I'd like to meet:
"The first attempts are unbearable."
VINCENT VAN GOGH
"Ernie Chan who inked a lot of Conan... He was telling me , "I'll never go to the convention in San Diego again." I said, "Why?" So he said "Because one day we were sitting on our table and then this guy came up to us and handed us an IRS form." "Anything you sell, you have to fill in the form." "Oh, no!" I said."
TONY DEZUNIGA
"Script by STAN LEE who created the Hulk! Art by STEVE DITKO who adopted the Hulk! Inking by FRANKIE RAY who fears the Hulk! Lettering by ARTIE SIMEK who looks like the Hulk!"
Credits box from TALES TO ASTONISH #67
THE ANCIENT ONE to his prize-student-to-be, Stephen Strange:
"Naturally, Man of the Western World, you must not allow yourself to believe in magic! It would be... unseemly!"
"And then there was that extended family...all of us writers and artists and comic fans who thought of Jack and Roz as surrogate aunt and uncle."
MARK EVANIER
Werewolf story quotes from a majestic story by writer Joe Gill (drawn by artist Pete Morisi) "Guest of Honour" in GHOST MANOR #63*:
"It's odd how my dog suddenly dislikes you, Mikhail! I wonder why?"
"It is Count Igor... A fine man... Except when the full moon made him a devil!"
"It's my sad duty to tell you that Mikhail is the werewolf among us!"
(Third person) "Karl Hauss was cast aside as his dog bravely attacked the hideous monster of the night!"
"..Yes, you could have a soupcon of such relevance, or a thin veneer of it, as in Marvel's stuff, which was really very straight despite its tone of 60's hipness: Marvel's "revolution" was really based on a much more open, dynamic montage, heroes and scenes that were crowded with kinetic energy, boisterous art, and even when they had a lot of words, they were put in last, and all over the place, as if they were explosions of mental energy, or posters in some revolutionary commune...but, basically, all it said was: "Mom, Uncle Sam, bad guys get it, good guys win, but have some pimples, sometimes.""
BOB HANEY
"In Walking Tall, as in Dirty Harry, the hero could never mistakenly injure an innocent person, or the whole structure of the morality play would collapse. He's a one-man lynch mob but with the judgement of a god."
PAULINE KAEL
"In the end, Superman flies and Spider-Man sticks to walls because they JUST CAN. And because IT'S FUN! You start throwing "tactile telekenesis" and "spider totems" into the mix, and you come out sounding just as silly as Tony Stark's Original Iron Man armor which was "transistor powered. It's comics! It's about awe and wonder! Adventure! Escapism! Not how many BTU's the Human Torch puts out."
DAN SLOTT
Books:
The Riverworld books by Phillip Jose Farmer; Deathbird Stories by Harlan Ellison; Junky, Queer and Naked Lunch by William Burroughs; The Trial by Franz Kafka; The Collector and The Magus by John Fowles; Nausea by Jean Paul Sartre; George Orwell, Robert Graves, Janet Frame, Phillip K Dick, Colin Wilson, Richard Taylor, Raewyn Alexander, Liv Macassey, Federico GarcÃa Lorca, Allen Ginsberg.
**And the comedy writing** of: Fred Dagg, Spike Milligan, Jennifer Saunders, Chris Morris, Graham Linehan, Peter Cook, Dudley Moore, Johnny Speight, Eric Idle, John Cleese, Trey Parker, Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David.
**I'm actually a fan of the "tin-ear" in Kirby scripting, especially on such books as Kamandi, Omac, The Losers, The Demon and The Eternals**
Reprint or original?
I would always much rather have the originals, don't get me wrong, but in cases like THE DEFENDERS and KILLRAVEN, where I have some of those and not the rest... Well, now I can read a whole entirely uninterupted run. (I even have an early Ditko SPIDERMAN, but am much better served by the presence of ESSENTIALS vol. 1, methinks. I can ALWAYS collect these in their original form at a later date. And pretty much plan to.)
If there is a Heaven, it obviously has comics, and here's what might be available...
BLACK KNIGHT by Gardner Fox and Joe Maneely.
CONAN THE BARBARIAN by Robert E. Howard and John Buscema with inks by Alfredo Alcala.
SGT ROCK by Robert Kanigher and Doug Wildey.
THE SHADOW by Walter Gibson and Jim Aparo.
KAMANDI by Jack Kirby with inks by Wally Wood.
MIGHTY THOR by Archie Goodwin and Hal Foster.
THE SPIRIT by Will Eisner.
AMAZING SPIDERMAN by Bob Haney and Ross Andru.
SUPERMAN by Gene Roddenbury and Curt Swan with inks by George Klein.
WONDER WOMAN by Ursula K. Le Guin and Alex Toth.
DOC SAVAGE by Lester Dent and Gil Kane with inks by Gene Day.
DR STRANGE by Phillip K. Dick and Tom Sutton.
TARZAN by Edgar Rice Burroughs and Don Newton.
BLACK ORCHID by Frank Robbins and Nestor Redondo.
CAPTAIN AMERICA by Joe Simon and Mike Parobeck.
JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA by Mark Gruenwald, Dick Dillin and Sid Greene.
MILLIE THE MODEL by Dan De Carlo and Don Heck
PLASTIC MAN by Jack Cole.
Folk think that Pablo Marcos was just a grungy inker for John Byrne, Paul Gulacy and George Perez. Nay. He was an energetic penciler exuding immense vitality. He just seldom got gigs drawing in colour.
Heroes:
The Seven Stories ??
FISH OUT OF WATER
COMING OF AGE
OPPOSITES ATTRACT
THE COMEUPPANCE
THE KING MUST DIE
MISTAKEN IDENTITY
CRISIS OF BELIEF
**TELEVISION: George Costanza, Basil Fawlty and Eric Cartman**
**MY 25 FAVOURITE CHARACTERS**
Knuckles, Gyro Gearloose, Metamorpho, Zatanna, Batman, Captain America, the Thing, Shang Chi, the Watcher, Bugs Bunny, Spooky, Hot Stuff, Howard the Duck, Man-Thing, the classic Hulk, the Scarlet Witch, Beast, Thor, Vision, Alan Scott, Hal Jordan, Barry Allen, Jay Garrick, Lucy Van Pelt and Zippy the Pinhead.
As befitting the character of John Constantine, he's no. 26. A number 0. A scoundrel and a reprobate. Very definitely a favourite...
("My" Hulk is the maverick child that wanders the world looking for comfort, friends and peace. It's another reason the Englehart/Gerber DEFENDERS is so good. In the non-team, the Hulk had friends like the Dumb Magician and Sword-Lady. I like the Mr Fixit persona.... but he's not really the Hulk. The Hulk is the character in "Heaven is a Very Small Place" from HULK #147.* By Roy Thomas (one of the most perfect things he's written) and Herb Trimpe with the generous inking of CRACKED-man, John Severin.)
VILLAINS: Kang (thanks to Englehart and Busiek), Dr Doom, the Pre-Crisis Lex Luthor, Dracula (TOMB OF DRACULA), Fu Manchu (MASTER OF KUNG FU in the 70's) Razor-Fist, Brynocki, Mordillo, Batroc, Kingpin, Bullseye, Taskmaster, Killgrave the Purple Man, the Absorbing Man, Mandrill, Nekra, Klaw, Moonstone, the Radioactive Man, Super-Skrull, the Enchantress, Skurge, Modok, Mirror Master, Sinestro, Star Sapphire, the Shark, Poison Ivy, Ras Al Ghul, the Joker, Dormammu, Darkseid, Thanos, Johnny Sorrow, the Composite Superman, the Psycho Pirate, the Circus of Crime, the Wrecking Crew and the Headmen.
CHARACTERS **GREAT** IN THEIR DAY:
Mantis and the Swordsman in the Englehart AVENGERS, Frank Miller's Elektra in DAREDEVIL and his Epic series with Bill Sienkiewicz, the Red Tornado written by Denny O Neil and especially Len Wein in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA and the Black Orchid before Vertigo imposed an origin on her.
ITEM! I know I've dreamt about Jim Shooter and Harlan Ellison. But the really weird one for me was a dream I had where Jim Starlin and Bernie Wrightson came into the Government Bookshop where I used to work. They were going through the rotascans that were filed full of comics (as opposed to legislation.)
Frazetta vs Vallejo
It's just that Frazetta seems several times the mystery. Early Boris painting seems to use Frazetta as a colour guide rather than as an inspirational connection or tool into another world. They're really quite different artists, despite the subject material. I think Boris tries to bring that other world into this one. It's what it looks like! Everything's so luridly real and photographically bombastic... He does a first class job, but for me, he should be doing covers with titles like HOUSE OF SPOTLIGHT. There just isn't enough that mysterious otherness in what he does to latch onto me...
"When I joined IPC my first job was whiting out Denis Gifford's signature. I guess Denis didn't care because every week he tried to sneak his signature in and every week it was whited out. This was in Whizzer and Chips on the cartoon page. You learned to be quite quite skillful at spotting signatures. Jesus Blasco, who did the Steel Claw, would draw his signature on each page, in the brickwork in the cross hatching, or in a hedgerow, anywhere, but Janet Shepherd who was art editor of Valiant would always find it and it would be skillfully whited out. "Ah, look, there it is, the little rascal, in the corner." He never got away with it."
KEVIN O'NEIL
"Because my name went first, people thought I was the writer."
JESSE SANTOS, who had one of the first credits allowed by Gold Key (along with Don Glut and Russ Manning.)
"The bottom line involves choices. Neither gods nor humans have ever stood calmly in a minefield forever. Good or evil, they are bound to choose. And when they do, you will see the truth of all that motivates us. As a thinking being, you have the obligation to choose. If the fate of all mankind were in your hands, what would your decision be?
"As a writer and an artist, I've drawn my answer."
JACK KIRBY
"I was shaving one morning with my electric razor - it was a square Remington but had rounded edges - and I said "Here's a good design." That's the shape I used for the space ship."
DAN SPIEGLE on working on LOST IN SPACE: SPACE FAMILY ROBINSON - making the distinct attempt to draw a science fiction strip which didn't just look like another Flash Gordon project.
The Sub-Mariner and Namorita fly off at the conclusion of TWO-IN-ONE #2 leaving the child-like Superman analog Wundarr in the arms of Ben Grimm:
"B-but ya can't make a blasted baby-sitter outta me...ya mackeral brain...ya...ya...Aw nuts!!"
THE LIZARD apologises to Petey's AUNT MAY in Amazing Spiderman #146
"One moment, Peter, I've something to say to this gentleman. You should be ASHAMED of yourself, young man. I haven't a very high opinion of Spiderman... but at least he has MANNERS!"
"Why you old.... !!"
"Watch your tongue or I'll slap your face!"
"Style is like handwriting. Even if you wanted to, you couldn't change it. If John Romita (Senior) draws just one head in a whole story, you know John Romita did it. In fact, John inked one of my AVENGERS stories and he said "I'm sorry, Don, it looks like one of mine" because he's such a powerful inker. I said "John, I've got no complaints, as long as the final product is good."
DON HECK
THE ESSENCE-OF-COMIC SPRAY-ON LIST:
MAGNUS ROBOT FIGHTER by Russ Manning (and Mike Royer)
KAMANDI by Jack Kirby and Mike Royer (and then D. Bruce Berry) And JIMMY OLSEN, OMAC and THE DINGBATS OF DANGER STREET.
BRAVE AND THE BOLD team-ups by Bob Haney and Jim Aparo
THE SPECTRE series that appeared in ADVENTURE in the 70's by Michael Fleischer and Jim Aparo
AMAZING SPIDERMAN by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko
AMAZING SPIDERMAN by Gerry Conway and Ross Andru
NEXUS by Mike Baron and Steve Rude
MADMAN by Mike Allred
X-STATIX by Peter Milligan and Mike Allred
MICKEY MOUSE by Floyd Gottfredson
UNCLE SCROOGE by Carl Barks
FRED THE CLOWN by Roger Langridge
BONE by Jeff Smith
CEREBUS by Dave Sim and Gerhard
HOT WHEELS - the first few issues drawn by Alex Toth
AMERICAN FLAGG by Howard Chaykin
THOR by Walt Simonson
LOVE AND ROCKETS by Los Bros Hernandez TIN TIN by Herge
PLASTIC MAN by Jack Cole
LITTLE DOT, HOT STUFF, SPOOKY THE TUFF LITTLE GHOST (and quite a few other Harvey books from the 60's especially)
DENNIS THE MENACE by Hank Ketcham
DEFENDERS by Steve Gerber, Sal Buscema and Klaus Janson/Jim Mooney
MAN-THING by Steve Gerber and Mike Ploog/Jim Mooney
FANTASTIC FOUR by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, especially with inkers Dick Ayers and Joe Sinnott
E-MAN by Nic Cuti and Joe Staton
FLEX MENTALLO by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely
SAVAGE DRAGON by Erik Larsen
BATMAN ANIMATED and JSA drawn by Mike Parobeck
ROM by Bill Mantlo, Sal Buscema and Steve Ditko
MICRONAUTS by Bill Mantlo and Michael Golden
AQUAMAN by Robert Bernstein and Ramona Fradon
TEEN TITANS by Bob Haney and Nick Cardy
GREEN ARROW by France Herron and Lee Elias
METAMORPHO by Bob Haney and Ramona Fradon/Sal Trapani
Many short monster or horror pieces by Ditko for both Marvel and Charlton
METAL MEN by Bob Kanigher, Ross Andru and Mike Esposito
HAWKMAN by Gardner Fox and Murphy Anderson
THE FLASH by Gardner Fox and Carmine Infantino
MANHUNTER by Archie Goodwin and Walt Simonson
PREZ by Joe Simon and Jerry Grandenetti
NEW FRONTIER by Darwyn Cooke
ARCHIE, JUGHEAD and the Riverdale crowd.
ZOT by Scott McCloud
NEIL THE HORSE by Arn Saba
CROSSFIRE by Mark Evanier and Dan Spiegle
GROO by Mark Evanier and Sergio Aragones
CAPTAIN MARVEL by C.C. Beck and company
BATMAN especially in the hands of Dick Sprang and Jerry Robertson - naturally, Bob Kane and Bill Finger, as well.
BLACK HOLE by Charles Burns
EIGHTBALL and LLOYD LLEWELLYN by Daniel Clowes
PEEPSHOW by Joe Matt
EVIL EYE by Richard Sala
ED THE HAPPY CLOWN and LOUIS REEL by Chester Brown
THE QUESTION WAS....: Which of these would suit Marvel more than DC and vice versa if their continuities were to be merged in order to publish regular comicbooks? (Obviously, this has already taken place a number of times, until the license ran out...)
And who would you get to write and draw some of these?
JAMES BOND: Marvel. Storylines involving Bond on the run from Dr Doom in Latveria, partnered with Dum Dum Duggan against Madame Hydra in Madripoor (if that's how you spell it - Wolverinetown) and having to play chess for the life of the Black Widow against the Prime Mover. Written by Doug Moench, drawn by Jim Steranko.
THE AVENGERS (Steed, Emma Peel, Purdey and co): Marvel. Team-ups with Captain America, Excalibur, Moon Knight, Spiderwoman etc. Written by Alan Davis and drawn by Paul Gulacy and Dan Adkins.
THE SHADOW: Marvel. Steve Englehart, Mike Kaluta, Russ Heath.
DOC SAVAGE: DC. Ed Brubaker, Steve Epting and Bob Wiacek.
THUNDER AGENTS: DC. George Perez writing and drawing.
DR WHO: Marvel. Written and drawn by Dave Gibbons. Visits to Limbo to confront Immortus - the Daleks vs Ultron - a visit to the Cat People of the so-called Land Within. The Master vs Kang.
TARZAN: Marvel. Tarzan visits the Savage Land - Tarzan, Shanna, Ka-Zar and the Black Panther team up on a quest to Pellucidar. By Baron and Rude.
JOHN CARTER: DC. By Roy Thomas, Dan Jurgens and Tom Palmer. Knowing Roy, he'd have a story that can merge the Martian Manhunter continuity with the Burroughs one.
THE PHANTOM: DC. Tom DeFalco and Paul Ryan. I'm not a fan of the DeFalco FF, but I like the art - and I like the writing in SPIDERGIRL. And the esteemed Paul Ryan already draws THE PHANTOM. Team-ups: Batman and the Phantom against Ras Al Ghul.
STAR WARS: DC. Written by Walt Simonson, drawn by Brett Blevins and inked by Al Williamson. Includes Darkseid vs Darth Vader and suchlike obvious things.
BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER: Marvel. By Whedon and Cassady. (See ASTONISHING X-MEN. Best X-MEN title faithful to the excellence of #92-140-something that I've seen, or at least since the Simonson's did their x-ellent X-FACTOR tour of duty.)
XENA: DC. By Louise and Walt Simonson. Team-ups would include Wonder Woman and Warlord.
THE SPIRIT: DC. Darwyn Cooke. Because it's already happened.
FU MANCHU: Marvel. He already has a son in that universe. By Gail Simone and Mike Deodoto.
OZ: DC. Eric Shanower.
HELLBOY: Marvel. Mignola. Living Mummy. Dracula. Moon Knight. Morgan Le Fey. Ghost Rider. Nuff said.
THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE: DC. By Neil Gaiman and Jill Thompson. Zatanna, Shadowpact, the Phantom Stranger...
JUDGE DREDD: Marvel. By Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson. With guests Arno Stark (Iron Man 2020), Deathlok the Demolisher, Dr Doom...
SAPPHIRE AND STEEL: DC. Written and drawn by Alan Davis.
RANDOM...
Murphy Anderson and Alfredo Alcala regularly drew as much into their panels as some of the artists of the day put into their endless splashpages.
Captain America ain't dead if you have #247?255. (By Stern, Byrne - and let's not forget Joe Rubenstein.)
Comics were always going to end up where they are today. The FANTASTIC FOUR and AMAZING SPIDERMAN can even be seen as the Vertigo of their day. GREEN LANTERN/GREEN ARROW, Panther's Rage in JUNGLE ACTION, Gerber's work in MAN-THING/HOWARD THE DUCK, Englehart's DR STRANGE and Secret Empire piece and Nomad sequence in CAPTAIN AMERICA - it all drifts slowly towards a SWAMP THING siezed on by Alan Moore. Even refinements such as David Michelinie's school for henchmen in IRON MAN (answering the question where do all the goons who run around with criminals come from?) helps puts the screws on a universe still operating out of an any-fun-thing-can-happen attitude. Every crazy thing eventually deserves an explanation? Anyway, that's the way the cookie crumbled.
All drawing is cartooning, whether the artist has a bigfoot style or not.
Moore's SWAMP THING tenure has more in common with Gerber's MAN-THING than Wein's own home period on the original version of that title. All three are more than sufficently different from each other, however.
Most artists who draw as fast as Kirby and Alcala are producing extremely shoddy work. It's filler. Look at Al Milgrom's work on WEST COAST AVENGERS. Joe Sinnott added some weight and bituman, but it can't turn the ship around....
The two Punishers have never met?
THE CHALLENGERS OF THE UNKNOWN is worth a good long look just to seek out the inkwork on two stories: George Klein and Bruno Premiani in combo with the King!
John Buscema, Jim Starlin, Neal Adams, Jim Aparo, Mike Ploog and Gene Colan peaked at various points in the 70's.
Before John Workman made the scene, Gaspar Saladino was the best letterer in the business... The lettering of Jim Aparo, Alex Toth and Mike Royer seems to recieve little admiration or "song".
THE 70's:
I had pocket money. I could augment that with picking up glass softdrink bottles and cashing those for, get this!! - 2 and 4 cents each. It wasn't long before you had 20c. For a comic, I mean. And mebbe a giddy flap of hedonism, a winegum as well!!!!
Toys. Soldiers, Cowboys & Indians, Matchbox cars, Airfix soldier sets...My favourite place for coming by toys was the fair at St Aidan's Church at the top of the street. Talk about miscellaneous...Sheer variety!
The winegums waned at some stage.
SWAMP THINGS and MAN-THINGS...
The original SWAMP THING series was a horror pastiche with moody artwork by the distinguished Bernie Wrightson. It's textbook. It's beautiful!
A slight shift in gears came when the great illustater Nestor Redondo jumped on board, his essentially Filipino rendering letting a little more sunshine in. (See RIMA, JUNGLE GIRL for the degree of romance truly contained in the Redondo paradigm.)
David Michelinie and Gerry Conway broadened the book marginally, as well, but no more than Len Wein probably would have done so in the course of continuing to write the series himself.
MAN-THING, under Gerber, was headtrip material - an unbuttoned excursion into the times and texture then; I think of 1974, in particular. Running through a multiplicity of genres, it was always more personal than not. In some ways, Gerber's MAN-THING is better compared to Moore's later version of SWAMP THING than to the original SWAMP THING run. I figure the quality is fairly high on all three.
Nearly my all-time fave story in mainstream books comes from MAN-THING #5 and 6.
Quite apart from Gerber, Wein and Moore, these books are distinguished by the amazing contributions of Alfredo Alcala, Tom Sutton, MIKE PLOOG, Val Mayerik, Jim Mooney, John Buscema/Klaus Janson, Redondo, Wrightson, Bissette/Totleben, Rico Rival and still others.
I adore both 70's series, and the later Moore stuff, but, especially in their original incarnations, they're very different from each other. It's a good difference - the series weren't clones of each other. Even though Conway and Wein were roommates during the early days of scripting and concieving these two fellows...
"...Also, I loved Kull, that was my favorite all-time, because my brother inked it, and he put the masculine side in, and he made the figures even stronger. Kull was a property of Robert E. Howard. But that was the best thing I did, and it only lasted about six issues."
MARIE SEVERIN
"I think the thing that upsets me more than anything else are people who come and ask you for your autograph, and then they go sell it at an auction. That really upsets me! Not that I want to sell my autograph, but I don't like to think that every part of me is a commodity that somebody's going to snatch off and sell!"
RAMONA FRADON
"Comics were always around. My mother used to buy Uncle Scrooge comics for my brother and me before we could read (and then read them herself). When I was six years old, a particularly enlightened teacher got the class to make their own comic strips. I did mine and thought, this is what I want to do for the rest of my life."
ROGER LANGRIDGE
"I haven't read a mainstream comic-book writer since Stan Lee that was that much fun to read."
GILBERT HERNANDEZ
"Everybody seemed to associate me with the Thing because he acted like a regular guy."
JACK KIRBY
