Rough Stuff #5 Preview by TwoMorrows Publishing

No. 5 Summer 2007

$6.95

Celebrating the ART of Creating Comics!

Featuring

STEVE RUDE Interview & Art Gallery

82658 27766

Volume 1, Number 5 Summer 2007

Celebrating the ART of Creating Comics! EDITOR

Bob McLeod PUBLISHER

John Morrow DESIGNER

Michael Kronenberg PROOFREADERS John Morrow and Christopher Irving COVER ARTIST

Steve Rude CIRCULATION DIRECTOR Bob Brodsky, Cookiesoup Periodical Distribution, LLC SPECIAL THANKS John Albano Chris Bailey Michael Browning Jim Cardillo Michael Eury Tom Fleming Cully Hamner Matt Huesman Gil Kane Dale Keown Daryl Kuxhouse Michel Maillot David Mandel Stephen Molnar J. Hiroshi Morisaki Gene Poonyo Jaynelle Rude Steve Rude Paul Smith Gerry Turnbull Ashley Wood ROUGH STUFF™ is published quarterly by TwoMorrows Publishing, 10407 Bedfordtown Drive, Raleigh, NC 27614. Bob McLeod, Editor. John Morrow, Publisher. Editorial Office: ROUGH STUFF, c/o Bob McLeod, Editor, P.O. Box 63, Emmaus, PA 10849-2203. E-mail: mcleod.bob@gmail.com. Fourissue subscriptions: $26 Standard US, $36 First Class US, $44 Canada, $60 Surface International, $72 Airmail International. Please send subscription orders and funds to TwoMorrows, NOT to the editorial office. Central cover art by Steve Rude. All characters are © their respective companies. All material © their creators unless otherwise noted. All editorial matter © 2007 Bob McLeod and TwoMorrows Publishing. ROUGH STUFF is a TM of TwoMorrows Publishing. Printed in Canada. FIRST PRINTING. ISSN 1931-9231.

FEATURED ARTISTS 7

Cully Hamner

Gil Kane

Dale Keown

Paul Smith

Ashley Wood

ROUGH STUFF INTERVIEW 44

Steve Rude

ROUGH STUFF FEATURE 3

The Legend of Jonah Hex Michael Browning

ROUGH STUFF DEPARTMENTS 2

Scribblings From The Editor Bob McLeod

Cover Stories Steve Rude and Cully Hamner reveal the process of creating a cover.

PrePro Art by Steve Rude, done before he turned pro.

Editor’s Corner Bob McLeod

Rough Critique Editor Bob McLeod critiques an aspiring penciler’s sample page.

Rough Talk Comments and opinions from our readers.

FREE! Preview of BACK ISSUE #23

SUMMER 2007 • ROUGH STUFF

the legend of

By MICHAEL BROWNING

ong-time comic book writer John Albano was working for DC Comics in the early 1970s when editor Joe Orlando came to him with a

request: Create a new western hero for DC Comics’ All-Star Western, which was soon changing to Weird Western Tales. Albano created Jonah Hex, a ruthless bounty hunter who had been scarred during the Civil War, to fill a spot in All-Star

SUMMER 2007 • ROUGH STUFF

Western #10 in 1972. Jonah was featured in All-Star Western #11 and then, when the title was changed to Weird Western Tales with issue #12, he carried over as the star of the comic. Albano wrote both of Jonah’s All-Star Western appearances, in addition to those in Weird Western Tales #12-14, 16-19 and 21 before leaving the title to incoming writer Michael Fleisher. Albano’s only other work on Jonah Hex was in the form of a four-page satire originally intended for a DC comic to be called Zany, which was never published. The story, drawn by Tony DeZuniga, was published in The Amazing World of DC Comics #13. Sadly, this was Albano’s only interview with the comics media. He died only weeks after it was conducted in early 2005. Albano passed away at the age of 80 in

late May, and he was still working in comics right up until a few weeks before his death. His last comics work appeared in Archie Comics and he was working on a stage play days before his passing. Artist Tony DeZuniga is still alive and well and has drawn at least two Jonah Hex adventures in the new, ongoing series written by Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti. DeZuniga still continues to produce fine artwork and commissioned drawings of Jonah Hex and other comic and literary characters. In this excerpt from the three-hour long interview with the writer, Albano discussed the creation of Jonah Hex, how he drew the breakdowns for artist Tony DeZuniga, and gives hints at an unknown origin for the western anti-hero. “Tony drew, I’d say, 99 percent of the stories I did on Jonah Hex,” Albano said, fondly recalling his work with DeZuniga. “He had told someone that he had created Jonah Hex. He did create what the character looked like after I described him, how he had half his face hit Jonah Hex TM & ©2007 DC Comics

ROUGH STUFF • SUMMER 2007

with a cannonball and was ugly as heck.

D U R E F E A T

I S T A R T

R E N M A H Y L L U C

e to me, was a new nam Cully Hamner EEN rst work on GR fi is h ce n si t bu books ciled many top n pe s e’ h N R L ANTE s an origand others. He’ C D l, ve ar M r fo tlanta’s g member of A in u BL ACK n ti n co d inal an working on the y tl en rr cu s e’ , his and h DC. To my eyes r fo Gaijin Studios, s ie er i-s in dark, EAR ONE m LIGHTNING: Y h air from the es fr of th ea br e is a open, clean styl nt today. mics so abunda co d re de en -r overly

CULLY HAMNER This is from the first issue of my aborted run on The Authority. I have a tendency, for good or ill, to grid out perspective during the early stages of a layout. For some reason it works with my thought process, helping me see the space the characters are occupying and making the dynamics and movement work for me. As you can see from the layout, I work in a “tight, but loose” format: tight in the sense of all the construction being there; loose because there’s no detail. It’s all body language and narrative. Also, three penciled pages from the Hawksmoor story Warren Ellis and I did for the Gaijin Anniversary book, Wildstorm Summer Special. This was one of the last times I worked with an inker, my brilliant studio mate Karl Story. To me, it’s an interesting lesson in penciling too tightly, as I don’t get anywhere close to this level nowadays inking my own stuff. I’ve always liked this progression, though; Warren and I were really in sync on this story. It’s one of those rare times in my career when everything, from the script to the inks to the lettering to the colors, just totally worked for me. And I went nuts on the architecture! The Authority TM & ©2007 Wildstorm Comics

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CULLY HAMNER

Batman: Tenses Here, we have a couple of rejected cover sketches for Batman: Tenses. I’d say more, but my original notes to editor Bob Schreck are reproduced below… Next, the sketch and final cover for Tenses #2, in which Batman faces of against a nebbish clairvoyant with nothing to live for. Fairly simple, straightforward montage. Batman TM & ©2007 DC Comics

ROUGH STUFF • SUMMER 2007

CULLY HAMNER The covers on Red were an interesting proposition for me. Since it was a creator-owned book, I had no art director or editor to have to get past; I was on my own, design-wise. The theme of the number 3 had occurred to me: Three letters in the title and three issues. So I had the idea to have every cover use three consecutive images— like a strip of film, almost (which also nicely dovetailed the kineticism of Warren’s story and my approach to it). On top of everything, I used the three colors of a traffic light: The first one was monochromatic red; the second, yellow; the third, green. I had a lot of fun on these covers.

CULLY HAMNER Spider-Man Another one of those times that the idea was fully-realized from the start, this time for an insert with a Spider-Man 2 DVD box set. Notice how Spidey, in the foreground, frames his own reflection on the building in the background? Another thing to notice is that I put the reflected Spidey smack-dab on top of the awake vanishing point, in order to Spider-Man TM & ©2007 Marvel Characters, Inc.

draw the eye. Yes, it’s a cheap trick. SUMMER 2007 • ROUGH STUFF

D U R E F E A T

I S T A R T

GIL K ANE

e Eli Katz, Kane (real nam il G d n ge le s ic the ’40s Com d in comics from k on ke or w 0) 00 -2 1926 his wor is death. I loved AN right up until h SP ATOM, IDER-M E TH , N R TE N GREEN LA e far too achievements ar ention that some consider is H . N A N O C d an ould m hic t here, but I sh be the first grap to K R A numerous to lis M K C perback BLA HAWKS was his innovative pa mic strip STAR co er ap sp ew n is work was ily o-tier format. H novel, and his da tw l u rf de on w a y of using influencing man g, noteworthy for tin ci ex d an d dynamic always solid an ts. today’s top artis

BOB McLEOD Heritagecomics.com

Alter Ego #10 While I was still busy graduating from high school, Roy Thomas used this for the cover of his fanzine Alter Ego #10, way back in 1969. The great Marie Severin, who’ll be featured in Rough Stuff #7, drew the caricature of Gil in the middle, and then I think Gil himself added the montages on the sides. Gil was very tall, and had a lofty attitude about him, and Marie captured him perfectly.

BOB McLEOD Gil kept sketchbooks and did practice sketches every day. This is an example from one of his sketchbooks. He knew the human form so well I think this was mostly because he just liked to draw. He wasn’t learning anything new here, just putting his thoughts down on paper. Notice the threedimensional way he pictured the forms in

Heritagecomics.com

his mind, though. He was sculpting with a pencil.

SUMMER 2007 • ROUGH STUFF

BOB McLEOD

GIL KANE

His Name is Savage! #2 While most of his contemporaries were content to just work in mainstream comic books, Gil was continually pushing the boundaries of comics. Even before his landmark Blackmark project in 1971, Gil also conceived, plotted, with scripting by Archie Goodwin, and illustrated His Name is... Savage in 1968, a self-published 40-page

m Heritagecomics.co

comics novel in magazine-format.

BOB McLEOD Gil drew this tribute card for editor Julius Schwartz’s 80th birthday in 1995. That’s Julius in the middle, surrounded by several characters from comics he edited. It was then mounted on posterboard and signed by many people at DC Comics. As usual, he inked it in Heritagecomics.com

marker, which had started to fade.

ROUGH STUFF • SUMMER 2007

Unfortunately, that marker ink will eventually fade to near invisibility.

BOB McLEOD I don’t know what this was used for, but it’s large features a much more detailed inking style than he employed later in his career. Like many artists, he pared his

GIL KANE

size (20" x 30") and

style down to more essential techniques as

Heritagecomics.com

he matured.

BOB McLEOD Tarzan While drawing his own Star Hawks newspaper strip, in his spare time Gil also took on the Sunday Tarzan strip from 1979-1981, following Russ Manning. I always enjoyed Gil’s jungle technique. As usual, he made everything look easy in this sequence, but just think of all he was asked to draw in each panel here. Courtesy Matt Huesman

Panel three alone would challenge most artists: “Show Tarzan in the jungle battling a tribe of great apes”. He probably batted it out in an hour. SUMMER 2007 • ROUGH STUFF

hat happens between the initial layout of a cover, and the finished, printed piece? Usually a lot of changes—some brought about by the pencil artist, some by the inker (assuming they’re not the same person as the penciler), and some at the request of an editor or publisher. When an artist is self-publishing, however, as in Steve Rude’s case on Nexus #5, everything is totally on his own shoulders. Here, the changes were made as Steve edited himself, improving on his original idea as he progressed from rough sketch to finished painting. You can see the color painting on the Rough Stuff pages of my web site.

ROUGH STUFF • SUMMER 2007

COVER STORIES

BOB McLEOD He began with a basic symmetrical design idea of Nexus in the middle of the two secondary figures.

After some consideration, he decided a raised fist and twisted torso, with one foot forward and one back, would be more dynamic for the Nexus figure.

Before proceeding to color, he did a value study to establish and balance the lights and darks. Who needs editors, anyway? SUMMER 2007 â&#x20AC;˘ ROUGH STUFF

D U R E F E A T

DALE KEOWN

I S T A R T

ene at to the comics sc on t rs bu n w eo Dale K ing everyone the 1990s, wow uely Marvel back in ndered and uniq re y sl u lo bu fa is with h as lucky edible Hulk. I w envisioned Incr ent on e inking assignm th abandoned ag sn to gh enou e. I reluctantly tim t ea gr a ad h next , and COMICS for the N O his early issues TI AC in an ncil Superm ned the Hulk inking Dale to pe left, Dale abando I r te af g n lo o overlynot to eating his own cr two years, and s, ic om C e ag edgling Im and joined the fl ter, Pitt! muscled charac

DALE KEOWN This Gray Hulk piece is pencil and white paint . Once I start working on a pure pencil piece, It seems there is never a dark enough pencil. By the time it’s finished, it’s a smudgy mess. I clean it up with a gum eraser and then white paint on the main figure. Hulk TM & ©2007 Marvel Characters, Inc.

ROUGH STUFF • SUMMER 2007

For a lengthy, art-filled interview with Dale Keown, be sure to pick up TwoMorrows’ new book Image Comics: The Road To Independence, on sale now.

DALE KEOWN The Abomination was a commission and is pencil and white paint. When the main penciling is done, the art takes on a brownish gray tone. When the white paint is applied, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s an interesting contrast of

DALE KEOWN

warm and cool.

SUMMER 2007 â&#x20AC;˘ ROUGH STUFF

DALE KEOWN Top Cow’s Inferno cover. This was back when I first started scanning my own artwork. I discovered one could adjust the contrast of a penciled piece and color directly from there.

BOB McLEOD I’m still trying to explain the concept of “rough pencils” to

DALE KEOWN

Dale.......!

ROUGH STUFF • SUMMER 2007

PRE-PRO

id you ever wonder what a pro’s art looked like before he turned pro? Was he really any better than you as a kid, or in high school? Steve Rude shows us he had the chops even back then.

STEVE RUDE Hey! It’s my favorite animal—the Cheetah Leetah! I was probably 9 when I drew this. I always loved drawing my animals.

ROUGH STUFF • SUMMER 2007

INTERVIEW

STEVE RUDE Interviewed by Bob McLeod

teve Rude first became known in the early ’80s for his collaboration with writer Mike Baron on their independent comic Nexus. Since then, he’s done work for several of the major publishers, but is now recommitting himself to self-publishing, with the creation of his new Rude Dude Productions. We started out

recording this interview in late May, and got into discussing morning people versus night people. Steve and I, like many artists I know, prefer to work late into the night, and are slow to get going in the morning. Steve’s wife, Jaynelle, told me he often works until 2 a.m. But just as the interview was picking up steam and really going well, I glanced down and saw that the tape had stopped! I couldn’t get my recorder working properly, so I reluctantly decided to continue the interview through e-mails. Steve is doing a lot of interviews lately, as his new Nexus comic is about to debut, and he was very pressed for time, but we e-mailed back and forth and with his wife Jaynelle’s help, we finally got this interview in under the wire. I’ve always liked Steve’s clean, open style, uncluttered by all the unnecessary rendering so many of today’s comic artists use. But I know many fans prefer all that rendering, so I asked Steve about that.

ROUGH STUFF • SUMMER 2007

STEVE RUDE Moth #5, pg. 5 Here’s what my pencil work looks like on the Moth. Now that The Moth is part of Rude Dude Productions, I can’t wait to fly back into it. This is for the yet unseen issue #5.

STEVE RUDE Moth #5 rough And here’s what I do when my oversimplified brain can’t figure things out. I

BOB: Not to dive right into the deep well of controversy, but

STEVE: My style is the opposite of where mainstream

throw some tracing

your style is kind of the opposite of where mainstream comic

comic art is going, and has been since the mid-’90s. I

paper over the figures

art has been heading in the last few decades, I suppose

grew up with Kirby, Romita, and ultimately studied the

and work out the

maybe beginning with Barry Windsor-Smith, and accelerating

illustrators from the magazine era of the ’40s and ’50s. I

lighting from there.

wildly with the advent of Image Comics in the ’80s and

am a product of the time I grew up in, which was the

really to extremes in some cases today. Are you confident

’60s and ’70s. The traditional approach I use is my style

you can capture the interest of today’s fans with your more

and is here to stay.

traditional approach?

SUMMER 2007 • ROUGH STUFF

STEVE RUDE Nexus #99, pg. 4 Ah yes, my beautiful Sunny Honey floating in a tank as she awaits delivery. Of the baby kind. From the upcoming debut of our first Nexus book in 10 years! Yes, you read it right—10 years! Look for it in mid-July! It’s a stunner!

ROUGH STUFF • SUMMER 2007

D U R E F E A T

PAUL SMITH

I S T A R T

imahis career in an d te ar st h it Sm D Paul Bakshi on LOR ph al R h it w g n tion worki P d AMERICAN PO an S G IN R E TH early OF Marvel in the to on g in ov m before E and then -MEN, g DR. STR ANG on UNCANNY X re u 1980s, drawin n te g n lo ’s Cockrum a lasting following Dave s. But he made th on m w fe a r te l was the which he left af te work by Pau ri vo fa y M s. n NCE, a his fa AVE IT TO CHA LE impression on g in n in w d ner Awar Harvey and Eis s. younger reader fun comic for

GERRY TURNBULL I contacted Paul Smith last September with the simple brief of Doc in the Sanctum. Three days later Smitty sent me the scan of his first prelims. On a single sheet of A4 paper were seven of the coolest designs. Each prelim was a winner in its own right, but my eye was drawn to the landscape format at the bottom, with Doc and the Orb of Agamotto. It looked suitably dramatic and magical. My eye also kept being drawn to the Black Knight cunningly drawn at the side of the page, so I asked Smitty if he could integrate the two images. Four days later he sent me the final design sketch, asking modestly “How’s about this?” and after I had picked myself up I immediately told him to go for it. Smitty kept in contact the whole way through and after I asked how he was progressing, replied with “I’d show you what I got but at the end of stage two, things aren’t pretty. Kinda like popping in on your girl before the big date and finding her in curlers and half make-up. You know she’s going to be gorgeous but at the moment ... eek.” Couple days after that Smitty sent me the scan of the final inked piece, with the accompanying words “Hope you enjoy the work as much as I did doing it, much fun and giggling and theme song singing and sound fx making was had.” And then about a week later I had the page in my hands. Included was the full size blue pencil version Smitty had done. It’s the prize of my collection. Paul Smith is a true master. His art more than anyone out there is open and honest; he doesn’t use flashy techniques to obscure bad drawing or composition. His line is beautiful and clean and deceptively simple looking. It’s only when you look closely you see just how detailed the work is with the different variety of textures and techniques he uses .The whole experience was just wonderful. Smitty is really down to earth with a wicked sense of humor, and allows you to feel fully involved in the process. The inked final of the Paul Smith commission of Dr. Strange will be featured in Back Issue #24, shipping in September from TwoMorrows.

ROUGH STUFF • SUMMER 2007

SUMMER 2007 • ROUGH STUFF

PAUL SMITH Marvel Fanfare #1 Gotta’ start somewhere. My first professional comic page. Note the superfluous notes. Doing storyboards for Filmation at the time, there was an unofficial, “Tell, don’t show,” policy. Everything was explained because showing meant animating and that meant money. Eek!

PAUL SMITH

ROUGH STUFF • SUMMER 2007

D U R E F E A T

ASHLEY WOOD

I S T A R T

Britain’s his career on n ga be d oo W y le d Image. In Australian Ash Marvel, DC an to g in ov m re befo movies JUDGE DREDD has worked in so al e h , gh ou ics, th addition to com t! His METAL ing and fine ar is rt ve ad as l ics for and T V, as wel rst digital com fi e th of e on as g with digital GEAR SOLID w nes oil paintin bi m co e H . le rtab PlayStation Po ive style. a very distinct techniques for

BOB McLEOD I contacted Ashley in September 2006 to see if he’d agree to be featured in Rough Stuff, and he responded enthusiastically. I checked back again in December and February, and each time Ashley said he’d be sending some art and comments right away. Unfortunately, I never received anything and haven’t been able to get in touch with him since. I very much regret not being able to offer a better feature on this very talented artist, but we’ll try again for a future issue. I wasn’t able to find any appropriate preliminary art by Ashley in time for this feature, but collector Gene Poonyo graciously sent these three examples of Ashley’s inked art.

SUMMER 2007 • ROUGH STUFF

EDITOR’S CORNER by Bo b Mc Le od

ince I began editing Rough Stuff last

every issue, and the right occasion just hasn’t come up

year, several people have asked me

before now. But this issue we have some extra room,

why I haven’t shown any of my own

since a couple of our featured artists didn’t provide as

prelim art in these pages. I figured it

much art as we’d hoped, so I decided to take this oppor-

was enough for me to be writing

tunity to share some previously unseen work of mine with

editorials, articles, interviews, and my “Rough Critique”

you. After over thirty years in comics, it’s hard to decide where to begin, so I decided to just show a sampling from various jobs. I’m probably still best known for something I did 25 years ago, co-creating a younger group of X-Men still attending The School for Gifted Students called The New Mutants. This was the splash page of issue #1. It’s an establishing shot to introduce the characters, and I tried to make each character an individual, and imbue them with a lot of personality. This was my first regular penciling assignment and we were behind schedule from the start, due to squeezing in the graphic novel first. I eventually left the series rather than rush out less than my best effort.

ROUGH STUFF • SUMMER 2007

BOB McLEOD Following the New Mutants, I penciled several issues of Star Wars for Marvel, doing breakdowns for my idol Tom Palmer to ink. After years of inking other artists, the finish was very important to me, and it was difficult to focus just on layout. But I wanted to see what Tom would do, and it was fascinating to see. He did almost nothing the way I would have done it. He added a lot of juicy detail, especially with Chewbacca and all robots and the space ships. In this scene, he had to change Han to Luke because Han was away on an adventure by the time this was published.

SUMMER 2007 â&#x20AC;˘ ROUGH STUFF

ROUGH CRITIQUE By Bob McLeod his issue’s sample page comes from the obviously very talented Stephen Molnar. This is a real beauty of a sample page, and I like it a lot. But it’s also an example of my pet peeve, the modern “no inker needed” school of penciling. One of the problems with the penciler doing so much of the inker’s job is that all that time and energy could often be much better spent on the penciler’s main job, which should be layout and figure drawing.

Spidey and the Bugle lettering are the focus of the panel, so why have all that wasted space below them? Place Spidey first, well into the panel, not shoved up in the corner. Then place the Bugle lettering to balance him, a bit lower down in the panel. Even without anything else in the panel, this much should be a balanced design. I tilted mine so the diagonals in the panel all go toward the Spidey figure. In yours, everything in the panel seems to be sliding off the page to the right, away from Spidey. I’ve deliberately placed my buildings and the shadows on them to frame Spidey, making him the

The first thing that struck me about this page was the excellent perspective, and the nicely done buildings. You don’t often see that in beginners. The figures have a very nice feel to them, with a lot of movement and life. And he does have an impressive, highly finished rendering style. I’m thinking Stephen is probably a pretty good inker, at least in the rendering department. I like the amount of black he’s using, too. This is a very solid page, with a lot of depth and form. And he’s moving the camera around well and using good visual storytelling. We know just what’s happening without a single word of script. I really think the big publishers should give him a chance. I’m sure he’ll improve by leaps and bounds once he’s drawing 22 pages a month. But let’s take a closer look beneath all of that nice finish at the underpinnings. Stephen, the main thing you need to work on at this point is your composition. You can place the main elements and focal points (usually the heads and hands) anywhere you please, so be very deliberate about it. You should design your backgrounds to lead the eye to the center of interest and frame the focal points, not conflict with them. In panel 1, for instance, the hands are lost in a maze of grey patterns, with costume webbing and building windows all melding together into a confusing mess. You don’t want to place background objects where they’ll interfere with the foreground, especially the hands and heads. In panel one, your main building on the right distracts from the left hand. It’s also a little too obviously contained within the panel. Mine partially goes off-panel, keeping it more firmly in the background. Simplifying or eliminating the windows removes the conflict with his hand. I’m sure you’ve noticed that I repositioned the arms at more divergent angles, creating a more dynamic pose and placing the hands so they’re unobstructed. Your arms and the left leg are all basically parallel, creating an awkward silhouette. And, uh, speaking of silhouettes, I think maybe you should move that right foot.....! The weakest panel compositionally is the second one. Spider-Man TM & ©2007 Marvel Characters, Inc.

ROUGH STUFF • SUMMER 2007

We hope you enjoy this FREE

BACK ISSUE #23 PREVIEW! Edited by former DC and Dark Horse editor MICHAEL EURY, BACK ISSUE magazine celebrates comic books of the 1970s, 1980s, and today through recurring (and rotating) departments such as “Pro2Pro” (a dialogue between two professionals), “Greatest Stories Never Told” (spotlighting unrealized comics series or stories), and more! Issue #23 is our “Comics Go Hollywood” issue, featuring a “Pro2Pro” roundtable examining Spider-Man’s love life, with STAN LEE, JOHN ROMITA, SR., JIM SHOOTER, ERIK LARSEN, and other top Spidey creators! Then, in the first part of a second roundtable, Star Trek writers including PETER DAVID, MICHAEL JAN FRIEDMAN, and MIKE W. BARR compare notes on writing for the space franchise in comics and in other media. Also: star-studded behind-the-scenes looks at TV’s ISIS and THE FLASH, with celebrity interviews including Flash star JOHN WESLEY SHIPP; and spotlights on SUPERMAN movie adaptations and some of your favorite TV tie-in comics (including ISIS and WELCOME BACK KOTTER). Bonus: An 8-page color “ADAM HUGHES GOES HOLLYWOOD!” art gallery and cover. Bi-monthly! (100-page magazine) SINGLE ISSUES: $9 US SUBSCRIPTIONS: Six issues in the US: $40 Standard, $54 First Class (Canada: $66, Elsewhere: $90 Surface, $108 Airmail).

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Marriage isn’t an institution for the timid, especially in today’s world. Most husbands and wives are under terrific stress as they strive to have it all while balancing their careers and their home life. But can you imagine what it must be like to also have to deal with the likes of the Green Goblin, Dr. Octopus, and the Kingpin on top of everything else? No doubt about it, it’s not easy being Mr. and Mrs. Parker, but Peter and Mary Jane have been making a go of it for an incredible 20 years since tying the knot in 1987 in The Amazing Spider-Man Annual #21. In honor of their anniversary, BACK ISSUE gathered together some of Spider-Man’s most famous creators— Stan Lee, Sal Buscema, Gerry Conway, Tom DeFalco, Danny Fingeroth, Erik Larsen, David Michelinie, John Romita, Sr., Paul Ryan, Jim Salicrup, Jim Shooter, and Marv Wolfman—to examine:

Dan Johnson

DAN JOHNSON: Stan, as the creator of both Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson, I was wondering what it was in 1987 that made you realize it was time for these two kids to finally tie the knot. STAN LEE (Spider-Man cocreator): I had always wanted the Spider-Man series to be as realistic as possible. After a few years of Peter and MJ having a romance, their marriage just seemed like the most natural event. It had to happen. JOHNSON: Jim Shooter, what were your first thoughts when you found out that Stan wanted to have Peter and Mary Jane get married? JIM SHOOTER (Marvel editor-in-chief at the time of the wedding storyline): First of all, that’s not the way it happened. It was my decision. The way that came about is this: Both Stan and I were guests at the Chicago Con the summer before the wedding, 1986 (I think). Stan was supposed to do a one-man panel Q&A, but at the last minute, he asked me if I’d come up onstage with him because he knew that most, if not all, of the questions would be about things going on in the comics, with which he was very out of touch. I was happy to help. We worked pretty well as a team in such situations, with me handling the comics questions and Stan adding color commentary, anecdotes, reminiscences; essentially doing snappy patter and being entertaining, as only he can. Starting in 1979 or 1980, Stan was based at the animation studio in L.A. I don’t remember what his title was, but his job was more or less just being Stan. He served as a creative advisor to the animation people and our face to Hollywood, trying to get film people interested in Marvel properties. Who wouldn’t take Stan’s call? He also wrote the Spider-Man strip, of course. Other than that, he wasn’t in charge of anything. I don’t think anyone reported to him except his secretary. I was EIC [editor-in-chief] and VP of Marvel then, head of creative for everything but the animation studio. I reported to the president, Jim Galton, and on some business affairs and other matters to publisher Mike Hobson, who was mainly in charge of Marvel Books, the children’s book line. As Stan used to say, I was Marvel’s “entire editor.” I used to say I had Stan’s old job. I did, actually, and I was the only one besides Stan ever to hold that lofty position. No one else, before or since, has had exactly the same job with the same authority and clout.

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Technically, even the Spider-Man strip fell under my authority because the “Special Projects” department reported to me. That said, I didn’t mess with the strip at all, ever. Sometimes, when he had a little spare time, Stan would call me up and ask for work! Talk about surreal. I recall an Erik Larsen job that he scripted on one of those occasions. This is not meant to diminish Stan in any way. It’s just that, at that point in his career, he was just not involved in the governance of the properties and uninvolved with publishing except as a writer of the strip, and occasionally a comic book. Technically, the wedding was my call, and Stan respected that, because that’s the kind of guy he is. That said, all technicalities aside, he was still Stan Lee, my mentor, the resident legend/genius, and I would have deferred to him about almost anything. So there we were on this panel and someone asked whether Spider-Man and Mary Jane were ever going to get married. Stan said that it was up to me but that he thought they should. He turned to face me and asked me, extra politely, if they could get married. The audience was screaming. Trapped! Nah. Actually, if Stan thought it was a good idea, I sure didn’t have a problem with it. TOM DeFALCO (former Amazing Spider-Man writer): I guess you could blame the whole marriage thing on Ron Frenz and me. When we were on The Amazing Spider-Man, we proposed a storyline where Peter asks Mary Jane to marry him, she accepts but eventually— in true Spider-Man fashion—leaves him at the altar. Jim Owsley was our editor and took the idea to Jim Shooter, who mentioned it to Stan … who thought the couple really should get married. Shooter agreed and went ahead with the idea after Ron and I were taken off Amazing. At the time, I thought it was a veryyyyyy bad idea. History has proven me wrong. I now think Mary Jane and Peter really work well as a couple and their relationship is one of the cornerstones of my Spider-Girl series. SHOOTER: Tom is mistaken. I never asked Stan about his proposed story. It happened exactly as I said. There were no preliminaries. JOHNSON: It’s still pretty interesting though to hear about what might have been with the Peter and Mary Jane relationship. What else can you tell us about this idea? RON FRENZ (former Amazing Spider-Man penciler): One way to look at it is the best way to write a Spider-Man story is to make a list of all the sh*ttiest things that can happen to a human being, then you eliminate all the things that other writers have already done, and what is left are some story ideas. Certainly being left at the altar is the hugely sh*ttiest thing that can happen to a human being.

First Loves No one is as dear to Peter Parker’s heart than his Aunt May; here she’s terrorized by the Green Goblin in a Ron Wilson/Mike Esposito illo for a 1975 British reprint. And Peter’s first crush, Betty Brant, tied the knot in Amazing Spider-Man #156 (May 1976); cover art by John Romita, Sr. Courtesy of Heritage Auctions. © 2007 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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