Comics Interview: Dissected – Issue #11
Welcome to the latest instalment of a brand-new feature here on Nerdly, where one of our comic gurus, Ian Wells, delves into comics history and dissects Comics Interview, the long-running journal of interviews and criticism from David Anthony Kraft (DAK).
Yak with DAK
The big news teased last issue is that Comics Interview is increasing its page count. DAK says now he may finally be able to put all of the features teased in #1 in one single issue. Just taking a quick comparison sample from this and the previous issue the page count has gone from 67 to 83. The amount of full-page ads has seen an increase from 24 to 32 which is a better balance between interviews and ads. There is a four-page ad in this issue which may not always be the case so that number can vary going forward. Lastly taking the two-part Doug Moench interview that started with a page count of 9 and has shot up to 13. As I go through each interview I will touch upon why I don’t think bigger is going to be better.
Moench Part 2
Again I came into this wanting more Master of Kung Fu talk and again left disappointed. Of course, I understand not every interview is catered to me, but it relates to what I said in the opening. Bigger is not always best if you aren’t going to talk about some of the greats. Also, I totally understand the fact he has just left Marvel so maybe he doesn’t want to give them any airplay. In fact one of the few times MoKF does come up is in that editorial control (i.e. wanting to kill off the entire supporting cast) led to him leaving the title and Marvel. So what has Moench been doing since leaving Marvel? He says he hasn’t stopped working, even likening it to “stepping out of a shadow.” He has had a detour into Hollywood, writing a screenplay for Red Sonja. Anyone who has read his MoKF work will know of his love of old Hollywood so him making the move himself is a milestone moment of his career. He describes his time there as “Exhilarating and maddening.” As it turns out he hasn’t fully left Marvel as his new creator-owned series 6 From Sirius with Paul Gulacy is being put out under the Marvel Epic in print. It is a personal project they have been working on in between continuing work, working without a deadline and then being ready to put it out in their own time. It may seem odd to some readers that a writer who was singing the praises of being able to do creator-owned work is now taking over both Batman and Detective at DC, but I totally understand his reasoning. First off creator owned work can take some time to get off the ground and secondly, Batman is too much of an icon to turn down! I have to admit I am not overly familiar with his work on these two titles. Though I bet if someone threw a story arc name at me it would have some level of recognition. I think I will have to do some digging into this, as I am a fan of his work overall and you can’t really miss with Batman. Also at DC he is taking over writing duties on Omega Men, after all it wouldn’t be an issue of Comics Interview without mentioning Omega Men! Even though this is billed as a career overview part of the interview’s Batman talk takes a lot of the real estate towards the end. There are some interesting parts in here like….
Junior X-Man
Being the son of a legend and then becoming a well-respected artist in your own right means a lot of his origin story is well documented. For me, I became familiarized with his story from the Daredevil DVD extras. On that DVD interview he reiterates a point he makes here and that is watching his Dad drawing Daredevil is what made him want to be an artist. I really enjoyed this interview as it portrays Romita who is very humble, less experienced and therefore less sure of himself. I imagine it would be inspirational to any aspiring artist reading at the time to come across in this manor and to say he has improved since his work on Iron Man. Romita’s work has always divided opinion throughout his career. For me, perhaps because its a level of bias for the character involved I think his best work was on Daredevil: Man Without Fear. Apart from the opening exchange there is not much reference to his father. Now it’s not for me to say what the truth is about his father’s presence being the reason he got through the door at Marvel. What I can say is it’s his own talent that kept him there. From the way he tells it, it was a case of editors and writers just taking a chance on him and offering him jobs here and there. One thing I learnt from this interview was the history of Contest of Champions. I had no idea it was a 1980 Moscow Olympics tie-in comic, of course the USA refused to participate after Russia invaded Afghanistan and the comic came out two years later with the Olympic connection removed. Up to this point Romita has had a steady career, although following in the footsteps of his father on Amazing Spider-Man must have been a pretty big deal! But in 1984 the place to be, the place to test your skill, the place to put your name really out there is on X-Men. With a build-up like that it is no wonder he describes the upcoming job as “a suicide book.” To add some more context to that quote he says the history of artists on the title so far overwhelmed him and a book of X-Men’s size wasn’t in his plans at the time. I believe his run on X-Men is what created the divide in his popularity. He says it himself that following Byrne, Cockrum and Smith is no easy task and a percentage of fans agreed. Not that this divisiveness has held him back and he is still going strong today.
‘Orz’ome Letters
Tom Orzechowski is a legend in the field of comics lettering, from this era he and Todd Klein were the best of the best. Klein had his turn in # so now it’s over to The Orz. Again this issue really hits home how toxic today’s fandom is compared to that which he grew up with. It is always a lot of fun reading about creators who made their connections and breakthroughs via fandom. In the case of Orzechowski, it was self-published fanzines in Detroit. This put him into contact with Terry Austin, Jim Starlin and Al Milgrom to name a few. From here he was at Marvel by age 19 doing lettering corrections on British reprints. This is the second name in as many issues who got their big break on Marvel UK titles. I like to think of it as a quasi second ‘British Invasion’, I’ll be keeping an eye out for others who walked this path to stardom. (For the record JRJr is also on the list). One subject that comes up again here is the importance of having good collaborations. He explains how his connection to Rich Buckler through fanzines led to work on Black Panther, which put him into the orbit of Don McGregor and the two have worked off and on since. Likewise, a connection with Starlin led to Captain Marvel, which led to Steve Englehart, which led to MoKF. A fun anecdote comes from his time on Captain Marvel where he done a spin on the Comics Code logo replacing the word ‘comic’ with ‘cosmic.’ I am finding with these two-part interviews they are lacking depth and structure. It is all well and good Comics Interview growing in size but it needs to maintain quality. If an interview is in two parts so far it has always felt like the second part is stronger. The problem is created and totally understandable because writers and artists want to use the space to plug their latest work. Leaving the second part of the interview for more career and even process-based talk. Now I am not saying a letterer isn’t key in producing a comic, but it is very rare for them to be the focus of pushing a books interest to the masses. We have seen in this very interview how people can go from fandom to working in comics. I think with someone like Orzechowski some more in-depth shop talk would be more appealing to the readers of CI, so hopefully that is coming in part two.
Getting into Pacific(s)
Pacific was started by the Schanes brothers in 1971 as a mailing company, then in 1979 they moved into publishing. Wikipedia isn’t a good source to base anything on but I thought it was worth pointing out David Scroggy doesn’t feature on the key players list in Pacific Comics history. Yet here he is in the pages of CI talking strategy, sales, what works for them and who they hope to bring on board. Either side of his spell at Pacific he work as a columnist for the Buyers Guide. As well as his role at Pacific which is Editorial Director he is also working as an agent. So since Mike Friedrich in #6 who claimed to be the first ever we now have our second. Scroggy does make the distinction of being an agent just for artists. He currently counts Rick Geary, John Pound, Chris Miller and Joe Chiodo amongst his stable of talent. There is an interesting bit of comics history in this interview as Scroggy is talking about Pacific’s near imminent acquisition of the rights from Warrior magazine to do Miracle Man reprints in the States. As it would turn out later down the line the deal they signed didn’t actually include the Miracle Man property and this is the beginning of what led that series to be buried in red tape for years. Preventing any satisfactory repackages of the legendary Alan Moore stuff and any further continuation of that brand. As with every issue of CI I like to look for precursors to the comics crash. Yes 1993 is some way off still, and the points here are very minor red flags, I just felt there was a little something I what was discussed. Pacific did put out some well respected comics from a variety of high-end creators such as Jack Kirby and Dan Stevens, but I got a sense of arrogance from Scroggy throughout this interview. At times it reads like they are catering to what people think of as the stereotypical images of comic readers. When he says they are putting out Sci-fi comics because of who they appeal to despite the lack of popularity around them. It screams the editors and creators wanting to put out content they would be interested in reading themselves. Chopping off huge potential audiences and sales. The subject of shops who self-censor books on their shelves regardless of how the Comics Code has rated them is something that has come up before. Time and again we have read in the pages of CI one of the benefits of creator-owned work is not abiding by the code. Add this to a benefit of the Direct Market being that publishers can have a better understanding of who is buying what and why. It seems ridiculous when Scroggy says Pacific will continue to push censorship, despite how the product id being sold. Again this is narrowing the sales field. I can’t stress enough that I am nowhere near an expert when it comes to comics sales. Perhaps like I said it was more the arrogant tone I got from it that clouded my interpretation of his answers, all I will say is Pacific Comics went into liquidation in September f 1984, four months after the publication of this issue.
Fan on The Street
Oh boy, I am not seeing any value in these interviews. I had serious thoughts about leaving it out altogether, as I didn’t want two major negative segments following one another. So instead I will keep it short because there is some crossover with some points I made in the Scroggy interview. The subject of this issue’s interview is Meloney Crawford. The beginning of the interview is very cringe with its line of questioning. It reads like male locker room banter and they are still shocked that a woman can and does read comics! Has the information from the direct market taught them nothing? Double shock Crawford Attorney who reads comics! A quick Google of the name Meloney Crawford with comics returns Meloney Crawford-Chadwick, who held editorial roles at both Harris and Dark Horse. Whether this is the same person I can’t say for sure. Eventually, Bill Chadwick (could it be)? who is conducting the interview on the final questions asks her about the portrayal of females in comics. It’s all a little too late, a good question and answer is lost amongst the wreckage.
Ad Space
Let’s end on a positive. While no ads stood out for cool design or any significance there were some worthwhile things to point out. Comico and First dominate the ad space. The former has a four-page ad for the upcoming Elementals that uses a tone of black ink! I mention First as they continue to push popular books like American Flagg and by the end of 1984 going into 85 they are going to cherry pick the best titles from Pacific as the cease to exist. Love and Rockets shows its face again with another beautiful subscription ad with perfectly spotted blacks (like you would expect anything else)! Marvel takes a page ad to plug the first Transformers four-issue mini-series and Eagle Comics returns with their second series of British reprints after Judge Dredd that being 7 issue series of Nemesis The Warlock.
