Comic Book Creator #26 Preview by TwoMorrows Publishing

™

A TwoMorrows Publication

Adventureman TM & © Milkfed Criminal Masterminds, Inc. and Terry Dodson.

No. 26, Summer 2021

82658 00435

$9.95 in the USA

Cover art by Terry Dodson & Rachel Dodson

S u m m e r 2 0 2 1 • T h e Te r r y D o d s o n I s s u e • N u m b e r 2 6

T WOODY QUINN CBC mascot by J.D. KING

About Our Cover Pencils & Colors: TERRY DODSON Adventureman TM & © Milkfed Criminal Masterminds, Inc. and Terry Dodson.

Inks: RACHEL DODSON

Ye Ed’s Rant: Keepin' nose to the grindstone in this new Covid-19 landscape............... 2 COMICS CHATTER Up Front: The Perplexing Puzzle of ProJunior. Ye Ed’s ridiculously thorough history of onetime fanzine mascot to star of his own underground comix................. 3 Sal Quartuccio’s Portfolio Investment: Part two of CBC’s detailed interview covers the prozine publisher on his prolific comics-related print & portfolio endeavors..... 12 Will Eisner’s Artifacts of Affection: The sequential art great’s Valentines and anniversary cards made for his wife, Ann, who passed away earlier this year....... 19 Once Upon a Long Ago: Steven Thompson on actress/comics writer Merrie Spaeth....23 Incoming: Our letters column returns with talk of P. Craig Russell and Wendy Pini..... 26 The Fabulous Fanzines of the ’70s: Ken Meyer, Jr., looks at great comics ’zines........ 28 Ten Questions: Darrick Patrick gets answers from “Stormbreaker” Peach Momoko... 34 Hembeck’s Dateline: Get into The Spirit with Fred’s Fab Four/Deadman mash-up..... 35 Comics in the Library: R. Arndt tells us what moves (and doesn’t) off the shelves.... 36 THE MAIN EVENT

Above: Featuring pencils and colors by Terry Dodson and inks by Rachel Dodson, our cover features Clair Connelly, star of Terry and writer Matt Fraction’s Image Comics series, Adventureman, as well as the ’40s pulp hero (who shares the same name as the comic title) and Phaedra Phantom. The second story arc is set for release in September.

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“Sheer Chance” and the Art of Terry Dodson Our candid conversation with the superb artist about his pro career, from a start in alternative comics, early work at Malibu, partnership with wife Rachel, breakout with Harley Quinn, and years bouncing between Marvel and DC, with SpiderMan and the Black Cat, spectacular Wonder Woman run, various X-Men titles, and “dream come true” work on Star Wars: Princess Leia. Also included are brief though informative chats with Terry’s live-in creative collaborator, Rachel, and Matt Fraction, co-creator and writer of Terry’s latest hit, series, Adventureman!.......40 BACK MATTER Creators at the Con: Continuing a wistful look at NYCC by Kendall Whitehouse.......... 78 Coming Attractions: CBC #27 celebrates Paul Gulacy and remembers Joe Sinnott...... 79 A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words: George Pérez’s Thanagarian constables...... 80 Right: Terry Dodson jettisoned to stardom with his rendition of Harley Quinn in the ’00s. This detail is from Terry’s cover art for 2017’s Harley Quinn by Karl Kesel and Terry Dodson Deluxe Edition Vol. 1.

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Comic Book Artist Vol. 1 & 2 are available as digital downloads from twomorrows.com Harley Quinn TM & © DC Comics.

COMIC BOOK CREATOR is a proud joint production of Jon B. Cooke/TwoMorrows

Comic Book Creator ™ is published quarterly (more or less) by TwoMorrows Publishing, 10407 Bedfordtown Dr., Raleigh, NC 27614 USA. Phone: (919) 449-0344. Jon B. Cooke, editor. John Morrow, publisher. Comic Book Creator editorial offices: P.O. Box 601, West Kingston, RI 02892 USA. E-mail: jonbcooke@aol.com. Send subscription funds to TwoMorrows, NOT to the editorial offices. Four-issue subscriptions: $46 US, $69 International, $18 Digital. All characters are © their respective copyright owners. All material © their creators unless otherwise noted. All editorial matter ©2021 Jon B. Cooke/TwoMorrows. Comic Book Creator is a TM of Jon B. Cooke/TwoMorrows. ISSN 2330-2437. Printed in China. FIRST PRINTING.

up front

The Perplexing Puzzle of Don Dohler’s ProJunior Ye Ed cracks the case of the Wild! mascot’s journey from fanzines to hippie comix

Don Dohler’s ProJunior TM & © Denis Kitchen. Cover art © the estate of Jay Lynch. “ProJunior” splash © Robert Crumb. True Crime Comics panel © the respective copyright holder.

by JON B. COOKE I’ll be honest. I never really got it. And maybe it’s no surprise that I still don’t get it. But, boy oh boy, did it ever get me! I’m talking about Don Dohler’s ProJunior, an anthology underground comic book published by Denis Kitchen in 1971. The one-shot, featuring mostly single-pagers by cartoonists of varying talent, was all centered around this oddball character, a young feller totally unknown to most everyone, who sometimes donned a leopard-skin jungle suit (think Elmo Lincoln in his Tarzan movies), though usually in normal-day attire. He sorta-kinda resembled Blondie’s Dagwood Bumstead, replete with cow-licked hair, though there was one glaring difference he had with Chic Young’s suburban dad: instead of whites in the eyes and dark pupils, ProJunior had freaky black eyeballs with white pupils! It was likely 1972 when, as a newly-arrived teenager of 13 years, I got my greasy paws on an “Adults Only” 50¢ copy. Maybe I had already seen R. Crumb’s earlier take on the character, in Bijou Funnies #4 [’70], in a cover-featured five-pager (which also introduced ProJunior’s “faithful teen-age girl companion,” Honeybunch Kaminski). So it could be that my curiosity had already been piqued, but what I clearly recall is being baffled over the origins of this purported icon of underground comix. Had I somehow failed to recognize some ancient beloved comic strip of the distant past for which all hippie cartoonists were now hip? I’d always been afflicted with a nerdish interest in pop culture of yore, so, sure, I recognized the Warner Brothers prison movie vibe of Jay Lynch’s cover art, but—bam!—

turning to the inside cover, with “Bosstown Glob” writer Joe Pilati’s introduction, I was—contextually—utterly lost. What in tarnation was Joe talking about? I didn’t know a Don Dohler Wild! from a Skip Williamson Squire. Any notion of “fanzine” was just beginning to gestate in my nascent noggin, and that was only because of what smidgen or two I’d learned about science fiction fandom. So I reckon I’ve been on a quest ever since. Most anyone I’ve interviewed who may have had even the remotest association with that singular comic book has been peppered with my questions, which can be distilled down to a simple pair of queries: “Who ProJunior?” and “Why ProJunior?” And—spoiler alert— even today, I’ve yet to be given a sufficient answer to either question, even though I’ve spoken with the character’s creator, as well as to ProJunior’s numerous revivalists, his publisher, and a few contributors to that single issue which apparently continues to haunt my dreams. But, like they say, the journey’s the thing, so let’s embark on this ridiculously comprehensive, 15-years-in-the-making “investigative” feature on the lives and times of “America’s Favorite Teen-Age Jungle Lord,” sometime fearless protector of the proletariat, and struggling cartoonist, ProJunior! From the Fanzines They Came Our search for the “who” of ProJunior begins with the guy who bore the name emblazoned Walt Disney-like atop the comic book’s logo: Mr. Don Dohler. Around 2005, through a friendly e-mail exchange, I was in touch with the gent (courtesy of Jay Lynch), who, since birthing the character, went on to some renown as a low-budget sciencefiction/horror filmmaker and founder of influential special effects magazine Cinemagic. But though he readily agreed to an interview about ProJunior and his influential fanzine work, Donald Michael Dohler sadly succumbed to cancer on Dec. 2, 2006. Thankfully, filmmaker John Kinhart, who sub-

Above: Jay Lynch based his ProJunior cover on Jack Cole’s panel in True Crime Comics #2 [May 1948], below. The first printing contained an erroneous contributor count, later fixed on future printings.

Left: R. Crumb’s iconic splash page of his Bijou Funnies #4 [June 1970] ProJunior story, later used in part as an ironon T-shirt transfer sold by the Bijou Publishing Empire. COMIC BOOK CREATOR • Summer 2021 • #26

This spread: Clockwise from above are covers of the first two issues of Don Dohler’s Wild! fanzine, circa 1961, featuring his mascot creation, ProJunior; Dohler drew this comparison of his middle-school ProJunior design and the fanzine version for Mark James Estren’s A History of Underground Comics [1974]; Wild! #1 page introducing the ’zine’s mascot, replete with physical description; Jay Lynch cover art for Wild! #8; Lynch’s version of the mascot, 1962; panel by Dohler, using a backward spelling of his name; and Wild! co-editor Mark Tarka portrait of Dohler, taken after they called it quits on the ’zine.

first interaction between the teenagers? “My memory is more fallible than ever,” Spiegelman recently confessed. “I remember it being Cracked, but that may only be the memory of once having remembered something. I’m sure we all read Sick as well as Cracked in that period, but [Pilati’s] letter definitely mentioned Smudge and, most importantly, had a contact address.” Lynch also recalled it was after purchasing Smudge #1 through the mail when he started contributing to subsequent issues, but Lynch and Williamson cartoons were published in Pilati’s debut number. Discrepancies aside, what is important for our retrospective here is that Pilati, who would go on to write for the Boston Globe and provide the introduction in ProJunior #1, included in the review section

#26 • Summer 2021 • COMIC BOOK CREATOR

Wild! TM & © the estate of Don Dohler.

sequently directed Pigheaded, a fine documentary about the life and art of underground cartoonist Skip Williamson, had previously interviewed Dohler at great length for Kinhart’s debut effort, Blood, Boobs & Beast [2007], a flick specifically about Dohler’s eclectic, amazing career (available on Amazon Prime, kids!). Those multiple conversations included talk on the genesis of ProJunior and Kinhart generously shared relevant outtakes for our purposes here. One popular notion of fanzines devoted to comics has it that they essentially began with Jerry Bails’ Alter-Ego, in 1961, but it was the E.C. Comics of the 1950s which had earlier spawned any number of ’zines, some of which expanded their focus to MAD magazine and its imitators. And exposure to any given issue often prompted readers to start their own efforts. Robert Crumb said, “On the letter page in Humbug [#9, Apr. ’58], there was a letter from a guy [Doug Brown] who published a fanzine called Spoof, and that opened a whole world to [brother] Charles and me. Discovering comic fandom broke us out of the isolation of our own little world of comics and changed our lives.” A community of future comix cartoonists was forming, and (as with Spoof being mentioned in Humbug) it was in the pages of the newsstand mags where that crowd first came together, with one such letter serving as catalyst for connecting Jay Lynch, Art Spiegelman, and Skip Williamson. As legend would have it, around 1961, the three became acquainted due to a notice purportedly printed in Cracked—a MAD knock-off—which plugged 14-year-old Joe Pilati’s humor-focused fanzine, Smudge. Despite the anecdote being repeated numerous times, most often by Lynch, a look through early issues of Cracked finds no such plug, though there is a single letter of comment by Pilati [#21, Sept. ’61], yet it doesn’t include his mailing address or mention of any fanzine. But, in another MAD rival mag, Sick #6 [June ’61], an intelligent LOC from Pilati does include his street address (though nothing about Smudge). Is it possible this missive was the conduit for the

print & portfolio maven

SQP’s Portfolio Investment

Sal Quartuccio on riding the cresting wave during the comic art print and portfolio craze Interview conducted by JON B. COOKE [In the first part of his interview last issue, Brooklyn-born publisher Sal Quartuccio shared that he had taken his innovative prozine effort, Hot Stuf’, as far as it could go after eight issues, and he began to ease away from the comics publishing game. And, as we learn here, the savvy entrepreneur subsequently not only helped jumpstart an entirely new fad in fandom—the print and portfolio craze—he was the leading portfolio publisher during its 1975–85 heyday (and publisher of Judge Dredd for a spell). This interview, which includes a bit of background on Hot Stuf’ overlooked in the previous discussion, was conducted in late September of last year and then transcribed by Rose Rummel-Eury. Sal provided a final edit. —Y.E.]

Above and inset right: In 1978, Sal Quartuccio ventured into prints and portfolios with two sets of Neal Adams’ “Jungle Man” pieces originally produced for the Ballantine Tarzan paperback series.

we came up with the idea of doing the Neal Adams’ Tarzan portfolio. We knew of a very good printer out in Long Island that specialized in heavy cardstock with heavy lamination— very classy. They mainly do a lot of point-of-purchase displays, fancy postcards, and flyers. We double-checked their press sizes that would give us four prints out of a sheet. We then checked with our envelope supplier for a large-enough envelope that could be printed and the interior cardboard for strength. We pieced it altogether and presented it to Neal. He loved the idea. He let us borrow 11 paintings out of the 12 in the set, and there was a 13th painting that was not complete, which is what we used on the folder. The 12th missing Tarzan painting was in [DC Comics President] Jenette Kahn’s office and she let us borrow it… she was very kind. We shot all the paintings and made beautiful transparencies of them, laid it all out, and we had the first

#26 • Summer 2021 • COMIC BOOK CREATOR

Jungle Man TM & © Neal Adams.

Bottom: Photos of longtime SQP partners Sal Quartuccio and Bob Keehan at various times in their decades-long association, from the early years (left), to 2013 (center), and in 1997, flanking George Pérez.

Comic Book Creator: If you ask me, in the midto later ’70s, portfolios were a real craze. There seem to be so many that came out. Can you share the development of the portfolio trend in your memory? How did this all start happening? Sal Quartuccio: There were already portfolios being done by Middle Earth around 1973, Frazetta prints and I remember a set by John and Marie Severin... CBC: Right. They did Kull the Conqueror and all that. Sal: In 1977, [business partner] Bob [Keenan] and I were actually housesitting for Phil Seuling and [partner] Jonni Levas, who were on an overseas trip. We dropped them off at the airport and went back to their home in the Sea Gate community in Brooklyn. We were tossing ideas around and talked about the gorgeous Tarzan paintings Neal Adams was working on at the time. I said, “It would be beautiful if we could print those Tarzan paintings in a larger format than the very small size of the paperbacks [used as covers of the Ballantine paperback series].” We came up with a format based on press-size and paper-size, and the type of paper stock I’d want to use. Then we’d want to make a folder that the prints could all fit into, a larger press and paper size. Then we’d need different sized envelopes that could fit the prints along with cardboard and everything else. So it was at Phil’s that

Batman, Hawkman, Vigilante TM & © DC Comics. Black Terror TM & © the respective copyright holder. Lone Ranger and Tonto TM & © Classic Media, LLC.

set printed and the first set came with the folder, so it was a larger-sized envelope and such. People liked it! I was really, really pleased with the printing. CBC: Do you remember the retail price? Sal: I think it was $10. CBC: Was the profit marginal? It sounds like a very expensive proposition. Sal: It was expensive. We used a very high-quality stock… the packaging… we really stuck our neck out on that. CBC: There has to be an ad somewhere. Sal: It’s a beautiful thing. CBC: Neal got a cut? Sal: Neal got a cut and some samples. (It’s only been three or four decades, Jon!) I’m think Set A was 1978. We did a regular edition and a signed-&-numbered edition. CBC: It was the first of its kind, right? Sal: As far as the color printing and folder and everything else, I’m not sure. Middle Earth was at it a few years before us, and I think Schanes and Schanes started around the same time as us. CBC: You sold them at shows and through the Comic Buyer’s Guide? Sal: Yes, and through [distributors] Bud Plant, Sea Gate, and there were quite a few smaller distributors, and they all took some. The Adams Tarzan portfolio was what I showed to Bernie [Wrightson], Mike [Kaluta], and Jeff ( Jones ), and that’s what got them interested in doing it. They saw the repro was really wonderful. From there, we did color sets with some of the TSR guys: Larry Elmore, Clyde Caldwell, and Fred Fields. Some were like the Tarzan stuff, which were reprints of printed pieces, but the Wrightson, Kaluta, Jones, [Howard] Chaykin, [Jim] Starlin, Jerry Bingham, Joe Linsner—all their stuff was brand- new. All the subsequent Marvel prints I did were brand-new. The Batman stuff by Marshall Rogers was new... CBC: How were the negotiations with DC for the Batman stuff? Sal: Marshall wanted to do it. We talked with Paul Levitz. We weren’t doing a lot of them, just for the comic market. It was no problem. It wasn’t a huge print run. Marshall was very happy with it, even the limited plate that he did. He did a little 8½" X 11" plate that was very nice. It did well, but dealing with DC is kind of tricky. You don’t want to get too involved with licensing—at least I didn’t want to get too involved with the licensing thing after the Marvel thing. I didn’t want to get too dependent on it. About the only licensed jobs I did after Marvel and DC were Conan and T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents. The two T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents portfolios I did with John Carbonaro, my old friend who owned the rights to the property. We got George Tuska to do a new black-&-white set and Tom Tenney (who works on

the Creepshow TV show) did a set. They didn’t do much at all, but it was nice that we did them. CBC: What was your most successful one? Sal: Almost all of them had the same print run, so nothing really stands out. Jerry Bingham’s set, Malevolent Maidens, Blood Lust by Jim Balent sold quickly. Kim DeMulder, Esteban Maroto, Hector Gomez, Simon Bisley, Craig Hamilton, Rich Corben, Bart Sears, Butch Guice, all were very popular. The Fastner/Larson Flesh and Blood was very popular. They must have done 10 or 15 portfolios for us. CBC: That was the beginning of your cheesecake stuff? Sal: We found that our audience were not interested in the sci-fi type of images. Females in exciting situations, vampires, barbarians, very creative ideas. The masters of

COMIC BOOK CREATOR • Summer 2021 • #26

Above: Marshall Rogers produced a splendid set of color plates for the SQP-published 1981 portfolio.

Below: While not as big a seller as any number of SQP portfolios, Gray Morrow’s six color plate Heroes set from 1975 was beautiful work by an underappreciated comics master.

artifacts of affection

Will & Ann Eisner: A Spirited Romance

Declarations of devotion made by the legendary creator for his beloved wife

All © the estate of Will & Ann Eisner.

by JON B. COOKE In 2004, while my brother Andrew and I were shooting our documentary, Will Eisner: Portrait of a Sequential Artist, us Cooke boys were witness to a tender moment between the great Will Eisner and his wife of 54 years, Ann. While the sequential art master was dutifully signing a batch of prints his art agent, Denis Kitchen, was shuffling one after the other before him, Will was engaged in a continuing and affectionate banter with Ann, who was in an adjoining room in their hotel suite. Nothing of any import was spoken between the couple; it was just a charming and witty backand-forth for a few minutes, and then the chatter turned to the evening plans. There was such warmth between the two amid the almost constant teasing and good-natured ribbing. The pair were playing to their audience a little bit, but beyond any performance, Andy and I could sense the enduring love the two had for one another. That would be Will’s last Comic-Con International. The legendary graphic novelist died the following January, well before we finished our movie, but thereafter we developed an endearing friendship with Ann. She was playful with us, jokingly confessing to Andy and I that she couldn’t decide which Cooke brother was the most handsome. She allowed our film crew to take over her Florida condo for a day of interviewing and she sat between us at the premiere of our movie at the 2007 Tribeca Film Festival, telling us she was moved by the documentary and endorsing our effort. It was easy to see why longtime bachelor William Erwin Eisner gave up the single life at 33 to marry Ann Louise Weingarten, on June 15, 1950. Sure, she was quite pretty, but most of all the diminutive charmer was smart and engaging, able to give just as much as she got. The couple had two kids, a daughter who, in her teens, died of leukemia, and a son with emotional issues, so life was serious as well as joyful. Through it all, and to her very end, on Nov. 12, 2020, at age 97, was a kind and generous soul, who will be missed by both Cooke brothers, including the handsomest one. During our 2006 visit, Ann graciously allowed Yours Truly to scan personal artifacts, much of which is seen here. Above: The newlyweds on their wedding day, June 15, 1950. Inset left: A Valentine’s Day card (cover at far left; reveal at near left) from Will to Ann. Date unknown. Pgs. 18 & 19: Various Valentine’s Day and birthday cards made by Will for his wife, Ann. Pg. 20: Clockwise from top left is Ann Eisner on her wedding day; the playful couple; Ann during Ye Ed’s visit in 2006; Will’s Valentine; Ann and her man. COMIC BOOK CREATOR • Summer 2021 • #26

All © the estate of Will and Ann Eisner.

#26 • Summer 2021 • COMIC BOOK CREATOR

incoming

The Language of Illustrating P. Craig Russell and the continuing education of artists, plus Wendy Pini’s candor Write to CBC: jonbcooke@aol.com or P. O. Box 204, West Kingston, RI 02892 Below: In his letter o’ comment, Brian Martin makes mention of this snazzy “Arabian Nights Sandman” sculpture, the design of which was based on P. Craig Russell’s rendition of Neil Gaiman’s “Lord of Sleep” character in Sandman #50 [June 1993]. Design by PCR and sculpting by Randy Bowen.

Sorry you have not had letters to fill a page. In my case, it had been a very busy bunch of months. I hope I can make up for it now. My comments on Comic Book Creator #22 will deal with the interview with P Craig Russell. He has always been a favorite of mine and I found his comments to be very concise and that has allowed me to offer my two cents on very specific paragraphs and subjects. The descriptions of Mr. Russell’s inking technique on various artists, notably Steve Ditko and Gil Kane on pages 54 and 55 was wonderful. I love that sort of behind-thescenes stuff. It has always seemed to me that comic book art, be it penciling or inking, involves so much thinking as well as artistic skill. In that same vein, I believe inkers always get the short end of the stick when people talk about the process and comments like these show that to just not be true. The fact that opera was a lower-class music was very funny. Especially for a Jeopardy fan who sees the dreaded “Opera” category appear fairly regularly. I’m always surprised how much I know about opera and a lot of that is probably because of people like Mr. Russell incorporating operatic themes and storylines or, in his case, adapting them directly. (Along the same lines, I often comment to people that my initial exposure to classical music as well as some opera was from Bugs Bunny cartoons!) If I am not mistaken, the Sandman with the globe illustration on page 60 was replicated as a statue later on. As youngsters, we would never have considered that there would be a healthy market for statues based on comic book characters let alone ones based on specific panels or poses! As someone who is a voracious reader outside of comics, I also have a love of comic book adaptations of prose stories. They always seem to be so much more faithful than if something is made into a movie. With that in mind, the dissection on page 64 of what the artist can add to an adaptation was quite revelatory. Of course, you have to make a concession for the fact that the artist’s interpretation of the characters rarely matches what you had in your head, but that is true with any adaptation and certainly with the voices of characters when the stories are made into movies. I love the spread on pages 66–67. Doctor Strange: What Is It That Disturbs You, Stephen? is one of my all-time favorite books. Strangely (pun intended), I did not pick up the original Dr. Strange Annual [#1, 1976] until years after I had read that book! I also might even have been a little disappointed that Mr. Russell did not revisit the tale in 2016 as he threatened he might in his text page since What Is It…? came 20 years after 1976’s Annual. My other memory of that book is you mentioning in an early issue of Comic Book Artist that you had not seen the newer version. In one of the Marvel-centric early issues [#6, Nov. 1999], you discussed the Annual, but had not seen the redo and were pretty rabid about tracking it down.

When PCR talks about the… language, if you will… of illustrating comics, it makes me think. After reading comics for (gulp) 45 years, do I subconsciously understand what the artist is trying to do or is doing? Is that why I like some artists more than others? Is that why I find some stories flow better than others? I don’t have answers to these questions, but I do know, after reading years of scholarly comic magazines, I can see when an artist made an error. This applies to when their storytelling does not make sense or even when a picture has a pair of lines that intersect incorrectly so as to make the image itself confusing. At times, I think we are able to appreciate the “awesome pictures” when we see them, but our brains subliminally react to the problems that the artist had to overcome in composing the individual pages and pictures. It is good to know that even seasoned pros are still learning about these things. About my only criticism of the article is that in more than one instance, illustrations that accompanied the article were placed on different pages than the sections of the text that referenced them. This just caused a bit more page flipping than usual. Looking forward to future issues, and during these times, when they will go on sale! [Well, I do strive to have graphics be close to relevant text, as much as possible, so please have mercy, Brian! Thanks for writing.— Y.E.]

Joe Frank I laughed at the Ye Ed’s Rant assessment of your Wendy Pini interview “almost evolving into a therapy session!” I wouldn’t go quite that far. It was probing and personal, but she—like any subject—could simply ask you not go there, refuse to answer, or, for that matter, declare the interview over. (Question: Do you discuss parameters beforehand and are they edited, afterward, to omit any contentious exchanges, assuming there are any?) This was, as advertised, an epic interview. Even more so since I’m not an Elfquest reader, yet greatly enjoyed the conversation. Oh, I knew of the title and admired the fact that it had done so well and been around so long, but I’ve never been a fan of outright fantasy. So, no criticism from me of her material as done… it’s unfamiliarity on my part rather than any negative judgment. I did crack up, however, when she was asked about Tolkien’s work; if she’d read it. Loved her answer: “Ummm… I tried.” I attempted reading The Hobbit in third grade, and found it ten times more indecipherable than my worst school textbook. (Another great laugh: she got her comics at a pool hall.) Also admirable was her assessment of how a challenging home life could find a positive outlet rather than nurturing self-destructive tendencies—“creativity becomes a coping mechanism.” Innovating work, in addition to reading examples by others, becomes a welcome escape. Though she was quite candid about her adoptive parents, she sure didn’t paint herself as a saint either, as [when she said]: “you can’t tell me no. You can’t tell me what to do.” If she didn’t have friends at home, that nudged her, through her work, to make some outside. Those became her surrogate family. Yet, even there, it’s not perfect. Fans, #25 • Winter 2021 • COMIC BOOK CREATOR

The Sandman TM & © DC Comics.

Brian Martin

infectious ’70s fanaticism

50 Years of Fanzines Ken Meyer, Jr., takes a look at the fan scene at 50, the epic playground of the past by KEN MEYER, JR.

Bill Pearson), Infinity, and Graphic Story Magazine (the latter being more a historical mag with highly literate interviews and articles). Some straddled the line between prozine and magazine, or even underground comic, such as Richard Corben’s flagship, Fantagor, or Hot Stuf’. I tend to classify those publications produced by fans as fanzines, regardless of the sheen of professionalism. Alter Ego is widely thought of as one of the best fanzines. It was started in 1961 by “superfan” Jerry Bails (who soon after published The Comicollector, the first comics adzine), and Roy Thomas, who came on board later… and we all know what happened to him! On the opposite end of the spectrum were those labeled with the not too flattering moniker “crudzines.” A favorite of modern fanzine aficionado Aaron Caplan, the crudzines were usually shoddily printed, totally fan populated, had smaller print runs, and substandard art. For some, like Caplan, they were the ones that had the purest fan enthusiasm. Fanzines would cost anywhere from 25¢ to a couple of dollars. I cannot count the times I taped quarters to an index card and sent away for some treasure! But it was easily worth whatever coins we could scrounge together to see amazing art, interesting stories, informative articles, reports on conventions I could never attend, and photos of professionals I would never meet. Fanzines were a meeting place for the like-minded, a place where we could meet new friends, some we would keep for the rest of our lives. As mentioned at the beginning of the article, The

#26 • Summer 2021 • COMIC BOOK CREATOR

The Buyer’s Guide for Comic Fandom TM & © Krause Publications. Metamorpho TM & © DC Comics. Alter Ego TM & © Roy and Dann Thomas. CPL TM & © Bob Layton. Toth artwork © the estate of Alex Toth.

Above: The one that started it all, Jerry Bails’ first fanzine, Alter Ego #1 [1961], represented by a sharpened scan here. Inset right: Fred Hembeck’s cover art for The Buyer’s Guide for Comic Fandom #364 [Nov. 7, 1980]. Be sure to check out Fred’s career-spanning interview in The Comic Book Artist Bullpen Collection, coming soon from TwoMorrows! Below: Alex Toth’s extraordinary cover art for CPL #11 [1974].

A 14-year-old boy walked into the library during lunchtime to look at the usual art books, but the librarian (the nice one, not the mean one) called him over before he could reach the stacks. On the table in front of her was a newspaper. But this looked like no newspaper he had ever seen. Across the front and back was a black-&-white drawing of a group of barbarians cresting a hill, swords and spears raised and ready for battle, a misty moon behind them. It was the coolest thing he had seen in a long while. She told him this was a newspaper all about his favorite subject—comic books! His mouth dropped open and remained there as he thumbed through the pages. Ads selling comics! Articles on comics! And advertisements for something totally new, something called… fanzines! His mind was blown and his life had just been changed forever! No doubt you’ve figured out that the youngster was me, and maybe even realized that the paper was The Buyer’s Guide for Comic Fandom, one nexus in 1971 for comics and fandom among very few at that time. I wrote to the publisher, Alan Light, and he was incredibly nice to reply, not only with a subscription to the publication, but several current zines for free, as well! You can blame Alan for my ascent into the world of fanzines. So, what are fanzines, anyway? There have been fanzines for almost every subject for quite a long time. Wikipedia states that “the term was coined in an October 1940 science fiction fanzine by Russ Chauvenet and first popularized within science fiction fandom.” The term was later applied to any number of subjects presented by amateur fans of those subjects; comics, literature, sports, music… the list goes on and on. This article will focus primarily on the comic book centered fanzines of the late 1960s through to the early ’80s, which, coincidentally, was the timespan I was a fanzine maniac! Fanzines had several levels of quality. Many still cannot agree on what constitutes the difference between a fanzine and a “pro-zine.” The latter usually had better design and production, a higher caliber of artists and writers (many already professionals), and a price tag to match. Some of the best include Heritage, Phase, witzend (from Wally Wood, later taken over by

The Buyer’s Guide for Comic Fandom TM & © Krause Publications. RBCC TM & © the respective copyright holder. Blue Beetle TM & © DC Comics.

Buyer’s Guide for Comic Fandom (TBG), from Alan Light, was one of the few gathering places for comic book and fanzine fans. Remember, this was long before the internet. People got their news either in the comics themselves or through the mail. There was a certain degree of anticipation that would build and build as you waited weeks to get your prized possession. Publisher Light maintained a very steady schedule, eventually coming out weekly while offering free subscriptions (the ads paid the bills). He added more and more editorial content as time went on, including columnists like Don and Maggie Thompson (who would later take over the publication and change the name to Comics Buyers Guide). The covers were occasionally done by established professionals like Dan Adkins, Joe Sinnott, Jack Kirby and Frank Thorne, but the lion’s share were done by fan artists. (You can see Alan’s many comics-related photos by searching his name at www.flickr.com.) One other regular publication (fanzines did not usually last long or hold to a regular schedule) was Rocket’s Blast-Comicollector (RBCC). Formed when two fanzines merged (Rocket’s Blast and The Comicollector), RBCC was edited and published by G.B. Love and later taken over by James Van Hise. Van Hise fairly quickly moved the focus from ads to actual editorial content (TBG’s popularity had a hand in that, as well, attracting more ads) and gave some of the best artists of that time space to shine (those that Love had not already published). Covers were by artists such as Robert Kline (a fan fave who later made his career in animation), Mike Zeck, Don Newton, Bernie Wrightson, Kerry Gammill, and John G. Fantucchio (another fan favorite, who worked primarily a teacher), among many others. Lastly in this category, is The Comic Reader (yet another Jerry Bails publication, started in 1961 as On the Drawing Board before changing its name). Though TCR ran through a slew of editors (most of whom went on to careers in the comic field), it lasted as long as almost any other fanzine. It was, however, was more a news source for those comic fans than a space for creativity. It sported a ton of beautiful covers by the more polished fans and many pros. That

was, by and large, the only non-news material in its pages however (though later issues would contain strips by some of fandom’s most loved creators, including this magazine’s Fred Hembeck, as well as Alan Hanley). Like other genres of fanzines, there were those specializing in very specific topics. E.C. Comics were covered in high-class zines, such as Squa Tront, Spa Fon, and Seraphim. Boasting illustrations by many industry greats, these zines were truly high-water marks. In addition to established pros, soon to be art gods such as Bernie Wrightson, Michael Kaluta, and Richard Corben filled the pages. Squa Tront didn’t even need a title or any other text on the cover! Specific authors had their own fanzines as well. Robert E. Howard dominated Amra and Fantasy Crossroads, while Edgar Rice Burroughs readers could indulge in ERB-Zine and The Jasoomian. Specific comic characters or groups had their own crusaders. Batman had Batmania, while The Legion of Super-Heroes had The Legion Outpost. By the late 1970s, the “big two” noticed the groundswell amongst their readers and published their own house fanzines, Marvel with FOOM (the acronym of Friends of Ol’ Marvel) and DC with The Amazing World of DC Comics. I gathered an unofficial list through social media of the “best” fanzines of that

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Above: The Buyer’s Guide for Comic Fandom, #8 [Oct. 1971], with cover art by Dennis Fujitake. This was the issue of TBG that blew the mind of a young Ken Meyer, Jr. Below: Mike Zeck’s striking Blue Beetle cover art graces the cover of Rocket’s Blast Comicollector #135 [Apr. 1977].

Above: James Steranko’s stunning cover art for Gary Groth’s Fantastic Fanzine #10 [1970], with inks by Joe Sinnott. Below: This brilliant Steve Ditko artwork was printed with a two-color overlay for The Collector #26 [1972].

time. TBG and RBCC figure prominently, as do Squa Tront and Graphic Story Magazine. However, there are a group of zines that, at least to me, epitomize the combination of fannish enthusiasm with an intense desire to constantly improve. Though many of the editors of the following zines were not out of their teens when they started their respective publications, as a group, they elevated the field immensely. Fantastic Fanzine was started like many, by some crazy kid in his basement, expressing his enthusiasm about beloved comics through print. In this case, that crazy kid was Gary Groth. Gary started his “crappy little Xerox zine” (his words) in his early teens…younger even than I was when I started reading them! Gary’s skills as an editor and publisher grew by leaps and bounds with each issue. By #10, he had a beautiful Steranko cover and people working with him such as Tony Isabella, Robert Kline, Dennis Fujitake, and Dave Cockrum, all on the cusp of going pro. He also had a returning stable of writers and artists from issue to issue, including Al Grinage, Mike O’Neil, and others. Like many youngsters with some proximity to comic cons, Gary scored sketches from

the professionals he loved to proudly display in his personal outlet. Fantastic Fanzine ran for 13 issues, and eventually led to Gary’s leading The Comics Journal to becoming the premier magazine about the comics field. Of that transition to become TCJ, Gary told me that “I hadn’t the slightest idea what I really wanted to do; I was not a long-term thinker and my brain didn’t have anything rattling around in it that could be considered as thoughtful as a ‘goal.’ I was just having so much fun putting the ’zines together, making friends, and talking to artists I admired that I didn’t think beyond that. My path was not carefully mapped out, but ad hoc. In 1973, Roy Thomas offered me an assistant editor’s position at Marvel, but I demurred because I didn’t think I could live in New York on the salary he was offering; so, I went to work for Steranko instead for $15 a week. I’m not sure what I was thinking. But I was obviously flailing about, without a goal in sight.” Obviously Groth eventually found a goal worth pursuing, becoming one of the most erudite (and some would say crabby) critics of the field of comics. It was Gary that really gave the Hernandez brothers a forum for their award-winning comic, Love and Rockets. Around the same time Gary was laboring in his basement, an 11-year-old Bill Wilson was doing the same (in 1967, to be exact), working on his own love letter to comics, The Collector. Like FF, The Collector started off as a rough, half-size little trifle, really. But, in its 29 issues, the ’zine grew to be one of the most consistent and best put-together publications of its type. His journey was related to me through a series of questions for my online column, Ink Stains. He lamented that “… production was the biggest challenge. I knew nothing about printing—especially photo-offset printing, which I’d chosen over mimeo for its ‘slick professional’ look—and what I did learn early on was culled from correspondence with other publishers. As for the printing, I sent off those early issues to a printer Captain America TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc. Fantastic Fanzine TM & © Gary Groth. Mr. A TM & © the estate of Steve Ditko. The Collector TM & © Bill Wilson.

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No other word comes to mind about the art of Terry Dodson except charm. Okay, in truth there’s lots of descriptive words I can lay on the almost 30-year comics veteran’s stuff, but let’s agree charm is near’bouts top of the list. I first encountered the native Oregonian’s work at a Big Apple Con, sometime in the mid-’00s, where (if memory serves) he and wife Rachel’s table was incongruently set next to the spot occupied by no less than S. Clay Wilson (selling his childhood pirate comics) and Spain Rodriguez, two legendary— and notorious—underground comix artists. Much as I was in the thrall of the work of those ZAP collective members, I was completely captivated by Terry’s wonderful comic book work.

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This spread: Clockwise from above, is Claire, the star of Adventureman; Vera Yelnikov from Red One; Coraline from Terry’s first Songes album; Terry’s portrait from the Star Wars online wiki page; and Phaedra Phantom, from Adventureman. Background is original art pages. All art by Terry with inks by Rachel Dodson.

Comic Book Creator: Where were you born, Terry? Terry Dodson: Oregon, born and raised. Went to college at Portland State and then started working full-time in comics while still in college, so there was never a need for me to go anywhere else. Everyone in comics was either here or moved here. It was a nice place to live and it felt like the industry all came here eventually. CBC: Whereabouts are you today? Terry: I’m on the Oregon coast. I was born and grew up in a small town here. We were in Portland for almost 20 years and, once high-speed internet moved into the rural areas, we were ready to get out of the city and have more free time in the open green part. CBC: Do you come from a big family? Terry: Yes. I have four brothers. CBC: Where do you stand in the mix? Terry: I am the youngest. And by a gap, too, by six years with my next older brother. There are 14 years between the oldest and me. CBC: Were they into comics and the trappings of American youth? Terry: No. I was the only comic-book person. There was that gap in years and I was the only one who got into comics and creating art. I was completely different from my brothers, in that sense. There are no ties in that direction with either comics or creating art with my parents either. I was the last kid with more time and free space, you fill that up. CBC: Did you have close neighbors? Terry: For the most part, yes. The town I grew up in was pretty small, but we were in the “city part” of it. CBC: Was there a group of kids you hung out with? Terry: Yes. There were always kids to play with, play sports with, read comics with… whatever we did. CBC: To what do you attribute your creative streak?

Red One TM & © Xavier Dorison & Terry Dodson. Coraline TM & © D.P. Filipini & Terry Dodson. Photo © the respective copyright holder.

From the moment of that startling discovery on, I was a Dodson fan, immediately recognizing the vital contribution that Rachel’s inks brought to her husband’s pencils, and I found myself scouring the comic racks for wherever the couple’s work appeared as they bounced back and forth between DC and Marvel assignments. As of late, the Dodsons have been toiling in the independent realm, producing with writer Matt Fraction, Adventureman, an utterly (yes, there’s that word again) charming series published by Image that’s all-ages fun steeped in 1940s pulpish lore, supernatural menace, and New York City art deco. The first story arc was released amid the raging Covid-19 pandemic and widespread civil unrest. The second Adventureman arc is due about the time this CBC is out, hopefully a less viral, more healthy time. After Ye Ed promised the Dodsons I’d conduct that interview when first we met, the day finally came via chats with Terry this April.—Ye Ed. Terry: It’s very complicated. My first memory of drawing wasn’t until I was at least eight. I didn’t draw as a kid. There was no drawing in the house. I have no memory of comics in my early years. I know when I first started drawing, because I’d seen Star Wars and I became friends with a kid who was a Star Wars fan and he drew. So, it was from that I started drawing. I had never drawn before that. During our first time together, he showed me how to draw Jawas and T.I.E. fighters. That’s my memory of when I started to draw. CBC: You drew what? Terry: Jawas and T.I.E. fighters. Star Wars stuff. CBC: Sorry, I heard, “Jawas and typewriters.” [chuckles] Terry: He was showing me how to draw them, after he learned from the toys or photos, so, for my first drawing, I drew like my friend drew. And it went from there. I think it took a while for me to do my own. It wasn’t until he left after a couple of years and I was in the fifth grade. I started when I was eight and was 12 or 13, that age, when I was getting into comics and from that age on, in my spare time, I would draw to entertain myself. CBC: You were born in 1969? Terry: Nineteen seventy. CBC: You saw Star Wars when it was first released? Terry: Yes. I would have seen it late 1977 or even in mid-’78—I still haven’t figured that out exactly I was too young to understand the hype, but I remember there being magazines and books about it—I hadn’t even yet seen the trailer for it—and the vision of what

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Above: Due to a newborn fascination with the hit motion picture of that time, young Terry Dodson’s first exposure to fan culture came with Star Wars #14 [Aug. 1978] and Famous Monsters of Filmland #138 [Oct. ’77]. Below: Graduating preschooler Terry Dodson in 1975. Inset is the earliest existing work by Terry, who later described it: “Family Christmas card my mom had me draw in 1975, the year my dad died.”

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I thought it was came from seeing that stuff in the bookstore, and then going to the theater and being blown away. That weekend after we saw it, I remember going out and getting my first Star Wars comic book, #14 [Aug. ’78]… Famous Monsters of Filmland with the Star Wars cover [#138, Oct. ’77]… and it was all brand-new stuff for me, that kind of pop culture, fan culture. That was completely new. That got me into toys, which got me being with friends who played with the toys, and then I drew. I credit everything to Star Wars. It all channels back to that. CBC: Is that one reason you took on the Princess Leia assignment? Terry: Definitely. At that point, I had fairly burned out doing mainstream monthly work and I was already starting to do some creator-owned stuff and [chuckles] I got that phone call. There is one thing I would do on long-term mainstream project, it would be a Star Wars project. That would be it. When I heard about

Marvel getting the license, I thought, “That’s interesting!” But I was all ready to do creator-owned stuff and then I got that call: “We got the license.” “Oh, okay!” “We want to do something.” “That’s cool. What character?” “Princess Leia.” “Okay! But what era?” “The second after Star Wars ends.” So that appealed to the Star Wars fan in me. CBC: When you take on these assignments, do you confer with Rachel before you say yes or no? Terry: Umm… sort of. [pauses] Anything major, I talk to her about. Her stance on it all is: if I’m excited about it, then it shows in my work so she’s very excited to work on it. She doesn’t really care what we do, but if I’m excited about it, then that insures her knowing it’s something she wants to work on. She has similar tastes in that way. Our respective radar works well together to decide on what we will work on. CBC: I was looking through the checklist of all your work and there are so many covers, especially in the last six or seven years. Can you make a living off just doing covers? Terry: Yes, I could. However, I really enjoy storytelling, drawing pages, and creating worlds, which I can only really do in comics. But, yes, I could just do covers and get by, but I enjoy both. I think I enjoy actually drawing the pages more—doing the storytelling and world-building, and all that stuff—but the covers are fun in that they are the closest I can get to illustration and you get to try out things. “This is good; this is fun,” and then move to something else. CBC: Do you do other gigs? Do you teach at all? Terry: My bread and butter is doing comics, but every year there is stuff that I do that is either commercial jobs or online work or just oddball things, because it’s kind of fun to try other things and take on any kind of new challenge. My entire career, I’ve never been at a point where I had to look for something else. There’s always been an editor’s assignment in front of me. I think I’m in the 28th year now and there’s always been something else available for me to choose from. So there was never a point where I thought, “I need to get out and find something.” Teaching and all that… though there have been offers for that kind of stuff… but I’ve never been in a position to have to do things I hadn’t necessarily plan on doing. If I do something that is non-comics, it’s because it pays really well and it’s a challenge creatively. It’s good to develop a skill set. CBC: Can you give me a description of taking on that annual non-comics job, pre-Covid? Terry: Oh, let me think… I just did a piece for a video game, which hasn’t come out yet. That was a couple of months ago. CBC: So, if you feel right for a job that’s offered, you just go for it? Terry: I’m a creative person, and I like challenges, it’s good to get out of your comfort zone. Because of the internet, people are so easy to get a hold of nowadays. For 20 years now, it’s been easy to get a hold of me from the internet, so I get job offers from all over the place to do design work on something or illustration work for something. So that stuff always comes filtering through. And I’m always kind of busy. My professional schedule is always full, but if something unique comes along, I can push the date to a certain point and if it’s worth my time and fits the schedule for me to do it… like the cereal box for Count Chocula! [chuckles] That was such an goofball assignment! Everybody in the world knows Count Chocula cereal outside of comics, and I have family members far more excited about

that than any of the other stuff I had done. Because everybody’s grown up with that cereal and knows what it is! CBC: Of course! Terry: In the span of my career, though, now everybody knows Star Wars, Spider-Man and the X-Men, and all this stuff. It’s all so mainstream now, so when I tell them I work on a mainstream comic, everybody knows what that stuff is. The pop-culture awareness in society is hilarious. So, me just working on an issue of Spider-Man, “Oh yeah, Spider-Man! We know what that is.” In the beginning, that wasn’t the case. Not that I care, but it’s hilarious how everybody in every age group knows—or is a fan of—Deadpool or Wonder Woman, but that just did not happen when I first started working. CBC: Are your brothers cognizant of your work? Terry: Yes… plus their kids! Their kids, my nieces and nephews, are way more interested in my stuff. That’s a nice way to connect with them. CBC: Do you have kids? Terry: No, but between Rachel and me, we have 25 or 30 nieces and nephews, so we didn’t really feel the need. [laughter] They’re always around. CBC: Lucky you, Terry. You can say, “Goodbye.” Terry: That is kind of a reason. [chuckles] Our oldest nieces and nephews are now in their 30s and they’re having kids and it’s pretty neat to see the family grow. CBC: Were you sociable in junior high and high school? Terry: Actually, I was. I’ve always been a quiet person, but I did sports. I did three sports a year: football, track, and basketball, from seventh grade through my senior year. My dad coached and my brothers coached, so it was normal. I grew up playing sports and my friends played sports. I wasn’t that into sports, outside of me participating. I watch way more sports on TV now than I did as a kid. I didn’t really care about pro sports when I was playing… and winning! [laughs] CBC: Were you collecting comics through junior high and into high school? Terry: Yes. Star Wars got me into comics and through the ads selling all the Marvel stuff, I started buying Spider-Man and Fantastic Four. As soon as I started buying, I was collecting almost simultaneously. I saw the Mile High Comics ads and noticed the price of some back issues, and I thought, “The Star Wars comics I bought are worth that much money?” In my mind, that’s what I was thinking, so I was buying comics to read and as collectibles—as a hobby—from fourth grade on. I subscribed to Amazing Spider-Man and Fantastic Four in fourth or fifth grade for a year and then I realized that if I bought through the comic shop or the newsstand, I’d get them in better condition than the subscription copies. CBC: Were you indulged as a kid? That’s pretty young for getting subscriptions. Terry: They were just so cheap. I was very economically minded. With a subscription, you could get two for the price of one. That’s actually a really good deal. I think my first comic was 60¢ or 75¢, so I got a subscription, but I only did it for a year. I liked to go get the comic book. That was a big deal for me. CBC: Did you have jobs as a kid? Terry: My spending was pretty minimal. The only thing I spent money on as a kid was comics. I don’t know how much I was spending, but it wasn’t much. I didn’t start working until I was a freshman, summer jobs between eighth and ninth grades, and my spending increased then. Sports were cheap and then, for reading, there was the library. I don’t remember going to movies that often. I liked them, but didn’t spend much money on them—maybe once or twice a year. CBC: What did your dad do? Terry: Both my parents were teachers. My dad worked at the high school and my mom taught at the elementary school.

CBC: When you were in elementary school, your mom was also there? Terry: Yes, but what she did was switch the grades she taught, so she never taught my grades. CBC: But she was in the building, so that must have been something! [chuckles] Terry: Yes. It was cool for me. After school, I’d go hang out in her classroom when all the kids were gone and draw or watch movies on the school VCR she had in the classroom. We never had classes that overlapped. She did that on purpose.

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Above: Nine-year-old Terry drew this illo, circa 1980. Below: Eugene Register Guard, Oct. 23, 1986, with “articles that opened my mind to the reality of drawing comics. Gary Martin was an inker living in Eugene, and there’s mention of the launch of Dark Horse Comics in Milwaukie! I studied and studied this paper!”

I was in my junior year of high school. She was an artist as well, painting these gigantic five- by ten-foot animal paintings—wildlife paintings. We had numerous things in common, but for both of us to be interested in art was huge. CBC: Wow. Terry: She didn’t have any interest in comics, but—and this is funny and something I forgot about—but her and I would read stuff like Calvin and Hobbes and The Far Side. We loved that stuff. We would go in the high school library, grab the newspaper, and read the comics, so we did have a common ground in comic art, but I didn’t really think about it at the time as “comics,” because in my mind, comics was something completely different—comic books. It’s hilarious that we bonded over that stuff. The first gift I ever got her in high school was a Far Side T-shirt and she got me a Calvin and Hobbes collection. [chuckles] Later on, and this makes perfect sense, there was a long gap between my comic book world crossing over with her world. She went to school for interior design and I started working while still in college. About a year after I started working, I hooked her up with a friend in Portland—Gary Martin—being his

assistant, inking, because she had natural control of the brush from the first time she tried it. She was instantly a professional inker. She came in from that direction, having no interest in being a comic book artist, just having an amazing skill at doing it. She had instantaneous control, which most people work their whole lives to get, and she just had it. And she’s really meticulous and, through her own art, has a really artistic background. CBC: Were you each other’s first main relationship? Terry: The first real longterm, obviously, though we dated others in high school, but we stayed together from then on. It helped that she was a year older than me, so we weren’t always together in the same classes. Then we both went to different schools in Portland and I’d help her out with her school projects. She got done early with school and started working, so I had free time to just draw by myself. I think if she had been around more, I may not have done those portfolio samples, but there was a gap there when she was working, so during

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This page: Terry drew an impressive run of the Marvel mutant title Generation X in the later ’90s. At top left is inprogress page from #52 [June ’99]. Above is cover art for #53 [July ’99]. Inset left is #37 [Apr. ’98] cover detail. Below is #45 cover [Early Dec. ’98].

This page: Of course, it was T.D.’s run on Harley Quinn that was his breakout gig. Above is cover for #1 [Dec. ’00] . Right is detail from #12 cover [Nov. 2001].

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that year or two, that was me going from being “almost good enough” to being “good enough.” It was just sheer chance all that stuff worked out, that I had extra time to draw and get good, at a professional level, for comics. CBC: Some people might argue with me, but I think in many ways, the art of comics right now is as good as it has ever been. I don’t care where they were born, but even in the super-hero comics, but there is an amazing ability to do wonderful stuff. Do you look at comics, from 1990, as compared to now, that comics have risen up maybe just incrementally closer to fine art? That it is just getting better? Terry: Yes, definitely. It’s not so apparent that it’s fine art as it is its own art form, but across the board, it’s unbelievable how much comics have changed. Comics exploded in the mainstream when I was a fan in my teenage years, when Dark Knight, Maus, and Watchmen happened, so as a teenager, I thought that was normal. I don’t know how much better it’s

gotten, because when I first got into comics, they were already really, really good. The Image thing happened, when they were really polished and publishing their own work, when I was breaking in. My first regular work was Ultraverse with Malibu and that all happened because of Image money. [Between 1992–93, Malibu was the original “publisher of record” for Image Comics—Ed. note.] That was normal to me. You can go be successful, own your work, and be a good artist, and that’s what I assumed would happen. So, to see today that everybody is getting better, it makes complete sense to me. I think page rates, ownership, art sales, and conventions— all that stuff—has gone hand-in-hand in my career. And you can see why there’s good art being done. Because people are getting exposed to good work, and printing is better, schools are better, competition is a little higher because there’s more people doing it. The explosion of manga in the late ’90s and early ’00s, brought in all the female artists and writers, which is gigantic because that’s half the population and we’re getting exposed to really well-written stuff, material that’s well thought-out, and not just super-hero stuff. All that combined, plus the popularity of animation and the cheapness of sophisticated tools allows anyone in the world to create all this stuff, and so the level of competition keeps rising because, with the internet, we can see what the other person is doing. We can also see what the next generation is doing and it just feeds itself… So, yeah, I think it’s one of the best times ever for that stuff and it makes me hopeful that comics will always be around in one form or another. I remember the first year I was working full-time in comics as a professional, I was talking to Aaron Lopresti, a friend of mine, who was sharing a studio with me in Portland. I’m thinking, long-term, at whatever age I was—23 or 24 or 25—“I can’t imagine that I would quit reading comics. I think I’ll be reading comics until I retire or whatever. So that means everybody else my age or older will be reading comics, so that means my career is ensured.” So that means comics will be around until I will want to quit doing them. [chuckles] And the cool thing that’s happened is comics kept growing and growing. The health of it… I wasn’t thinking financially, but rather the health of the medium itself, by seeing how good comics are today. I think that’s just great, because the reinvention of comics keeps happening. CBC: Prior to Image, there was an explosion of black&-whites, largely due to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. You were an up-and-coming comic artist with improving abilities. Did you have any thoughts about doing your own self-published comic book stories? Terry: All the comic books I was doing in the summers during high school were my own stories. Based on that right there, Dark Horse was an Oregon comic book company that started in 1985, when I was a freshman in high school. For me, to see that stuff being produced in Oregon…? That was one of the biggest influences in my career, I think. CBC: Did you have any of that stuff printed? Terry: No, I never had the wherewithal to finish anything I did in those years. The fact that I did anything is fairly amazing. Nothing I ever started got finished. If it got penciled; it didn’t get inked, or lettered, or whatever. I think I wanted to finish them, but… With a friend of mine who didn’t draw, we were big fans of comics and really liked the independent stuff—the Dark Horse comics or the more science fiction or fantasy material. I bought a lot of Marvel stuff because it was available, but I was also always a fan of everything. I grew up with Star Wars and Lord of the Rings. Super-hero stuff was fun, but that wasn’t my main thing, so when all the b-&-w stuff happened, when the Dark Horse books were happening, I thought it was so cool to see people create their own worlds and the opportunity to do stuff that wasn’t just super-heroes was very exciting to me. That kept me interested in comics.

This page: Above is Terry’s pencils for his art on the cover of Harley Quinn by Karl Kesel and Terry Dodson: The Deluxe Edition, Vol. 1 [Nov. 2017]. At far right is same with Rachel’s inks. Inset right is Harley commission piece by Terry.

I really enjoyed Barry Windsor-Smith’s work because he was doing all the fantasy stuff. After he was gone for years from Conan and then came back to Marvel in the ’80s, but there was a period where he was doing the fantasy work with watercolors—the Pre-Raphaelite work—and I thought, “This is what I want to do.” That was the coolest stuff ever. What I’ve done in my career is been very much based off of that. I have not looked at that work since then, but all of the influences there were based on me being exposed to that stuff when I was 15 or 16. I started water-coloring art at that age because I loved how his stuff looked. I do watercolors today, so his influence on me ends up being how I use colors on my work today. CBC: Were you known in school for drawing? Did you draw stuff for your high school yearbook? Terry: I wasn’t known for drawing until I was a junior or senior in high school. So, I drew stuff for banners, graduation, and things like that. My mom may have had me do a couple of things for her class. Before that, I don’t think that anybody really knew that I drew. Comics were not a public thing for me. [chuckles] Though, when I was a junior, I had friends into comics and we would bring them to school. But, by the time you’re a junior or senior, you don’t really care about what anybody else thinks, you’re your own person by then, but before that, no one really knew. Most of my friends didn’t read comics. CBC: In college, did you have anything published in the school newspaper? Terry: No, I didn’t (but I was being published in comics professionally—I just skipped that intermediate step). I did not have any association with anything like that. In school, no one in my art classes would have guessed I liked comics because I was so focused on more thoughtful stuff—classical art. All of my focus was on charcoals or COMIC BOOK CREATOR • Summer 2021 • #26

Above: West Virgina state seal—with its official Latin motto that translates as "Mountaineers Are Always Free")— and map of the Mountain State with a star indicating Dixie, W.V., where Tim spent his high school years as a teenager.

painted work or figure studies, nothing with any real illustrative or commercial value to it. CBC: So, the first time you saw your name in print was with the Malibu stuff? Terry: That was in 1993. In 1991, I got a job drawing the Rod Stewart comic [Rock N’ Roll Comics #38, Nov. ’91]. I went to the San Diego Con and got that job, got that one issue, which was murder to do. It was 29 pages of pen-&-ink, due in a month, and it turned out awful, and I didn’t get another job because of it. That was the first comic I did. The next summer, I went to San Diego and I didn’t get anything, but out of that came the Malibu job because I’d made enough connections. I had an agent I met that summer—Steve Donnelly from a creative art agency—I signed up with him at that San Diego convention, I think, and he’s the one who found the Malibu job for me. He got me that job and, every job after that, I got on my own. So, after a year or two, I didn’t need to keep the agent. But he’s the one who got my stuff shown to Malibu. There was a group of people he represented and I think half of those were the new young artists who launched the Malibu line. CBC: Did you work for Todd Loren? Did he hire you? Terry: Right, Todd hired me. I had attended San Diego in 1991, we talked, and he called me at home and offered that assignment. CBC: What made it awful? Terry: Oh! I don’t think there was a good page or drawing in the whole thing. I literally just drew it as fast as I could, which at that point, was not my specialty. [chuckles] I knew how to draw, but I didn’t know how to draw fast—not a comic book. Two years later for Malibu, I spent three weeks on the sample pages and I was barely happy with them. CBC: What was the content? Terry: It was two pages from the Mantra #1 script. I ended up using them in an actual comic book and I spent a 49

This page: Above is Adventureman #1 [June 2020] penciled cover art. Inset right is cover for the first collection. Below is a vignette of Claire Connell, star of Adventureman.

#26 • Summer 2021 • COMIC BOOK CREATOR

Terry: It was at a time when the internet was big then, but there wasn’t Twitter. I guess the social media part of life wasn’t as pervasive as it is today. If it had been today, it would be a much different thing. I just felt isolated from it and was almost done with the project by the time it came out and I was already thinking about other stuff I was working on. I’m glad there’s people who really like the book. I sign that book at every show I do. People go, “It’s my favorite book!” Great! I’m glad I worked on something someone enjoyed. It wasn’t nearly the romantic comic I thought it might be—I don’t know what that means and I just thought of that now. It wasn’t the grand romantic book I thought it could be. It was more of a joke… well, not a joke, but… I don’t know… CBC: A gimmick? I think the photographic covers were a terrible decision. [Terry chuckles] I was really surprised to realize that it was you drawing it. I must have known because I bought them because they contained really good art. But, overall, the book was just creepy. Terry: Yeah, I know. It cracks me up. The bubble-gum cover cracks me up. I know what they were trying to do; it was an experiment to go after the teenage romance market. But, looking at the story, that wasn’t what they were trying for. They probably should have gotten a romance writer to come in and write that book. I’m happy I did it, and the concept in general wasn’t a bad idea, but the execution I think was a little jumbled. CBC: Wasn’t Bill Jemas involved in it? Did you have any connection? Trouble was his puppy, right? Terry: Yes, it was. It was one of those “big idea” projects coming out of Marvel at the time. It was fun to be a part of it. I got paid a normal Marvel rate to do a book that was completely different and I learned stuff on it. It was definitely a high-concept project where they thought, “Let’s try this.” A lot of amazing stuff was coming from Marvel at that IF YOU ENJOYED THIS PREVIEW, time because of them just CLICK THE LINK TO ORDER THIS going for it. It was a fun time ISSUE IN PRINT OR DIGITAL FORMAT! to be involved with Marvel at that point. CBC: It seemed from the outside, with Axel Alonso and Joe Quesada heading Marvel creatively—and I went to Marvel and I visited Joe to interview him about it, at that time—that period seemed to be explosively creative. Terry: Yes! It really was. [chuckles] That was a period where CBC: You mean from your I worked exclusively with consciousness? [laughter] Marvel for four years. I left COMIC BOOK CREATOR #26 Terry: Yeah, I think so! I reMarvel to work on Wonder Career-spanning interview with TERRY DODSON, and Terry’s member specific stuff from Woman, which the perfect wife (and go-to inker) RACHEL DODSON! Plus 1970s/’80s portfolio producer SAL QUARTUCCIO talks about his achievethe first and second issues, next thing for me to work ments with Phase and Hot Stuf’, R. CRUMB and DENIS which I really worked hard on, but if I hadn’t had that, I KITCHEN discuss the history of underground comix character on. But, after that, I did proPro Junior, WILL EISNER’s Valentines to his wife, HEMBECK, probably would have signed and more! fessional work, but wasn’t up with Marvel because (84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $9.95 that invested. I don’t work there was so many cool (Digital Edition) $4.99 that way and it’s not why I things going on. And, after https://twomorrows.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=133&products_id=1605 do what I do. It was easy my two-year run on Wonder to draw and fun to draw, Woman, I came back to do but very much “a job,” and Marvel work for basically I don’t usually do stuff as “jobs.” five more years, so there was a period there where they CBC: Over time, that mini-series was considered conwere producing really innovative books and they had really troversial. good editors. Axel Alonso was the editor who offered me Terry: Mark or Joe or someone said something Spider-Man/Black Cat. I’m still talking projects with him at initially that it was fairly controversial, and I don’t AWA; I don’t have time to do them, but he’s still the one that remember what that was. has had a lot of confidence in me (and vice versa) and still CBC: I think it was depicting the active sex lives makes proposals to me. He’s offered me so many of my jobs of the very young characters… birth control … at Marvel. pregnancy. CBC: It seems to me Axel was truly remarkable as an ed-