man. Those were all my comics… Airboy… the comics that I read. And that Green Lantern I found had been drawn by Mart Nodell. So when I was the keynote speaker at the Diamond Retailer’s Convention a few years back, I told that story, and Mart Nodell happened to

be in the audience, and he was very touched by it. A couple of years later, I commissioned Randy Bowen, a very good friend of mine and a magnificent sculptor—this was a long time before anybody started with the busts and the statues of Golden Age figures—to make me a heroic Golden-Age Alan Scott Green Lantern statue, holding his lantern out in front of him. Only three copies were made. One of them was for Randy, one for me, and the third for Mart Nodell. None of the figures done since… by anybody… approaches by one onemillionth the absolute splendor and individuality of those three pieces.

CBA: You were pretty eclectic in your comics reading, right? You also read the funny animal comic, Jingle Jangle?

Harlan: Oh, yeah. From very early on, I fell in love with George Carlson’s work, little realizing that Carlson was one of the great American artists (who is sadly overlooked now). But I loved “Jingle Jangle Tales,” and loved “The Pie-faced Prince of Pretzelburg,” which were the two features Carlson did for Jingle Jangle. I also collected George Pal’s Puppetoons. I also collected Funny Animals, because it had Hoppy, the Marvel Bunny in it. I was not big on crime comics, but I did collect Crime Does Not Pay, because I liked Charles Biro’s art. But then, since I had already been collecting Daredevil and the Little Wiseguys, that was just sort of a natural stopover. The Spirit I adored because I saw them in the original newspaper sections. One summer, my mother, sister and I went to Cedar Point, to the Breakers Hotel. I remember just as clearly as I could. The Breakers Hotel was one of the old-fashioned kind of resort hotels, like you saw in Some Like It Hot. There was an enormous atrium off which the corridors with the rooms extended. In the center, there was a newsstand. There were a lot of leather chairs, and it would lead out to another pair of French doors that led out onto the beach, so you could go out to swim. There was even a little theme park right next door, the name of which I can’t remember. On the newsstand, I would get whatever paper it was, maybe it was the Cleveland News, and it had the Spirit section. I would lie there in the middle of the floor, so the people had to go around me, like that wonderful image of a kid lying there with his head propped up on his hands with his elbows down. That was one of the most golden moments of my youth.

CBA: Do you retain the collection you had in childhood?

Harlan: Yes, I have. A lot of it. You know, I’m 68 now, so over sixty years, a lot of stuff vanishes, people cop stuff, you know. My mother never threw my comics out, which is why I have a complete run of Fawcett comics, which are now bagged, but the weren’t bagged for 40 years. Some of them are not in as good condition as they were when I bought them, but I’ve got a complete run of virtually every Fawcett comic, all the important ones. Whiz, Wow, Captain Marvel, Captain Marvel, Jr., Mary Marvel, Marvel Family, Funny Animals, Spy Smasher, the Ibis miniseries, Commando Yank. All of those, I’ve got them all, and they’re all in a vault hidden in the house where no one can find them. I’ve also got almost all of the Quality comics, which are particular favorites.

I’m still missing some issues, but the way I get them now is a story: I’m pretty well played out insofar as conventions are concerned. I mean, I’ve been going to conventions since 1950, ’51, and there’s no panel I have not sat on eleven times. There’s no subject I have not talked about 109 times. There’s no convention thing that I haven’t done dozens and dozens of times. So when they call me and want me to come, they say, “Oh, you’ll have a wonderful time!” I say, “No, I won’t have a wonderful time. You don’t understand. I’m 68 and gotta travel to wherever the f*ck it is, and when I get there, there’s the onus and the burden.” At that point, people laugh and say, “Yeah, you really got it hard at the top,” but there is a concomitant weight, a gravitas that is put on you as a minor celebrity. Trust me, I understand that I am a very minor celebrity. But nonetheless, you get people who have expectations of you, and they come up and say the damnedest things. The worst ones are the people who come up and have a combination of a brown nose sycophancy that is melded to arrogance, trying to prove that you’re an asshole, where they’ll come up and say, COMIC BOOK ARTIST 23

December 2002

“I’ve read all your stuff and I don’t think you can write very well.” Then people say to me, “Well, you said that to Asimov.” I did not say that to Asimov, damn it! Our conversation was very different, when we met, but even the legend has it played out another way. So you’re on from the moment you get there until the moment you go home.

There’s a lot of noise, a lot of jobs you have to do.

For instance, signing. Signing is part of the job, you do it, but it’s exhausting. People are rude sometimes, and when they’re not rude, you have to pay attention to them in the line. I mean, I try very hard when I’m signing to speak to everybody, to ask them a question or to inquire something or to ask them about what they’ve brought or what they’re wearing, whatever it is, so there’s a little moment of connection there. Otherwise, all it is is an assembly line, and I just hate that.

Going to conventions becomes a job. So the only way I’ll do it these days is if I’m paid, just the way I’m paid to go speak at a college, or for a business conference, or anything like that. I say to them, “Look you can’t afford me.” If it’s a small convention, I’ll say, “I’ll work with you, I’m not going to charge you.” What I usually get at a university is $10-11,000 a night plus plane fare, accommodations, and the usual stuff. And my wife, Susan, always travels with me, I never go without her. So I say, “You can’t afford me.” I’m not trying to be a smartass, it’s just, it isn’t worth my time. I’ve got a limited amount of years left, and if I take two or three days to go to a convention, particularly with the travails of traveling these days, with security and all, then that’s three days in which I’m not gonna write a story that might be worth saving after I’m gone. So if somebody is very, very persistent, like the I-Con, which is in Stony Brook in February or March… they know me so well. Diane Brown and the convention committee, they know me so well they know I can’t be bought with money. They really are smart cookies. They call me up and say, “There’s a comic auction coming up. Have you seen the brochure?” Of course I had, because I got mine just the same as they send it to all of their customers.

There’ll be an issue of National Comics with Uncle Sam I don’t have, and there’ll be a Military Comics with Blackhawk I don’t have, or there’ll be an issue of Scribbly that will finish off my set. I say, “Well, yeah, I have seen it.” And they’ll say, “Well, why don’t you pick $4,000 worth of comics.” And see, now, four thousand is a lot less than I would regularly get, but I can’t bring myself to pay $2,500 for a comic that I originally paid 10¢ for. I mean, before I had this lawsuit against AOL, I could afford it, but now I can’t afford any damn thing.

But they bribe me, go to my soft underbelly, and I just got $4,000 worth of comics from the Comic Heaven auction. So I’m as happy as a pig in slop, you know. My wife looks at me, shakes her head and says, “Y’know, you’re seven years old.” I say, “Yes, I know I’m seven years old, and if they discover that about us, they’ll have to send an adult in here to watch us, so you’d better keep it a secret.” (He says in his little boy voice.)

CBA: [laughs] As a kid, did you consider that real people were doing these comics, that there were artists and writers who were putting this together? Did you connect Carlson immediately?

Harlan: Oh, absolutely. I could tell a Kubert “Hawkman,” an Eisner Spirit, and a Jack Cole Plastic Man from anybody else’s. I didn’t know his name, because it wasn’t on the cover, but I loved Mac Raboy’s Captain Marvel Jr. covers. I just adored them. They were such great portraits, such wonderful pin-ups.

I kept my comics in perfect condition, and had a little frame I made that I could take comics in and out of so I could change them. I would hang comics on my wall as pictures in my room. I knew there December 2002

COMIC BOOK ARTIST 23

were real people involved. And, of course, I wrote my first letter to a comic in 1947. Real Fact Comics #6.

That comic goes for a lot of money now because it contains my very first published piece.

CBA: They had a letter column?

Harlan: Yeah, they had a letter column in Real Fact Comics. I am a child still insofar as comics are concerned, yet at the same time, I have not lost my sense of editorial or literary acumen about it as an art form. I think of comics as an art form, and judge them the same way I would judge a book, movie, painting or a piece of sculpture. For instance, I was reading Dark Horse’s Ripley’s Believe it or Not the other day.

They’re very interesting books, but the guy who’s writing it does not understand that “off of” is an ungrammatical construction. You don’t say, “I picked it up off of the ground.” You pick it off the ground. The writer does it twice. I got really upset about that, and had to put the book down until I got over being angry. I look for bad grammar in comics, and I’ve become the punctuation police.

I learned more from comics, I think, than I ever learned in the early days of schooling. I taught myself to read at about age three or four. I was already reading before I got into Kindergarten (and of course that’s one of the interesting anecdotes of my existence, which I’ll tell you another time, it has nothing to do with comic books). So I taught myself to read with children’s books. I Saw It on Mulberry Street

by Dr. Seuss was the second book I ever read. The first was a wonderful book that is still in print called Millions and Millions of Cats, by Wanda Ga’g. The edition I had is something like the seventieth impression, and the book is still around! That was the first thing I read in the Painesville Public Library. But comics were my McGuffy’s Primer. I learned everything that I needed to know about honor, courage, responsibility, service to the community and giving back, and all those kind of things from comics. (Well, that and The Mark of Zorro with Tyrone Power, which was a huge influence, but that’s another story.)

CBA: Did you have any aspiration to write comics when you were young?

Harlan: What do you mean, “aspiration”? I did write comics when I was young. Around the time that I sent that letter to Real Fact, I was already 12, and I had been writing a comic book in Painesville that I would do with carbon paper. I would make about three or four copies, would do all the drawings myself, and the balloons I would type in with one of those kiddie’s typewriters where you turn the wheel, press down, then turn the wheel, and press down. I’d make maybe a dozen of them, take them around and sell them in the neighborhood, and if people didn’t buy them, I would break their windows. This is how I learned merchandising.

CBA: [laughs] What were the characters?

Harlan: Oh, I have no idea. All I know is that there was a boy in it.

Do you know about the Superman-Tim Club? This is something you ought to do an article on. There was a company that did promotional comics for shoe stores, clothing stores, all over the country. Every month, they would issue a little 12- or 16-page pamphlet called Superman-Tim, and if you went into the store, you could get a beautiful, beautiful color stamp you could paste into the stamp catalogue they issued once a year. So faithfully, ever Saturday, I would go in on the bus to Cleveland, to the B.R. Baker Company, which was a shoe

Inset left: Ellison was also a fan of Supersnipe, the Street & Smith title featuring “The Boy With the Most Comic Books in America.” This cover graced #9. ©2002 Condé Nast.

Below: Just for the joy of it, here’s the Neal Adams version of Alan Scott, the Golden Age Green Lantern, detailed from the cover art of Green Lantern #88 (March ’72). Courtesy of Albert Moy. ©2002 DC Comics.

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Above: Al Feldstein’s cover art to Weird Science Fantasy #24 (June ’54), which features Harlan Ellison’s first published comic-book work, “Upheaval,” which was illustrated by Al Williamson. ©2002 William M. Gaines, Agent.

Inset right: The eternally young Al Williamson (circa 1958) poses for reference pix. Courtesy of Jame Van Hise’s The Art of Al Williamson (1983). ©2002 the respective copyright holder.

Below: Al Williamson-drawn page from Weird Science-Fantasy #24’s Harlan Ellison’s first published comic-book work, “Upheaval.” ©2002 William M. Gaines, Agent.

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store, and I would get whatever Superman-Tim item was available, whether it was pin or that month’s stamp or that month’s issue. What most people don’t know is that prior to SupermanTim, it was just called The Adventures of Tim. And afterward the Superman license wasn’t renewed, it became something like Hopalong Cassidy-Tim, Gene Autry-Tim or something like that. But it went on for at least ten years, and a set of those is very, very valuable. Now, I’ve got most of them. I’m missing maybe a dozen, but they’re impossible to come by. When you do find them, people don’t know what they’re worth, so you usually get it for fairly nothing.

So I was doing my own comics, collecting the Superman-Tim stuff and everything else. I knew very well that there were artists. After that letter to DC, of course, DC became my favorite comics company. There was no Marvel in those days, and for some reason, I was not as enamored of most of the other companies. Quality was very big with me; some of the individual titles like Airboy and the Heap I wanted, but I knew very well that they were being produced by human beings.

CBA: Was this your first literary foray?

Harlan: Yeah, I would guess so, because the first things I actually sold for payment (although I was paid in baseball tickets for the Cleveland Indians) can be found in my book, The Essential Ellison, which is a fifty-year retrospective. It opens with a couple of serials I wrote for the young people’s column, “The Rangers,” in the Cleveland News. The first one was called “The Sword of Parmagon,” which was a direct steal from Sir Walter Scott. The second was called “The Gloconda,” which was a direct steal from H. Rider Haggard. They were five-, six-, seven-, eight-part serials with my own illustrations, and they’re reproduced in The Essential Ellison.

CBA: With the advent of EC Comics, did you recognize the quality Gaines and Company were putting out?

Harlan: Oh, absolutely! Not only that, but the first story I ever sold was to Bill Gaines at EC. It’s in Weird Science-Fantasy. My title was called, I think, “Green Denouement,” (how’s that for ponciness?) and they published it as “Upheaval,” illustrated by Al Williamson [in Weird Science-Fantasy #24, June ’54]. In fact, I got a letter from Heritage Auctions who said they had the artwork, which I’d been looking for for fifty years. Bill Gaines promised it to me. Bill had said, “You’re the youngest person who’s ever sold me a story, so what do you want?” I said, “I want that artwork.” He said, “Fine,” but it disappeared from the office.

Somebody copped it. However many hands it went through, it finally found its way to some private collector who had had it for maybe 25 years, and now he was selling it. So Heritage wrote me and said, “By the way, we have copies of all of these letters, if you want the artwork that goes with these

things. In fact, we should do a little blurb for our catalogue.” I said, “‘Blurb,’ my ass! Don’t sell that! I want it!” Well, the guy apparently wanted so much money for it, something like $10,000, and I just don’t have it. I don’t have that kind of money. So I finally had to say to them, “Well, go ahead and sell it.” So now it’s going to be sold, and it just broke my heart.

CBA: What was the story?

Harlan: The story was called “Upheaval.” Oddly enough, I’d sold that story about five times. The first time, I did it for a fanzine, the Bulletin of the Cleveland Science Fantasy Society, in 1951 or ’52.

Then I sold the story to Bill. Then I did it for a humor magazine at Ohio State University when I was there in 1953. Then, when I was in the Army in ’57, I wrote it and sold it to Bill Hamling at either Imaginative Tales or Imagination Science Fiction magazines (I can’t remember what the hell the name of it that time was). But when I got to Hollywood in 1962, I wrote it as a Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea episode and we called it “The Price of Doom.” I’ve worked that story pretty well. It’s a nice little philosophical idea set in an action/adventure setting, but it’s a purely EC kind of story. I adored the Al Williamson version, which was just breathtaking to me. I would have killed to have that artwork!

CBA: Did you have occasion to talk to Al about it?

Harlan: Oh, yes. Al and I have talked about it every time we’ve met.

I adore Al. Y’know, I find it hard to think of myself as being 68, but Al… CBA: He’s about 29, right? [laughter] Harlan: He’s 29 exactly! Talking to him is always wonderful because he has maintained that innocence in childhood, that nature which enriches us all, but at the same time he is an adult, and talking to him is like talking to a really good and smart pal.

I’m just nuts about him. One of the few sad things when I did Harlan Ellison’s Dream Corridor was that I never got around to getting Al to do a story for me, because I really wanted him to. I also wanted Joe Kubert to do one, and Russ Heath was going to do one of my war stories. I was able to use Mart Nodell and a lot of other people, but, y’know, you can only have a limited number of artists in each issue, and I thought the book would go on forever, but… Enh, it’s a funny medium today. They want people in spandex, even though they say, “No, we want more adult things.” But the numbers are never there. There’s one more issue; we’ve got it all assembled and it’s all done, but… la de dah.

CBA: You only did one story for EC? Harlan: Yeah.

CBA: How come? Was it that you were satisfied. “Oooh, I got a story published by EC”?

Harlan: No, no, no. You’ve got to understand how old I was, man.

I was in my teens and going to high school. I sold a cartoon to Imagination I did with the cartoonist from our school newspaper, who was really good. Ray Gibson was his name. I wasn’t as smart as, say, Roy Thomas, Paul Levitz or Gerry Conway or any of those guys, to understand that there was an occupation there. In those days, it wasn’t an occupation. For most people, comics were thrown out. They sold a lot, but you didn’t think of yourself as being involved. I would have had to have been in New York anyhow, to have sold regularly.

This was a fluke that I sold this story, and I knew that….

Let me pause for a moment for this footnote: When I was a kid, I was multifarious. That is to say, in childhood terms, I was a Renaissance Kid. I could do a lot of stuff. I could write, sing, act. I was acting when I was a very little boy. When I was eight, nine years old, COMIC BOOK ARTIST 23

December 2002

my father had me in minstrel shows. My father was a brilliant, brilliant singer. He had sung for a living, as I did later. It was almost like being in the Renaissance, where everybody painted, wrote, did tapestries, and hunted. There was no differentiation that only these people could paint and only those people could hunt. You did it all, and that was the way I grew up. I never separated being a writer from being a technician.

At first, I thought I was going to be an actor or a comedian or a singer.

Whatever it was, I always wrote. I always wrote. There are a lot of people like that, who only in later years begin to write, because they never had the time, and you find out later they were really great writers, like the actor Sterling Hayden. During the Hollywood blacklist, he couldn’t get work, so he wrote these wonderful books about sailing. Or you take Tom Tryon, not one of the great novelists, but he was an actor, of course, played Texas John Slaughter on the Walt Disney series, and then he started writing horror novels. There are an awful lot of people who have one other major talent that they do, and they can also write, but they don’t realize that they can write that well. They write amusing letters or they’re good raconteurs until it turns out that they do a book. Like Paul Mantee, who played Robinson Crusoe on Mars. Paul is a brilliant novelist, and he’s written four or five books, now that he’s not acting anymore. And that was the way that it was with me. I always wrote. Whatever I would have become—and I could have gone any number of ways, being fairly adept at doing any number of different things. I’m a pretty handy guy, but don’t forget, I was out on the road at age thirteen, out riding the rails, living with hobos, traveling across the country, and doing all those kind of things in those days, which I thought was exciting and very Jack London-ish. So the writing thing was just one other aspect of my integrated childhood personality.

CBA: Throughout the time you were vagabonding, did you still read comics? Did you always read comics through your adolescence?

Harlan: Yes, absolutely. I was one of the great shoplifters of all time. I would cop comics, just steal them. Of course, I would steal food… I would steal anything.

CBA: But comics were an essential nutrient, right? [laughs] Harlan: I guess that’s why I always related to Sabu in The Thief of Baghdad, the 1939 Alexander Korda film where the prince is hiding out with John Justin. He says, “You’re a thief? What have you ever stolen?” Sabu says, “Money from their pockets, food from their table, shoes off their feet.” He’s Sabu, the great thief. So I was a fairly accomplished shoplifter. I was a very survival-prone guy. And for me, having what I need to read has always been a basic part of survival.

Now, this is not a thing to brag about. It’s fairly insignificant, because everybody, when they’re a kid, shoplifts, everybody does it. Whether it’s a lipstick from Woolworth’s or a candy bar from 7-11, everybody cops something sometime. I was just a little bit better at it and did it a little more, but I do not—in any way—condone or recommend it or think it’s a noble thing. It was a part of childhood.

CBA: Were you gratified when Julie Schwartz was coming into his own at DC? When The Flash was revived, and the Justice League came in?

Harlan: Oh, absolutely. Julie will tell you the story that I wrote to him and said something about, “I really would like to have a Hawkman script,” and he sent me one! He sent me a Hawkman script and the pages from an early Hawkman story drawn by Murphy Anderson. That’s when we began our friendship. That’s got to be…

CBA: 1963, ’64?

Harlan: Something like that. Today, Julie and I speak every week.

Every Thursday at 8:15 a.m. my time, the phone rings (because it’s 11:15 there, it’s just before he goes to lunch), and it’s Julie and we shoot the sh*t. I tell him what’s going on at DC and he tells me what the weather’s like. [laughter] CBA: Julie is a great guy and has been really supportive.

Harlan: Oh, he’s a wonderful guy. I did the afterward for his book, December 2002

COMIC BOOK ARTIST 23

called “For Christ’s Sake, Schwartz, Get Out of my Face!” I just adore him, and he’s a wonderful, wonderful man. But I’ll tell you, he could drive Velcro crazy. He is like a cold you cannot get rid of. The wonderful thing is, the man is what, 85? We have this thing going that he’s gonna live to 120, at which time I will declare him the Messiah, and he will say, “You’ll be my Silver Surfer, you’ll be my herald,” and I say, “Julie, I’ll be over a hundred years old!” And he’ll say, “Oh, that’s all right.”

CBA: Do you have any memory of this Hawkman story you pitched to Julie in the ’60s?

Harlan: I can’t remember where I put it at the moment. It’s in one of the art bins that I have here. You’ve never been to my house, Jon, but if you had, you’d understand. I’m sitting right now in the art deco dining pavilion that I designed, and I’m looking around me. The centerpiece on the glass-top table is the hood ornament of Gonzo from the Muppets movie. It’s the actual wooden hood ornament that was given to me by the special effects guy. Over there, on the cabinet, is a Spider-Man clinging to the wall, and over here are the three rare Superman plates

Inset left: Jerry Jurman photo of the Great Editor himself, Julie Schwartz, taken at a Berndt Toast Meeting. Harlan gets a call from Julie every Thursday, when they catch up on the week’s doings.

Below: The renowned author received from his pal Julie Schwartz an entire issue of Hawkman, drawn by Murphy Anderson and scribed by Gardner Fox. While not necessarily the issue in question, here’s a page from the first issue of that title (April-May ’64), featuring the Murph’s takes on a Carmine Infantino type cityscape and Joe Kubert’s earlier Hawkman stories.

Courtesy of Robert Pollak. ©2002 DC Comics.

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Above: Harlan Ellison joined the Marvel Age of Comics crafting a two-part crossover in The Avengers #88 (May ’71) and The Incredible Hulk #140 (June ’71).

Here’s a tryptich of pages by Herb Trimpe (layouts) and Sam Grainger (finishes) from ol’ Greenskin’s title.

Words by Roy Thomas. ©2002 Marvel Characters, Inc.

Inset right: Harlan Ellison returned to The Avengers in issue #101, plotting “Five Dooms to Save Tomorrow.” The story was scripted

by Roy Thomas. This cover detail is by penciler Rich Buckler and inker Frank Giacoia. ©2002 Marvel Characters, Inc. 68

done for the Centennial. Over there is the plate that the Franklin Mint issues of the Amazing Fantasy with Spider-Man. Down here is a cookie jar of the Bulldog Café from The Rocketeer. The house is ass-deep in tchachkes, bric-a-brac. I could find you that Hawkman if I spent a day-and-a-half looking through the quarter of a million books I have here in the house.

CBA: I’ll send you $11,000 if you do it. [laughter] Harlan: You got it! Now you’re in the ballpark, son! I can’t remember which one it was, but I think what it was one of the… it would have been one of The Brave and the Bolds. [At this point, it’s determined that CBA is inquiring about an alleged Hawkman script Harlan pitched to DC, but Harlan thought the discussion was on actual original art pages from an issue of Hawkman.]

CBA: Did you write any comics in the ’60s at all?

Harlan: The only comics I wrote in the ’60s were Marvels. I did The Avengers twice. Well, I did a twoparter. It started in The Avengers [#88, May ’71] and it ended in The Incredible Hulk [#140, June ’71], the one where Jarella appears. I’ve got the originals of those covers, too. Then I did a second Avengers story [#101, July ’72], and that’s pretty much all I did. But by that time I was friends with a lot of people… Denny O’Neil, Gerry Conway… Marv [Wolfman] and Len [Wein], of course were pals of mine for years and years. Whenever I would get an idea, I would pass it on. Like, at one point, I had a great idea for Swamp Thing, and it was given to Alan Moore, which he used as an entire story arc.

CBA: What was the idea?

Harlan: The idea was, if Swamp Thing is made of primordial matter, basically, then encoded in that primordial matter would be all the DNA back to the Big Bang. Whatever was on this planet in the Mesozoic, for instance, would be encoded in his DNA. So he could travel back in time, given the proper stimulants, whatever that would be. Either an electrical charge, or reduction to his basic parts or per-

haps a piece of him encoded and fired around a proton synchrotron, the particle accelerator, and fire him through a piece of titanium, for instance. By cobbling up a pseudo-scientific method, you could take him back to fight in the days of the dinosaurs.

CBA: You just gave this idea to them?

Harlan: Yeah, sure! I gave lots of ideas. I mean, if you go back through comics, I think there is an issue of Batman [#237, Dec. ’71, “The Night of the Reaper”] that Denny O’Neil wrote that says, “Thanks to Harlan Ellison for the idea.” I’ve given away thousands of ideas for comics, because I get a million ideas a day and can’t write them all. I wouldn’t have the time or the interest in writing them, yet they’re good ideas.

Peter David and I have exchanged ideas on many, many occasions.

We had an idea for Aquaman just before he lost that gig, that would have knocked people’s eyes out, just blown them f*ckin’ away! It was a long story arc that would have run for about a year and would have taken Aquaman someplace he had never been before, and we’d do stories that would have been absolutely original. Because I have no interest in writing your basic, standard Marvel fistfights. Every story I do, I want to be memorable.

You take the two Batmans that I’ve done: The first one that I did for Detective Comics [#567] is absolutely unlike any other Batman story. It is about Batman not being needed. He’s on patrol, and every time he thinks he’s come onto a crime, it turns out that he’s misread it. It’s called, “The Night of Thanks But No Thanks,” where the citizens of Gotham tell him, “We don’t need your help.” Everything is unexpected in it. He goes swinging down in the Batman style and people are saying, “Oh, hi.” He goes down to protect a little old lady who’s about to be mugged, and by the time he gets down there, she’s sitting astride the guy, batting the hell out of him with a purse! This goes on and on, so finally, in the last panel, he’s wearing his Batman garb but he’s got the cowl off, sitting there looking dejected in the chair in front of the fireplace, and here comes COMIC BOOK ARTIST 23

December 2002

Alfred, and he says, “Difficult night, master Bruce?” Batman says, “Worst night of my life!” [laughter] and he’s got this wonderful, wonderful Gene Colan expression on his face. I’ve got the originals of those pages, too, and that one panel is just one of my favorites.

CBA: Did you do that as a favor to Julie, or did you always want to write a Batman story?

Harlan: Well, I did always want to write a Batman (and I always wanted to write a Scribbly, as well as a Sugar and Spike), but, it was done as a favor to Julie. It was a present. It took me years and years to get around to it, and when they presented Julie with an award at the original San Diego Comic-Con, Ray Bradbury flew down from L.A. to San Diego to present it. Neither one of them knew that I was going to show up out of the blue and come out of the audience saying, “I’ve got something for Julie, too!” And I handed him the story, telling Julie, “Here’s the story I promised you!”

CBA: [laughs] You made it an event!

Harlan: I said, “Here’s the story!” Except it was really a scam!

There was only the first two pages of the story.

CBA: [laughs] You didn’t really deliver?

Harlan: The rest was blank, and he didn’t know it until after the whole thing was over. Julie goes, “What happened to the rest of the story?!?” I said, “Oh, gee, Julie, it isn’t written yet,” and it took me another five years to get around to it. By that time, he wasn’t the editor anymore; he was retired!

CBA: How did the Avengers/Hulk story come about? Did you hit it off with Roy Thomas, for instance?

Harlan: Well, I didn’t know Roy very well at the time, because he was back East and I was out here writing movies. I can’t remember how the original liaison came to be. It may have been Stan who asked me to do it. I’ve known Stan for years, and Stan and I have been buddies forever.

I’ll tell you a very funny anecdote about Stan: Before Stan started doing his lecture tours, he was apparently very—not insecure—but nervous. He hadn’t gotten his own voice as a lecturer yet, I guess that’s the best way to put it. I don’t want to in any way demean Stan’s ability to perform, but he had some trepidation about the way to present himself. Now, Stan had heard me speak somewhere, at some convention somewhere, and he got it in his head that I had a pretty good platform presence, which, humbly, I do. You see that’s the only thing that’s ever held me back, is my humility. [laughter] So soon thereafter—we’re talking the ’60s or ’70s, something like that— I’m in some far-off venue like Wilmington, Delaware, or Chattanooga, Tennessee, somewhere off the beaten track of the New YorkChicago-Los Angeles-San Francisco circuit. I’m lecturing, doing my bit—I love lecturing—and when I get on the stage, I can hold an audience of 1,500 people with no trouble at all. If you gave me the right people, I could have marched them and burned the Reichstag.

So I’m cavorting about the stage and doing my freeform bit, which is sort of an amalgam of Mark Twain, Lenny Bruce, a race riot, and the Second Coming. I look into the audience, and it was as if it was a scene out of some spooky movie, where somebody looks and sees someone who’s dead, a ghost, standing on the balcony. They look away, and when they look back, they’re gone, right? So I look out in the audience in this far-off Shangri-La where I’m talking, and I see somebody who is a dead ringer for Stan Lee in the audience! I thought, “Boy, that’s really amazing! That guy looks just like Stan!” I look away, and look back a little later, and there he is, still there. I thought, “Boy, it isn’t a hallucination. That guy really looks like Stan Lee. But what the hell would Stan Lee be doing in Fulton, Mississippi, listening to me talk?” So I didn’t think any much more about it.

December 2002

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About a month later, I’m in some other Godforsaken place where they had cobbled up the money to bring me into some little Wisconsin university, and I look out at the audience and there’s a Stan Lee doppelganger again. I’m thinking, “This is really creepy!” There wasn’t X-Files at the time, but boy, it was an X-Files moment! This happened a number of times, and it wasn’t until a year or two later after Stan was pretty well launched on his speaking gigs, making a lot of money doing it, when I said, “You know, Stan, this is the damnedest thing. Let me tell you about it.” Blah blah blah, and I added, “I have no idea who those people were!” He then said, “Well, they were me.” I said, “What are you talking about? What were you doing in Meridian, Mississippi listening to me on a Thursday night in 110 degree heat?” He said, “I wanted to see how you did it, because I wanted to adapt it for my own lectures.” That’s why Stan’s lectures are like mine.

CBA: [laughs] He definitely picked up some pointers. I saw him lecture back in ’72 or ’73.

Harlan: Yeah! Stan liked my style, liked the way I did it.

CBA:

Left inset: Okay, so the Byron Preiss paperback anthology series, Weird Heroes, may not be technically comics, but innumerable professionals from the field contributed to this innovative set of books. Neal Adams illustrated Harlan’s short story, “The New York Review of Bird,” in the second volume (Dec. ’75). ©2002 Byron Preiss Visual Publications, Inc. Cordwainer Bird ©2002 The Kilimanjaro Corporation.

Below: One of the finest Batman stories to emerge from the 1970s was Batman #237’s “Night of the Reaper,” scripted by Denny O’Neil and drawn by Neal Adams (pencils) and Dick Giordano (inks). The tale was based on an idea by Bernie Wrightson with an assist by Harlan Ellison (formulated by Bernie during a trip to the Rutland Halloween Parade in 1970). Neal draws the likenesses of Bernie, Alan Weiss, Len Wein, Denny, and others in the story. Below is a fullpage panel. ©2002 DC Comics.

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You’re a hell of a lot more feisty though, Harlan. [laughs] Harlan: Well, yeah. Because I have nothing to lose, and I don’t give a sh*t about anything.

CBA: There’s that race riot quotient. [laughs] Harlan: Well, because of the life I’ve led, being on my own all my life, I am very independent. Thus I do not much care about the approbation of strangers. If people like me, that’s great, I’m pleased.

If they don’t like me, well, I can live with that. If they want to be my enemy, go with care, because as salutary as it is to be my friend— because I will go crawl across the continent to help a friend—I will not cease with an enemy until he goes to his grave with my teeth in his throat.

CBA: How did “Rock God” [Creepy #32, Apr. ’70] come about?

Above: Jim Warren explains the story behind the story in this Creepy #32 text page (featuring pencil portraits of Frank Frazetta, Harlan Ellison and himself, as well as a repro of Frank’s cover for that issue, the inspiration for Harlan’s story). ©2002 the respective copyright holder.

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That was your first comics story since EC, I believe. Did you dig what was going on in Creepy and Eerie?

Harlan: No, I was unaware of the magazines entirely. I was unaware of Jim Warren. I met Jim socially in New York, when I was between my first and second marriages, after my first fell apart in Chicago. I was out of the Army, which was in ’59. I went to Chicago for a year, ’60. I edited Rogue magazine. I came back to New York and was living at 95 Christopher Street in Greenwich Village. It was one of the happiest times of my life. I had just written my novel, Spider Kiss, which was published as Rockabilly. I was working on something else, had this great apartment, just up from the Theatre Delys, where they were playing Man of La Mancha, and I wandered down there and listened to Richard Kiley every night for almost a

year. It was a ritual. Across the street was a wonderful little coffee shop. It was a terrific time for me: I was writing a lot, selling a lot, and I was very social. So I met this Jim Warren, who was incredibly charming, good-looking guy, and he introduced me to my second wife, Billi, a publicist for Paramount at the time. She was working on the Lana Turner movie, Midnight Lace, and had a son from a previous marriage, a 13-, 14-year-old, something like that. He was a wonderful kid named Kenny. So I married Billi on the rebound. Well, that was how I came to know Warren. We hung out, went to dinner, talked and shot the sh*t. One day, he says, “Listen, I’ve got this cover by Frank Frazetta.” (I didn’t even know who the hell Frank Frazetta was). He says, “You want to try to write a story about it?” I say, “Sure. What are you going to pay me?” He tells me what he’ll pay, and I say, “Okay, but if you do, I want Neal Adams to do the art.”

Because I knew Neal’s work very well. He says, “Okay.” I say, “I want that art when it’s done. I’ll pay Neal for it, but I want you to make sure that I get it.” Jim says, “Easily done.”

Well, I did a story based on the Frazetta cover, and the Adams art was sensational. Then suddenly the Adams art disappeared. I said to Jim, “Hey, you were supposed to give it to me.” He said, “Well, can I help it if somebody stole it?”

(I did eventually get the art, but that’s an even more interesting story, a real undercover secret spy kind of story. An amazing little tale about how I got the art for “Rock God”)…

The marriage to Billi lasted a year. I went back to Chicago. We were separated, but I brought her out to California. She went her way and got remarried, I went my way and did whatever it was I did.

Years later, at some point, I got word from my agent at the time, Robert Mills, that Warren had made an offer for adaptation rights to “A Boy and His Dog.” He wanted to run it in his magazine, 1984. I said, “Under no circumstances. I don’t want any dealings with this man at all. As far as I’m considered, he’s not a man of his word, and he’s one step up from a crook, and I just don’t want anything to do with him. He’s very smooth, very charming, but I don’t want to deal with.” So they turned him down. Well, what Jim had not bothered to tell anybody was that he had already assigned it. He had already given the story to Bill DuBay, the editor, who gave it to Gerry Boudreau, the writer. Gerry wrote it and Alex Niño did the art before Jim even had the rights to it, which is the way Jim Warren did business.

Okay, so Jim had already gone ahead and had this whole damn thing done, and he doesn’t want to lose a penny. So, instead of just putting it aside, he says, “Ellison won’t give us the rights, so we’ll change it to ‘A Girl and Her Monster.’ Poor Alex was being paid a pittance to begin with…

Alex had already drawn an adaptation of my “‘Repent, Harlequin,’ Said the Tick Tock Man” in Marvel’s Unknown Worlds of Science Fiction. I love Alex’s work, but I did not love the job that he did on that story because it was too madcap all the way through. I mean, here’s a story about absolute regimentation, to the point that you lose your life if you’re late. The only thing that’s out of sync is this harlequin. So everything should have been absolutely rigorously drawn, in straight panels, very, very orderly, and the only part that should have been wacky was the panels with the Harlequin. But everything is jumbled every which way in Niño’s version. It’s very George Carlson-like, very “Jingle Jangle Tales”-like. One of my guiding principles is that form follows function, and the form that Alex used did not in any way follow the function of telling that story.

So Jim goes ahead and has poor Alex redraw this whole damned thing to change the lead character from a boy to a girl and the dog to a monster. So they redid this thing and they published it.

Well, the minute they ran it, I recognized what it was and I sued. Jim tried to bluff it out. It didn’t work. If he had tried to make amends in some way, tried to set it right, things would have turned out better for him. If somebody tries to clean up their mess, man, I get on their side instantly. I am not vindictive. If someone shows a little remorse, “Oh, I was an idiot and I shouldn’t have done that,” I’ll say, “That’s cool. Let’s figure out how we can make this better.” But Jim didn’t!

He tried to tough it and bluff me out. But I don’t bluff, ’cause I have a suicide compulsion in me, I’ll go all the way! So I ran his ass out of business! I’m pleased that I did, because he dicked with me. People COMIC BOOK ARTIST 23

December 2002

should not dick with everybody thinking they can get away with it.

The way I got him, of course, was that Boudreau had been told, “Hey, we’ve got to redo this whole damned thing,” and so he redid it. So he had the smoking gun.

CBA: Actually, Jim Stenstrum was involved in that incident.

“Alabaster Redzone” is a Stenstrum pseudonym.

Harlan: Oh, Stenstrum too, right! It was Boudreau, Stenstrum and DuBay who all ratted Warren out, every one of them. I had the smoking gun completely, so I never had to go to trial with it. We had him cold. We just had his ass, took him downtown and he went away. So that was how that happened.

I was very pleased with “Rock God.” Of course, it was published in narrative form at the same time. Neal was very upset when the artwork disappeared, because I was going to pay something like $500 or $600, which was a lot of money at the time. Now, you want to know the story of how I got the art?

CBA: Yeah.

Harlan: It’s now at least ten years later, maybe more. I’m in New York doing Tom Snyder’s late night TV talk show, Tomorrow, at NBC. After the program was over, Tom and I went to 21 to have something to eat, and then I went back to my hotel. I remember it being on Sixth Avenue, Avenue of the Americas, uptown above Radio City Music Hall. I can’t remember which hotel it was. I get into the room, brush my teeth, take off my clothes and getting ready to go to bed. It was quite late, it must have been about midnight. The phone rings. I thought, “What the hell’s this?” Maybe it’s my office back in L.A., it’s three hours earlier, about 9:00, maybe something has happened. So I pick up the phone and this voice says, “Do you remember the artwork Neal Adams did for ‘Rock God’?” I said, “Yeah,” thinking it was a fan. “What about it?” The voice said, “Would you like to have it? I can offer you that artwork for a reasonable price. Are you interested?” I said, “Yeah, I’m interested!” He said, “Fine. In 20 minutes, be downstairs in front of your hotel.” I said, “Who the hell is this?” He said, “No names.” It was really scary. Well, I love intrigue. [laughs] I mean, this is catnip to me, Charlie. So, sure enough, I go down 20 minutes later, and I’m standing in the rotunda. Cars pull in off Sixth Avenue, come around and then go back out in the street with the traffic. I’m standing next to the doorman and here comes a sports car, a real sleek, low sports car. It may have been a Corvette. There’s this shadowy figure in the driver’s seat. He reaches across, throws open the door, and says, “Get in.” It’s now about maybe a quarter to one in the morning. I’ve read a lot of Shadow novels, so I know exactly what happens to people who get into cards at 1:00 in the morning in New York City. I lean down, look in, and I don’t recognize the guy at all. I said, “Who the hell are you?” He said, “I’m the guy who can get you the artwork.” I say, “Okay, what the hell!” I had such faith in my own badness that I can get out of any situation I get into.

We take off, and he drives all the way down Sixth Avenue to the 59th Street Bridge, goes down one of those side streets, and pulls over, under a streetlight. I can see his face, but mostly he’s in shadow. He’s maybe 25, 30 years old, and I don’t recognize him, and he doesn’t speak in any particular accent, but he’s obviously not a crook, obviously not the Mob, nobody really dangerous.

He’s some asshole who had somehow managed to get ahold of this artwork, God knows how. Probably somebody who had worked at Warren Publications and had spirited it away or who had bought the pages from someone who had worked at Warren, maybe in the mailroom. It turns out he had either seen or heard me on the Snyder show and then had called various hotels trying to find out where I was and found me, which was not all that hard to do. I always register under my own name, because I’m not that famous that I would have to hide out. So he says, “I’m the guy who can give you the artwork.” I say, “Okay, well, let’s see it.” So he reaches behind him (there were only two seats in the car, but there was a space behind the front seat) and pulls out this oversize stiff-grade cardboard envelope. He opens it up and pulls out all the pages of this damned story, every one of them in mint condition. That is to say, just the way they were done by Neal Adams a decade earlier. I say, “How much do you want for it?” He says, “I want $5,000.” I said, “I’m not going to give you December 2002

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$5,000. First of all, you can’t sell them because they’re stolen.

Second, they’re not worth $5,000… ” In those days, we’re talking about the ’70s, the ’80s, maybe, stuff like this went for $200 or $300 a page! So he says, “Okay, $4,000, my final offer.” I said, “Don’t be ridiculous. I don’t have that kind of money with me.” He said, “You can right a check.” I said, “Where am I supposed to cash it at 2:00 in the morning?” He says, “Well, you could get it off your credit card from the desk at the hotel. I say, “Yeah, I could, I suppose, but I’m not going to pay you that much money.” So we settled on, I don’t know, I

Above: The publisher himself, Jim Warren, was used as model by artist Neal Adams for the tale’s antagonist in Harlan Ellison’s “Rock God,” Creepy #32 (April ’70). Below: Detail of that story’s splash page by Neal. ©2002 The Kilimanjaro Corporation.

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Above: The Illustrated Harlan Ellison is loaded with work by comic book professionals but still, the tome is technically an anthology of (albeit generously) illustrated short stories by the master scribe.

Here’s William Stout’s opening shot from “Shattered Like a Glass Goblin.” ©2002 the respective copyright holder. Below: Harlan considers Alex Niño’s art job on the adaptation of “‘Repent, Harlequin!’ Said the Ticktockman” to have missed the point. Scripted

by Roy Thomas, this appeared in Unknown Worlds of Science Fiction #3 (May ’75). ©2002 The Kilimanjaro Corporation.

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guess it was $2,500, $3,000, something like that. He says, “I’ll take you back to the hotel.” I say, “I’ll go in and get the checkbook.” So he puts the stuff back in the gray manila folder, sticks it in behind the seat, and drives me back to the hotel. He says, “I’ll go around the block a couple of times and come back.” I say, “Fine.” I then lean down as I’m getting out of the car, telling him, “Just park over at… ” And as I’m talking to him, I reach in back of the seat, and grab the artwork. He says, “What are you doing?” I say, “I’m saying goodbye.

Goodbye!” I slam the door, and stand there for a minute to see if he’s going to give me any sh*t. He knows there’s nothing he can do, so he’s just pounding the steering wheel. Then I walked into the hotel and that was the end of it.

CBA: Did you ever see the guy again?

Harlan: No. To this day I don’t know who he was. I mean, people have told me who they think it was from the description, and it probably was that person (who was fairly well known for having pilfered a lot of stuff out of a lot of different comic companies). He was appar-

ently on hard times at the time, even though he had a nice car. He needed money. But it was so audacious. I just leaned down and put my hand on the back of the seat and the other one on the window ledge, and I just reached in and took the package.

CBA: How was it working with Neal? You’ve worked with him a number of times, right?

Harlan: We worked together a number of times.

CBA: He’s probably your most frequent collaborator, right?

Harlan: Well, my most frequent collaborator is Leo and Diane Dillon. Actually, Richard Corben and I have collaborated more than that, because he has drawn all of the “Boy and His Dog” stuff in various mediums. But yes, I’ve worked with Neal any number of times, and every time I work with him, it’s an adventure. My liaisons with any number of people are bizarre to the point of unbelievable. Julie Schwartz and I have this weird liaison, Neal Adams and I have this weird liaison, L.Q. Jones and I have this weird liaison. In fact, I just wrote a piece for Filmfax about the liaison between me and L.Q. on “A Boy and His Dog.” The same with Neal. Neal is, as we say in Latin, sui generis, meaning he is one of a kind. I wrote a piece about working with Neal for Comic Book Profiles.

If I were to tell Neal Adams stories, first of all, as uproarious and hilarious as they are to me, they would undoubtedly seem disrespectful if retold, because you have to be there. Because the telling of it leaches out of it all of the truly bizarre aspects of it. Neal is indeed one of the most interesting, diversified kind of people I’ve ever know.

But he ain’t all there! Which is to say, this is a man who is operating with his socks rolled down!

Look, if you have any doubts about how odd Neal Adams is, look at Continuity Comics and the numbering on those books. In other words, the non-continuity of Continuity Comics. [laughter] I’ve been looking for Urth 4 #5 for 11 years. God knows if it was ever published. He don’t even know! His daughter, Kris, doesn’t know!

“Oh, I don’t know, maybe it was, maybe it wasn’t.” Sometimes on a Saturday, Mark Evanier and I will gather up all our Continuity Comics and we’ll lay them all out on the pool table and we’ll place them in the order in what we think is chronological. I’ll say, “Well, I’ve got this version of that book, but do you have the Tyvek-cover version?”

Whoever heard of making a cover out of Tyvek, for God’s sake?

Tyvek is the stuff Hazmat workers wear for pants!

CBA: It’s what they wrap houses in for insulation, isn’t it?

Harlan: Yes! And here’s Neal doing covers with it! You think, “This guy is totally bananas!” [laughter] But Neal is absolutely one of the most honorable guys in the business. Crazy as a soup sandwich, but honorable. He’s the one who was responsible for getting Siegel and Shuster their money. He has fought for the rights of any number of creators.

He is an absolutely brilliant artist and his absence from the field is a great loss. His version of Superman was the best since the original. All of these other adaptations just don’t hold a candle to it. Green Lantern/Green Arrow, the X-Men comics he did, and a great deal of his work is some of the best comics material ever produced. Neal is one of the faces on the Mount Rushmore of comics.

CBA: You wrote a couple of Daredevil comics [#208, July ’84 and #209, Aug. ’84]? Were you friends with Arthur Byron Cover?

Harlan: Well, here’s an interesting story behind those issues.

It’s sometime in 1983, just COMIC BOOK ARTIST 23

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before Christmas, and I get a call late at night from Denny O’Neil. I had known Denny for many years, and we were very, very tight. I had brought him out here and he lived at my home while I tried to get him on Outer Limits, which he had written some treatments for and wanted to get out of comic books. So, in 1983, he was working at Marvel and was having a hard time getting work. Denny calls me late one night. I had friends over. He’s obviously terribly distraught, and I can’t tell whether he’s in his cups or not, as they say, but he’s very upset. He says, “I need a favor.” I say, “What? Just ask, anything you need.” This was a Saturday night. He says, “In a few days, I’m going into the hospital for a heart operation.” It was a balloon angioplasty. “There’s a Daredevil story due, but I can’t write it. I’m in pain. Would you do it?” I said “Sure.” He said, “Well, it’s two issues.” I said, “Well, okay.”

Now, at the time, Arthur Cover was a pal of mine. I mean, Arthur was originally one of my students at the Clarion Writer’s Workshop. He had written a novel that I published, Autumn Angels.

At that time, he looked exactly like Thor! Really! He had the long hair and that innocent baby face. Arthur wanted to get into comics. So I said to Denny, “Can I do these Daredevil stories with Arthur Cover?”

He said, “Sure. Anybody you want.” So I said, “Okay.” I plotted out the story, and wrote it completely myself in about a day or two. I sent it in, and they accepted it. Then they sent me back that horrible, egregious work-for-hire contract. Now, I knew Mike Hobson pretty well, we were pals. But I didn’t want to sign the work-for-hire. I said, “Look, I’m never going to use the Daredevil character, but I want to keep the story for myself. I also want to make sure that I get paid if it’s reprinted.” So I called Mike and he said, “No problem. Don’t worry about it. I’ll take care of it.” I said, “Fine.” Now it’s a Sunday night. It may have been damn near Christmas. All I know is that I had a houseful of people, dinner guests. And it was maybe 9:00, which was midnight or 1:00, something like that in New York. The phone rings, and I pick it up, and it’s Denny, and he’s out of it and he begins to curse me out. “You son-of-a-bitch! How could you do this? Why would you do this to me when I’m about to go in for surgery?” I said, “Denny, slow down! What the hell is going on?” Well, [Marvel editor-in-chief] Jim Shooter had told Hobson he was not going to make any exceptions on the work-for-hire contract, and that he was returning my material, was not going to pay me, and Denny would have to do the story. Denny was going in the following day, that Monday morning, for the operation. Shooter called him on a Sunday night, late in the evening, and said, “Ellison is trying to screw you. He won’t sign the contract, and I’m not using his story, and you’re going to have to come up with two issues of Daredevil by tomorrow morning.” Well, Denny couldn’t do the work, and he was panicked, absolutely panicked. And finally, when he drank enough courage, he called and started screaming at me! I instantly said, “Don’t worry about it, don’t worry about it, I’ll call Budiansky first thing.” He gave me the editor, Bob Budiansky’s home number. And I called Budiansky, got him out of bed, and said, “I’ll sign the f*cking contract. Call Shooter off and leave Denny alone. You can use the story. I’ll sign anything you put in front of me. I’ll give you my firstborn. Leave Denny alone!” They did, and the story was published. It was published as being by me and Cover, because Arthur wanted to get into December 2002

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comics. The second issue, I plotted out the beginning of it and Arthur plotted out the rest himself, and that’s why his name is on it alone.

But it says, “From an idea by Harlan Ellison.” The little robot girl that got tossed down the elevator shaft by Matt Murdock… that was my idea. I loved that moment.

This is one of those things in life I do not understand. When you make someone obligated to you, even if you don’t think there’s an obligation, but they perceive it as such, they begin to resent you. You loan someone money, and immediately they resent you for it, though you’ve saved their ass. Somehow, some way, Denny and I were never the same again. Denny never was a friend to me thereafter. I became very distant from him. We grew apart, and although we were always civil to each other, we have never been friends again. Now, I know he’s apparently in very dire medical straits, and I’m sorry to hear that.

But the pals that we were, that’s gone.…

CBA: That Batman story, “Night of the Reaper,” which was drawn

by Neal Adams. Denny had written it, and it credits Bernie Wrightson for the idea with an assist by you. Do you recall what you contributed to that story? You certainly did not go to a Rutland Halloween party, right?

Harlan: No, I’ve never been to Rutland. Oh, I don’t remember what it was… but I can spin out a plot on a whim. You give me three words and I’ll give you a plot in about three seconds. You want to try it?

CBA: Okay.

Harlan: Go ahead, give me three words.

CBA: Machine gun, cloud, and… Italian.

Harlan: What character do you want me to do it with?

CBA: The Creeper.

Harlan: [Three-second pause] The Creeper has been rooftop,

Above: Over the years, Harlan and Rich Corben adapted the author’s Vic and Blood short stories which were finally collected in black-&white comic-book format in a pair of issues, Vic & Blood #1-2 (1987-88), published by Jan Strnad’s Mad Dog Graphics. This wraparound cover image by Corben graced the second issue. ©2002 Richard Corben. Vic & Blood ©2002 The Kilimanjaro Corporation.

Below: This story, scripted by Jim Stenstrum and drawn by Alex Niño, began as an adaptation of Harlan’s “A Boy and His Dog,” but when Warren Publications failed to get permission to use the author’s work, it was changed into “Mondo Megillah,” a thinlyveiled rip-off, and published in 1984 #4 (Oct. ’78), a move that would cause a whole lot of grief for the black-&-white comics publisher. ©2002 the respective copyright holder.

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Above: Though Harlan promised a Batman story to his pal Julie Schwartz for something like 15 years, it wasn’t until after the legendary editor had retired when “The Night of Thanks, But No Thanks” appeared in Detective Comics #567 (Oct. ’86).

Cover art by Klaus Janson. ©2002 DC Comics.

Inset right: Harlan loved Bruce Wayne’s expression, as drawn by Gene Colan and inked by Bob Smith, in the last panel of his Detective Comics #567 story, detailed here. ©2002 DC Comics.

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observing one of the heads of the Italian Mafia in Sicily. He’s watching the crime boss, trying to protect him, because he knows that this guy is the weakest link in this particular mob and has been sent to keep the guy alive. It’s a very, very cloudy night, no moon, can’t see anything. The Mafioso is going to a restaurant… something interesting… not just a restaurant, but someplace in Sicily. He was going to the grave of his mother late at night, cloudless night.

The Creeper is watching, protecting him. Well, from up behind one of the tombstones comes an assassin, shoots the Mafioso and kills him with a machine gun.

The Creeper gets down there and manages to capture the guy. Now, he’s got the assassin, but he’s gotta make him talk. He takes him to an old abbey on a mountainside in Sicily, where he scares the sh*t out of him, and gets from him the name of who it was who set up the assassination.

CBA: I guess you can do it! [laughs] Did you know Ron Turner, publisher of Last Gasp?

Harlan: Oh yes, of course.

CBA: Did he approach you about doing the underground comix, Harlan Ellison’s Chocolate Alphabet, which was drawn by Larry Todd?

Harlan: Ron wanted to do “From A to Z in the Chocolate Alphabet,” and I was introduced to Larry Todd through Vaughn Bodé, who was a pal of mine. Larry and Vaughn worked together a lot. So when Ron wanted to do “From A to Z in the Chocolate Alphabet,” he named a number of artists, and one of them was Larry. I said, “Todd is terrific.” So we did it, and it was very successful. He kept it in print for a lot of years. Ron’s a wonderful guy, I’m very fond of him.

CBA: Did you follow underground comix, keep an eye on them?

Harlan: Oh yeah. Well, I knew all of those people. I was pals with Ron Cobb, as well as Turner and Bodé. Any number of the artists were friends of mine. I never met Crumb, so I never had anything much to do with him, but, yeah, I knew almost everybody. In fact, San Francisco used to have the Hooker’s Ball once a year, and I was the Master of Ceremonies one year, which was just filled with those underground artists.

CBA: Did you know the publishers, Ian and Betty Ballantine?

Harlan: Oh, very well.

CBA: Did they approach you about contributing to Ariel: The Book of Fantasy [“Eggsucker,” Vol. 2, Sept. ’77]?

Harlan: No, it was the editor, Thomas Durwood. I was working on the novel called Blood’s a Rover. The first section I had finished was published as “A Boy and His Dog,” and that sprang into a life of its own. It was complete in and of itself, even though it’s only a fraction of the full story. The full story is a novel that runs maybe to 150,000 words.

I had just finished the first section, called “Eggsucker,” which immediately precedes and links right up with, as if it were the next page of a novel, “A Boy and His Dog.” They contacted me at just the moment when I was finishing that story, and said, “We’ll pay you a lot of money if you let us look at it.” So I said, “Fine,” let them

look, and they loved it. So we got Corben to draw it. That was not the first thing that I had done with Corben. I had done an introduction to the Arabian Nights book that Richard and Jan Strnad had done it. That’s how I knew Jan, who I just got a job doing The Atom for television. Jan works in film now, mostly.

CBA: The DC super-hero, the Atom?

Harlan: Yeah. You ought to talk to Jan about it. It’s called Sword of the Atom, the same as that mini-series he did with Gil Kane. He’s the one who has put the series together now, and I think they got the network interested, and they’re going to do it. Anyhow, we just had dinner with Jan and Julie Strnad just the other day. I try to stay in touch with my pals. It’s very important not to lose contact with them.

A lot of the time I find that the people I really like and admire both as artists and as people, reach points that are rocky, where they need someone to come in and juice them up and say, “Damn, you ought to be doing” blah blah blah. You just excite them so much that you harass them into doing what they haven’t done in a while, and they come back. So I think of that as a way of giving back to comics what comics have given to me. I love comics. I just love comics, down to the core of my being. There’s nothing about comics I don’t like, although I do have trouble with some of the Chaos guys, but that’s another matter….

CBA: Well, I’ve heard they are bankrupt.

Harlan: Yeah, I know, but that’s a shame, because they were publishing Peter David’s Haunted, and that was a pretty good comic.

CBA: Can you rattle off a couple of names, current comics that you like?

Harlan: Everybody does that to me, and I have problems with it, because I can’t remember what it is I like. I love Spider-Man: Tangled Web. I love what Bruce Jones is doing with the Hulk.

CBA: Have you been reading Daredevil by Brian Bendis?

Harlan: No. I’m having trouble with almost all of the Marvel Knights/Quesada books. I find Punisher and Cage and a couple of these others just crude beyond belief. I mean, obviously my language is not devoid of the “F” word, but I find it too much used in comics.

For instance, I was reading The Rifle Brigade, which I think is a terrific comic Vertigo did, but every third word is “f*ck” this or “f*ck” that.

These are words that have powerful connotations and impact, and should be used sparingly. I’m not even talking about censorship; I’m talking about art. If you’ve got the word “f*ck” 65 times in two pages, it becomes babble. If you’re going for babble, then you’re anti-art. There are other ways of doing it. It seems odd that someone such as I, who is supposedly known for having such a potty mouth, should be saying such a thing. But if it offends and annoys me, can you imagine what it’s like for others? At the moment I’m reading the JSA book, which I like a lot.

CBA: Do you like J. Michael Straczynski’s…

Harlan: Well, Rising Stars I gave up on. It got too complex for me, but I loved Midnight Nation… though I did have to have Joe explain the last two issues, which were too cosmic for me. That’s one of my

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big complaints: Whenever they get to the end of a really good, viable plot, and they don’t know what to do, they go cosmic. Which is their explanation for everything. For instance, the Vertigo series with the Vegas showgirl who has the ostrich?

CBA: Steve Gerber’s Nevada?

Harlan: Right. It was a great idea, and for four issues, whatever it was, it was just sailing along. Then all of a sudden, he goes cosmic and it’s God this and celestial that and on and on and on. Please!

Give me a damn break. Not every comic has to be Thanos, for Christ’s sake. You’ll notice that the stories that I tell, almost every story I tell, has very little cosmic crap in it. Or, if it does, it’s brought down to a very human level, personal level, like The Avengers that I did, “Five Dooms That Saved Tomorrow” is kind of a cosmic idea, but very simply told in one panel, and then the rest of it is all human interaction.

I think one of my two best comic book stories is the new Batman black-&-white story, “Funny Money.” I don’t know if you’ve read that one.

CBA: Yeah. It was just collected.

Harlan: I adored doing that, and Gene Ha did an incredible job with the artwork, just an astonishing job. There are all kinds of little in-jokes I put in. The details I put in that, where I talk about the paper from Dalton, for instance, that’s absolutely accurate. The paper they make money from is made in this one paper mill. That fact is where I started. Okay, here’s somebody who manages to make absolutely undetectable counterfeit money. How do you catch him if it’s indistinguishable from the real thing? How do you catch them? This was one of those stories that I plotted out—and I almost never plot anything out before I start writing because I figure if I can figure it out at the beginning, then so can the reader. So I try to let it go its way until we get to a place where I have to have an ending, and then sit down and think about all the ways that are obvious, and I avoid all of those. I go to the one that just occurs on the spur of the moment. I think, “Oh, that’s great. I hadn’t thought of that.” Well, that’s the one I use.

Well, in this case I plotted it out ahead of time. I was reminded of a thing that Ted Sturgeon used in one of his stories, which is called “A Way of Thinking.” It was something that I had seen, too. I worked on tuna boats off the coast of Galveston when I was younger, when I was on the road. I remembered an incident, and Ted had the same experience and wrote it in a story, in which we had a flywheel that had gotten frozen onto an axle. Couldn’t get it off. Everybody was pulling and pulling. We had five very beefy guys on the damn thing, and they couldn’t get the flywheel off the axle. So I picked up a twenty-pound mallet, and said, “Get out of the way!” I swung it and knocked the axle out of the flywheel. It’s a way of thinking. If you can’t do something this way, look at the absolute reverse of it.

(Which is, by the way, something that I’m doing in a Doctor Fate story that I’m doing at the moment.) So I thought, “Okay, if the money is indistinguishable from the real thing, then you’ve got to have something that you look at and you don’t realize that it’s wrong.

It looks right.” So I started with the paper from Dalton. I said, “How are they going to get the paper from Dalton?” I thought, wouldn’t it be cool… because they drive it through heavily wooded areas to get to the mint… that there are these guys in trees waiting to drop down on top of the truck? How do you slow the truck down? Well, you get a vehicle in front and a vehicle in back, wedge the truck in, then drop the guys out of the roof, and they stick the guns in the windows, and they take it to the mint. Then there’s a guy coming in at Dulles Airport. Somebody asks, “Are you Kaes Poppinger?” (Kees Popinga is the titular hero of Georges Simenon’s great novel, The Man Who Watched the Trains Go By. It was made into a movie called Paris Express back in the ’50s with Claude Rains and Marta Toren, this great heartthrob, a beautiful actress who committed suicide. If you ever get a chance to see it, it’s a fabulous, fabulous movie. Claude Rains plays a bookkeeper named Kees Popinga. He’s a Dutchman who leads a very quiet life, eats soup for dinner and his collar is starched and he goes to work at the same time every day and watches life passing him by. He literally goes and watches trains go past on their way to Paris. He has no life, and he gets sucked into a robbery of all this money by a femme fatale, Marta Toren. And I love the thing. So here’s the name of the character, he’s a Dutch engraver, and I called him Kaes Poppinger, knowing that no one else would know December 2002

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where that name came from unless they were a reader of Simenon.)

Then he gets busted. I said to Gene Ha, “What I want are a lot of long vertical panels, one of which will show a rope hanging down, and another one hanging down further. And then you come to the bottom and you see a couple of cops talking on the steps of the police department. As they’re standing there, feet appear in the upper part of the next panel, and then the next panel there’s bodies, as they’re still talking, until finally these guys are dangling in front of them. They’re dangling from a rope on the Batcopter. The Batman is dropping off these crooks who are all tied up. They’re pleading to be taken into custody. “Please, please, please!” Then Batman looks down, and on the roof is Gordon, who says, “Very good, very funny.

That’s a cute way to do it, but come inside, I need you to talk to a couple of guys.” Batman comes inside, and it was really funny. When he meets the two guys from the Treasury Department… I talked this over with Julie, and Julie said, “Put my stamp on it by having Batman do a double-handed handshake with the character.” So I insisted that in that panel, where he meets the guys, Batman shakes hands and he

Above: The acclaimed writer was delighted with artist Gene Ha’s interpretation of Harlan’s script in “Funny Money,” appearing in Batman: Gotham Knights #13 (Mar. 2001), especially the sequence above. ©2002 DC Comics.

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Above: The artists Harlan probably most frequently collaborated with is the husband and wife team of Leo and Diane Dillion, renowned science-fiction illustrators. Here is their cover art on Harlan Ellison’s Dream Corridor #2 (April ’95). ©2002 Leo & Diane Dillon.

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puts his other hand over it. The conversation between Batman and Gordon is very specific. At the beginning, the first time you see it, he calls him “Commissioner.” So somebody complained, telling me, “Well, Batman calls him ‘Jim’ all the way through the story, why’s he calling Gordon ‘Commissioner’ on the roof? He knows him already!” I said, “That’s because Batman doesn’t know who these other two guys are, and he doesn’t want the depth of liaison with Gordon known to strangers. So he calls him ‘Commissioner.’ But when they’re down in the office, and after Gordon has said, ‘These are the two guys from Treasury and they need your help,’ then they obviously know. So then Batman calls him ‘Jim.’” He says, “Come on, Jim. I’ve had a hard night. Let me go home and go to bed. I’m tired.” Jim says, “We need your help.” And it’s that way all the way through.

How does Batman scare this guy into confessing? I told Gene Ha not to have Batman touch the guy. This story did what I wanted to do with Batman, which was make him a detective again. That’s what they never do. They always have him endlessly fighting and all that crap.

He’s a detective, one of the great detectives in crime fiction, and yet they never let him solve any puzzles.

So the puzzle here is, how is he going to catch these counterfeiters? I said to Gene, “He can’t touch them, that’s against the law. He can’t beat them up. He can’t hang them upside down like a Houdini from out of a window.”

Now, Kaes Poppinger is this terrified old man to begin with. He’s in this cell, and suddenly the lights go out. When they go back on, Batman is standing there. He does nothing; he just stands there. I said, “Now, that’s going to take a lot of panels, I don’t know how you’re going to do it.”

Well, look at the way he did it. Have you seen it?

CBA: Yes. Harlan: Oh my God! It’s brilliant! The original art, which I own, has little panels going down to absolute microscopic size! They’re wonderful! Finally, the guy is lying on the jail cell floor in a fetal position, saying, “I’ll talk! I’ll talk!” The Batman was doing his “You-havebeen-an-evil-man” routine—You know, the Shadow—“You’ve been evil, Kaes Poppinger, but your life can now be saved.” So he takes the old man to the Batcave and rigs up the counterfeit plates he needs, and then… well, you see the end of it, where they go to arrest the guys and they haven’t gotten the evidence. He says, “Oh, yes, I do. Here, take a look through this.” He looks in the microscope, and down down down, and then he says, “Look at the third window to the left on the state house.” There’s a drawing of Batman with the legend, “You are so busted.”

CBA: Did you instruct Gene to draw it like Dick Sprang?

Harlan: Yeah. Absolutely!

CBA: Did you get the phrase from the movie, American Beauty?

Harlan: “You are so busted?” Oh, no. It’s just a phrase kids use.

Many of my thug, criminal associates, some guy will pull off a robbery and do it so badly that everybody else will go, “Oooh, you’re so busted!” I loved that! The whole story is told brilliantly. It has a beginning, a middle, and an end. Everybody acts logically and like an adult. It’s not a stupid comic, it’s got some smarts to it. My pleasure is writing that kind of story.

CBA: So you will occasionally continue to write comics?

Harlan: Oh, absolutely. I’m doing some right now. If I had not gotten involved in terrible, terrible, deadlines, I would have already finished a Doctor Fate I’m doing for Peter Tomasi, that takes place back in 1940. In fact, it’s a story that takes place immediately after the banquet story in JSA Secret Files. But I was late with it, and he had to reassign it to someone else, so we have decided that we’re going to do… I can’t tell you exactly, but it will be a one-shot, killer project. A kind of a dream of mine come true. So there’s that. I’m also doing a Tom Strong arc that will be something like four or five issues, something like that.

CBA: Have you dealt directly with Alan Moore? Have you spoken with him?

Harlan: Yes, I have talked to Alan. I told him the plot. He liked it and it was approved.

CBA: You did an extensive, very controversial interview with Gary Groth 22 years ago, in Comics Journal #53. That led into a contentious lawsuit with Michael Fleisher. Most know how that came out [Harlan and the Journal prevailed, and the jury found for the defendants, rejecting all the plantiff’s charges]. But what happened with you two? Obviously, you guys are not friends anymore.

Harlan: No. We ceased being friends very quickly. Look, I’m ultimately responsible for any word that comes out of my mouth, and so if I say, “Gary pretty much baited me into saying sh*t that I would not have said otherwise,” it’s a cop-out. Because I am responsible, so I’m not going to say that. Even if I have that feeling, it’s still my responsibility, and I can’t get away from it. But the core truth of this ridiculous affair was that there was never… ever… even the slightest intent to denigrate Michael Fleisher. In fact, it was just the opposite!

CBA: You meant what you said as a compliment?

Harlan: Exactly. I had just won my “Brillo” lawsuit against Paramount at the time my interview appeared, about $750,000… whatever the hell it was. It was a lot of money and it was in all the papers. Clearly, Fleisher should have understood that my comparing him to Robert E. Howard, Clark Ashton Smith, Kafka and Poe was a hell of a compliment, even if I did use it in ironic terms, where I would say he was “bugf*ck.” But the stuff he was writing for “Spectre” was really in that vein. It was very, very, very weird stuff. Brilliant, but weird. And anybody but someone who was not well-bolted-down, I think, would understand that these were compliments! That there was no intent to insult him. I even phoned and spoke to him immediately after I heard he was upset; and he said to me—and we were able to prove this in court—“Don’t worry about it. I’m not going to sue you. I’m going to sue Groth because I don’t like him, and I don’t like his magazine.” I said, “Come on! That’s very petty and amateur.

This is going to do you a lot of good, this is going to be great stuff for you.” (And it was, in fact. Because he got the job doing Conan immediately after.) But he decided that he wanted to sue Groth, that he didn’t like Groth. And at that time, Gary and I were friends, so I didn’t understand why Fleisher had such animus. I do now, but I didn’t then. He assured me he was not going to sue me. Well, by the time he filed, he had obviously gone to this attorney who, when I saw him in court, well, to be polite, I wasn’t terribly impressed with his integrity. I surmise what might have happened was this: the attorney said to Fleisher, “Look, Groth hasn’t got a pot to piss in, the deep pocket here is Ellison. He’s just won a major money case.” So I was suddenly, irrationally, in the soup up to my ears. And at first I didn’t think that I was going to be, and I gave Gary money. I said, “Gary, here’s money to fight the case, because it’s my words. If you need me, I’m there to testify.” I’m a very loyal friend, as I’ve said. Groth kept the money. At one point, I was even kicked out of the case. So that was the end of that. Well, the next thing was—boom!—I was COMIC BOOK ARTIST 23

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brought back in, on the strangest grounds possible, mostly engendered by the fact that the judge had been the ex-police commissioner of New York and knew nothing about libel, slander, copyright infringement, anything! He knew nothing about it, so he let the case go on when it was clearly a nuisance suit. He just let it go on and come to trial. The fact that we won so overwhelmingly… I mean, the jury literally booted the case out… is testament to what misdirected, wacky motives prompted it. Afterward, I talked to the jurors: the only person who had actually gone up on the stand and testified for Fleisher, was Jim Shooter, who was, at the time, the editor-in-chief at Marvel. I asked the jurors, “Did you believe what Shooter had to say?” They said, “Nah. He looks like Lurch.” He did Fleisher more harm than good, by suggesting my remarks had damaged him. That was another reason for me not to like Jim Shooter. (As I said earlier, Shooter had acted so beastly toward my friend Denny O’Neil, and years have not dulled my feelings toward him. I think he is a Bad Man.) In fact, Shooter walked up to me at an I-Con about two years ago, as I was going in to give a talk, and he stuck out his hand and said, “Hi, Harlan!” I started to reach but I pulled back when I realized who it was. I looked way up into the stratosphere and there was Lurch. I said, “Why in the world would you think I would shake hands with you? You were a sh*t then, and you’re a sh*t now. Get away from me.” I mean, I don’t play that game. Hmmm… let me explain it like this: Do you know the novel, The Late George Apley,

by John P. Marquand? It’s a great classic novel of Bostonian manners in which publically everybody is very graciously polite, even to people they’ve reviled or stabbed in the back, even to people who have stabbed them in the back. That disingenuous public display of cool. I don’t do that. I don’t pretend, and shake the hand. I live in the real world. Somebody dicks me, I don’t want them to shake the hand and smile politely and pretend that it’s all forgotten. It isn’t forgotten. I’ll never forget what Shooter did. Fleisher I have a hard time blaming. I feel sorry for Fleisher. Because, for him to misinterpret what was clearly the highest praise and to get so bent behind it that he would initiate a lawsuit like this, well… I just sigh and shake my head. But even though we won, it cost me in the neighborhood of $20,000.

Because there was nothing that I could collect from him. In the state of New York, anybody can sue anybody, at anytime, for the most capricious reasons; and unless you can prove outrageous egregious moral or ethical behavior, you can’t get your fees back.

What happened between Groth and me is mostly personal; and I’d rather not get into it. Suffice to say, we’re not sending each other greeting cards during the holidays. Time magazine interviewed me a while back, some years ago, and they asked, “You’ve led this very interesting life full of all kinds of strange things. Is there anything, if December 2002

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you had the chance to do it over, is there anything you would do differently?” The only thing I could think of—the only thing—replaying my life, in which I had four bad marriages before I met Susan, in which there have been missteps and foolishness and big mistakes and immature behavior and scrapes and scars, in which I had four bad marriages before I met Susan. The only thing I could think of was, “If I had the opportunity now, I wish I’d never met Gary Groth.” That was the only thing I could think of, in a maniacal, careening, nearly 70 years.

CBA: How did you look upon the experience of Harlan Ellison’s Dream Corridor?

Harlan: I loved it and I still love it. We’ve still got one more issue to put out. It was incredibly hard work. I mean, it took a lot of time.

It took a lot of effort, a lot of people working together. Everybody from Eric Shanower and Diana Schutz and Bob Schreck and Mike Richardson all the way to Gene Ha and Paul Chadwick and the Dillons and Mart Nodell, and Len Wein and Faye Perozich, who wrote some of the scripts. Everybody was at their peak. I think it’s one of the great comics of all time, but of course that’s me. When people ask, “What’s your favorite series of all time?” I look at this stretch of eight, nine books. I look at how many stories we did. I mean, we must have done 35, 40 stories. I look at the care and love and attention on every page, and there isn’t a bad page in it, not a page. I mean, Doug Wildey’s gorgeous last job is in there, for pity sake!

Everything was done with such care and such love, and the new stories that I wrote for each issue won awards. Nobody stinted. On anything. We didn’t make money on it, but they remain a stretch of books that anybody would be proud to have his name on. The fact that today’s adolescent audience want issues of badly-plotted pin-up pages with huge tits in them, well… they don’t even know that Dream Corridor exists, and probably wouldn’t like it if they saw it. I mean, that was the whole point. This was not a dumb comic. It was a comic intended for people who really like to read stories. I loved it. It was a great, great adventure. Everybody at Dark Horse was as supportive as they could be. Bob Schreck, who was my first editor, was an absolute mensch, even when we had our short sword and trident fights. We would have such knock-down, drag-out, screaming fights, we wouldn’t talk to each other for two weeks; but then, like petulant babies, we would go back to work. Then came Diana, who I think is the hands-down best editor in the business, who should be winning Inkpot Awards and Eisners left and right! And she is still my editor.

She’s as smart as they come. Anybody who ever wants to do a comic, who wants a great editor, you can do no better than Diana Schutz. And now I’m out of wind.

Goodbye.

Above: Trio of pages from the Harlan Ellison-scripted and Neal Adams-drawn story in The Twilight Zone #1 (Nov. ’90), “Crazy As a Soup Sandwich.” Words ©2002 The Kilimanjaro Corporation. Art ©2002 Neal Adams. Twilight Zone ©2002 CBS Entertainment.

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CBA Interview

Delbo’s Authentic Artistry The ubiquitous artist discusses his varied, full life in comics Conducted by Jon B. Cooke Transcribed by Steven Tice

Below: Courtesy of Jose Delbo, here’s a caricature of the artist/teacher by onetime student (and current Daredevil artist) Alex Maleev (who will himself be covered in a forthcoming issue of CBA!). ©2002 Alex Maleev.

A native of Argentina, José Delbo has worked for just about every major comic book publisher over the last 35 years. After leaving a successful career as a comic book artist in South America, José arrived in America in 1965, starting out on the “ground floor” of the industry, producing art for Charlton and then Gold Key, where he was a prolific contributor. (This interview was originally intended for last issue’s Gold Key retrospective, but room constraints in that issue forces us to print it here, along with our sincere apologies to the artist.) By the early ’70s, the artist worked for DC Comics and later Marvel, also serving as an instructor at the Joe Kubert School of Cartoon and Graphic Art. Today, Mr. Delbo resides in Florida, actively involved in teaching art to children.

He was interviewed via phone on July 15, 2002, and José copy edited the transcript.

Comic Book Artist: Where are you originally from, Jose?

José Delbo: From Argentina. I was born in 1933. I’m an old man. [laughter] CBA: Not too old. And where in Argentina did you grow up?

José: Buenos Aires, and I went to school there.

CBA: So you grew up in the city?

José: I grew up in the city, yes.

CBA: Were you exposed to comics at a young age?

José: Well, I remember I always liked to draw. In school, the teacher was chasing me all the time because I was drawing. I’m very bad in mathematics and all that. When I was a little kid, I always liked to draw. One day, I saw an ad in a magazine about a school teaching cartooning.

I asked my parents to enroll me there, and that was the beginning.

As a kid, I used to read most of the American comics (which had been reprinted in Spanish) in different Argentinian magazines. I was reading Batman, Superman, all those characters, including Tomahawk. Mostly American comics, and also some Argentinian comics. One important Argentinian artist opened a school to teach cartooning. His name was Carlos Clemen. He was one of the pioneers of the comic business in Argentina. He was a very good artist, very fast. It’s funny: Al Williamson was influenced by Clemen. When Al was living in South America, he was buying Argentinian magazines and so he was influenced by Clemen, who was a very popular guy in Argentina and some South American countries.

To start with, Clemen taught me

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all about comics and I was very influenced by his approach. When I was sixteen, I was published in my first comic book, a short story. The comic book’s name was Suspenso. I did a short science-fiction story.

CBA: Now, did you do everything, or just the penciling?

José: In those days, I was doing everything.

CBA: The lettering, too?

José: No. I don’t remember who did the lettering. I penciled and inked. Maybe Clemen did the lettering. I don’t remember very well, it was a long time ago.

CBA: What was the subject matter of the Argentinian comics?

José: Argentinian comics featured the type of adventure such as Jungle Jim, that kind of thing. Characters going to Africa, fighting lions. There was also science-fiction. I remember Clemen created a character who was affected by an atom bomb explosion and became a super-hero. Also, there were funny characters—not by him—but by some of the other artists would do humorous characters like sailors and gnomes.

CBA: Did you do funny material?

José: I did humorous stories here in the United States, but not in Argentina.

CBA: Did your family support you to go to Clemen’s school?

José: When I was a kid, yes. But later, not much. I’ve got an incredible story about that: I was studying to be a lawyer, and I had to go for maybe another half-year or a year. Then I decided I wanted to be a cartoonist. I went to my father and said, “Pa, I want to be a cartoonist.” He almost died of a heart attack. [laughter] CBA: He wanted a lawyer for a son, right?

José: I tried to convince him I would be an unhappy lawyer and a very happy cartoonist. Finally, he accepted my decision. Then I spent one year in Army, because, in those days in Argentina, when you were 20 years old, you had to go into military service. There was a conscription.

CBA: Was Juan Peron in power at the time?

José: You’re right, Peron was President when I was a soldier in the army. I left the service a year before the coup d’etat [that ousted Peron].

CBA: Did you enjoy doing comic book work from the start?

José: Oh, yes! I loved it very much. After my first short story was published, I start working in the business. I did all kinds of things: stories about pilots and guys fighting gangs. It’s a funny thing: in those days we did comics in Argentina but the names of the characters were all American. I did a character who was a pilot whose name was Terry Atlas. I did another character who was a detective called Tony Macket. All English or American names. It was funny.

CBA: Did you enjoy the work of Milton Caniff, Hal Foster and Alex Raymond?

José: Oh yes, of course. In Argentina, we used to say there were two great schools of comic strip art: Realistic and the more cartoony, represented by Raymond on the realistic end and Caniff on the more cartoony side. There were guys following Raymond and guys following Caniff. And after that, I started developing my own style, losing the influence of my teacher. I was a great admirer of Foster. I started following Raymond a little bit. Then I discovered Caniff, with all his black-&-white work, and I liked that very much. I’m pretty sure that it’s true in Europe, that they consider the two best American cartoonists to be Raymond and Caniff.

CBA: No doubt.

José: Hal Foster, of course, was another great cartoonist who I admire personally. Many of my friends also admire the work of Will COMIC BOOK ARTIST 23

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Eisner as much as I. CBA: Were you able to see The Spirit down in South America?

José: Oh, yes! On the wall of my studio, I’m looking at an Eisner piece as I’m talking to you. You know, every cartoonist wants to be a publisher. When I was a young fellow, after I was in the army, I asked my father for money, and I published four small magazines. One of those magazines reprinted pages of The Spirit which I bought from Will’s syndicate representative in Argentina. The word balloons are in Spanish. You know, they translated and lettered it in Spanish, of course.

CBA: Now, when did you self-publish?

José: During the political upheavals taking place over there at the time, people just didn’t have time to read comics. The printer also started delivering the books late because they had problems and then we decided to stop publishing. I don’t remember exactly when we started, or when we finished, but it was some time in 1956, ’57, ’58, around that time.

CBA: What was the name of the magazine?

José: Bazooka. It featured war stories. I would draw some of the stories as well as buy syndicated material.

CBA: “Bazooka”? That’s an American name.

José: Very American. I also liked Westerns, of course. I liked to draw cowboys. That magazine’s name was Far West.

CBA: So you did about four issues apiece?

José: Yes. And I also did one other title—which I don’t remember the name of—that was all detective stories.

CBA: Did you enjoy publishing?

José: Oh yes, because I was doing almost everything!

From drawing to giving the printer the pages already laid out according to the position it would be in the printing machine to make it easier for them to fold and cut it.

CBA: Pagination. What other artists did you work with in Argentina?

José: In those days, Carlos Clemen did some of the work, a few covers....

CBA: Were any of your fellow cartoonists able to come to America?

José: A friend of mine, Luis Dominguez, came to the States before me. We used to work together in some magazines. After that came José Luis Garcia-Lopez.

CBA: Garcia-Lopez is a fantastic artist!

José: A great artist. I don’t know why he’s not as famous as some others, but he is a great artist.

CBA: Do you know him?

José: Yes. Most of the guys who became famous went to Europe.

CBA: To Barcelona in Spain?

José: Yes, exactly. José Muñoz was one who became very popular in Europe. And in Italy, Ruben Sosa. We used to work together in a magazine that was published by a great writer, probably the best writer in Argentina, Hector Oesterheld. Are you familiar with Hugo Pratt?

CBA: Of course!

José: They did together several stories in Argentina. They did “Sergeant Kirk.” Pratt was doing the drawing, and Oesterheld was writing, and he did a character called Ernie Pike. The character was based on the famous war correspondent, Ernie Pyle. That title was revolutionary because the stories took different points of view. In one story, the hero would be Italian fighting for the Fascists, and others would star a German or Japanese or American or British or whoever.

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This approach was different because previously the stories told were always telling the story from the American or English perspective.

CBA: Less propaganda, and more realistic?

José: That’s right. I drew for Oesterheld. I did The Battle of Coral Sea. Then Hector took some guys in the business and gave a section of the book to each one. The part I did was from the point of view of the Japanese. I was going crazy trying to find reference for Japanese aircraft carriers because Oesterheld was intent on the stories being as authentic as possible. He didn’t want the artists faking anything.

CBA: Like Harvey Kurtzman, a pain in the ass. [laughter] Did you always think about coming to America?

José: I was always dreaming of coming to America.

I always imagined coming to the United States to be a cartoonist. As Frank Sinatra would say, if I could make it in New York, I could make it anywhere! So I was always thinking about the U.S. I finally made it in 1965.

CBA: Were you making good money in Argentina?

José: I was making a good living, but the political situation made things very difficult. Army revolts, incredible inflation, etc.

Inset left: Could this be yet another exquisite portrait of a comic book artist at work by the talent photographer Greg Preston? José Delbo in his Florida studio. ©2002 the respective copyright holder.

Below: José Delbo drew about a zillion issues of Wonder Woman in the 1970s and into the ’80s, including this cover detail of WW #253 (Mar. ’79). Courtesy of the artist. ©2002 DC Comics.

There was a tremendously bad situation in Argentina with no tranquility. You would never know what would happen tomorrow. I had my two kids and said to my wife, “We cannot live like this any more.

Even if I can get a good enough work, this is not the place to raise our children.” The comic business started to slow down, because people were worrying about more important things than comics. Besides, the people who were selling the books preferred to sell the more expensive, profitable magazines than the cheap comic books, because the profit margin was so much better. So the retailer would just return the comics unopened. The whole thing started to deteriorate, and was much different than when I started. Magazines started to close down, publishers went away, things like that. I needed to make a big decision, and that’s why we decided to come to the 79

Above: Cover to a 1960 Argentinian Western comic by José Delbo. Courtesy of the artist. ©2002 the respective copyright holder.

Inset right: Portrait of the artist at 16 years old. Courtesy of José.

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United States.

CBA: When did you get married?

José: I got married in 1958.

CBA: So your children were quite little when you came over?

José: Oh, my son was four and my daughter was two.

CBA: Did you sell any material to the U.S. market before you moved?

José: No, never. I sent some material to neighboring countries like Brazil, Chile, and places like that, but never to the United States.

CBA: Did you try to get work through the mail with Toutain and the Barcelona school at all?

José: I tried, but that was a little too complicated. There were always problems with the mail. I knew some of my friends who had entire books get lost in the post. It was a little too risky. I said, “Let’s try the United States.” I was always an admirer of this country, because I like cowboys so much, I guess. When I was a kid, I would go to see those movie chapter serials, where they showed two episodes in one day, and then you had to come the following day to see two more. You know, Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. They showed you two chapters with the last one ending with the hero hanging from a cliff.... [laughter] CBA: Who were your favorite cowboys?

José: Well, I’ve got so many. I remember liking the younger John Wayne when I was a kid. Hopalong Cassidy was a favorite.

CBA: Roy Rogers?

José: To tell you the truth, I didn’t like Roy Rogers that much, because I didn’t like the fancy costumes, flowers on the shirt, all that kind of stuff. [laughs] I didn’t like movies where they would mix horses with cars and things like that. I preferred the old-fashioned Western based in the 1800s when a six-gun could shoot twenty bullets without reloading! [laughter] CBA: Obviously, the French and Spanish and South Americans are really fascinated about the American Old

West. Hugo Pratt… Moebius did Lt. Blueberry… Tex… José: The Europeans love the West. To me it’s amazing that in the country where the genre was born, nobody cares about it. The same thing with jazz.

CBA: I lived in England for a while when I was a kid, and the Brits I met were really convinced that there still was an Old West in the States, with cowboys and Indians running around shooting each other.

José: And the Americans still think that in Argentina you can find gauchos and Indians running around shooting each other! [laughter] CBA: Touché! So Luis was over here first?

José: Yes. CBA: Did you know him back in Argentina?

José: Oh, yes. We worked together on a couple of magazines. He was very famous there. I was a beginner when he was already an established artist.

CBA: Did he have the same background in education as you, basically?

José: I cannot tell you that, I don’t know. I know he is a very educated man.

CBA: Did you contact him before you came?

José: Yes, we would exchange letters. Then when I came here, he introduced me to Charlton Publishing. So my first assignments in the States was for Charlton, like almost every comic book artist in the U.S. [laughs] CBA: Did you deal with Dick Giordano?

José: No, I talked to Tony Tallarico. I don’t remember if George Wildman was the editorial director or Giordano.

CBA: Between 1966 and ’68, Dick was pretty much in charge in Derby.

José: It was Giordano, then.

CBA: Then Sal Gentile came in for a couple of years, then it was George Wildman. So you did Westerns?

José: I did Billy the Kid. When the artist who was doing it got sick, they gave the assignment to me. I did it for several years. I was working like a machine in those days! You needed to be a machine to make a living in those days.

CBA: Did you do the inking yourself?

José: I was doing the inking myself, yes, though the lettering was done by somebody else.

CBA: Did you learn English when you were young?

José: Yes, you needed to take a foreign language in school. I took English. But it’s funny, because I learned proper English from England.

So when I came to the United States, I realized that I couldn’t understand one word Americans were saying! Because the accent was so different. I was used to hearing English like, maybe, Mrs. Thatcher would speak.

CBA: [laughs] With a British inflection?

José: Yes. And then, when I came to the United States, nobody talked like that!

CBA: “Wassamatter with ya, Mac?” [laughter] José: I couldn’t understand anybody on the phone. For me, it was as if everyone was loco, you know, crazy. [laughter] Later, we bought a television. I said to myself, if I can begin to understand how they speak on TV, that would be the best thing I could do. So that’s what I did. I bought a TV, started watching and tried to listen as best I as I could, and then finally I start comprehending the accent. I’m still learning, because English is a hard language to understand.

CBA: But could you read it well enough?

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José: Oh, yes. Much better than talking.

CBA: You could interpret the scripts easily?

José: Oh, yes, no problem at all. I had no problem reading.

CBA: How was Charlton to work for?

José: Actually, I was working for Tony Tallarico. I was sending the work to Tony, never got a rejection, and everything was fine.

And that’s the way it was.

CBA: When you came to America, what kind of comics did you want to work on? Any kind?

José: In those days, I would be happy to get any kind of comic book work. The first year, I worked in advertising, and was struggling to break into the comic business. Finally, through Luis Dominguez, I went to see to Tony, and Tony gave me the first assignment for comics in the United States, for Charlton.

CBA: You also did a little work for Tower Comics?

José: Yes, but to tell you the truth, I don’t precisely remember the assignments… I know it was in the beginning. I don’t know how I got in touch with the people at Tower. I think I did a couple of war stories. One day, I went to Gray Morrow’s house in Pennsylvania, and I was invited by him (along with some other guys) to do some work for a magazine he was editing at the time.

CBA: Was that the Red Circle mystery books?

José: I think so. But I never saw my work printed. He told me, “José, I need to give you back your originals.” But it never happened.

Unfortunately, Gray has passed away and we never had the chance to talk about that.. But I never saw that thing published. I don’t even remember what the story was.

CBA: Gray did Red Circle Sorcery and Madhouse, but the titles didn’t last long, only about six months. So were you looking at Marvel and DC in the hope of breaking in there?

José: Well, I was working for Charlton, and somebody called me telling me that Dell was looking for artists to do war stuff, about prisoner of wars or whatever. They wanted to see something of my work.

Then I sent copies of stories that I did in Argentina about an Argentinian pilot flying with the Royal Air Force in World War Two. I sent it out to the guy, and he liked it, so they gave me Hogan’s Heroes. [laughter] CBA: Do you remember who was writing?

José: I think it was D.J. Arneson.

CBA: And what editors were you dealing with at Dell, do you remember?

José: I was dealing with him, only with him.

CBA: You started doing some work for Gold Key? José: Well, when Dell got in trouble and decided to stop publishing comics, at the same time I got a call from Gold Key. I think my first assignment with them was Yellow Submarine. I did a comic book adaptation of the Beatles animated movie.

CBA: You’re the one who drew that?

José: Yes, sir.

CBA: That was a very nice job! I bought that when I was about ten years old and loved it. That was one of my favorite comic books at the time There was even a poster in it!

José: Well, somebody told me it is a collector’s item. Unfortunately, I’ve only got one copy [laughter] Nobody was talking about “collectibles” in those days!

CBA: Did you receive reference from Jack Mendelson, from the animators?

José: I think King Features had the rights to that production. They sent me a lot of pictures because I needed to follow the animators’ style. And also of course they gave me only pictures and the rest I had to reproduce myself, create the situations myself. Unfortunately I had to send back the pictures when I finished doing the book.

CBA: Did you work from the movie script?

José: No, I think Paul S. Newman wrote that script.

CBA: What other assignments did you get at Gold Key? José: Well, I did a lot of mystery books: Boris Karloff, The Twilight Zone, Ripley’s Believe or Not, Grimm’s Ghost Stories.... Then Wally Green asked me to do a new assignment. Alberto Giolitti was drawing Turok, Son of Stone in Italy and then Wally wanted to have one story drawn here, in the States, to be assured of the continuity of the book in case something happened with the mail. Then I start doing Turok.

But at the same time I was doing short stories for Twilight Zone, and December 2002

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all those other anthology books. I also did work for O.G. Whiz for Gold Key, but not in the beginning. I took over after the original artist quit. I did Raggedy Ann and Andy, and Mighty Samson…

CBA: John Stanley wrote O.G. Whiz, correct?

José: Yes. It was about a little boy who is chairman of a toy factory.

CBA: So you adapted to humor style really easily?

José: Yes. I like to do humorous material, it’s fun. When I was working for Dell, I had a lot of fun drawing The Monkees, because I was putting in little things that came to my mind while I was drawing, and the writer didn’t object. Then I started putting in even more all the time. Doing The Monkees was the finest period for me. I remem-

ber I started drawing it realistically, and one day I went to talk to Dan. I said, “Can I try to do it funny?” Well, he liked my approach, the way I made the guys look funny, and that’s the way I drew the book after that.

CBA: Were you able to do humor material faster than the realistic stuff?

José: Well, I can’t tell you, really. I know it was easier. I also did something that I enjoyed very much. I told you I liked Westerns. I did The Lone Ranger for Western Publishing after Tom Gill stopped drawing it. They gave the book to me until they cancelled it. I also drew another Western for them called Judge Colt. I’d just started when the

Above: Splendid splash page to a 1962 Argentinian comic story, drawn by José Delbo. Courtesy of the artist. ©2002 the respective copyright holder.

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Above: Page from José’s first Gold Key job, Yellow Submarine. Below: José also contributed to Gold Key’s Western titles, including the shortlived Judge Colt. Here’s the cover of #3 (May ’70). Both are ©2002 the respective copyright holders.

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book went kaput. I also drew Buck Rogers.

CBA: The TV show adaptation?

José: Yes. What else? Some science-fiction stories with different great American science-fiction writers, for a title called Starstream.

CBA: In the beginning your editor at Gold Key was Wally Green?

José: Wally Green, and there was another gentleman there, only I can’t remember his name. I think the first name was Paul, but Wally was the editor in those days. I used to work with him and two others.

CBA: What was Wally Green like?

José: Oh, he was a gentleman. Very nice. He always treated me very well. The beauty of those years at Gold Key was that I was doing the whole thing, pencils and inks. It doesn’t matter who inks your work, it could be the best guy in the world, but still you feel that you’d like to do it yourself, know what I mean? Because I was inked by the best inkers in the United States. Sometimes the artist wants to do his own style.

CBA: Were the page rates at Charlton pretty low?

José: I don’t know. The only thing I know is that I had to do a lot of pages during the week to pay the rent and to pay my bills.

But I don’t know how much the other guys were paid. I never asked, “How much do you get paid?” I just knew that I needed to work a lot to pay my own bills.

CBA: The Gold Key rates were better?

José: Oh, yes, of course. Much better.

CBA: How many pages could you do in a day?

José: You know, it’s funny, because most of the cartoonists would tell you, “I can do four pages in a day.” But a day for a cartoonist is sometimes 14, 15, 16 hours. [laughter] Normally I could finish a page-and-a-half, two pages. It all depends how difficult the strip is.

CBA: What was your favorite genre to work on? You worked on everything, it seems.

José: I like to do Westerns. If somebody offers me a cowboy story, that would be the happiest day in my life. But I like mystery and science-fiction. I can do super-heroes, and I’ve done many of them, but it’s not my favorite thing to do. I would rather do a cowboy or mystery book than super-hero.

CBA: But you did super-heroes for a long period, right?

José: Oh, I did super-heroes for many years. I think I did all the characters of DC Comics except The Flash.

CBA: Why not The Flash?

José: I don’t know. [laughs] CBA: Were you working at Gold Key and DC at the same time?

José: No, DC came later. When Gold Key was bought by a toy company, they decided to suspend publishing books or buying new material, because they had a lot of stuff in the inventory. I tried my luck at DC, and Joe Orlando recommended me to Julius Schwartz or Murray Boltinoff. Then I start working at DC....

CBA: So you were working on Ghosts and Boltinoff’s mystery magazines?

José: I did some of mystery. I did House of Mystery. Then they gave me Wonder Woman.

CBA: Was that the first real super-hero comic that you worked on?

José: Yes. CBA: Didn’t you work on Doctor Solar at Gold Key? José: I tried to do super-heroes when I was in Brazil, Argentina, Chile. We Argentinians, like Europeans, come from a style of comics that is more illustration than action. We put a lot of emphasis on the script, and the picture is just to illustrate the text, to clarify. In the United States, it’s a lot of action. I remember I needed to adjust to the moving from going to the little detail to going into the action, the person jumping, doing this, doing that. After a while, you get used to things and start changing your style. I remember every time that some friend of mine or colleague would want to come to the United States, I would say probably the most complicated thing is to adjust, to make the jump from the quiet style that is the European or Latin American to the fast style of the United States, with a lot of action.

And now with the crazy layouts all over the place… I remember when I worked at Gold Key, we could not do crazy layouts. Maybe there could be a double-panel or a vertical double-panel, but nothing going out of panel, nothing like that.

CBA: How did you adjust? Did you look at Jack Kirby’s work, or did you look at other artists’ work?

José: Well, you always look at somebody else’s work, but I remember having Julius Schwartz tell me what to do. He would say to me, “More action! More this or that,” and I was adjusting according to the direction of the editor.

CBA: Did you look at the Marvel comics coming out at the time?

José: Well, once in a while, but I was so busy working at DC, because in those days I was not only drawing Wonder Woman, but I would also do pages with Batgirl, Lois Lane or Jimmy Olsen…

CBA: The Superman Family material?

José: Yes, Superman Family.

CBA: Did you do your own inking or did Vince Colletta…?

José: Well, my first assignment at DC was inked by Tex Blaisdell.

Then Colletta started inking.

CBA: What did you think of Vinnie’s inks?

José: Well, listen to me: Vinnie was a very good artist, but unfortunately, he was doing his work very fast. When he took his time, he got a very sharp, very crisp line with those hand pens that he used. I was being inked by the best. I got Dave Hunt, Dick Giordano, Al Williamson…

CBA: Williamson? Wow! José: Yes, Williamson inked some of my pages when I was doing Thundercats for Marvel. I got Frank Chiaramonte, Marie Severin…

Joe Giella inked Wonder Woman.

CBA: Who was your favorite inker?

José: I would say Williamson, Giordano, and....

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December 2002

CBA: So you liked the slick artists, the guys who were heavier with black.

José: Right. I got the guy who has a style closer to mine. I am reminded of Raymond, I like that type of line… I like beauty.

CBA: To give it dimension, right.

José: Williamson and Giordano had more or less the same style.

Also, Joe Giella did great work over my pencils. I was lucky with many inkers. Sometimes I would complain, because like I said, every guy who pencils thinks he can do better than the best inker. [laughter] This is your baby, you know what I mean?

CBA: Did you hope to do your own inking on your own stories at all?

José: Well, I was doing the entire job when I was working for Gold Key. When I came to DC, at the beginning on the mystery books, I was doing my own inking. Later when I got into the superhero thing, I just did pencils, pencils, pencils, with somebody else doing the inking. Every time I would ask to do my own inking, the editors would say, “Get ahead one month in pencils and you can do your inking.” So it was a Catch-22 situation.

CBA: Did you come into any resistance being from South America?

Did you perceive any kind of prejudice at all?

José: Oh, no. Not at all.

CBA: Was there a language barrier? Was there difficulty in talking to editors?

José: No. I know I talk funny. I don’t know if they understood everything I said, but I didn’t have that kind of problem. Never in the 37 years I have lived in the United States did I have that kind of problem.

CBA: Where’d you first move to when you came to the states?

José: I live in New Jersey in a town called [Lodi?]

CBA: Is that near New York City?

José: Yes. Relatives of my wife lived in New Jersey and they were the only people I knew, besides Dominguez (who was living in New York), when I first came over. They helped us to get used to the customs, go shopping, taking us to all the different stores and teaching us the different way of life in the United States.

CBA: From Jersey, where did you move?

José: I moved to Florida.

CBA: When?

José: Six years ago.

CBA: So all of that time you were living in the same place in Jersey?

José: No. I moved seven times. I was renting until I bought my house, then bought a second one, and then a third, and later we decided we wanted no more cold weather, no more winter, and decided to come to Florida. We live in Boca Raton. It’s very nice. Will Eisner lives nearby. He’s a very old friend.

CBA: You worked for Julie Schwartz while drawing Wonder Woman?

José: I think Julie was my first editor on Wonder Woman. Then Ross Andru, Paul Levitz, and my last editor was Larry Hama, for the last issue before they gave the art assignment to Gene Colan.

CBA: Who was the writer on Wonder Woman?

José: Oh, I got a lot of them. Marty Pasko, Len Wein, Cary Bates, Gerry Conway, and one of the last issues was written by Bob Kanigher.

CBA: You did something like sixty issues of Wonder Woman?

José: Yes, maybe more. I worked for seven years on that title, though others did some books in-between because I would also draw other characters.

CBA: Did you have a favorite writer when you were at DC? José: [Pauses] I can’t really say. I was enjoying Wonder Woman.

That was a super-hero title but it wasn’t that usual kind of crazy super-hero action, where the guy would jump all over the place. I liked the idea of the invisible plane, the island with all the statues and the monuments and the whole setting....

CBA: Do you like drawing women?

José: Yes. CBA: Did you have freelance assignments at the same time that you were doing the comic book work? Did you work in advertising at all?

José: No. I was mostly doing the comics. For two or three years I December 2002

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was under contract with DC, when I couldn’t work for any other comic book company, only advertising jobs. But DC kept me busy enough, so I didn’t have time to take that kind of work. I remember I got a call from Marvel and they offered me the Sunday page assignment of the Spider-Man newspaper strip. But I couldn’t take it because I was under exclusive contract with DC. CBA: That could have been a great job, though, huh?

José: Oh yeah.

CBA: Did you work on any other super-heroes at DC? José: Yes, I did “Red Tornado,” “Batgirl,” Supergirl… I did books with the Justice League. You know, DC used to publish digest books… you remember those books with two different ends, that people would choose the ends? That was for McGraw-Hill, I think it was. I was doing Justice League. I did almost every super-hero. I did a couple pages of Green Lantern. I think I did my quota of superheroes.

CBA: Garcia-Lopez was doing a lot of licensing art at the time, right? He was working on special projects?

José: I was also working on a lot of special projects. Joe Orlando was in charge of that. I did a lot of mini-books which they used to put inside cereal boxes with a young Wonder Woman, and many different things. And I did some with those characters that Kirby created for DC, New Gods.

CBA: The Super Powers action figures?

José: Yes, yes.

CBA: Was it good money?

José: Yes. More money than they regularly would have paid.

CBA: Did you work regularly for Joe Orlando?

José: Oh yes. Joe would call me and offer some kind of work

Above: Delbo succeeded Alberto Giolitti as artist on Turok, Son of Stone. This page is from #96 (May ’75). Courtesy of the artist. Turok ©2002 Acclaim Entertainment, Inc. Below: A favorite assignment of the artist was The Monkees, adapting the hit TV show. Here’s the cover of the first issue. ©2002 the respective copyright holder.

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Below: While super-heroes aren’t necessarily José’s cup of tea, the artist did an admirable job on numerous stories, as well as the Superman syndicated newspaper comic strip. Written by Paul Kupperberg and inked by Sal Trapani, here’s a pair from 1982, courtesy of the artist. ©2002 DC Comics.

and then he would ask if I had time. I was doing the pages.

CBA: If we could get back to Gold Key for a second: What was the routine? Did you go into the offices weekly?

José: No, we did what you normally do. As I said, with the Gold Key work, I was doing pencils and inks. I remember I used to deliver the pencils, they would do the lettering, and gave me the originals back to finish inking. Then I would deliver the finished book. At DC and Marvel, the procedure was different because I was only penciling.

For them, I would send the pages special delivery and it would be out of my hands. They would receive the finished pencils, give it to the letterer and then to the inker. It was like working on an assembly line building automobiles in Detroit.

CBA: On your visits to Gold Key, would you come to town and maybe go to lunch with the editors?

José: Oh, yes. Sometimes I would see somebody in the office and then we’d go together to have a coffee. There used to be a coffee shop on Third Avenue where we would go in and start talking about comics for hours until the lady would say, “It’s lunchtime. You can’t be staying at this table.”

CBA: “Get outta here! Go home!” [laughter] What was your favorite company to work for?

José: What can I tell you? They treated me very well, all of them!

Opposite page: Pair of previouslyunpublished José Delbo pages from his art job on the Captain Atom installment intended for Blockbuster, the still-born weekly comic book which was to have featured Superman as well as the then recently acquired Charlton Action Heroes line. See CBA #9 for the scoop behind the Robert Greenburger-edited book. Words

by Paul Kupperberg; inks by Ricardo Villagrán. Courtesy of José. ©2002 DC Comics.

CBA: Were you pretty much happy wherever you went?

José: Yes. Everybody treated me very well. DC, Marvel, Gold Key and Dell....

CBA: But you pretty much went up the ladder, right?

José: That’s exactly what happened. I started at Charlton, and went all the way up, up, up, up, up, until I got into Marvel. After Marvel, I decided to move to Florida. Here there was a company called Big Entertainment who published Tekno-Comix. I did a couple of books for them. Mike Danger… I was busy and I got lucky.

Somebody always would call me to move to another company. I was called by Joe Orlando to do a book with Bob Oksner, and that was my first assignment at DC. It was a Superman story with Jimmy Olsen and some invaders that looked like insects, whatever. Bob Oksner did the inking, and he did a great job.

CBA: What did you think of Bob Oksner as a cartoonist?

José: Oh, he’s great! I love his girls.

CBA: [laughs] Bob draws the best girls! He’s living in Florida now.

José: That’s true. Not long ago I was invited to a party and there was Bob Oksner. We didn’t see each other for a long time. We used to live very close in New Jersey. When I was living in Paramus, he lived in Leonia, which was very close. That’s why I went to deliver the

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pencils to his house.

CBA: Would you see Luis Dominguez?

José: No, I haven’t seen him in a long time. I lost track of Luis. I don’t know what happened to him. It’s been a long time since we Iast spoke.

CBA: How about Garcia-Lopez?

José: It’s also been a long time since I spoke to him. I don’t see him. Last time I saw him was in New York at a cartoonist’s party.

CBA: Do you get together with other South American artists?

José: No, there are not too many here. Most of the Argentinian artists are in Europe. Pablo Marcos does live in Florida. He inked Tomahawk when I penciled that strip for DC. CBA: Were they back-ups in Weird Western Tales? The regular Tomahawk comic book was cancelled in 1972, so were these “Tomahawk” stories later as back-ups in other titles?

José: No, I was doing it during the ’70s. You have to remember, I start working here in 1966, ’67. The ’70s and ’80s were a most prolific time of my career for cartooning. I was working with the right hand and the left hand simultaneously.

CBA: You were everywhere! [laughs] José: I was wishing I could be like Ric Estrada, who could work with both hands, you know? [laughter] CBA: He’s a very good cartoonist, too! How’d you get over to Marvel? Did Sid Jacobson get in touch with you?

José: At Marvel, Jim Shooter was the boss, and I went to see Tom DeFalco. My first assignment for Marvel was Thundercats.

CBA: You were immediately inked by Al Williamson on that?

José: No, in the beginning, another great inker, Al Gordon, was inking Thundercats, and he did a great job. Then Williamson did a couple. Then when Thundercats was cancelled, they offered me the Transformers. I was going crazy drawing robots with all the nuts and bolts and screws and all those kinds of things. Then I did the football super-hero, NFL SuperPro. CBA: That was a football comic book?

José: An athlete arrives in a special football uniform that makes him very powerful and he becomes a super-hero. The NFL was the sponsor on that.

According to what they told me, every script had to be approved by somebody in the league and the books started getting delayed, and finally Marvel decided to cancel the book. What else did I do for them?

CBA: You drew Barbie?

José: I did Barbie, yeah, you’re right. See, you know better… [laughs] CBA: I’m looking at an index right now.

José: Then came the massacre at Marvel, when they fired everybody. At the time, I was drawing a Western graphic written by Howard Chaykin. It was to be a forty-five page book. I was supposed to pencil and ink the project. When they fired everybody, they cancelled the book. That was the end of my working at Marvel Comics.

That would have been great because Howard did a great story which I liked very much. I was trying to do the best penciling job possible. I was supposed to do the inking, too, but unfortunately it never took off. I remember it was about two of the old Western characters at Marvel, Two-Gun Kid and Kid Colt, Outlaw. It was a good story. They were fighting each other because they were working for different bosses, and then finally they realize the guys they were working for are crooks, and then decided to get together to fight the bad guys. A COMIC BOOK ARTIST 23

December 2002

very good story, a very good idea by Howard. Unfortunately, when I was at page 30, 32, whatever, they cancelled the book.

CBA: Do you still have those pages?

José: I have only copies of those pages, because the originals were sent to Marvel, and when I tried to get them back, they got lost in the middle of the Revolution and the move.

CBA: What did you do for Detective Comics?

José: I did back-up strips. I also did World’s Finest Comics. I also started doing the pencils for that book which was intended to be a weekly. I did a character created by Steve Ditko, Captain Atom. I think I did two episodes of pencils and Ricardo Villagrán started inking the thing when they canned the project. So that was another book that was never published.

CBA: What did you do after Marvel?

José: In those days, when I was living in Jersey, I was also teaching cartooning at Joe Kubert’s school. I taught there for 14, 15 years, teaching cartooning. I was teaching basic drawing. Also some storytelling. My main course was basic drawing.

CBA: Did you enjoy it?

José: Oh yes. It’s easy to teach when you’ve got kids who love to draw, you know? It’s very hard to teach when you’ve got a guy who doesn’t care, but when you teach someone who likes to, it’s easy.

CBA: Did you live near Dover?

José: I used to come in from Paramus, a 45-minute drive. Later, I came to Florida and was working for Tekno Comix until they disappeared.

CBA: This listing includes reference to some Valiant and Defiant comics....

José: I did some inking for Jim Shooter’s book. Jim sent me a couple stories where I did the inking. Then they cancelled the book and the whole thing shut down. You know, that happened to me a lot! I would start working on a title and then—boom!—suddenly the publisher decides not to continue the book. I was doing a story for Jim Shooter that never got published…

CBA: Armorines?

José: Oh! Wait a minute… you know more than I! I did Armorines, yes! The last issue I got started, but they cancelled the book. But in those days the boss was Bob Layton. I also did 101 Dalmations.

CBA: For Disney?

José: No, Valiant had the license, I think it was.

CBA: That must have been fun.

José: Yes, that was fun. I did that for them. I also did a super-hero guy, X-0 Manowar, for Valiant.

CBA: Shadowman…

José: I did Shadowman. You know more than me. Who else did I do?

CBA: Wheel of Worlds… oh, that was for Tekno.

José: Yes. CBA: This is a lot of work. Did you ever get offered work in animation?

José: When I was a young kid in Argentina, I went to work in animation. I was one of those inbetweeners. That was so boring. I decided to quit and regretted it. I should have stayed a little longer to learn the techniques. But it was boring, it was killing me, and it wasn’t what I expected.

CBA: So that put you off of doing any animation work?

José: Yes. But, like I said, I later regretted it because it would have been a good experience to learn how the process was done.

CBA: Was the comic book business always up and down? Did you always see it as, you know, the business got bad for a while, later it would come back....

José: When I was working full time doing comics all the time, I didn’t notice any changes in the business. I moved from Charlton to Dell, from Dell to Gold Key, from Gold Key to DC, from DC to Marvel. I was busy the whole time. I can brag that I never had one day without work.

CBA: Really? Lucky you!

José: Yes. CBA: Did you retire when you went down to Florida?

José: Well, I’m semi-retired. I’m currently running a school that is a summer camp dedicated to cartooning, animation, and illustration for little kids aging from six to 14.

CBA: You’re running the whole program?

José: I’m doing it, yes.

CBA: And do you have state contracts for that?

José: No, it’s a private enterprise.

CBA: It’s successful?

José: Well, I’ve got 700 students.

CBA: [Shocked] I guess it’s successful! [laughs] Good for you!

José: I just started in the International Museum of Cartoon Art (which has since closed down). I needed to look for a new location, but, thank God, I found a place, and now we are in our third session. I’ve got two more sessions to go.

CBA: How big is your staff?

José: We’ve got eleven people.

CBA: Any other comic book people?

José: No, not really. I’ve got students from different schools here who could teach the kids.

Some of them can draw cartoons, of course, but nobody is a professional quite yet.

December 2002

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Above: Previously unpublished page of the Howard Chaykinscripted Kid Colt Outlaw and TwoGun Kid graphic novel which was aborted due to a change of regimes. Courtesy of the artist, this represents one of José’s very favorite penciling jobs. Art ©2002 José Delbo. Characters ©2002 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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CBA: During your career, did you ever use ghosts? Did you ever hire anybody to help you out in the studio?

José: I have this problem: I’m crazy. [laughter] I used to have people work with me, and then when they would leave for the day, I start retouching everything and then end up doing the whole page again. But I did ghost for a year on the Phantom newspaper strip for Sy Barry.

CBA: How was that?

José: That was when I got the experience of producing a daily strip. I had done a daily in Brazil, but it was different. Here in the United States, doing The Phantom, I was drawing the pencils, and Sy would do the inking. It was a good experience which prepared me to do the Superman syndicated daily strip.

CBA: What did you think of the pressure? Was it a horrible schedule, tough to keep up with?

José: Yes, it’s a lot of pressure, but it wasn’t that hard. I remember that in one week I was doing dailies and the Sunday and at the same time working for DC doing other work.

CBA: What were your hours?

José: I like to get up early, then work until lunchtime. After lunch, I would take a nap or go out to do something, and then work in the afternoon and then late until nine, ten o’clock, eleven o’clock sometimes.

CBA: That was pretty much every single day, or did you take weekends off?

José: No, that’s the beauty of the job. You can work seven days a week, 14 hours a day, that’s the beauty. You have the deadline, you need to work. If you’re a freelancer, you can go to any place you want for a couple of days, but later you have to…

CBA: Pay for it. [laughs] José: Of course. I remember I used to say to the kids at Joe Kubert’s that this is a job. You come here to learn a job. You like to draw, but this is a job. You don’t draw when you feel “inspired” to do the job. You have to meet the deadline even if you get an acute attack of hemorrhoids. [laughter] You have to do the homework, you’re doing a professional job, you have a deadline and you have to meet it. And that’s it. The book is like a train; it doesn’t wait for you.

CBA: Did you quit the Sy Barry job or did it just end?

José: No. I got the feeling that I got ahead too much. And then I would give him time, and then I was busy doing some other things.

One day, Sy called me and said that he didn’t need me anymore.

CBA: Was that the only syndicated strip that you did?

José: That and Superman. When I was working for DC I did Superman for the Tribune through DC. DC is very particular with the characters, you know. Even in that commercial work, they don’t allow just anybody to touch the characters, you know.

CBA: Would that unfinished Two-Gun and Kid Colt, Outlaw, have been your favorite work, do you think?

José: I don’t know. I was enjoying it very much doing the pencils.

CBA: Were you enjoying it more than anything else you did?

José: No, not really. I liked it very much, but I enjoyed several of the jobs I did. I enjoyed very much doing some of the Wonder Womans and some Gold Key stuff. I liked Turok very much, and also liked doing The Lone Ranger because I like to draw horses, cowboys, and that kind of thing. I enjoyed doing Boris Karloff and Twilight Zone because I’m from a school that liked to draw the real thing. I remember I spent hours drawing the… [long pause] CBA: The details?

José: The details, and looking in the encyclopedias and in National Geographic for reference. This thing would happen in Thailand and I would go to the Geographic to look, and that’s part of the life of the cartoonist that is beautiful, you know. When you really take the thing seriously. Not just boom-beep-boom-kaboom! Telling stories with real people, real things, real backgrounds, to me is one of the best things I can do in my life. When you’re using real characters, real people… I like to study customs, I like to do all those kinds of things. And probably you will find out that most of the Latin American/European artists that they’re not so happy doing super-heroes, because super-heroes are mostly action shots with generic backgrounds, and things like that.

CBA: So you like “authentic”?

José: Authentic. I like to do war stories, I like to do a Sherman tank that looks like a Sherman. And because Hector Oesterheld put in my head that even if we are only working cartoonists, we are always teaching through the art we create. If we give a kid wrong information, that wrong information can last for a long time. If the script calls for a Sherman tank, you cannot draw a Tiger tank. You need to draw a Sherman. Same thing with a pistol; if the pistol is a Luger, you cannot do any other pistol, or you have to draw a Luger. You can fake it.

Like I can fake very well a Peacemaker Colt. But what’s the difference to do it fake or real? It only takes two more minutes. Why not do the real thing? Same thing with the other references. You take a little more time, but at the same time, I remember every time I went to the National Geographic, I was educating myself. I was learning a lot of things that I didn’t know.

CBA: How big is your “morgue,” your reference file?

José: Well, it’s funny. When you start, you almost need reference for everything. After 50 years, you start only needing references for costumes, planes, cars and animals. But when you’re beginning, you need references for postures and different things. After many years, you don’t need anything.

CBA: Do you do any comic work anymore?

José: No, not really.

CBA: Do you miss it?

José: Well, I miss it sometimes, but I got some offers to do superCOMIC BOOK ARTIST 23

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heroes, but I don’t enjoy super-heroes anymore.

CBA: If someone were to offer you a job drawing a Western or a mystery…?

José: I would take it, oh yes.

CBA: Did you like doing the short stories? You know, as in The Twilight Zone seven-page stories?

José: Like I said, The Twilight Zone was in different places.

Different countries, different situations, different years. So I enjoyed that.

CBA: Variety.

José: Yes. CBA: And Turok… why did you like doing that?

José: Because it took place outside in nature. You have to draw dinosaurs, you have to draw action, but it’s not the action of the super-hero. It looks to be more real, you know? Two American Indians in the middle of strange landscape with dinosaurs and pterodactyls, all that kind of thing. Volcanoes in the background, caves, exotic plants. I enjoy doing that and also it’s like drawing landscapes.

It was a treat.

CBA: Paul Newman wrote most of your scripts for that?

José: Paul probably wrote all the scripts for the stories I did at Gold Key except Starstream. I don’t know if Paul wrote the stories for Raggedy Ann and Andy.

CBA: I wouldn’t doubt it. [laughter] I mean, he was the most prolific writer in comics.

José: I think he did everything that I did in Gold Key, yes.

CBA: Did you ever meet him?

José: Yes, of course.

CBA: Where’d you meet him?

José: At Gold Key. It was Christmas, and Gold Key used to have a small Christmas party in the conference room. There was Paul Newman, along with several other guys. We talked, and he told me stories about his visit to South America. Paul was talking about his experiences. He also went to Columbia, several countries in South America, and we talked about that.

CBA: Because you were a freelancer, could you go on vacations?

José: Oh yes.

CBA: Did you travel back home?

José: I traveled back home as soon as I could, you know, according to my schedule. One of my funniest stories was when I’d just finished drawing an issue of The Monkees, and already had tickets to go to visit my mother in South America, and I got a call from the editor that they never got the book. The post office had lost the book.

CBA: Oh, no!

José: I was all ready to go to South America, and the editor said to me, “Don’t worry, José. We’ll do this issue with somebody else.

Go enjoy your vacation.” And I did. That probably was the only issue I didn’t do. The book was lost and they got somebody else to do a very fast job. [laughter] CBA: Did you know anything about the set-up of Gold Key? That there was a New York office as well as a Los Angeles office?

José: The New York office was at 303 Third Avenue.

CBA: Do you remember at all what the offices were like? Did Western own the entire building?

José: No, I think it was one of the floors, I don’t remember what floor it was. There were several offices in there that belonged to Gold Key. Of course, the only entrance, the different offices, and of course the big office was Wally Green’s office…

CBA: So he was the main editor there?

José: When I was working for them? Yes. CBA: How old was he when you knew him?

José: Oh, I can’t tell you, I can’t remember.

CBA: Was he older than you?

José: I don’t know.

I remember in the later years, they would finally allow us to sign our names to the work. In the beginning, that wasn’t allowed.

You said you didn’t know I did Yellow Submarine, and nobody knows I did all those Lone Rangers and Turoks. On top of that, they used to shred the pages, destroy the original art. I was able to get some pages back through some friends, but I don’t have too many. I remember going to a convention and pages that were supposed to have been shredded, destroyed, were being sold. I found a whole December 2002

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issue of Judge Colt, to my surprise. I said, “How come this guy has Judge Colt? It’s supposed to have been shredded, supposed to have been destroyed.” So I asked the guy, “Where’d you get it?” He said, “I bought it. I brought it from home.” The guy doesn’t want to tell me, obviously. And then I wanted to buy it. He said, “Okay.” I said, “I’m the guy who drew it. How much do you want for the pages?”

He tells me a price that was more than Gold Key paid me to draw the book in the first place! [laughter] CBA: So you didn’t get it?

José: I didn’t buy it, no.

CBA: What a bastard! The jerk wouldn’t even sell it to you for a decent price?

José: No, no, no.

CBA: Do you feel happy with your career in comics?

José: Of course. Listen, I did what I came to do in the United States. I’m very happy. I worked with the biggest, best, most important publishers in the United States—DC, Marvel, Gold Key—and I’m proud of the work I did.

CBA: You’re an American citizen?

José: Yes, sir. I became a U.S. citizen in 1976, the year of America’s Bicentennial.

CBA: Good for you!

Thank you, Jose.

Top: The barbeque chef himself, Jose Delbo mans the grill at one of his frequent backyard fiestas. Above: From left, Charlton editor George Wildman, José, John Belfi, and José’s lovely wife, in 1995. Left: In Brazil with the master sequential artist and storyteller Will Eisner, 1996. Below left: José with Tony Tallarico. Below right: The teacher with student in a 2002 photo. Bottom left: José flanked

by John Buscema (left) and Stan Goldberg at the Lucca comics festival in 1999. All courtesy of José Delbo.

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No. 23, Dec. 2002 • $6.95 in the U.S.

COMIC BOOK ARTIST

JILL THOMPSON Under the Spell of

From Sandman to Scary Godmother

J I L L

T H O M P S O N :

F R O M

NUMBER 23

S A N D M A N

TO

T H E

Q U E E N

O F

H A L L O W E ’ E N !

CELEBRATING THE LIVES & WORK OF THE GREAT CARTOONISTS, WRITERS & EDITORS

C

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DECEMBER 2002

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CBA COMMUNIQUES: LETTERS, MISSIVES, CORRESPONDENCE, NOTES, CARDS, AND MAIL BOMBS A missive from the late John Buscema’s wife, Toth on his “lost” Enemy Ace story, and more! ........................2-B MICHELLE’S MEANDERINGS: THE ADVENTURES OF G.I. JANE You think Demi Moore was the first female counterpart of that “Real American Hero”? Think again!............4-B CBA’S SPOOKY THOMPSON SPECIAL JILL THOMPSON INTERVIEW: SCARY GODMOTHER AND THE JOY OF COMICS Joe McCabe talks with the artist about her work, from Sandman to the undisputed Queen of Hallowe’en! ....6-B THE MAGIC OF MIKE MIGNOLA: FROM HELLBOY AND BACK AGAIN! For the love of Mike, CBA gives the artist the full treatment: Interview, portfolio and checklist! ................Flip us!

COMIC BOOK ARTIST™ is published 10 times a year by TwoMorrows, 1812 Park Drive, Raleigh, NC 27605, USA. 919-833-8092. Jon B. Cooke, Editor. John Morrow, Publisher. Editorial Office: P.O. Box 204, West Kingston, RI 02892-0204 USA • 401-783-1669 • Fax: 401-783-1287. Send subscription funds to TwoMorrows, NOT the editorial office. Single issues: $9 postpaid ($11 Canada, $12 elsewhere). Six-issue subscriptions: $36 US, $66 Canada, $72 elsewhere. All characters © their respective owners. All material © their creators unless otherwise noted. All editorial matter © their respective authors. ©2002 Jon B. Cooke/TwoMorrows. Cover acknowledgement: Photograph of Jill Thompson by Dan (Dano) Martin of Chicago, Illinois. First Printing. PRINTED IN CANADA.

Editor/Designer JON B. COOKE Publisher

TWOMORROWS JOHN & PAM MORROW Assistant Editor GEORGE KHOURY Associate Editors CHRIS KNOWLES DAVID A. ROACH CHRISTOPHER IRVING Contributing Editors ROY THOMAS JOHN MORROW Cover Photography DAN MARTIN, Chicago, IL

CBA Communiques

From Mrs. Buscema & Toth on “Ace” Plus letters on Fathers & Sons, Harvey, and Adam Hughes

Below: Appearing in CBA again is a repro’ of the original art for the cover for Star Spangled War Stories #144, with original blurb hawking a Toth Enemy Ace story still intact.

For the published version, Neal Adams was announced as the inside artist. Courtesy of Tom Horvitz. ©2002 DC Comics.

Dolores Buscema via the Internet I had to e-mail you to let you know how moved I was when I received, saw, and read the issue, “Remembering John Buscema” [Comic Book Artist #21]. Tom Palmer did a remarkable cover painting. It’s just beautiful. I cannot thank you and all his peers enough for making this issue possible.

[Thank you for such a gracious letter, Mrs. Buscema. I can’t tell you how gratifying it is to receive such a laudatory note from the wife of the late, great artist. Please accept the fondest wishes from all of us at TwoMorrows.—Ye Editor.]

Owen O’Leary via the Internet Just wanted to let you know that I really loved Comic Book Artist #21. Everything about the mag was great, from seeing all the cool pencil art in the Adam Hughes section, to the painted cover of John Buscema by Tom Palmer. My favorite part, I think, was reading all the stuff on Big John in the “Remembering Buscema” section. I thought Stan Lee’s comments on John were more heartfelt and revealing than what he said in the press release Marvel put out the day after John passed away.

I was a little surprised when I read my piece and saw that I now held dual citizenship, but the thing that really blew me away was when I was flipping through the mag at one point and saw that you dedicated it to me! I honestly have no idea why you decided to do that, Jon, but whatever the reason, I got a big kick out of it. And, in honor of this being the 25th anniversary of the death of the King [Elvis Presley], I’d like to say, “Thank you… thank you very much…” for doing that, and more importantly, for putting together such a great tribute to John.

I also appreciate the chance to contribute to the mag. John was a really cool guy, and I think he would have been a little surprised—not to mention embarrassed—if he knew just how much he and his work were loved.

Mauricio Heilbron Long Beach, California Hello there. I just wanted to send you a few words of gratitude and appreciation. For a kid who once was completely immersed in comic book culture, the magazine Comic Book Artist has proven to be the next best thing to cracking open an old beloved tome. I imagine many of your devoted readers can remember their “first one”… that issue that “hooked” you. Forever. Amazing Spider-Man #102, with that fat spine, costing a whole quarter, with that Gil-freakin’-Kane artwork was my first. I was powerless to resist. I went back and got the

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first 101 issues over the years, while faithfully picking the new issues and new titles every month. I still have them all. I’ve never stopped.

But I never “upgraded” my #102. It’s weather-beaten, with covers held on by brittle 1970’s cellophane tape, water-damaged, faded, yellowed, curled… and will have to be pried from my cold, dead hands when the time comes. The persons responsible for CBA understand that feeling. It shows, and for that you are greatly appreciated.

CBA #20, the Fathers & Sons issue, was a delight. Reading interviews of these sons who followed in their father’s very specific—but uncommon (as jobs go)—footsteps was inspiring and uplifting. I couldn’t help but to be drawn to it. My father is a general and trauma surgeon, who specializes in vascular surgery. So am I. I am now the chief of surgery at the hospital where my father has worked for 30 years. We share an office. In the same way that John Jr., Adam and Andy could benefit from their famous dads, I do the same with mine.

All of us “sons” are about the same age… respectively born in 1956, ’59, ’62 and me in ’64. I’m handed some unbelievably difficult or complex case, and I get to say, “Hey, Dad! What would you do?” or “Hey, Dad! Can you lend me a hand?” How cool is that? I’ll tell you.

Immeasurably. And that is what I felt after reading #20. Carry on your excellent work, my friends.

David Cook via the Internet In Comic Book Artist #13 (Marvel Horror) there was a little reprint of the original cover for an “Enemy Ace” that was supposed to be done

by Alex Toth [Star Spangled Comics #144]. Well, I heard several stories about that (nothing that approaches the scale of “urban legend”), and every version had similarities but all were different enough to make me wonder.

Anyway, I thought I’d ask my friend and constant pen pal, Alex, about the real low-down on what happened. I received his postcard today, and even called him to ask if it would be all right to share what he had to say in a “setting the record straight” vein. He said it was okay, “as long as I didn’t say anything libelous.” I couldn’t spot anything outrageous, so here it is… ”Re Kubert/‘Ace’/me—lonnngg ago—I was asked to do a 22pager, and chose to do its writing, too, rewriting, really gutting Kanigher’s[... ] schtick, for a similar plot, but with the ‘Knights of the Air’ lore, and the reality of it, flying those wood/linen coffins, etc., with a love of flying angle, too, despite war, the romance of aviation, skies, mixed with dogfights. Yes, to hew to the series’/Joe’s/dictates— I wrote/penciled the 22 p. in blue—not my cuppa—(heliotrope lead? could be…) Anyhoo, sent ’em to Joe/DC—who sent ’em back!

Note/phone call/said, prophetically, “Alec, We’re DC Comics, NOT Warner Bros.” etc. So, pissed, Joe and I split on this, all pages mine— In the trunk of my/our ol’ ’55 Chevy Belair ragtop—Unrolled, reverserolled pages of 3-ply bristol, flat on trunk’s floor, in anger, fury, I left ’em there, liner for our kidlets’ playpen/diaper bags/toys/formula/bottles/groceries/whatever and of course the penciled pages smeared and smudged and dimpled/creased/torn were there forever—I’d toyed with the idea to just retitle it ‘Iron Crux’ and ink it up—for Joe, who said, “Wellll, maybe, yeahh, Alec,” But no, Liner they stayed! No cover art that I recall…

“Anyhoo, I’m sure I kept to the page count—22 or 27 or—? I just wrote a ‘Movie Script,’ a ‘Dawn Patrol,’ is all! Too Bad! I thot I got the mix of all parts right enough!! Didn’t volunteer writing a series script for Joe, or any DC editor, nor was I asked to, ’til 30 years later, by Chiarello, for an 8-p. b/w ‘Batman,’ and I couldn’t write ANYthing!

Thus, my cover, as compensation!

“PS, Joe was in NYC/I was then in Pasadena, with my ex-wife, Chris, and 2, 3, 4 kids—we split in ’66...”

So, there you have it from “the horse’s mouth”...

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December 2002

John Stuart Toronto, Ontario, Canada First, let me say how much I enjoy your superb publication. Kudos to everyone associated with the magazine.

I just finished reading issue #20, the Father & Son issue. What a great concept! Combining the past and present, with perspectives by both generations. Great reading.

Now, I’d like to relate a personal experience with John Romita, Jr. Last weekend I attended the Metro Toronto Comic Book Convention. I was only able to attend the first day of the show, but I knew that Romita was scheduled to be present for a signing session from 8:00 to 9:00 P.M. I’ve been a big fan of the work of both Romitas and believe they are the two definitive artists responsible for the Amazing Spider-man! I took down my page of original artwork from Peter Parker, Spider-Man #1, hoping to get it signed. I got into the signing lineup at around 7:30 P.M. and was about 20th in line.

By 8:00, the line was quite long, with approximately 175 fans waiting for John. Well, to make a long story short, John failed to show at 8:00. The line continued to grow along with impatient rumblings of discontent. I knew I couldn’t attend on the other days of the convention, so I decided to wait it out and hope John showed. Soon convention staff announced that they couldn’t locate the star artist, the time was now 8:30 and the show set to close at 9:00!

Finally, John arrived at 8:45. It turns out the convention staff had never told him they had scheduled a signing for the Friday night, he thought he was only to appear on the Saturday and Sunday. They finally had found him having dinner in the adjoining hotel. Now, I’m certain that many artists would have simply said, “Oh well, too bad.

I‘ll sign autographs tomorrow. I’m not going to jump up from dinner.” After all, it was only 15 minutes to closing.

But not John Romita Jr.! He arrived and set to work. Clearly, he was very concerned that he had inadvertently kept his fans waiting.

He was very pleasant, a nice smile for everyone, a few quick words and the desired signatures. I had my artwork signed and left a contented collector. I’m certain he stayed beyond the official closing time pen in hand! Here’s a guy that considers the fans to be be important.

I was impressed with JR, Jr. Last but not the least, I like the new format of the magazine, with coverage of both the new and older talents. I personally would like to see an issued devoted to those incredible Filipino artists that worked for DC in the ’70s as well as an issued devoted to Mark Bagley. Mark is particularly deserving due to his brilliant work on both the Amazing and Ultimate Spider-man!

Above and right: Kubert fan supreme Al Dellinges points out that we were probably wrong in identifying the above sketch as a rejected Tarzan #207 cover layout; it was used as rough for DC’s Limited Collectors’ Edition Edition #C-22 (right), though Al says, “It may very well have been used as the initial design for the first DC Tarzan cover, [and] in fact, I wish they had used it for the first issue. It’s a much better drawing, in my opinion.”

Lower right and below: Al also tells us that the huge Tarzan image hanging in Joe’s office (seen behind the guys below) was initially the centerfold for the other DC Tarzan “treasury,” #C29. Tarzan ©2002 Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc.

Brian Pearce via the Internet While I’m disappointed in the occasional change-in-direction for Comic Book Artist (I’m only thankful it isn’t every issue), you’ve hit rock bottom with “Inside Universe Ross” [in CBA #21]. At least, I hope so.

For me, this was comics press equivalent of the sort of fawning celebrity journalism more often found in a magazine like Vanity Fair (or Wizard), a puff piece that doesn’t say anything more than, “Gee, that Alex Ross sure is swell!” (I got more out of reading the captions than the article.) While there’s certainly a place for that in CBA (I’d go so far as to say that’s a large part of what CBA is), surely there are more useful and informative ways to express your enthusiasm than this.

[Dunno what to say. The routine of an artist’s life is a mite difficult to express dramatically, so to speak. We do appreciate your comments, though.—Y.E.] December 2002

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Michelle’s Meanderings

The Adventures of G.I. Jane Michelle Nolan looks at a not-so-original real American Heroine

By Michelle Nolan

Below: Bill Williams cover art for G.I. Jane #6 (March 1954).

Courtesy of Michelle Nolan. ©2002 the respective copyright holder.

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Pretty much everyone with even a passing interest in American pop culture has heard of G.I. Joe. But did you know there was once a “G.I. Jane”? (Oh, besides the Demi Moore movie! We’re talking comic books here, people!) In fact, there were two of them!

This is the tale of one of those short-lived, derivative character names that comic books of the 1940s and ’50s were so fond of pumping out. Anyone who ever created an original concept in those days could be assured that someone else would adapt or twist that

character, all in the mad dash for the pop cultural buck.

In this case, the original concept belonged to a distinguished cartoonist—lamentably pretty much forgotten today—named Dave Breger. He created a sympathetically humorous panel comic strip in 1942 for the first issue of Yank, the military service magazine, and called him “G.I. Joe” based on his earlier original conception entitled Private Breger. Yank, of course, was where George Baker’s famous Sad Sack strip originated, also in 1942.

After the war, “G.I. Joe” was mustered out of the service and became “Mr. Breger.” But cartoonist Breger had, however inadvertently, created an iconic expression—one destined to achieve much greater renown in the 1960s as a Hasbro toy and the ’80s and ’90s as a popular comic book, successful animated TV series, and endless lines of toys and games.

“G.I. Joe, as a term for the American enlisted man, was Dave Breger’s invention,” wrote Stephen Becker in the seminal 1959 social history of comic strips, Comic Art in America. “It is one more instance—and probably the most immediately successful of all—of a contribution to the language by a practicing cartoonist. Breger’s hero, a reduced and sharpened version of Breger himself, was neither warrior nor stumblebum, but somewhere in between, like most American soldiers. He tried hard; followed orders; was capable of ferocious grimaces indicative of savage determination; and made all the mistakes that betray the civilian-at-heart. Readers, particularly selectees (draftees) and their families, could identify with him immediately; he was too real to be satirical. Satire was not Breger’s intent; sympathy was.”

To the best of my knowledge, though, there were still no G.I. Joe toys when famed pulp publisher Ziff-Davis co-opted Breger’s G.I. Joe dogtag, so to speak, and in 1950 began publishing one of the earliest war comic books centered around a military character rather than a war story anthology concept.

Ziff-Davis, as was this odd company’s wont, began G.I. Joe with #10, an undated 1950 issue that was one of the company’s first comic books during its short foray into four-color newsstand combat.

Issues #11-14 followed in ’51 before the company reverted back to #6 with the Dec. ’51 issue, thereby assuring a bit of early collector confusion, since there were two sets of #10-14 issues, as was true of several other Ziff-Davis titles. More than a few collectors sought out these early issues for their handsome painted covers by slick artist Norman Saunders, surely one of the finest craftsmen ever to grace the cover of a comic book.

G.I. Joe apparently sold pretty well for Ziff-Davis, because by 1953, the company had abandoned all of its comic books except G.I. Joe. At about the same time early in ’53, Ziff-Davis converted its pulp magazine line, led by the venerable Amazing Stories, into digests.

Ziff-Davis published G.I. Joe regularly through #51 (June ’57).

By the way, no company ever did knockoffs better or more frequently in pretty much every genre than Timely/Atlas/Marvel, which came up with Combat Casey and Combat Kelly in the ’50s as publisher Martin Goodman’s answer to G.I. Joe. At any rate, another pulp publisher which also produced reams of comic books, Fiction House, was close to being on its last legs by the time the G.I. Joe comic book began to go great guns for ZiffDavis. Fiction House published a lot of reprints in the ’52-’54 period before leaving the funny book business, but the company oddly came up with a few more-or-less original concepts, too.

One such strip was a “serious” treatment of “G.I. Jane,” which appeared in five-page strips in the last three issues of Rangers—#67 COMIC BOOK ARTIST 23

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(Oct. ’52), #68 (Fall ’52) and #69 (Winter ’52-53). “G.I. Jane” is not to be confused with the long running adventures of Jane Martin, a war nurse, in Wings Comics, which was one of the five regularly published companion titles to Rangers. The others, of course, were Jumbo, Jungle, Planet, and Fight, and the six titles made up the famed Fiction House “Big Six of the Comics” seen in so many tantalizing house ads.

Rangers was the first of the “Big Six” to bite the dust, perhaps because the company decided that comics with Korean War themes would not sell well as the conflict ground to a halt in 1953.

The cover of Rangers #67, a particularly grim battle scene, also ran the blurb “Meet G.I. Jane!” Indeed, this dense little five-pager told the tale of how Jane Walters, a blonde bombshell in the classic sense, decided to become a member of the U.S. Army. She was assigned to work at an atomic research laboratory in Washington, D.C., and in the final four pages of this little epic managed to salvage some lost uranium. In the process, she saved a schoolboy from its deadly effects and captured a thug who wanted to sell his share to the ever-popular foreign power, “where I can get the highest price.”

Of course, the story had to end in a bit of ’50s sexism, in which the handsome doctor with whom G.I. Jane worked blurted out in the last panel, “After all this rhubarb over the radioactive metal, Private Walters, do you mean to tell me you’re just thinking about getting your lipstick on straight?” To which Our Heroine replied, “Doctor, I may be a soldier… but when it comes to lipstick, I’m still a woman!”

After two more such brief imbroglios, however, it seemed as though G.I. Jane was gone forever. But wait! She was soon to return in an entirely different format from Stanhall, a minor comic book publisher that few collectors have ever heard of today.

Stanhall Publications, Inc., was an obscure, short-lived outfit edited by Hal Seeger and produced by Adolphe Barreaux, the executive editor who was one of the early pulp people. Stanhall was based at good, old 480 Lexington Avenue in New York City, home of mighty DC Comics (then known as National Comics). Other than being distributed by the same company, Independent, I’m not aware of any direct connection between tiny Stanhall and mighty DC, and I have never seen any DC strips credited to Ral Seeger.

Stanhall also produced the short-lived Oh Brother!, Broadway Hollywood Blackouts and Farmer’s Daughter humorous comic books—along with the immortal Muggy-Doo, Boy Cat—and seems to have been affiliated in a tangled web with other small imprints such as Stanmor (for publisher Stanley Morse), Trojan, Master, Merit, etc.

Regardless of the connection between these small publishers, most of which have been collected and annotated for their bizarre horror comics, the ’53-’54 period wasn’t the best time to be getting involved in the comic book business.

G.I. Jane, though, was one of those innocuous humor titles— such as DC’s much better known A Date with Judy—that flowered in the ’50s, and provided such a welcome alternative to all the grim stuff crowding the newsstands in the years immediately before the Comics Code came into existence late in ’54. A few of the G.I. Jane sight gags were a bit racy by post-Code standards, but they sure weren’t in the same lingerie league as Torchy, Bill Wards “blonde bombshell” from Quality Comics. Torchy never would have come close to surviving the prudish censorship of the early Comics Code, but G.I. Jane wouldn’t have had to worry too much.

Unfortunately, G.I. Jane never really got the chance to pass muster with the Comics Code, for the title ran only 11 issues, ranging from #1 (May ’53) through #11 (Mar. ’55 but misdated Mar. ’54 in the indicia). For some reason, this company’s Mar. ’55 issues —such as Dark Mysteries #22—were misdated for a year earlier.

I’ve managed to collect seven of the 11 G.I. Jane issues, only two of which are pictured in the Gerber Photo-Journal. I’ve never seen #11, so if anyone has a photocopy of the cover, I’d love to get one—just send it in care of CBA. By the way, one of the fill-in characters in this title was known as “P.X. Pete.”

The G.I. Jane comic detailed the hilarious military misadventures of Jane Whirly, a blonde bombshell with legs and hair-style in the best Betty Grable tradition, and, her long-suffering boyfriend, Sergeant Tom Wills. Throughout the course of its amusing run, the strip was illustrated by BiII Williams and (apparently) written by Hal Seeger, the credited creator and editor.

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It’s intriguing to note that in G.I. Jane #2 (July ’53), this line first appeared in the indicia:”This magazine has no connection with any other commercial enterprise.” Did the G.I. Joe folks get their dander up over at Ziff-Davis? We may never know. One thing seems fairly certain, however—it’s doubtful that the writer and illustrator of Stanhall’s G.I. Jane ever heard of the truly obscure Fiction House version. Or cared if he did.

Stanhall’s G.I. Jane was loaded with gags like “Whirly! I said, as you were!”

To which Jane replied, “I know, Sarge… only by now I forgot how I was!”

Seeger also apparently just did the stories with whatever whim he felt—there is a G.I. Jane 12-pager in issue # 2, which is highly unusual for a ’50s humor comic.

The cover of #3 shows Jane parachuting to earth in a distinctly leggy un-parachute pose while calling on her radio, “Hello!… Private Jane Whirly calling Lookout Tower—Is my slip showing?” It was, of course!

On the cover of #6 (Mar. ’54), our full-figured Jane hops out of a jeep asking two agog mechanics, “Would you look and see if there’s anything wrong with my chassis?” Jokes like this were frequently used in Archie comics, but not so often in other company’s titles.

There were two odd full-page advertisements in #6 that would have given comics censorship advocate Dr. Fredric Wertham plenty of ammunition. One plugged the “Amazing New Young Form Bra, smooths away spare tire roll!” and the other peddled “The Chevalier, an amazing new health supporter belt for men in their 30s, 40s and 50s who want to took slimmer and feel younger—it lifts and flattens your bulging bay window.” That’s quite a stomach-turning parlay, with equal time for both sexes!

Both of these little gems were being marketed to adults, so apparently the publishers thought there was a military market for their G.I. Jane comic book.

The cover of G.I. Jane #7 (May ’54) is the raciest of the bunch.

Jane, in full uniform but with her shoulders bared and cleavage displayed, tells a military policeman at the N.C.O. Club, “But Sergeant— I am not out of uniform! I simply fixed it for evening wear!” Indeed, she did.

There’s a strangely prescient G.I. Jane story in #7 called “He’s in the Army Now,” in which Jane hilariously encounters a new soldier— Julius Melody, a young crooner with distinctly longish dark hair. It wasn’t long before the nation discovered Elvis Presley, whose own turn in military service sent not a few femmes into a tizzy.

That, then, was the saga of G.I. Jane, a 1950s original not seen for nearly half a century, but clearly someone who deserves a final salute.

Above: Cover to G.I. Jane #7 (May 1954). by Bill Williams. Courtesy of Michelle Nolan. ©2002 the respective copyright holder.

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CBA Interview

Jill Thompson and From Sandman to Scary Godmother, a conversation with one Conducted and transcribed by Joe McCabe

Below: Before Scary Godmother made it into print, the artist dressed up as her beloved character. Courtesy of Jill Thompson.

Jill Thompson is one of the most vivacious and enthusiastic people in the comics field, both an extraordinary talent and savvy professional.

After a stint in the independent funny book world—as penciler on The Elementals and Classics Illustrated, to name two—she rose through the ranks at DC Comics as artist on such disparate titles as Wonder Woman and Sandman. The artist has since branched out into creator-owned territory with her eminently kid-friendly and charming Scary Godmother (the title character based, this editor is convinced, on the writer/artist herself, if at least visually), published

by Sirius Entertainment, as well taken a successful foray into children’s book illustration. Always a captivating presence at Wizard World, Comic-Con International: San Diego, as well as the Pittsburgh convention (where this interview took place earlier this year), Jill is a longtime Chicago resident where she lives with husband and celebrated comics writer Brian (100 Bullets) Azzarello. She copy edited the final transcript.

Comic Book Artist: Why comics?

Jill Thompson: I don’t know.

That’s a strange question because I get asked that by people who are not into comics a lot. I started reading comics and I never stopped. It wasn’t something that I decided at 13 years old to pick up, it was something that I had read from the time I could read—comic strips, comic books.

They spoke to me immediately as the medium I wanted to tell stories in. I like the mixture of pictures and prose. Though I love to read everything and I was a voracious reader when I was in school, I never said, “Okay, I’m going to sit down and write a novel.” Though I did write a lot of stories, I tended to just do comics stories, about anything and everything, starting out, of course, with my variation on Snoopy, which was just called B Dog. CBA: Was that the first comic you created?

Jill: Hmmm, I guess it is. I was always drawing stuff, but that’s probably the first comic strip I wrote and drew and lettered and everything. When I was little I announced to the world (my family ) that I was going draw Snoopy when I grew up. And my mom gently pointed out to me—”Well, you can’t draw Snoopy when you grow up, because you’ve already see him in the newspaper. That means somebody else draws him.” I said, “Okay,” and I drew my own, which was the letter B, with a little dot on the front and an ear on the back and a tail on the back. It was B Dog. He had a spot on his back too, so he looked like the letter B drawn with a Snoopy costume on it. And then I started drawing Archie comic ripoffs. I drew all the kids in the neighborhood as teenagers—I aged them and myself as well. The story was based on my brother Steven and this little girl, Elise, that lived down the street who

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had a crush on him. She’d chase him around the block shouting, “My lovable husband!” and try to tackle him and kiss him. At his age— around six—it was “Eww! Girl germs! Get away from me! Me and Davey Johnson have to go put football helmets on our heads and run into the tree and see who will fall over first!”—that kind of thing. But I figured when Steven and Elise grew up, if we lived on the same block, they would probably go out on dates like Archie and Betty. So I would always draw stories about us grown up, and it was pretty much based on that little girl Elise. It was her comic, and everyone else was the co-star, and she was always trying to “get” my brother with her crazy schemes.

The natural progression of my comics interests goes like this: Peanuts in the newspaper—Peanuts pocket books— Archie comics—Marvel comics—all other comics. With some of my biggest artistic influences being the artists who worked for Archie Comics, like Bob Bolling, who did Little Archie—which now I really see coming out in some of my stuff; but I never did before—and Dan DeCarlo. Those people were big influences on me, especially DeCarlo. His work is so amazing. It looks like it took no effort at all to draw it, like it just flowed out of the ink pen or something.

CBA: I guess Little Archie found its way into your Little Endless work.

Jill: You know, now that I think about it, the line quality of the brush that I use and the way that they’re kind of cute but kind of regularlooking at the same time… that’s similar to the old Little Archie stories.

CBA: You like to draw things that are cute and cuddly?

Jill: Not more than any other type of thing. If the cute fits, draw it.

They’re adorable in a more comfortable way for me, and I know COMIC BOOK ARTIST 23

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the Joy of Comics of the most talented woman cartoonists in the comic book field some people would never be able to look at them, because they’re not into that cutesy type of thing, but I don’t think they’re cute in the same way the Care Bears are cute—saccharin-cute.

And I’m doing more children’s-book type stuff, but because my work is usually covered in monsters, it’s a kind of fineline between cute and scary.

CBA: It would seem to reach a wider audience that way?

Jill: Yes. Well, just that kind of sensibility. Cute enough for the moms to like it, but off-kilter enough for me. The kind of monster stuff I like to see.

CBA: What kind is that?

Jill: While I do like horror movies, I’m not into gore. I know there’s a time and a place for it which is fine, but I like things that are more classic; I like to collect skeleton stuff and skulls [showing skull ring and big skull belt-buckle]. But they have to be—I don’t know, simpler, I guess. Like Day of the Dead and that whole deal. But sometimes peoDecember 2002

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ple think all I like is skulls, so sometimes fans will send me gifts—and I don’t necessarily understand a lot of them—but things such as skulls with snakes coming out of their mouths, or vampirey teeth ones with blood and eyes dripping out of them. It’s very cool, the amazing sculpture and stuff, but that’s not going to go on my mantle, but the Day of the Dead skeletons will, and the cool carved skeleton from Thailand that I’ve got that’s four- or five-feet tall. He’s wonderful, but I don’t need the one that’s got the intestines hanging out of it. I love to go to the Haunted House and see that kind of stuff, but my scary-monster stuff that I draw is iconoclastic, because they’re kind of variations on icons.

CBA: The Scary Godmother and her friends are good examples of that.

Jill: Yeah, exactly. The spooky feel is there, but Scary Godmother isn’t going to disembowel anyone in an intricate two-page spread. The closest I’ve gotten to gross right now is a children’s book I’m working on called Magic Trixie which is kind of like “the Little Rascals if they were monsters,” this little group of monster kids. And there’s a little Frankensteinish monster kid that’s all stitched together; he carries everything in his belly because he’s got a zipper attached to his belly-button, which has this button on it, because he’s been stitched together by the scientist. And all of the other kids take advantage of him, by shoving things in his stomach. They’re like, “Hold this for me!” And he’s like… [sighs] Or they get mad because they’re running and he can’t keep up because his feet have fallen off and he’s got to lace them up to his ankles, and they’ll say, “Stitch, will you tie those things in a double knot, please!?”

CBA: So this is being published ?

Jill: If I have anything to say about it. I hope it will. I love all the characters. They’re fun and enjoyable to draw. My agent is shopping it around to book publishers as we speak, so maybe by the time this sees print, we’ll have an interested party.

CBA: You went to the American Academy of Art. What was that experience like?

Jill: It was a trade school, a commercial art school. The Chicago Art Institute was a fine arts program. We had fine arts at our school, but we were prepared to get a job in advertising or illustration—freelance work—but the Art Institute was more interested in teaching you about art history and fine arts. I think the ratio of people that went to the Art Institute versus the ratio of people that went to my school who are actually working in the field they want to work in—it’s probably a greater ratio at the American Academy of Art then it is at the Art Institute. And if you wanted to draw comics, no one cared about you. They hated you at both schools. [laughs] Chris Ware went to the Art Institute, and he said that when people found out that he liked and wanted to illustrate comics, it was “Pooh, pooh, pooh. What are you doing in this school?” Guess what: Chris is more successful than any of the people that you have going to your school. [laughs] CBA: Chris is winning all these awards, and other folk from his school are probably designing soup labels.

Above: The comic book creator as a tyke. Courtesy of Jill Thompson.

Inset left: Detail of the good witch and her god child, Hannah Marie, from the first Scary Godmother children’s book. ©2002 Jill Thompson.

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Above: After George Pérez decided to stop drawing Wonder Woman, though still writing the series, Jill Thompson was brought on board to pencil. This splash page detail is from the 50th issue (Jan. ’91). Inks

by Romeo Tanghal. ©2002 DC Comics.

Inset right: Pals Jill Thompson and P. Craig Russell smile for the camera. Craig was a great help to the young artist, and was assisted in turn when Jill would pose for reference photos to be used in the production of his opera adaptations. Courtesy of Jill Thompson.

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Jill: Well, those are the people from my school, they’re designing the soup labels. [laughs] It’s all about advertising and computers there now, I guess. I like the Art Institute, but I always thought, I need to go to the American Academy of Art for the technical stuff.

If I want to learn about art history, I can go to the library, or I can go to the Art Institute afterwards, because my school didn’t have BFAs or anything like that. We had Associates degrees, two- or three-year degrees, but at the Art Institute you could get a Bachelors, go to school and become an historian or a restorer. There’s a lot of really cool stuff that comes from the Art Institute. I appreciate it now, but at the time I was in school, as a teenager, there was a big rivalry: artistés versus illustrators.

CBA: So, did your family approve of your becoming an artisté? Or an illustrator?

Jill: My family was always supportive of my becoming anything I wanted to be. I was lucky. I can’t ever remember an instance of them trying to push me towards another career choice. You know, like some parents who want their kid to be a lawyer or doctor or whatever.

Lots of students at my school were there without the support of their families. And, by that I mean, their folks put up with it, but thought the students were wasting their time and would have preferred their kids to be doing something else. I guess you can chalk that up to the “starving artist” stereotype. Which, most of the time I guess, isn’t a stereotype. I just knew I wanted to draw comics for a living and they wanted me to be successful doing what I wanted to do. My parents definitely read more comics than the average parent.

CBA: They liked comics, too?

Jill: They liked my comics. I was always foisting the stories I made up on them to read. I was a one-woman publishing house, with a readership of three or four, depending on who was home. My dad worked downtown in Chicago and he would bring me new comics every Friday that he bought at the newsstand. He read some on the EL train home, but I don’t think he bought them for himself, really.

Oh, wait! When I was really into Archie Comics, there were some

Marvel Comics in the bag every once in a while, so I guess he did get a few on occasion. I read those much later, because at the time I thought those were “scary” comics.

CBA: “Scary”? How so?

Jill: Oh, I don’t know. They looked more “realistic” and the guys were always screaming and in the midst of some battle. And there were those Kirby energy bubbles all over. As a young girl, they fit into the House of Mystery or House of Secrets category. I had read a couple of those somewhere and they were designed to be creepy, so I equated all comics that weren’t Archie-type comics as scary. Which is funny, because I wish I had all of those creepy comics now.

CBA: I’d like to switch gears for a moment and ask how working with a major publisher like DC compares with working with smaller, independent publishers?

Jill: When I was just working for DC as a penciler, I was younger and I was really precious about what I was doing for them, and I still am because I really care about the work that I do. But when you do work-for-hire, it’s a completely different situation than when you do your own work. But it’s all comic books, and we should all be happy that there’s a great diversity of comic books. Yes, if there’s only one kind, if there was only mainstream comics.... The sales might not be the best right now in this industry, but in terms of subject matter and diversity in comics, it’s probably the best I’ve ever seen it. Working for a larger publisher like DC obviously pays better, but working for a smaller company might afford you larger creative control. I like working for both at different times for different reasons. I’d rather have the control with the larger paycheck… [laughs] but I’m doing pretty well in both arenas.

CBA: The first time I was exposed to your work was in Wonder Woman. Was that your first professional gig?

Jill: Well, “professional,” as in “I got paid to do it,” was in a comic called Just Imagine Comix and Stories. It was a small anthology comic. Oh, man, that’s what I could have used in my Harvey speech—“My first professional work was published in an anthology, therefore I am presenting the anthology award.” Geez! I presented the [Harvey] anthology award the other night, and right now is the only time that I’m making the correlation! “My first work was in an anthology and this is a good way for people to be exposed to the medium and get their work exposed.” Shoot.

I was in high school at the time, and I had met some people at a comic book convention and become friends with them, and ended up working for them because they also had a retail business at conventions. I worked the table, but most of the day, they let me take my sketchbook to Artist’s Alley and meet all the artists. We were at a convention in Michigan one time and they needed four more pages for an anthology comic they had done, they were short. There was a character that Tom Artis had created called Banana Man, just as a laugh. He was this super-hero with a giant banana on his head and bananas on his belt, just kind of a goof. They came out with all these banana jokes and strung them together and I drew them all out with a thread of a story in them, and went around to the artists at the convention and had them each ink a panel. And whatever wasn’t inked at the convention, someone else inked later. It was just filler. That was my first professional job.

Then they ended up having me do a couple more parodies with Banana Man. I saw one yesterday that someone had, so that person was probably the most thorough collector of my art. I look at it and say, “God, it’s so bad,” but its still kind of funny. And there’s one unpublished Banana Man story that was a spoof of Superman II— COMIC BOOK ARTIST 23

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Banana Man fights three villains of equal or greater strength. Three different fruits: Nice Pear, Bad Apple, and Sour Grapes. They had a lot of the Three Stooges in them, but Jack Herman, who I eventually collaborated with on The Elementals, was the guy who wrote that parody. It’s never been seen and probably never should be. Just Imagine stopped publishing before that happened.

I went on throughout my high school years drawing my own comics and going to conventions and showing my portfolio around.

And I met up with Bill Reinhold, Bill Willingham, an artist named Jeff Dee—who used to work for Texas Comics; he was kind of involved with Bill on The Elementals for a while, but I think he’s doing computer stuff now—I’ve completely lost touch with him. And I met Jack Herman and Lenin Delsol and Mitch O’Connell and Don Simpson at these conventions when I was a kid. I kept a correspondence with them because they were fairly local. Kind of a Midwest comic book gang and they’d come to local conventions and look at my work.

Every time they’d show up I’d have new pages to show them, and whatever they would tell me to work on, I would work on. Bill Reinhold and Lenin Delsol were Chicago-based, as well as Mitch O’Connell and they all had gone to the American Academy of Art, and they convinced me to go there. They urged me to go on to art school while I was still in high school. They said, “When you get out of high school, this is where you should go. It’s really good. You have to look at something other than comics, study other stuff.” Luckily, I listened to them. Then I remember meeting Bill Anderson and Steve Rude and Paul Smith. The last two turned me on to the work of Andrew Loomis, who was an illustrator in the 1940s and ’50s; Loomis was a great influence on them and eventually became influential to me as well.

While I was in art school I did some comics work, but from entering to when I actually started doing comics, my work grew in leaps and bounds. While I was still in art school I hadn’t shown any work to anybody for a while because I was too busy working on school projects, but when I finally did some sample pages I sent them to Bill Willingham.

This was in the midst of all kinds of crazy family drama that was going on, and I wanted to get out of the house and get a job where I could support myself, but all I really wanted to do was draw comics—I didn’t just want to work at McDonald’s—so I thought, I’ll send some samples to Bill Willingham and see what his next critique is. He said, “Do you want to draw this one issue? I showed Diana [Schutz] your work. It’s really gotten better and you could probably do this job.” Between Diana Schutz and Bill, I got a job doing a fill-in on The Elementals, and then I did Fathom and other stuff. I had worked on a “Munden’s Bar” story, a back-up feature in Grimjack, previous to that, while I was in art school, which was just an eight-page thing with John Ostrander. And then I sent that and my samples to Bill, and kind of kick-started everything. In comics, once you’ve done work that someone else has published, it shows that you know how to meet a deadline and you know how to play the game, and you’ve worked with a writer. So if somebody else took a chance on you first, maybe somebody can take a chance on you now.

I graduated from art school, but I was working on comics while I was in art school, and once I graduated, I just started working on comics full-time.

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“Full-time” in that it was the only way I supported myself from the time I was 19. And I’m still doing it.

CBA: That’s impressive. I mean, that’s the dream.

Jill: Yes. It was hard going for a long time. Hah! At one point, I remember inviting Paul Smith, who was in town, and Rick Obidiah from First Comics over to my apartment for dinner because I was so proud to be independent and having my first apartment and all. I had just started drawing comics for a living and I had no money or furniture. It was the worst. I didn’t really know how to cook and we didn’t have much food, just stuff to heat up for them. The poor guys. I was living in an apartment where there was just a drawing table and milk crates; and a Papasan chair from Pier One and a half-couch thing that was in the apartment when my best friend and I moved in. But I was having these friends over and I was so proud, and now I sit back and think of what I served them, and how polite they were to actually eat it… and I think everything cost about six dollars; but I was supporting myself doing what I loved and that was comics.

CBA: Did the crazy family drama go away?

Jill: Well, kinda. I went away before it did, but it had been going on for a long time by the time I couldn’t deal any more. Looking back on it, I think comics saved my life sometimes.

CBA: What do you mean “saved your life”?

Jill: Oh, God, it’s a long story, but … okay… I’ll try and keep it cohesive....

I grew up in an extended family. My family lived in a two-flat with my parents on the second floor and our grandmother on the first. Have you ever seen The Sopranos?

The first season with the grandmother? My grandmother was a lot like Livia Soprano.

She was very controlling and we all lived under her thumb. She controlled everything and always threatened to throw us out of the house. She owned it and her word was law.

Everyone obeyed her. She was the matriarch. She’d get mad at you and would stop speaking at you for whatever reason… you never really knew why… one day she’d up and stop talking to you.

And she’d treat you as if you didn’t exist. This could go on for months. Everyone walked around on eggshells trying to keep her from getting mad. There was one point when I was in high school and my dad was out of work and we were on assistance and we were getting that big block of cheese and butter and stuff.... She was supporting everyone and she never let you forget it. And she hated my mom and my brother… so that made it worse.

Above: Artist P. Craig Russell’s “remake” of Doctor Strange Annual #1 (’76) used Jill Thompson as model for the one-shot’s villainess in Doctor Strange: What Is It That Disturbs You, Stephen? (Oct. ’97). ©2002 Marvel Characters, Inc.

Left inset: P. Craig Russell also provided the layouts, as well as the script, for Classics Illustrated #6 (Mar. ’90), an adaptation of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel of Puritan intolerance, The Scarlet Letter. Detail of Jill’s cover art. ©2002 The Berkley Publishing Group and First Publishing, Inc. 9-B

Above: Moody double-page spread from Sandman #47 (March ’93). Words: Neil Gaiman. Pencils: Jill Thompson. Inks: Vince Locke.

Below: Panel from Sandman #48 (April ’93). ©2002 DC Comics.

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Anyway, eventually when I was in art school, my grandmother went full-blown crazy. Really crazy. She tried to kill herself on my dad’s birthday. She had been acting really crazy up until then, but we all thought it was her trying to manipulate the family as usual. Instead, it was years of manic depression building up and exploding from the pressure. So I went down to her apartment to see if she was coming upstairs for dad’s birthday dinner and there she is standing in the living room with a gun to her head and shouting at imaginary people. So I run upstairs and get my dad and we all run down and we’re wrestling with her to get the gun and she’s screaming at my mother about how my mom wants her to kill herself and everyone’s crying and saying “No, Nana! We love you, we don’t want you to kill yourself” and she’s yelling “I’ll do it! Then you’ll all be happy!” It was just terrible. And then she started pointing the gun at my mom when she was yelling at her, so I pulled my mom out the back door and then just ran. I know it wasn’t right leaving my dad in there with her, but it was an insane situation. And then I got in my car and drove and drove and drove. I thought someone was most certainly dead and I couldn’t handle it. Hours later, I called home and my dad told me it was over and to come home. So I did, and then my parents acted like the incident never happened. It was like, just ignore it and it will go away.

So I went to art school the next day and tried not to think of what might be going on at home. And for the next month, we dealt with all this crazed behavior from her but just tried to ignore it, but make sure she didn’t hurt herself, or us. The worst part for me was that I slept in an extra bedroom in her apartment, so I never wanted to go to bed.

And all through this entire time, I think the only thing that kept me from going crazy was comics. I know that sounds lame, and I’m sure you never thought I was going to get back around to comics, but, hah! I did. I was working on The Elementals at the same time this was going on and I was going to art school during the day, and then at night I would stay up until two or three in the morning working on comics pages. Some people would have turned to drugs or alcohol in a situation like this, but me being a dork… I turned to comic stories and my work. I focused on my work and the deadline and lost myself in that. And sometimes while I was working, my grandmother would run in the back door crying or raging because she was hearing voices at the time, but we didn’t know it, and accuse us of plotting against her or saying ter-

rible things, or laughing at her. And I would have to take her by the hand and show her what I was doing. That I was drawing and there was no one else upstairs awake and that no one was talking about her or spying on her or whatever. And then she’d go and wake my parents and brother and do the same thing, and they would have to explain to her that they were asleep and not talking about her. And then she’d go downstairs again. I always hoped that she’d be asleep by the time I went to bed, but she really didn’t sleep much because of the illness.

So, I’d be up again to go to school at six or so.

This went on for about a month from the gun incident until I couldn’t deal with it any longer. One night when I was actually sleeping, I remember being woken up to find her standing over me and rocking back and forth. Now, she never tapped me or said my name, and the only thing I can think of is that she woke me up by the power of her staring at me. When she saw me fumbling for my glasses, because I’m blind as a bat, which made the whole thing even scarier, she reached out and touched my shoulder and said” I just wanted to see if you were okay…” and then turned around and shuffled out the door.

Then once she got out into the hallway, she started screaming at the ceiling and raging against my mother. “I hear you, Kathy! I know what you want!” and all sorts of other stuff. She also thought the neighbors were always peeking in the window as well and she was screaming stuff at them too. At this point, I was literally frozen, I broke out into a cold sweat and was shaking, but I could not move a muscle.

Then I heard her fumbling around in a closet for something, which we much later found out was a box of guns… and still, try as I might, I couldn’t move. I found her the next morning in her dining room making strange hand gestures and pointing at the ceiling. And, I guess, I reached my breaking point. I went upstairs and pleaded with my father to call an ambulance. I think he was still in shock of the whole situation because he told me that she was just doing it for attention and, if we ignore her, it will all go away. Finally, an ambulance was called and the strange thing is, when the EMTs came in, she acted all lucid and told them that we were trying to have her committed so we could take her money. She went into Loyola Hospital and was diagnosed with manic depression and even schizophrenia and there was something about never grieving for my grandfather’s death for 17 years… so they put her on tons of medication and sent her home… after some weeks in the hospital and therapy and stuff.

Sorry. I didn’t mean to hit you with all that, but I don’t know what I would have done if I didn’t have comic stuff to do while that was going on. I don’t think I had much more stamina in me by the time it was all over. And, I’ve just blown my chance to do my magnum opus autobiographical comic… yarrr. So what were we talking about before I started down the Oprah road?

CBA: Um… I think supporting

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yourself by doing comics…

Jill: Oh, yeah. I was saving my paychecks that whole time and then, when she fooled the doctors and they took her off the medication— boom!—it started right up again. But this time I couldn’t deal with it and I took off to the city and stayed with a friend and then eventually got an apartment with the same friend.

CBA: What happened to your grandmother and the rest of your family?

Jill: My parents said for me to go. They immediately called the hospital, but there wasn’t a bed for her until after the weekend, so they had to deal with her for two days. My brother was still at home at night, but I think he made sure he was gone as much as possible. I know it was terrible to leave them with her, but I couldn’t do it again.

I probably should have stayed… Crap! There’s the other part of the autobiographical comic! We gotta stop talking about this or else I’ll never get to do my comic.

CBA: It’s therapeutic to talk about it?

Jill: Yeah, it is. We never talked about the stuff at home, so now I do. It puts things into perspective. But, back to comics: We were up to The Elementals.

CBA: I guess soon after that you came to DC? Jill: I started working for DC in 1989-90 on Wonder Woman. I had moved to Ohio from Chicago, and Evan Dorkin and Robbie Bush were on their way back to New York from a convention in Detroit; they stopped halfway at the house I shared with Jay Geldhof, and spent the night. Robbie Bush was coloring Sandman, so he was working with Karen Berger, which he mentioned. I was working on Classics Illustrated at that time. I was painting that. I think Jay was working on Fall of the House of Usher… we were all working on Classics Illustrated.

CBA: That’s when you did The Scarlet Letter?

Jill: Yes, with Craig Russell, but it was coming to an end, and I needed to find some other work and I didn’t know what to do, and I didn’t know if I was going to get to do another Classics Illustrated or whatever. And Robbie said, “Well, I know they’re looking for someone to draw Wonder Woman.” I said, “Oh, no. I never read Wonder Woman.” But he said, “Well, you should do some sample pages and send them up. I’ll tell Karen you’re going to send some in.” I said, “Hmmm, maybe I will.” And then I had to rush out to this friend’s house who had all the Wonder Womans—the George Pérez Wonder Womans—and I got this giant comic box and read them all. I thought, Okay, now I know what to do. I did some sample pages up and sent them in, and Karen Berger called me up and asked me to do some more and focus on drawing cars and buildings. I got paid to do samples, which was just amazing. Then she called me back and asked me if I would be able to handle a monthly book. “You bet I can!” I said. Along with my samples, I had sent in The Scarlet Letter and all of the other comics I had done. I don’t know if she’d ever seen them before, but she had me do the samples, I suppose, because someone else had published comics by me so maybe I could handle a monthly deadline.

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CBA: When you were doing Wonder Woman, I heard Pérez’s scripts called for a ton of panels per page.

Jill: One page had twenty panels. I had never done comics that dense before, or since. I look back and think, boy, how did I pull this off?… I can’t believe I did it, because I would go insane now. If I got [a script describing] twenty panels now, I’d drive over to the writer’s house and punch him or her in the nose, but at the time, it was George Pérez. He was a seasoned professional and who was I to mention that it was tough dealing with such a dense page? After all, he could pull it off easily. I really didn’t get the time to talk to him; I talked to him when I started working on it, and I was just in awe. Then he was under exclusive contract, and I never actually spoke to him again after that. I worked on all those comics, and what a challenge it was, but how good it was for my career to actually have to overcome that challenge.

At the time, I was a big fan of George’s comics but he was writing for himself, for the style he’s comfortable working in, which, I guess, everyone does. I know I do now—if I write for somebody else, it’s got five or six panels on the page max, because that’s how I work, that’s the style I’m comfortable working in. George is extremely comfortable working with a twenty- or a ten- or elevenpanel page. Except for splash pages, the smallest number of panels you got was ten—it was definitely three tiers with multiple panels in each tier, and that is his strength, he can do that kind of stuff, so he’s writing what he would want to draw.

At some point I remember sitting next to Chris Warner in the Artist Alley at San Diego in the early ’90s. Nobody’s coming by me—I

Above: Jill Thompson’s portrait of Death from A Death Gallery (’94).

This was subsequently reprinted in the hardcover art book, Vertigo Visions (2000) by Watson-Guptill. ©2002 DC Comics.

Inset left: Jill Thompson drew this portrait of the “L’il Endless” cast of characters, inspired by her Hello, Kitty alarm clock. Reprinted from The Sandman Companion by Hy Bender (1999). ©2002 DC Comics.

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Above: Jill with the cast of the 2001 stage play of The Scary Godmother. Below: One of the artist’s initial designs for Scary Godmother. Both courtesy of Jill. ©2002 Jill Thompson.

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was just sitting there drawing these pages—and he sees me sectioning off this page, and says, “What are you making?” I say, “Oh, I’ve got to finish this page because I’ve got a deadline. I’ve got to do these Wonder Woman pages.” He says, “That’s a comic page?” I say, “Yeah.” “How many panels are on there?” I go through the script and say, “It’s twenty.” He says, “Twenty? You should rip that up and send that back to him. My God, how could you possibly do that?”

And I did. It was hard, and the drawings were smaller, but… The one thing I couldn’t get a handle on— George does this better than anybody else—is when there are six people in a one-by-two-inch panel, and they’re all saying something and you still know what’s going on. I’ve moved away from that style of drawing; it was hard and sometimes you’d get a headache and think, “How am I going to make this work?” But you did, you eventually did.

CBA: I guess that was a good experience if for no other reason than to establish that work ethic.

Jill: Oh, yes. At the time it was a pain and other people would say, “I can’t believe you do that. I would never do it.” And I never thought to not do it. Sometimes I would combine two panels together, maybe because I wanted a different flow of action. But yes, it was a really valuable learning experience. I always had a very good work ethic—my art school instilled that in me.

I have a degree in Watercolor [laughs] and Illustration, and we didn’t do any project work in illustration class when our illustration teacher was there; because he was a part-time teacher and he was only there three days a week: Monday, Wednesday, and Friday—he would be off the other days, doing his own illustration work. But he sat us down and told us how difficult it was to support oneself as a freelance illustrator and how one has to treat every check as it was one’s last. And while you’re working on a project, you can’t sit back and wait until you’re done with it to find the next project, you always have to work on finding the next one, and you have to work nine-to-five; some guys might work better at night, but you have to be available when an art director will call you, you have to be available to make changes—you have to work in the everyday world. He also taught us how to do our taxes—not how to do the math part, but what we could deduct and how difficult it is as a freelancer—because you have to pay quarterly. You should treat every check as if it is: one—your last, and two—the lottery.

“I’m never going to get this much money again and I

have to budget it,” and you always have to take a portion of it out for your taxes. He said, “Take a third. You may not need that third, but cut it in thirds, and put a third aside in a separate checking account and pay your quarterly taxes, because, at the end of the year, you’re going to get socked!” And he has never been wrong. No matter how much money you put away, it’s never enough, because your income varies. So you’re either being penalized for underpaying or being penalized for overpaying, or you still owe thousands and thousands of dollars, and you think, geez! Because you just never know, at the end of the year you may get a job that pays $8,000—and you certainly couldn’t plan on it—it’s a windfall, “I did this many storyboards for 8,000 bucks—woo-hoo!”

So, my work ethic was formed in school and honed throughout working in comics. I never took advantage of being able to do what I wanted to do for a living. I do a certain amount of work each day, because I look at it as the amount of money I get paid to do it; that’s my daily wage. I could never wait until the end of the month, blow off three weeks, go see movies, hang out, read comics, do whatever I want, and say, “Oh, crap, I’ve got to do twenty-two pages of comics in six days!” Which I’ve known a lot of people have done in the past.

I’ve met up with a lot of people who can’t understand my work ethic and I can’t understand theirs. If they can get it done and it looks terrific, that’s great, but I need to do a certain amount of work every day. I don’t feel like I’ve accomplished anything unless I finish a page.

CBA: Is it true that you first came to Neil Gaiman’s attention when you drew a nude sketch of Death?

Jill: That’s the lovely story he likes to tell, because it sounds much better than what I think the real story is. The way my editor at the time had told it, the assistant editor on Wonder Woman was a guy named Dan Thorsland, and he’s worked at DC and Dark Horse, but he said they had been getting calls from Neil Gaiman, who had a Sandman story that he thought I should illustrate. I thought, “Oh my God, Neil Gaiman!” No one else had told me this before Dan. People had heard this before and no one had mentioned it to me, because I was under contract for Wonder Woman, and they wanted my contract to finish out and maybe I’d sign another one. But Wonder Woman really was not my thing; I did it and I look back at it and think, “This is really competent work. I probably couldn’t draw like that anymore, not necessarily the style, but that kind of...”

CBA: Subject matter?

Jill: No, not subject matter, because I like super-heroes, but… I think I was really aping what I had seen before in it. I was really trying to live up to that, put some kind of Pérez-ness in it, but I don’t draw like that now. I’ve established my own style. I enjoyed working on Wonder Woman, but man, I loved Sandman. Sandman was definitely the kind of thing that I liked and certainly like to draw. It was much more up my alley. When I found out Neil wanted me to draw it, I said, “Oh God, I’ll do it, but I’ve got all these issues of Wonder Woman to draw!” Dan said, “Let me work something out.” So I got the call from Neil, saying he liked my work, and asking what I wanted to draw, and he would write a script that was feeling out the way that I worked and seeing what my strengths were. He would tailor the rest of his storytelling towards what I liked, which I thought was COMIC BOOK ARTIST 23

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really considerate, and I guess he does that for all his artists—usually one issue to see how they mesh.

CBA: That would have been the “Convergence” story you did before “Brief Lives”?

Jill: Yes, the three stories that Cain and Abel and Eve tell. I was excited about that. Dan said Neil had seen my work on Wonder Woman, liked it, and had been calling, and wanted me to do this “Brief Lives” story. But they had been telling him, “Well, no. She’s under contract on Wonder Woman,” so he kept putting it off. Finally, when he called Dan, Dan thought, “Gee, Neil Gaiman’s calling about Jill—she’d probably want to hear about that..” But Neil says, in The Sandman Companion, that he had seen this wonderful sketch I’d done of Death, in the nude. Not me in the nude, but Death was in the nude.

And he liked it because he thought it was sweet and innocent and it wasn’t salacious. I did it for this guy named Kim Metzger—who collects a lot of naked sketches, as well as sketches of other things—and people made into snake-animals and things like that. (And I only mention this because Kim likes to be mentioned. He got mad when I talked around what he liked to get sketches of, so I always make a point of bringing up exactly the strange things that he’s asked me to draw.) [laughs] After I drew this nice pencil sketch, Neil was at the San Diego Comic Convention, and I was at the other end of the con, and Kim took it up to get an autograph and showed it to December 2002

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him, and Neil said [impersonating Gaiman], “What a lovely naked sketch of Death.” Neil says that’s the reason that he wanted me to draw Sandman, but I think if it was the real reason he wanted me to draw Sandman, there would have been a lot more Death in “Brief Lives,” don’t you think? Death only appeared there a couple of times—it’s all about Sandman and Delirium, so I think he’s saying it for effect.

CBA: It’s not like Neil to spin a yarn.

Jill: Nooooo. [laughs] CBA: When I interviewed Neil at Boskone 39, he mentioned that, of all the Sandman artists, you were the most fun to work with.

Jill: Really?

Above: Not only is Jill advocating kids’ comics with her work, but in her Scary Godmother Activity Book (Dec. 2000), she’s even recruiting children comic book artists, as we see above! ©2002 Jill Thompson.

Below: Jill visits students of Sullins Academy and gives a “chalk talk” on making comics. Left inset: These kids, and those of Deckerville schools, contributed art for Scary Godmother: The Boo Flu’s acknowledgement page (’00).

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Above: Alex Ross contributed this pin-up of Scary Godmother for Jill Thompson’s SG Bloody Valentine Special. SG ©2001 Jill Thompson.

Art ©2002 Alex Ross.

Below: Jill also actively works as a children’s book illustrator. Here’s a sample of her cover work. ©2002 Uglytown Productions.

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CBA: Just from a personal point of view. He said you drew him “women who looked like women” and that you actually went to stay with him and his family. He said that at one point you were drawing at one end of the sofa, and he was writing several pages ahead at the other end. He said that was the only time that sort of thing happened on Sandman.

Jill: Yes, David Letterman was on. At a certain point, I was only three pages behind him, for maybe the last three issues of that comic.

And Neil’s a good straight man, so I would make him laugh all the time. He’d just look at me sometimes and say, “You are so unusual.” I don’t know if it’s the British humor/American humor thing, but he’d look at me and say, “I can’t believe you said that.” I liked to make him laugh.

CBA: I read somewhere someone remarking that the dichotomy between you and Neil reminded them of Delirium and Dream.

Jill: Oh, yes. We toured around a bit during that run. He was on his part of the Vertigo tour, and some comic shop owners had me come out and we’d converge. That was the first time I saw “The Neil Gaiman Experience.” You do a signing with Neil, and then you do your own signing and seven people show up, but 500 people were standing in line when you drove up. Literally! I’m not kidding. Some people drove from the last place he was, which was San Francisco.

There were three girls who drove and slept in the parking lot to stand in line again and get Neil’s autograph. This is totally true.

CBA: Do you suppose he has more groupies than anyone else in comics?

Jill: I guess so. Guys and girls both did it. It was amazing. I remember going out to eat and him being completely in black, with the sunglasses, walking down the hallway, and I’m looking at everything from a drawing or artistic standpoint. I’m wandering around touching things, my hair flying around, going “La-la-la.” And it was probably very much like Dream and Delirium. He’s just kind of going through everything and quietly noticing everything, and I’m very noisily noticing everything. But Delirium is not based on me in any way; she’s based on Tori Amos. I used myself as a model for a lot of her body language, the way she sits or stands. I like things to look like real people are doing them as opposed to stiff poses. Maybe in that way, we are like Dream and Delirium. [laughs] I don’t like greenmouse ice cream, though.

CBA: Whenever I think of Delirium, I think of you.

Jill: Thank you… I think.

CBA: It’s weird though, because I always thought you were much shorter.

Jill: I’m taller than everybody I know, mostly. I usually feel very awkward and giant and freakish when I’m around other women, because I’m man-sized.

CBA: No you’re not, you’re super-model-sized.

Jill: Oh, God bless you! Hmmm… this is a good interview. I meet women who are five-two or five-four, I’m five-seven-and-a-half, and I like wearing high heels. So I feel gigantic all the time, which is okay.

I wish I was six-feet tall, then I’d feel even better. I’d feel like a monster.

But yes, I went to Neil’s house and met his kids. His son is “Michael” now, but he was “Mikey” then. I stayed there right before the Vertigo tour, and I remember Mikey had called and asked me if I would go roller-skating. His school had a roller-skating thing, but his [in British accent] Mum and Dad, neither of them liked rollerskating, and “You’ve got inline skates, Jill. Will you come and skate with me?” I said, “Well, I was supposed to go to this thing, but I could probably fly there first, stay for a couple of days, and then go. That would be okay.” So I went skating with Mike. A lot of times Mike would stand at one end of the hallway in his house, and I would stand at the other end of the hallway, and he’d come running at me, trying to knock me over. And he was like nine or ten. At a later visit, Mike is like seventeen, a big, handsome man with beautiful blue eyes, and he says [in deep voice], “Hello, Jill. How are you?”

Aaar! I feel so old! He’s studious and smart, an amazingly intelligent young guy, and Neil says, “Mike, do you remember when Jill Thompson came to stay with us? And you would try to knock her over by running at her down the hallway? And she would let you believe you knocked her over because she would fall and flail on the floor when you hit her? And the third or fourth time she would just dig her heels in, so when you hit her you would bounce off her?” That’s what I would do with the kids I would babysit; I would say [clapping hands], “Come on,” and they’d run at me and I’d fall over. Then the third time—by then they’d think they were going to do it—you’d ready yourself for it and—boom!—they’d bounce off of you. [laughs] I had a fun time. I liked working with Neil. I was very sad when I had to stop drawing Sandman. It was the perfect match, it was so effortless to draw that book. There was never a problem. There was COMIC BOOK ARTIST 23

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never a time where you sat down at the table and thought, I don’t know how to draw this, because it was written for you. I have two pages that I kept from one scene at the very end of that arc, when Dream has to kill his son. Everything else is gone—anyone that wants Sandman pages is going to have to buy them off someone else, because it was ten years ago and I have no more Sandman pages except these two. One is the page where Abel is building himself a large, Rube Goldberg kind of contraption to sit on because it’s raining and raining and Dream is so sad because his love has left him, and it’s flooding the Dreaming. It was very Winnie-the-Poohesque; and that was when I knew that Neil and I completely meshed on this collaboration. He would sometimes suggest styles that things should be drawn in—references to, or an homage to, a certain illustrator; but when he wrote this scene there was no reference to anything, and all I could think of was Winnie-the-Pooh: ”And the rain, rain, rain came down, down, down, and the rain came down, down, down.” And I thought, I want to draw this in the style of the Winnie-the-Pooh illustrator, Ernest Shepard, so I looked at my Winnie-the-Pooh books and I started drawing in that style. Of course, I didn’t ink it, so I don’t know if it completely translated, but I mentioned to [inker] Vince Locke that this is what I was looking at and this is what I wanted it to look like. I would fax Neil Xeroxes of my pencils, and when Neil got these pages, he said that was exactly what he had been thinking of when he wrote that scene, and it was quite extraordinary that I picked it up without him mentioning it. I have that page and I’ve got the page where Dream has finished washing his hands after he has had to kill his son, and he’s sitting in his chair in his white, white room, and he’s weeping, because that’s how I felt when I had to stop drawing Sandman. I remember drawing that thing—and I was sick as a dog—feeling horrible—and feeling horrible—saying, “I wish I could keep drawing this, it’s the easiest (not easiest as in there’s no effort) and the best job I probably will ever have. It’s fun, it’s great, it’s easy, and it makes a lot of royalties.” [laughs] I remember begging him a couple of times, saying, “Please, please let me draw this. I’ll draw it until it’s over, and it will be on time every single month.” He said, “I can’t do it. I’ve promised arcs to other people.” He has mentioned he wished he could have let me draw the rest of it.

CBA: I know I would not have minded.

Jill: It was so easy, and I would love to draw another one. That Delirium mini-series he’s been promising me for ten years now, [laughs] I would really like to collaborate with him on that. It would be interesting to see how we would work together now, with so much time and distance between working relationships. I work completely differently now. My style is different, but when I draw Sandman would it be the same? Would I fall back into that comfortable drawing style, like the way I draw Sandman at conventions? It’s weird, you’d think that I’d draw him like Scary Godmother, because that’s how I draw now.

But when I draw Sandman, Sandman looks a certain way, and my arm just must naturally go back to that Sandman-drawing, and Deathdrawing, where there’s a little of the influence of Scary Godmother, but this is how Sandman looks to my arm. This is how it’s supposed to happen.

CBA: Were you ultimately satisfied with the inking, with Vince Locke?

Jill: Ultimately? No. Comfortably? Yes. And originally? Shocked, because at the time my pencils were very tight, and Vince is very loose. I love Vince’s work, and I love that style, but there were instances during Sandman where I would ink things myself. I would ink entire pages, like that page I was just mentioning with Sandman crying. I inked three or four pages of that, because I wanted these certain scenes, because I wantDecember 2002

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ed their faces to retain these little subtleties that no one has ever picked up on except me. There are exceptions: Al Gordon has inked my convention sketches and there was a slight nuance that other people would have inked over, but it remained. Terry Austin, too, on a pin-up, but I was a teenager then, so that was the hugest thrill. He was such a professional, he could make anybody look good; but the little tiny facial subtleties he totally kept. There were things that Vince wasn’t getting completely; and being fussy and younger, I thought, “Oh my!” I didn’t know how to get my point across. I was friends with Steve Rude, and he would do that all the time and then write critical comments in the borders like, “You have to learn how to draw a face,” or “You’re an artist. You must be an artist before you can be an inker,” which I totally agree with, but I would never insult my inker knowing they were going to continue working with me while I was doing so. So sometimes I would just ink things and send them in.

I never said, “I inked that. I should get paid for it.” I wanted this certain scene to be all mine. It was selfish of me I suppose, but I thought Vince and I worked well together. We liked each other. We liked each other’s work; we worked together when we were like “What will we do with all these pages?” “Sell them of course.” And we’d say, “Well, what will we sell them for?” I’d say, “I don’t know. Ask Neil, he’ll know.” And Neil would say to us, “Well, Mike Dringenberg says he gets this much money for them. So at the very least you should

Above: Bob Fingerman (creator of the fabulous alt comic Minimum Wage) drew this SG pin-up featuring Jill and her husband, comics writer Brian “100 Bullets” Azzarello (with cigar). ©2002 Bob Fingerman. Below: Another Jill Thompson kids’ book cover. ©2002 Uglytown Productions.

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Above: Whether pen-&-ink or paint, Jill Thompson is a superb artist, as evidenced by her great wraparound cover for Scary Godmother: The Mystery Date (1999). ©2002 Jill Thompson.

Below: The subject of our flipside this ish, Mike Mignola contributes this pin-up of Scary Godmother to the Bloody Valentine Special.

Art ©2002 Mike Mignola. Scary Godmother ©2002 Jill Thompson.

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charge this much, because you don’t want to undersell him [Vince], and you don’t want to undersell her [Jill]. And you should just have a price that you believe these pages are worth.” Then Vince and I would discuss, and I’d get three-quarters of the book back, and he’d get one quarter of it back, and we’d talk on the phone about stuff we wanted to keep for ourselves, which we have both probably sold by now, and then we’d trade back and forth to see what was nice. I liked working with Vince.

When you first start out penciling, you bring your pencil Xeroxes with you everywhere, because you want someone to see what your work looks like, because sometimes the inker is very well-suited to you, and sometimes they’re not. I remember carrying Xeroxes of things with me all the time, and saying, “This is what it looked like before it was published.” And people would say, “Wow, this is great!” because sometimes it didn’t look at all like that when published. So the first thing you need to do is to find a collaborator who meshes well with you, or you learn how to ink. [laughs] Most people just learn how to ink, and they take the stuff and they do their own work. It saves time too. I don’t really pencil anything anymore. What I used to pencil for Vince was completely finished drawings, shaded, all this stuff; now, you can barely see what I put on the page, most of my drawing comes in the finishing stage.

But I could never do that for someone else. If I had to pencil something for someone else, I’d have to do much more finished pencils, more than just some shorthand like “X” for black, because no one would know how to interpret what I was doing.

CBA: You were recently the Comics Guest of Honor at the World Horror Convention in Chicago. I believe this was the first time they had a Comics Guest of Honor.

Jill: It’s probably going to be the last. I blew it as a guest, man. I didn’t realize I was the guest of honor until right before the convention. It was on the convention Web site, but I don’t go on-line. I’m not an Internet person. We

have an Internet hook-up at the house, but I don’t surf. I’ve got junk to do, deadlines to meet. It eats up too much time, answering emails—it takes hours and hours. I would love it because it’s easy to get wrapped up in it and it’s helpful, but the times that my studiomate has let me use his Internet hook-up to check mail, my days were eaten up and I’d think, “Oh, crap! I’ve got to get some stuff done and I’ve been futzing around on Tony’s computer. Yikes!” So I didn’t see that I was the guest of honor until I finally went on-line to check it out, and I thought I was just a guest, because I did something panicky. I didn’t really have the time to devote to it, and I feel really bad and guilty. At the end, I wound up leaving before the closing ceremonies. I felt awkward and very out of place there. I felt honored to have been invited, and at that capacity, but I thought, “My God, I’ve got the Scary Godmother stuff that I need to do for the TV show and other things,” and then I go to the convention and I realize these are writer guys. There’s the guy who wrote Logan’s Run, there’s Peter Straub, Neil.... These are people who have written novel upon novel, and of course, there are people whose names you don’t recognize, but you’ve heard of their work, but then you haven’t read their work, and they’ve got 17 books. And I just thought, “Why am I here? Who knows who I am? I’m wasting people’s time.” How embarrassing… I felt very awkward.

I was kind of thrown on panels that didn’t necessarily have anything to do with me. And I would just be quiet during them—believe it or not I was quiet—because what I did and how I did it did not fit into what these novelists were talking about. For example, collaboration processes: they’re talking about how you write your novel with Stephen King, or these collaborations that go back and forth. I said, “When I collaborate, they give me something to draw and I draw it.”

It is a collaborative process, but not everyone in the audience cared to hear about. And they stopped a panel once and said, “We have someone down at the end who hasn’t added a thing!” I said, “I’m really just listening and learning.” And I succinctly talked about what I do and how I do it. I think their reaction was “Well, that really doesn’t have anything to do with what we’ve talked about.” They continued talking about what they were doing, and answered questions fielded to them; and I just sat there and thought, “Oh, Christ....” It was 72 degrees outside, and I thought, I should just be sitting outside on top of my car. There is no reason for me to be here. I felt out of place. If it was a comic convention, or even a science-fiction convention with a mixture of fantasy and horror, they could put me there and I could talk to anybody who walks by. But I couldn’t talk to anybody at this convention. I had no jumping-on point, other than, “I really don’t have much time to read anything anymore. I would love COMIC BOOK ARTIST 23

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to read everything you do, but, God, I haven’t read a book in a long time. Not because I haven’t wanted to, but because I never have the time to finish it.”

Maybe they’ll invite somebody else next time as their comics guest of honor who’s a bit more horrorish, or horror-oriented. I feel like I was a very bad guest; I owe them a great big apology. They were very nice people, and the fact that Neil was there was probably good because people brought things for him to sign that was also work that I did. So some people knew who I was, but Brian [Azzarello] wasn’t there, so I was just by myself. I lived in town, so I could go back home; but I felt very isolated.

CBA: After “Brief Lives” ended, you worked on several other Vertigo projects, such as The Invisibles and Seekers: Into the Mystery.

Did you feel a dramatic increase in the amount of respect you commanded at DC? Jill: I also worked on Black Orchid right after “Brief Lives.” It was quite a change. But, hmmm, “amount of respect” I commanded? I dunno. I know more people knew who I was… but you mean, would my name get a project approved? No. CBA: Did you feel spoiled after working with Neil Gaiman? In other words, did your expectations of other writers become greater than most could meet?

Jill: I was very spoiled after working with Neil. His work was tailored toward my strengths. He delivers a good balance of exposition and explanation, so you always feel that it’s a collaborative process. I’ve worked with other writers whose scripts were like reading instructions.

You know, this kind of shot with this and that on the walls, and all very technical. No room for interpretation. You know, how you can read something and get a mental picture right away. Well this was the opposite of that. You were given such specific directions that you didn’t get a picture in you head, you got a headache.

CBA: How did you enjoy working with Grant Morrison? How would you describe his attitude towards artists?

I enjoyed working with Grant a lot. He wasn’t as in touch as Neil was on a regular basis, but that’s not his style. He says everything he wants in the script. When I worked on Sandman, I enjoyed the feedback. Grant was not into calling you up every week and chatting about what you’ve drawn. But when you did see him, he’d let you know.

CBA: Scary Godmother seems like the kind of idea that ferments in an artist’s brain from the time they were a child. Did you doodle variations of Scary Godmother, or any of her friends, in your notebooks at school?

Jill: Nope. Scary Godmother was something that hit me all at once, really. It is not a character I’ve had in my head since I was a girl. I have always liked monsters and Halloween and witchy stuff since I was a girl though.

Scary Godmother seems to be subtly influenced by many different things, but one of the wonderful things about it is that it never feels derivative. It doesn’t slavishly pay homage to its influences, they just sort of naturally surface during the course of a story. Some of my favorite bits seem inspired by the novel A Confederacy of Dunces, but are there any things so subtle that a reader may miss them?

There are a good deal of in-jokes and references that only a few people know the origins of, but they’ve become so much a part of my regular vocabulary and stuff that it’s natural that they are in the Scary Godmother’s world. They fit there. The way I talk comes through some of the characters, the names of some characters, some are based on friends… that kind of thing. Like Mr. Boogeylegs from the Christmas Issue. It all came from us doing Scottish accents while at a bar. Groundskeeper WIllie, Sean Connery from the dragon movie… and then we threw in the Spider-Man mythos and got a dragon-y guy who’s arch nemesis is Loch Och (like Doc Ock). Oh, I guess you had to be there.

CBA: At times, to its credit, Scary Godmother seems to have been written by a kid, as opposed to for kids, and this is something it shares with some of the classic children’s books. Which children’s authors or illustrators, or illustrators of the macabre, influenced you?

Did Maurice Sendak or Charles Addams partly influence the look of Scary Godmother?

Jill: I love both Charles Addams and Maurice Sendak. However, when I was little, Where the Wild Things Are was not my favorite December 2002

COMIC BOOK ARTIST 23

Sendak book. My favorite was Chicken Soup with Rice, that we got through our school book club. It was all rhyme-y and it went through all of the months. That probably influenced The Boo Flu in a way. I still buy children’s books just for the illustrations and I think that children’s books sport some of the most incredible art around.

CBA: Scary Godmother sometimes evokes, among other things, the spirit of Archie Comics, and it also revives the best parts of the old Harvey Comics, like Hot Stuff, the Good Little Devil or Wendy, the Good Little Witch. But I don’t think I’m going too far out on a limb to compare it to Jack Cole’s work; there’s a certain “spasticity” to it—things pop off the page and you get a good feeling of nervousness worrying that some of the characters, or even Scary Godmother’s smile, may fly right out of the panel. How do you think you developed this style?

Jill: I have no idea. It just happens. Scary Godmother is drawn the way Scary Godmother is supposed to be. Sandman is drawn the way that should look. My hand and arm and brain all confer without letting me know about it.

CBA: Greg McElhatton, on <www.iComics.com>, had something interesting to say about the Scary Godmother hardcover graphic novels: He commented on the synthesis of storybook and comic book storytelling, with some pages having single-page illustrations, and many with

Above: Scary Godmother instructs Hannah on the true nature of All Hallow’s Eve in this page from Scary Godmother: The Boo Flu (2000). Below: Bug-a-boo chows down in a Thompson spot illustration from Scary Godmother (1999). ©2002 Jill Thompson.

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Above: Various elements of Jill’s design work for the upcoming Scary Godmother animated Halloween special being produced for 2003. Plus a screen grab of the program. Scary Godmother ©2002 Jill Thompson.

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multiple panels, and the combination of narration beneath illustrations and word balloons. He remarked that “It’s almost as if this is Thompson’s way of preparing younger readers for comics.” It’s subtle, but is this partly the intent of the hardcovers?

Jill: Yes, most definitely. I’m trying to familiarize children with the comic book storytelling format, and also trick their non-comics reading parents into reading a comic. I was always hearing from women I knew who were mothers that they just didn’t like to read comics because they didn’t like reading all of those “word bubbles.” And I said, what’s so hard about reading the word balloons—but of course, I’ve always read comics, so it doesn’t seem strange to me at all. So I put the exposition, which we would usually put in a caption, above the illustration, like in other children’s books and made sure everyone’s dialogue was in word balloons. And that seemed to put everyone at ease. I think it worked out well.

CBA: How much of the shape Scary Godmother has taken—i.e., hardcovers, miniseries, one-shots—did you foresee? Did the form just sort of follow the shape of each story you were trying to tell?

Jill: I originally thought I was just going to do the hardcover stories, but then other stories started popping up in my head that were much longer, or more suited to the traditional comic book format. And The Boo Flu is a more traditional children’s book format because I did so many readings of SG books at stores and schools and I realized it was hard to read to a group. It had been easier for a child (or adult) to read it to themselves or to sit on someone’s lap and be read to, but not to read to a class. All the kids would squint to try to see the pictures.

CBA: Do you prefer one medium over another, watercolor or ink?

Jill: I like them all for different reasons. I like to switch back and forth so I don’t get bored.

CBA: I’m going to switch gears again. You’ve modeled for other comics artists. You were the model for the villain in a P. Craig Russell-illustrated Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight story, and Alex Ross used you as the model for the Joker’s daughter in Kingdom Come. I don’t know of many comics artists who seem to have appeared as often as you have in other artists’ work. Why do you think other creators like to use you in this capacity?

Jill: Because I’ll pose. I think it’s fun. Plus, I’ve got a classic Disney villainess profile. I gotta put it to good use.

CBA: In the back of the Scary Godmother Bloody Valentine Special, we see numerous pin-ups of Scary Godmother as done by other artists. Many of these artists seem to draw her as even more closely resembling you than you do. Is there an artist who has not drawn you, but whom you would like to see do so?

Jill: I’d love to see Paul Pope draw Scary Godmother, and Coop. And Dave Cooper… and the Hernandez brothers, and Steve Rude and Paul Smith, or Bill Willingham… those would be cool Scary Godmother pin-ups. Just Scary Godmother. Not me.

CBA: You’ve managed to retain a unique level of control on the different Scary Godmother media projects with the play, and now an animated special. How do you feel moving into new and different media?

Jill: It’s been amazing to see it translated from two-dimensional to all the other versions. I feel like a mom, who is watching her child grow.

CBA: The animated special, from the footage I’ve seen, manages to retain the look of the books and distinguish itself from other computer-animated efforts. What were some of the challenges in putting it together?

Jill: Well, Mainframe is in Vancouver and I’m in Chicago, so that’s been difficult. But it’s been remarkable what we’ve been able to do via phone and mail. There were so many challenges that were out of my control, budgetary, etc. I’m grateful to have had such a strong voice in the creative end of it. You’re going to be blown away when you see it. They’re doing a mind-blowing job. As for my involvement, COMIC BOOK ARTIST 23

December 2002

I’ve co-written the pilot, which is based on the play we did in Chicago, which is, of course, based on the first Scary Godmother book with lots of elements from the comics added in. I’ve designed sets, and props and been allowed to tweak character design and tons of stuff. I got to choose the cast from a pool of Vancouver actors and I was at the voice record. I had wanted to use the girl who played Scary Godmother in our play, but it turned out to be impossible. There was no set date for the record, and Renee had to take acting jobs as they came to her and she took one for the whole summer. And then when we got the okay from the board of directors for the budget for the voice record, it was decided on a Friday and I flew to Vancouver the next Tuesday. So it’s been pretty crazy.

The animators have really captured the feel of my artwork, but everyone is able to walk and talk and move. It’s brought a tear to my eye more than once. And, they’ve incorporated some of my paintings in the show itself, some backgrounds and on the walls. And all of the rooms and stuff have textures that have been taken from my paintings. So it looks like I painted something in 3-D. I have no idea how any of it is done. All I know is that the program they use is called SofImage or SoftImage. You’d be surprised how many times I’ve been asked about the specific program. I’ve also had people think that I’m personally doing all the animation. Maybe because it does look so much like my art… I don’t know. Me use pencil and paint.

Computers… [imitating the Frankenstein monster reacting to fire] Aaarrr! [laughs] That is a tool I haven’t… mastered yet. “Mastered”: How about use and understand competently....

CBA: When will the animated special air?

Jill: If you live in Canada, it will definitely be on YTV for Halloween 2003. Hopefully we’ll get a U.S. broadcaster for 2003, as well.

CBA: Do you see Scary Godmother eventually becoming an animated TV series?

Jill: I just want this holiday special to get finished and on the air and then we’ll play it by ear. I like the idea of there being a holiday special every year, like the old Rankin and Bass Christmas specials. That would be cool.

CBA: Is it true that you and your husband, Brian Azzarello [100 Bullets], met with each of you not knowing the other worked in comics?

Jill: Well, I didn’t know he was in comics when I met him. I just thought he was this cool, funny guy. Only later did I find out we both did comics.

CBA: Both you and your husband were nominated for Eisner Awards this year, you for the Scary Godmother: Ghoul’s Out mini-series and he for 100 Bullets. Do you two have a good-natured rivalry about that sort of thing?

Jill: We don’t have a rivalry at all. I’m proud of him and he is of me. It’s not like we were even nominated in the same categories.

CBA: You have some non-Scary Godmother projects in the works, such as a “Little Grendel” story for Matt Wagner, and another Sandman project—a manga-style, black-&-white hardcover graphic novel—for Vertigo. Could you talk a little about these projects?

Jill: The Grendel story came from Matt and I talking on that Comic Book Legal Defense Fund cruise a couple years back. He asked if I wanted to do a Grendel: Red, Black & White story, and I said, “Sure!” Then he finally got around to it this Spring, because Diana December 2002

COMIC BOOK ARTIST 23

Schutz called me on Good Friday to ask me if I remembered talking with Matt about it—because he finished it. It’s written for that Little Endless kind of style, which seems to be the most popular style I draw in.

The Sandman project is called …At Death’s Door, and it’s a 192page manga style project that happens concurrently to the “Season of Mists” storyline. Like seeing what happens behind the curtain backstage while the play is going on. The play will end the same way, but you know what occurred behind the scenes. I’m writing it, drawing it, lettering it and painting the cover. It’s lots of work, but it’s really exciting. I was in between duties on the Scary Godmother special and Karen Berger called me with this idea. I was extremely flattered to be asked and even more flattered when she told me that Neil thought I would be the right person to handle it.

I get to deal with the main characters. Every one of them. It feels good to be involved with them again. I have a great affection for them all. So next Summer, expect a full-blown manga explosion, Sandman-style. Influenced by all the manga I like, but veering heavily toward the shoujo [girl’s] manga because of the complimentary subject matter in Season of Mists. Drama, love story, strong family relationships, androgynous characters fashionably dressed… it fits quite nicely.

CBA: It must be very satisfying to know your most recent work is your most highly-regarded, that despite your past success, your career is still on the rise. At the risk of bringing gender into the discussion, you’re arguably the most successful female creator working in comics right now. Are you comfortable with being a role model for young girls considering a career in comics?

Do you have any advice for young people thinking of just such a career?

Jill: Role model? Yeesh. If I am, I hope I’m a good one. I try to put my best foot forward in my work. I love what I do and I don’t take what I do for granted. I appreciate that I can make a living doing what I do best. Not everyone gets to do that.

My advice to someone trying to enter the comics field is to go to school, learn all you can. Learn the rules before you break them. Tell a good story. If you’re an artist, you need that story to be understandable without any words. It should be a 50/50 blend of words and pictures. In my opinion.

Be able to take criticism and act on it. That’s hard to do. It sometimes hurts, but it will help you grow as an artist. Meet your deadlines and communicate with your editor. If the situation applies.

It’s like any other job, you have to put into it to get out of it or you won’t grow.

CBA: Thank you very much for taking the time to speak with us, Jill.

Jill: I think I killed your tape recorder with my blahblah-blah! Thanks for asking me.

Inset left: Jill contributed her talent to Grendel: Red, White, & Black #1 (Sept. 2002) in the story “The Nasty L’il Devil,” written by Matt Wagner. ©2002 Matt Wagner.

Below: Jill Thompson’s darling artwork graces the pages of Little Endless, written by Neil Gaiman. ©2002 DC Comics.

Inset left: Spot illo for the back cover of Scary Godmother: Ghoul’s Out for Summer #1 (2001). ©2002 Jill Thompson.

Below: The Queen of Halloween. ©2002 Jill Thompson.

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THE ORIGINAL GOES DIGITAL!

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The forerunner to COMIC BOOK CREATOR, CBA is the 2000-2004 Eisner Award winner for BEST COMICS-RELATED MAG! Edited by CBC’s JON B. COOKE, it features in-depth articles, interviews, and unseen art, celebrating the lives and careers of the great comics artists from the 1970s to today. ALL BACK ISSUES NOW AVAILABLE AS DIGITAL EDITIONS FOR $3.95 FROM www.twomorrows.com!

TwoMorrows Publishing 10407 Bedfordtown Drive Raleigh, NC 27614 USA • 919-449-0344 E-mail: store@twomorrowspubs.com

Order online at www.twomorrows.com COMIC BOOK ARTIST COLLECTION, VOLUME 3 Reprinting the Eisner Award-winning COMIC BOOK ARTIST #7-8 (spotlighting 1970s Marvel and 1980s indies), plus over 30 NEW PAGES of features and art! New PAUL GULACY portfolio, MR. MONSTER scrapbook, the story behind MARVEL VALUE STAMPS, and more! New MICHAEL T. GILBERT cover!

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#3: ADAMS AT MARVEL #4: WARREN PUBLISHING

#5: MORE DC 1967-74

#1: DC COMICS 1967-74

#2: MARVEL 1970-77

Era of “Artist as Editor” at National: New NEAL ADAMS cover, interviews, art, and articles with JOE KUBERT, JACK KIRBY, CARMINE INFANTINO, DICK GIORDANO, JOE ORLANDO, MIKE SEKOWSKY, ALEX TOTH, JULIE SCHWARTZ, and many more!

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STAN LEE AND ROY THOMAS discussion about Marvel in the 1970s, ROY THOMAS interview, BILL EVERETT’s daughter WENDY and MIKE FRIEDRICH on Everett, interviews with GIL KANE, BARRY WINDSOR-SMITH, JIM STARLIN, STEVE ENGLEHART, MIKE PLOOG, STERANKO’s Unknown Marvels, the real origin of the New X-Men, Everett tribute cover by GIL KANE, and more!

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#6: MORE MARVEL ’70s #7: ’70s MARVELMANIA

NEAL ADAMS interview about his work at Marvel Comics in the 1960s from AVENGERS to X-MEN, unpublished Adams covers, thumbnail layouts for classic stories, published pages BEFORE they were inked, and unused pages from his NEVER-COMPLETED X-MEN GRAPHIC NOVEL! Plus TOM PALMER on the art of inking Neal Adams, ADAMS’ MARVEL WORK CHECKLIST, & ADAMS wraparound cover!

Definitive JIM WARREN interview about publishing EERIE, CREEPY, VAMPIRELLA, and other fan favorites, in-depth interview with BERNIE WRIGHTSON with unpublished Warren art, plus unseen art, features and interviews with FRANK FRAZETTA, RICHARD CORBEN, AL WILLIAMSON, JACK DAVIS, ARCHIE GOODWIN, HARVEY KURTZMAN, ALEX NINO, and more!

BERNIE WRIGHTSON cover!

More on DC COMICS 1967-74, with art by and interviews with NICK CARDY, JOE SIMON, NEAL ADAMS, BERNIE WRIGHTSON, MIKE KALUTA, SAM GLANZMAN, MARV WOLFMAN, IRWIN DONENFELD, SERGIO ARAGONÉS, GIL KANE, DENNY O’NEIL, HOWARD POST, ALEX TOTH on FRANK ROBBINS, DC Writer’s Purge of 1968 by MIKE BARR, JOHN BROOME’s final interview, and more! CARDY cover!

Unpublished and rarely-seen art by, features on, and interviews with 1970s Bullpenners PAUL GULACY, FRANK BRUNNER, P. CRAIG RUSSELL, MARIE and JOHN SEVERIN, JOHN ROMITA SR., DAVE COCKRUM, DON MCGREGOR, DOUG MOENCH, and others! Plus never-beforeseen pencil pages to an unpublished Master of Kung-Fu graphic novel by PAUL GULACY! Cover by FRANK BRUNNER!

Featuring ’70s Marvel greats PAUL GULACY, JOHN BYRNE, RICH BUCKLER, DOUG MOENCH, DAN ADKINS, JIM MOONEY, STEVE GERBER, FRANK SPRINGER, and DENIS KITCHEN! Plus: a rarely-seen Stan Lee P.R. chat promoting the ’60s Marvel cartoon shows, the real trials and tribulations of Comics Distribution, the true story behind the ’70s Kung Fu Craze, and a new cover by PAUL GULACY!

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#10: WALTER SIMONSON

#11: ALEX TOTH AND SHELLY MAYER

#8: ’80s INDEPENDENTS

#9: CHARLTON PART 1

#12: CHARLTON PART 2

Major independent creators and their fabulous books from the early days of the Direct Sales Market! Featured interviews include STEVE RUDE, HOWARD CHAYKIN, DAVE STEVENS, JAIME HERNANDEZ, MICHAEL T. GILBERT, DON SIMPSON, SCOTT McCLOUD, MIKE BARON, MIKE GRELL, and more! Plus plenty of rare and unpublished art, and a new STEVE RUDE cover!

Interviews with Charlton alumni JOE GILL, DICK GIORDANO, STEVE SKEATES, DENNIS O’NEIL, ROY THOMAS, PETE MORISI, JIM APARO, PAT BOYETTE, FRANK MCLAUGHLIN, SAM GLANZMAN, plus ALAN MOORE on the Charlton/ Watchmen Connection, DC’s planned ALLCHARLTON WEEKLY, and more! DICK GIORDANO cover!

Career-spanning SIMONSON INTERVIEW, covering his work from “Manhunter” to Thor to Orion, JOHN WORKMAN interview, TRINA ROBBINS interview, also Trina, MARIE SEVERIN and RAMONA FRADON talk shop about their days in the comics business, MARIE SEVERIN interview, plus other great women cartoonists. New SIMONSON cover!

Interviews with ALEX TOTH, Toth tributes

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CHARLTON COMICS: 1972-1983!

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#13: MARVEL HORROR

#14: TOWER COMICS & WALLY WOOD

#15: 1980s VANGUARD & DAVE STEVENS

#16: ATLAS/SEABOARD COMICS

#17: ARTHUR ADAMS

1970s Marvel Horror focus, from Son of Satan to Ghost Rider! Interviews with ROY THOMAS, MARV WOLFMAN, GENE COLAN, TOM PALMER, HERB TRIMPE, GARY FRIEDRICH, DON PERLIN, TONY ISABELLA, and PABLOS MARCOS, plus a Portfolio Section featuring RUSS HEATH, MIKE PLOOG, DON PERLIN, PABLO MARCOS, FRED HEMBECK’S DATELINE, and more! New GENE COLAN cover!

Interviews with Tower and THUNDER AGENTS alumni WALLACE WOOD, LOU MOUGIN, SAMM SCHWARTZ, DAN ADKINS, LEN BROWN, BILL PEARSON, LARRY IVIE, GEORGE TUSKA, STEVE SKEATES, and RUSS JONES, TOWER COMICS CHECKLIST, history of TIPPY TEEN, 1980s THUNDER AGENTS REVIVAL, and more! WOOD cover!

Interviews with ’80s independent creators DAVE STEVENS, JAIME, MARIO, AND GILBERT HERNANDEZ, MATT WAGNER, DEAN MOTTER, PAUL RIVOCHE, and SANDY PLUNKETT, plus lots of rare and unseen art from The Rocketeer, Love & Rockets, Mr. X, Grendel, other ’80s strips, and more! New cover by STEVENS and the HERNANDEZ BROS.!

’70s ATLAS COMICS HISTORY! Interviews with JEFF ROVIN, ROY THOMAS, ERNIE COLÓN, STEVE MITCHELL, LARRY HAMA, HOWARD CHAYKIN, SAL AMENDOLA, JIM CRAIG, RIC MEYERS, and ALAN KUPPERBERG, Atlas Checklist, HEATH, WRIGHTSON, SIMONSON, MILGROM, AUSTIN, WEISS, and STATON discuss their Atlas work, and more! COLÓN cover!

Discussion with ARTHUR ADAMS about his career (with an extensive CHECKLIST, and gobs of rare art), plus GRAY MORROW tributes from friends and acquaintances and a MORROW interview, Red Circle Comics Checklist, interviews with & remembrances of GEORGE ROUSSOS & GEORGE EVANS, Gallery of Morrow, Evans, and Roussos art, EVERETT RAYMOND KINSTLER interview, and more! New ARTHUR ADAMS cover!

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#18: 1970s MARVEL COSMIC COMICS

#19: HARVEY COMICS

#20: ROMITAs & KUBERTs #21: ADAM HUGHES, ALEX #22: GOLD KEY COMICS & examinations: RUSS MANNING ROSS, & JOHN BUSCEMA Interviews & Magnus Robot Fighter, WALLY WOOD &

Roundtable with JIM STARLIN, ALAN WEISS and AL MILGROM, interviews with STEVE ENGLEHART, STEVE LEIALOHA, and FRANK BRUNNER, art from the lost WARLOCK #16, plus a FLO STEINBERG CELEBRATION, with a Flo interview, tributes by HERB TRIMPE, LINDA FITE, BARRY WINDSOR-SMITH, and others! STARLIN/ MILGROM/WEISS cover!

History of Harvey Comics, from Hot Stuf’, Casper, and Richie Rich, to Joe Simon’s “Harvey Thriller” line! Interviews with, art by, and tributes to JACK KIRBY, STERANKO, WILL EISNER, AL WILLIAMSON, GIL KANE, WALLY WOOD, REED CRANDALL, JOE SIMON, WARREN KREMER, ERNIE COLÓN, SID JACOBSON, FRED RHOADES, and more! New wraparound MITCH O’CONNELL cover!

Joint interview between Marvel veteran and superb Spider-Man artist JOHN ROMITA, SR. and fan favorite Thor/Hulk renderer JOHN ROMITA, JR.! On the flipside, JOE, ADAM & ANDY KUBERT share their histories and influences in a special roundtable conversation! Plus unpublished and rarely seen artwork, and a visit by the ladies VIRGINIA and MURIEL! Flip-covers by the KUBERTs and the ROMITAs!

ADAM HUGHES ART ISSUE, with a comprehensive interview, unpublished art, & CHECKLIST! Also, a “Day in the Life” of ALEX ROSS (with plenty of Ross art)! Plus a tribute to the life and career of one of Marvel’s greatest artists, JOHN BUSCEMA, with testimonials from his friends and peers, art section, and biographical essay.

HUGHES and TOM PALMER flip-covers!

Total War M.A.R.S. Patrol, Tarzan by JESSE MARSH, JESSE SANTOS and DON GLUT’S Dagar and Dr. Spektor, Turok, Son of Stone’s ALBERTO GIOLITTI and PAUL S. NEWMAN, plus Doctor Solar, Boris Karloff, The Twilight Zone, and more, including MARK EVANIER on cartoon comics, and a definitive company history! New BRUCE TIMM cover!

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#23: MIKE MIGNOLA

#24: NATIONAL LAMPOON COMICS

#25: ALAN MOORE AND KEVIN NOWLAN

COMIC BOOK ARTIST: SPECIAL EDITION #1

COMIC BOOK ARTIST: SPECIAL EDITION #2

Exhaustive MIGNOLA interview, huge art gallery (with never-seen art), and comprehensive checklist! On the flip-side, a careerspanning JILL THOMPSON interview, plus tons of art, and studies of Jill by ALEX ROSS, STEVE RUDE, P. CRAIG RUSSELL, and more! Also, interview with JOSÉ DELBO, and a talk with author HARLAN ELLISON on his various forays into comics!

New MIGNOLA HELLBOY cover!

GAHAN WILSON and NatLamp art director MICHAEL GROSS speak, interviews with and art by NEAL ADAMS, FRANK SPRINGER, SEAN KELLY, SHARY FLENNEKIN, ED SUBITSKY, M.K. BROWN, B.K. TAYLOR, BOBBY LONDON, MICHEL CHOQUETTE, ALAN KUPPERBERG, and more! Features new covers by GAHAN WILSON and MARK BODÉ!

Focus on AMERICA’S BEST COMICS! ALAN MOORE interview on everything from SWAMP THING to WATCHMEN to ABC and beyond! Interviews with KEVIN O’NEILL, CHRIS SPROUSE, JIM BAIKIE, HILARY BARTA, SCOTT DUNBIER, TODD KLEIN, JOSE VILLARRUBIA, and more! Flip-side spotlight on the amazing KEVIN NOWLAN! Covers by J.H. WILLIAMS III & NOWLAN!

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Previously available only to CBA subscribers!

Spotlights great DC Comics of the ’70s: Interviews with MARK EVANIER and STEVE SHERMAN on JACK KIRBY’s Fourth World, ALEX TOTH on his mystery work, NEAL ADAMS on Superman vs. Muhammad Ali, RUSS HEATH on Sgt. Rock, BRUCE JONES discussing BERNIE WRIGHTSON (plus a WRIGHTSON portfolio), and a BRUCE TIMM interview, art gallery, and cover!

Compiles the new “extras” from CBA COLLECTION VOL. 1-3: unpublished JACK KIRBY story, unpublished BERNIE WRIGHTSON art, unused JEFF JONES story, ALAN WEISS interview, examination of STEVE ENGLEHART and MARSHALL ROGERS’ 1970s Batman work, a look at DC’s rare Cancelled Comics Cavalcade, PAUL GULACY art gallery, Marvel Value Stamp history, Mr. Monster’s scrapbook, and more!

(76-page Digital Edition) $3.95

(112-page Digital Edition) $3.95

C o l l e c t o r

The JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR magazine (edited by JOHN MORROW) celebrates the life and career of the “King” of comics through INTERNS VIEWS WITH KIRBY and EDITIO BLE A IL his contemporaries, AVA NLY FEATURE ARTICLES, FOR O $3.95 RARE AND UNSEEN $1.95— KIRBY ART, plus regular columns by MARK EVANIER and others, and presentation of KIRBY’S UNINKED PENCILS from the 1960s-80s (from photocopies preserved in the KIRBY ARCHIVES).

DIGITAL

Go online for #1-30 as Digital Editions, and an ULTIMATE BUNDLE with all the issues at HALF-PRICE!

KIRBY COLLECTOR #34

KIRBY COLLECTOR #35

KIRBY COLLECTOR #31

KIRBY COLLECTOR #32

KIRBY COLLECTOR #33

FIRST TABLOID-SIZE ISSUE! MARK EVANIER’s new column, interviews with KURT BUSIEK and JOSÉ LADRONN, NEAL ADAMS on Kirby, Giant-Man overview, Kirby’s best 2-page spreads, 2000 Kirby Tribute Panel (MARK EVANIER, GENE COLAN, MARIE SEVERIN, ROY THOMAS, and TRACY & JEREMY KIRBY), huge Kirby pencils! Wraparound KIRBY/ADAMS cover!

KIRBY’S LEAST-KNOWN WORK! MARK EVANIER on the Fourth World, unfinished THE HORDE novel, long-lost KIRBY INTERVIEW from France, update to the KIRBY CHECKLIST, pencil gallery of Kirby’s leastknown work (including THE PRISONER, BLACK HOLE, IN THE DAYS OF THE MOB, TRUE DIVORCE CASES), westerns, and more! KIRBY/LADRONN cover!

FANTASTIC FOUR ISSUE! Gallery of FF pencils at tabloid size, MARK EVANIER on the FF Cartoon series, interviews with STAN LEE and ERIK LARSEN, JOE SINNOTT salute, the HUMAN TORCH in STRANGE TALES, origins of Kirby Krackle, interviews with nearly EVERY WRITER AND ARTIST who worked on the FF after Kirby, & more!

KIRBY/LARSEN and KIRBY/TIMM covers!

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KIRBY COLLECTOR #36

KIRBY COLLECTOR #37

KIRBY COLLECTOR #38

FIGHTING AMERICANS! MARK EVANIER on 1960s Marvel inkers, SHIELD, Losers, and Green Arrow overviews, INFANTINO interview on Simon & Kirby, KIRBY interview, Captain America PENCIL ART GALLERY, PHILIPPE DRUILLET interview, JOE SIMON and ALEX TOTH speak, unseen BIG GAME HUNTER and YOUNG ABE LINCOLN Kirby concepts! KIRBY and KIRBY/TOTH covers!

GREAT ESCAPES! MISTER MIRACLE pencil art gallery, MARK EVANIER, MARSHALL ROGERS & MICHAEL CHABON interviews, comparing Kirby and Houdini’s backgrounds, analysis of “Himon,” 2001 Kirby Tribute Panel (WILL EISNER, JOHN BUSCEMA, JOHN ROMITA, MIKE ROYER, & JOHNNY CARSON) & more! KIRBY/MARSHALL ROGERS and KIRBY/STEVE RUDE covers!

THOR ISSUE! Never-seen KIRBY interview, JOE SINNOTT and JOHN ROMITA JR. on their Thor work, MARK EVANIER, extensive THOR and TALES OF ASGARD coverage, a look at the “real” Norse gods, 40 pages of KIRBY THOR PENCILS, including a Kirby Art Gallery at TABLOID SIZE, with pin-ups, covers, and more! KIRBY covers inked by MIKE ROYER and TREVOR VON EEDEN!

“HOW TO DRAW COMICS THE KIRBY WAY!” MIKE ROYER interview on how he inks Jack’s work, HUGE GALLERY tracing the evolution of Jack’s style, new column on OBSCURE KIRBY WORK, MARK EVANIER, special sections on Jack’s TECHNIQUE AND INFLUENCES, comparing STAN LEE’s writing to JACK’s, and more! Two COLOR UNPUBLISHED KIRBY COVERS!

“HOW TO DRAW COMICS THE KIRBY WAY!” PART 2: JOE SINNOTT on how he inks Jack’s work, HUGE PENCIL GALLERY, list of the art in the KIRBY ARCHIVES, MARK EVANIER, special sections on Jack’s technique and influences, SPEND A DAY WITH KIRBY (with JACK DAVIS, GULACY, HERNANDEZ BROS., and RUDE) and more!

Two UNPUBLISHED KIRBY COVERS!

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KIRBY COLLECTOR #39

KIRBY COLLECTOR #40

KIRBY COLLECTOR #41

KIRBY COLLECTOR #42

KIRBY COLLECTOR #43

FAN FAVORITES! Covering Kirby’s work on HULK, INHUMANS, and SILVER SURFER, TOP PROS pick favorite Kirby covers, Kirby ENTERTAINMENT TONIGHT interview, MARK EVANIER, 2002 Kirby Tribute Panel (DICK AYERS, TODD McFARLANE, PAUL LEVITZ, HERB TRIMPE), pencil art gallery, and more! Kirby covers inked by MIKE ALLRED and P. CRAIG RUSSELL!

WORLD THAT’S COMING! KAMANDI and OMAC spotlight, 2003 Kirby Tribute Panel (WENDY PINI, MICHAEL CHABON, STAN GOLDBERG, SAL BUSCEMA, LARRY LIEBER, and STAN LEE), P. CRAIG RUSSELL interview, MARK EVANIER, NEW COLUMN analyzing Jack’s visual shorthand, pencil art gallery, and more! Kirby covers inked by ERIK LARSEN and REEDMAN!

1970s MARVEL WORK! Coverage of ’70s work from Captain America to Eternals to Machine Man, DICK GIORDANO & MARK SHULTZ interviews, MARK EVANIER, 2004 Kirby Tribute Panel (STEVE RUDE, DAVE GIBBONS, WALTER SIMONSON, and PAUL RYAN), pencil art gallery, unused 1962 HULK #6 KIRBY PENCILS, and more! Kirby covers inked by GIORDANO and SCHULTZ!

1970s DC WORK! Coverage of Jimmy Olsen, FF movie set visit, overview of all Newsboy Legion stories, KEVIN NOWLAN and MURPHY ANDERSON on inking Jack, never-seen interview with Kirby, MARK EVANIER on Kirby’s covers, Bongo Comics’ Kirby ties, complete ’40s gangster story, pencil art gallery, and more! Kirby covers inked by NOWLAN and ANDERSON!

KIRBY AWARD WINNERS! STEVE SHERMAN and others sharing memories and neverseen art from JACK & ROZ, a never-published 1966 interview with KIRBY, MARK EVANIER on VINCE COLLETTA, pencils-toSinnott inks comparison of TALES OF SUSPENSE #93, and more! Covers by KIRBY (Jack’s original ’70s SILVER STAR CONCEPT ART) and KIRBY/SINNOTT!

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97

KIRBY COLLECTOR #44

KIRBY COLLECTOR #45

KIRBY COLLECTOR #46

KIRBY COLLECTOR #47

KIRBY COLLECTOR #48

KIRBY’S MYTHOLOGICAL CHARACTERS! Coverage of DEMON, THOR, & GALACTUS, interview with KIRBY, MARK EVANIER, pencil art galleries of the Demon and other mythological characters, two never-reprinted BLACK MAGIC stories, interview with Kirby Award winner DAVID SCHWARTZ and F4 screenwriter MIKE FRANCE, and more!

Kirby cover inked by MATT WAGNER!

Jack’s vision of PAST AND FUTURE, with a never-seen KIRBY interview, a new interview with son NEAL KIRBY, MARK EVANIER’S column, two pencil galleries, two complete ’50s stories, Jack’s first script, Kirby Tribute Panel (with EVANIER, KATZ, SHAW!, and SHERMAN), plus an unpublished CAPTAIN 3-D cover, inked by BILL BLACK and converted into 3-D by RAY ZONE!

Focus on NEW GODS, FOREVER PEOPLE, and DARKSEID! Includes a rare interview with KIRBY, MARK EVANIER’s column, FOURTH WORLD pencil art galleries (including Kirby’s redesigns for SUPER POWERS), two 1950s stories, a new Kirby Darkseid front cover inked by MIKE ROYER, a Kirby Forever People back cover inked by JOHN BYRNE, and more!

KIRBY’S SUPER TEAMS, from kid gangs and the Challengers, to Fantastic Four, X-Men, and Super Powers, with unseen 1960s Marvel art, a rare KIRBY interview, MARK EVANIER’s column, two pencil art galleries, complete 1950s story, author JONATHAN LETHEM on his Kirby influence, interview with JOHN ROMITA, JR. on his Eternals work, and more!

KIRBYTECH ISSUE, spotlighting Jack’s hightech concepts, from Iron Man’s armor and Machine Man, to the Negative Zone and beyond! Includes a rare KIRBY interview, MARK EVANIER’s column, two pencil art galleries, complete 1950s story, TOM SCIOLI interview, Kirby Tribute Panel (with ADAMS, PÉREZ, and ROMITA), and covers inked by TERRY AUSTIN and TOM SCIOLI!

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KIRBY COLLECTOR #49

KIRBY COLLECTOR #51

KIRBY COLLECTOR #52

WARRIORS, spotlighting Thor (with a look at hidden messages in BILL EVERETT’s Thor inks), Sgt. Fury, Challengers of the Unknown, Losers, and others! Includes a rare KIRBY interview, interviews with JERRY ORDWAY and GRANT MORRISON, MARK EVANIER’s column, pencil art gallery, a complete 1950s story, wraparound Thor cover inked by JERRY ORDWAY, and more!

Bombastic EVERYTHING GOES issue, with a wealth of great submissions that couldn’t be pigeonholed into a “theme” issue!

Includes a rare KIRBY interview, new interviews with JIM LEE and ADAM HUGHES, MARK EVANIER’s column, huge pencil art galleries, a complete Golden Age Kirby story, two COLOR UNPUBLISHED KIRBY COVERS, and more!

Spotlights Kirby’s most obscure work: an UNUSED THOR STORY, BRUCE LEE comic, animation work, stage play, unaltered 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 cover inked by DON HECK!

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KIRBY COLLECTOR #55

KIRBY COLLECTOR #56

KIRBY COLLECTOR #57

KIRBY COLLECTOR #53

KIRBY COLLECTOR #54

THE MAGIC OF STAN & JACK! New interview with STAN LEE, walking tour of New York where Lee & Kirby lived and worked, re-evaluation of the “Lost” FF #108 story (including a new 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!

STAN & JACK PART TWO! More on the co-creators of the Marvel Universe, final interview (and cover inks) by GEORGE TUSKA, differences between KIRBY and DITKO’S approaches, WILL MURRAY on the origin of the FF, the mystery of Marvel cover dates, MARK EVANIER’s regular column, a Kirby pencil art gallery, a complete Golden Age Kirby story, and more, plus Kirby back cover inked by JOE SINNOTT!

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(84-page tabloid magazine) $10.95 (Digital Edition) $3.95

KIRBY COLLECTOR #59

KIRBY COLLECTOR #60

“Kirby Goes To Hollywood!” SERGIO ARAGONÉS and MELL LAZARUS recall Kirby’s BOB NEWHART TV show cameo, comparing the recent STAR WARS films to New Gods, RUBY & SPEARS interviewed, Jack’s encounters with FRANK ZAPPA, PAUL McCARTNEY, and JOHN LENNON, MARK EVANIER’s regular column, a Kirby pencil art gallery, a Golden Age Kirby story, and more! Kirby cover inked by PAUL SMITH!

“Unfinished Sagas”—series, stories, and arcs Kirby never finished. TRUE DIVORCE CASES, RAAM THE MAN MOUNTAIN, KOBRA, DINGBATS, a complete story from SOUL LOVE, complete Boy Explorers story, two Kirby Tribute Panels, MARK EVANIER and other regular columnists, pencil art galleries, and more, with Kirby’s “Galaxy Green” cover inked by ROYER, and the unseen cover for SOUL LOVE #1!

“Legendary Kirby”—how Jack put his spin on classic folklore! TONY ISABELLA on SATAN’S SIX (with Kirby’s unseen layouts), Biblical inspirations of DEVIL DINOSAUR, THOR through the eyes of mythologist JOSEPH CAMPBELL, a complete Golden Age Kirby story, rare Kirby interview, MARK EVANIER and our other regular columnists, pencil art from ETERNALS, DEMON, NEW GODS, THOR, and Jack’s ATLAS cover!

“Kirby Vault!” Rarities from the “King” of comics: Personal correspondence, private photos, collages, rare Marvelmania art, bootleg album covers, sketches, transcript of a 1969 VISIT TO THE KIRBY HOME (where Jack answers the questions YOU’D ask in ‘69), MARK EVANIER, pencil art from the FOURTH WORLD, CAPTAIN AMERICA, MACHINE MAN, SILVER SURFER GRAPHIC NOVEL, and more!

FANTASTIC FOUR FOLLOW-UP to #58’s THE WONDER YEARS! Never-seen FF wraparound cover, interview between FF inkers JOE SINNOTT and DICK AYERS, rare LEE & KIRBY interview, comparison of a Jack and Stan FF story conference to Stan’s final script and Jack’s penciled pages, MARK EVANIER and other columnists, gallery of KIRBY FF ART, pencils from BLACK PANTHER, SILVER SURFER, & more!

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98

COLLECTED JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR VOLUMES, edited by John Morrow Each book contains over 30 PIECES OF KIRBY ART NEVER BEFORE PUBLISHED!

VOLUME 2

VOLUME 3

VOLUME 5

VOLUME 6

VOLUME 7

KIRBY CHECKLIST

Reprints JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR #10-12, and a tour of Jack’s home!

Reprints JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR #13-15, plus new art!

Reprints JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR #20-22, plus new art!

Reprints JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR #23-26, plus new art!

Reprints JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR #27-30, plus new art!

Lists EVERY KIRBY COMIC, BOOK, UNPUBLISHED WORK and more!

(160-page trade paperback) $17.95 ISBN: 9781893905016 Diamond Order Code: MAR042974

(176-page trade paperback) $19.95 ISBN: 9781893905023 Diamond Order Code: APR043058

(224-page trade paperback) $24.95 ISBN: 9781893905573 Diamond Order Code: FEB063353

(288-page trade paperback) $29.95 ISBN: 9781605490038 Diamond Order Code: JUN084280

(288-page trade paperback) $29.95 ISBN: 9781605490120 Diamond Order Code: DEC084286

(128-page trade paperback) $14.95 (Digital Edition) $4.95 ISBN: 9781605490052 Diamond Order Code: MAR084008

NEW!

Lee & Kirby: THE WONDER YEARS

Celebrate the 50th ANNIVERSARY OF FANTASTIC FOUR #1 with this special squarebound edition (#58) of THE JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR, about two pop-culture visionaries who created the Fantastic Four, and a decade in comics that was more tumultuous and awe-inspiring than any before or since. Calling on his years of research, plus new interviews conducted just for this book (with STAN LEE, FLO STEINBERG, MARK EVANIER, JOE SINNOTT, and others), regular Jack Kirby Collector contributor MARK ALEXANDER traces both Lee and Kirby’s history at Marvel Comics, and the remarkable series of events and career choices that led them to converge in 1961 to conceive the Fantastic Four. It also documents the evolution of the FF throughout the 1960s, with previously unknown details about Lee and Kirby’s working relationship, and their eventual parting of ways in 1970. With a wealth of historical information and amazing Kirby artwork, STAN LEE & JACK KIRBY: THE WONDER YEARS beautifully examines the first decade of the FF, and the events that put into motion the 1960s era that came to be known as the Marvel Age of Comics!

(128-page tabloid-size trade paperback) $19.95 • (Digital Edition) $5.95 ISBN: 9781605490380 • Diamond Order Code: SEP111248

NEW!

SILVER STAR: GRAPHITE EDITION

First conceptualized in the 1970s as a movie screenplay, SILVER STAR was too far ahead of its time for Hollywood, so artist JACK KIRBY adapted it as a six-issue mini-series for Pacific Comics in the 1980s, making it his final, great comics series.

Now the entire six-issue run is collected here, reproduced from his powerful, uninked PENCIL ART, showing Kirby’s work in its undiluted, raw form! Also included is Kirby’s ILLUSTRATED SILVER STAR MOVIE SCREENPLAY, never-seen SKETCHES, PIN-UPS, and an historical overview to put it all in perspective!

JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR SPECIAL EDITION

(160-page trade paperback) $19.95 (Digital Edition) $5.95 ISBN: 9781893905559 Diamond Order Code: JAN063367

CAPTAIN VICTORY: GRAPHITE EDITION

Compiles the “extra” new material from COLLECTED JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR VOLUMES 1-7, in one huge Digital Edition! Includes a fan’s private tour of the Kirbys’ remarkable home, profusely illustrated with photos, and more than 200 pieces of Kirby art not published outside of those volumes. If you already own the individual issues and skipped the collections, or missed them in print form, now you can get caught up!

For the first time, JACK KIRBY’s original CAPTAIN VICTORY GRAPHIC NOVEL is presented as it was created in 1975 (before being broken up and modified for the 1980s Pacific Comics series), reproduced from copies of Kirby’s uninked pencil art! This first “new” Kirby comic in years features page after page of prime pencils, and includes Jack’s unused CAPTAIN VICTORY SCREENPLAY, unseen art, an historical overview to put it in perspective, and more!

(52-page comic book) $5.95 • (Digital Edition) $2.95

(120-page Digital Edition) $4.95

NOTE: THIS IS ISSUE #58 OF THE KIRBY COLLECTOR!

KIRBY FIVE-OH! CELEBRATING 50 YEARS OF THE “KING” OF COMICS

For its 50th issue, the publication that started TwoMorrows presents KIRBY FIVE-OH!, a BOOK covering the best of everything from Kirby’s 50-year career in comics! The regular KIRBY COLLECTOR columnists have formed a distinguished panel of experts to choose and examine: The BEST KIRBY STORY published each year from 1938-1987! The BEST COVERS from each decade! Jack’s 50 BEST UNUSED PIECES OF ART! His 50 BEST CHARACTER DESIGNS! And profiles of, and commentary by, the 50 PEOPLE MOST INFLUENCED BY KIRBY’S WORK! Plus there’s a 50-PAGE GALLERY of Kirby’s powerful RAW PENCIL ART, and a DELUXE COLOR SECTION of photos and finished art from throughout his entire half-century oeuvre. This TABLOID-SIZED TRADE PAPERBACK features a previously unseen Kirby Superman cover inked by “DC: The New Frontier” artist DARWYN COOKE, and an introduction by MARK EVANIER, helping make this the ultimate retrospective on the career of the “King” of comics! Takes the place of JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR #50.

(168-page tabloid-size trade paperback) $19.95 • (Digital Edition) $5.95 ISBN: 9781893905894 Diamond Order Code: FEB084186

NOTE: THIS IS ISSUE #50 OF THE KIRBY COLLECTOR!

KIRBY UNLEASHED (REMASTERED)

Reprinting the fabled 1971 KIRBY UNLEASHED PORTFOLIO, completely remastered!

Spotlights some of KIRBY’s finest art from all eras of his career, including 1930s pencil work, unused strips, illustrated World War II letters, 1950s pages, unpublished 1960s Marvel pencil pages and sketches, and Fourth World pencil art (done expressly for this portfolio in 1970)! We’ve gone back to the original art to ensure the best reproduction possible, and MARK EVANIER and STEVE SHERMAN have updated the Kirby biography from the original printing, and added a new Foreword explaining how this portfolio came to be! PLUS: We’ve recolored the original color plates, and added EIGHT NEW BLACK-&-WHITE PAGES, plus EIGHT NEW COLOR PAGES, including Jack’s four GODS posters (released separately in 1972), and four extra Kirby color pieces, all at tabloid size!

(60-page tabloid with COLOR) SOLD OUT • (Digital Edition) $5.95

TwoMorrows—A New Day For Comics Fandom!

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

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KIRBY COLLECTOR #61

ALTER EGO #118

COMIC BOOK CREATOR #1 COMIC BOOK CREATOR #2

BRICKJOURNAL #24

Former COMIC BOOK ARTIST editor JON B. COOKE returns to TwoMorrows with his new magazine! #1 features: An investigation of the treatment JACK KIRBY endured throughout his career, ALEX ROSS and KURT BUSIEK interviews, FRANK ROBBINS spotlight, remembering LES DANIELS, WILL EISNER’s Valentines to his beloved, a talk between NEAL ADAMS and DENNIS O’NEIL, new ALEX ROSS cover, and more!

JOE KUBERT double-size Summer Special tribute issue! Comprehensive examinations of each facet of Joe’s career, from Golden Age artist and 3-D comics pioneer, to top Tarzan artist, editor, and founder of the Kubert School. Kubert interviews, rare art and artifacts, testimonials, remembrances, portraits, anecdotes, pin-ups and miniinterviews by faculty, students, fans, friends and family! Edited by JON B. COOKE.

LEGO TRAINS! Builder CALE LEIPHART shows how to get started building trains and train layouts, with instructions on building microscale trains by editor JOE MENO, building layouts with the members of the Pennsylvania LEGO Users Group (PennLUG), fan-built LEGO monorails minifigure customization by JARED BURKS, microscale building by CHRISTOPHER DECK, “You Can Build It”, and more!

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ALTER EGO #119

ALTER EGO #120

ALTER EGO #121

JACK KIRBY: WRITER! Examines quirks of Kirby’s wordsmithing, from the FOURTH WORLD to ROMANCE and beyond!

Lengthy Kirby interview, MARK EVANIER and other columnists, LARRY LIEBER’s scripting for Jack at 1960s Marvel Comics, RAY ZONE on 3-D work with Kirby, comparing STEVE GERBER’s Destroyer Duck scripts to Jack’s pencils, Kirby’s best promo blurbs, Kirby pencil art gallery, & more!

AVENGERS 50th ANNIVERSARY! WILL MURRAY on the group’s behind-thescenes origin, a look at its first decade with ROY THOMAS, STAN LEE, JACK KIRBY, THE BROTHERS BUSCEMA, TUSKA, ADAMS, COLAN, BUCKLER, ENGLEHART, MERRY MARVEL MARCHING SOCIETY, MR. MONSTER, BILL SCHELLY, FCA, Golden Age Blue Beetle artist E.C. STONER, unused Avengers cover by DON HECK!

MARC SWAYZE TRIBUTE ISSUE, spotlighting FCA (Fawcett Collectors of America)!

Salutes from Fawcett alumnus C.C. BECK and OTTO BINDER, interview with wife JUNE SWAYZE, a full Phantom Eagle story from Wow Comics, plus interview with 1950s Dell/Western artist MEL KEEFER, MICHAEL T. GILBERT in Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt, and a SWAYZE Marvel Family cover art from the 1940s!

X-MEN SALUTE! 1963-69 secrets, rare ‘60s BRAZILIAN X-MEN stories, lost ‘60s XMen “character sheet” by STAN LEE, ROY THOMAS on the 1970s revival, art and artifacts by KIRBY, ROTH, ADAMS, HECK, FRIEDRICH, and BUSCEMA—plus the MARVELMANIA fan club story, interview with Golden Age writer ED SILVERMAN, FCA, Mr. Monster, BILL SCHELLY, and JACK KIRBY’s unused X-Men #10 cover!

GOLDEN AGE JUSTICE SOCIETY ISSUE! Features on JOHN B. WENTWORTH (Johnny Thunder), LEN SANSONE (The Atom), and BERNARD SACHS (All-Star Comics inker), art by CARMINE INFANTINO, PAUL REINMAN, MART NODELL, STAN ASCHMEIER, BEN FLINTON, and H.G. PETER, plus FCA, Mr. Monster, and more! Cover homage by SHANE FOLEY to a vintage All-Star image by IRWIN HASEN!

(104-page magazine with COLOR) $10.95 (Digital Edition) $3.95 • Ships June 2013

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $3.95 • Ships June 2013

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $3.95 • Ships July 2013

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DRAW! #25

BACK ISSUE #65

BACK ISSUE #66

BACK ISSUE #67

BACK ISSUE #68

LEE WEEKS (Daredevil, Incredible Hulk) gives insight into the artform, YILDIRAY ÇINAR (Noble Causes, Fury of the Firestorms) interview and demo, inker JOE RUBINSTEIN shows how he works, “Comic Art Bootcamp” with MIKE MANLEY and BRET BLEVINS, “Rough Critique” of a newcomer by BOB McLEOD, and “Crusty Critic” JAMAR NICHOLAS reviews art supplies and software! Mature readers only.

“Bronze Age B-Teams”! Defenders issue-byissue overview, Champions, Guardians of the Galaxy, Inhumans, PETER DAVID’s X-Factor, Teen Titans West, Legion of Substitute Heroes, an all-star chatfest of Doom Patrol interviews, plus art and commentary by ROSS ANDRU, SAL BUSCEMA, KEITH GIFFEN, TONY ISABELLA, PAUL KUPPERBERG, ERIK LARSEN, GEORGE PÉREZ, BOB ROZAKIS, cover by KEVIN NOWLAN.

“Bronze Age Team-Ups”! Marvel Team-Up and Two-in-One, Super-Villain Team-Up, CLAREMONT and SIMONSON’s X-Men/New Teen Titans, DC Comics Presents, SuperTeam Family, HANEY and APARO’s Batman of Earth-B(&B), Superman/Captain Marvel smackdowns, plus art and commentary by BUCKLER, ENGLEHART, GARCÍA-LÓPEZ, GIFFEN, LEVITZ, WEIN, and a classic GIL KANE cover inked anew by TERRY AUSTIN.

“Heroes Out of Time!” Batman: Gotham by Gaslight with MIGNOLA, WAID, and AUGUSTYN, Booster Gold with JURGENS, X-Men: Days of Future Past with CHRIS CLAREMONT, Bill & Ted with EVAN DORKIN, interview with P. CRAIG RUSSELL, “Pro2Pro” with Time Masters’ BOB WAYNE and LEWIS SHINER, Karate Kid, New Mutants: Asgardian Wars, and Kang.

Mignola cover.

“1970s and ‘80s Legion of Super-Heroes!”

LEVITZ interview, the Legion’s Honored Dead, the Cosmic Boy miniseries, a Time Trapper history, the New Adventures of Superboy, Legion fantasy cover gallery by JOHN WATSON, plus BATES, COCKRUM, CONWAY, COLON, GIFFEN, GRELL, JANES, KUPPERBERG, LaROCQUE, LIGHTLE, SCHAFFENBERGER, SHERMAN, STATON, SWAN, WAID, & more! COCKRUM cover!

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Ambitious new series documenting each decade of comic book history!

AMERICAN COMIC BOOK CHRONICLES: 1960-64 & The 1980s

JOHN WELLS covers comics in the 1960-64 JFK and Beatles era: DC’s new GREEN LANTERN, JUSTICE LEAGUE and multiple earths!

LEE and KIRBY at Marvel on FF, SPIDER-MAN, HULK, and X-MEN! BATMAN’s “new look”, Charlton’s BLUE BEETLE, CREEPY #1 & more!

MODERN MASTERS: CLIFF CHIANG

Spotlights the career of CLIFF CHIANG (artist of DC’s New 52 breakout hit WONDER WOMAN series) through a career-spanning interview, and loads of both iconic and rarely seen artwork from Cliff’s personal files. There’s also an in-depth look into the artist’s work process, and an extensive gallery of commissioned pieces, many in full-color. By CHRIS ARRANT and ERIC NOLEN-WEATHINGTON.

1960-64: (224-page FULL-COLOR HARDCOVER) $39.95 (Digital Edition) $11.95 • ISBN: 978-1-60549-045-8 • Out now!

1980s: (288-page FULL-COLOR HARDCOVER) $41.95 (Digital Edition) $12.95 • ISBN: 978-1-60549-046-5 • Out now!

(192-page trade paperback with COLOR) $27.95 ISBN: 978-1-60549-051-9 • (Digital Edition) $8.95 • Ships July 2013

All characters TM & ©2013 their respective owners.

(120-page trade paperback with COLOR) $15.95 (Digital Editions) $4.95 • ISBN: 978-1-60549-050-2 Ships May 2013

THE STAR*REACH COMPANION

Complete history of the influential 1970s independent comic, featuring work by and interviews with DAVE STEVENS, FRANK BRUNNER, HOWARD CHAYKIN, STEVE LEIALOHA, WALTER SIMONSON, BARRY WINDSOR-SMITH, KEN STEACY, JOHN WORKMAN, MIKE VOSBURG, P. CRAIG RUSSELL, DAVE SIM, MICHAEL GILBERT, and many others, plus full stories from STAR*REACH and its sister magazine IMAGINE. Cover by CHAYKIN! MATURE READERS ONLY.

KEITH DALLAS documents comics’ 1980s Reagan years: Rise and fall of JIM SHOOTER, FRANK MILLER as comic book superstar, DC’s CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS, MOORE and GAIMAN’s British invasion, ECLIPSE, PACIFIC, FIRST, COMICO, DARK HORSE and more!

DAN SPIEGLE: A LIFE IN COMIC ART

PLUGGED IN!

COMICS PROS IN THE VIDEO GAME INDUSTRY

Documents his 60-year career on DELL and GOLD KEY’S licensed TV and Movie adaptions (LOST IN SPACE, KORAK, MAGNUS ROBOT FIGHTER, MIGHTY SAMPSON), at DC COMICS (BATMAN, UNKNOWN SOLDIER, TOMAHAWK, JONAH HEX, TEEN TITANS, BLACKHAWK), his CROSSFIRE series for ECLIPSE, DARK HORSE’S INDIANA JONES series and more, with rare artwork, personal photos, and private commission drawings. Written by JOHN COATES.

Offers invaluable tips for anyone entering the Video Game field, or with a fascination for both comics and gaming. KEITH VERONESE interviews artists and writers who work in video games full-time: JIMMY PALMIOTTI, CHRIS BACHALO, MIKE DEODATO, RICK REMENDER, TRENT KANIUGA, and others. Whether you’re a noob or experienced gamer or comics fan, be sure to get PLUGGED IN!

(160-page trade paperback) $19.95 • (Digital Edition) $6.95 ISBN: 978-1-60549-048-9 • Ships May 2013

(104-page trade paperback) $14.95 • (Digital Edition) $4.95 ISBN: 978-1-60549-049-6 • Ships May 2013

(128-page trade paperback with COLOR) $16.95 ISBN: 978-1-60549-047-2 • (Digital Edition) $5.95 • Now shipping!

SUBSCRIBE! • Digital Editions: 3.95 each, or save with a digital subscription (digital editions are included FREE with a print subscription)!

• Back Issue, Draw, Alter Ego & Comic Book Collector are now all full-color!

• Lower international shipping rates! $

2013 SUBSCRIPTION RATES: (with FREE Digital Editions)

Media Mail

1st Class Canada 1st Class Priority US Intl.

Intl.

Digital Only

JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR (4 issues)

$50

$68

$65

$72

$150

$15.80

BACK ISSUE! (8 issues)

$60

$80

$85

$107

$155

$23.60

DRAW! (4 issues)

$30

$40

$43

$54

$78

$11.80

ALTER EGO (8 issues)

$60

$80

$85

$107

$155

$23.60

COMIC BOOK CREATOR (4 issues w/Special)

$36

$45

$50

$65

$95

$15.80

BRICKJOURNAL (6 issues)

$57

$72

$75

$86

$128

$23.70

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TwoMorrows. A New Day For Comics Fans!

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THE BEST OF ALTER EGO, VOL. 2

This sequel to ALTER EGO: THE BEST OF THE LEGENDARY COMICS FANZINE presents more vintage features from the first super-hero fanzine, begun by JERRY BAILS & ROY THOMAS. Editors ROY THOMAS and BILL SCHELLY reveal undiscovered gems from all 11 original issues published from 1961-78, including features on Hawkman, the Spectre, Blackhawk, the JLA, All Winners Squad, the Heap, an unsold “Tor” newspaper strip by JOE KUBERT, and more!