Comics Interview: Dissected Issue #20

Welcome to the latest instalment of our Dissected feature here on Nerdly, where one of our comic gurus, Ian Wells, delves into comics history and looks back at Comics Interview, the long-running journal of interviews and criticism from David Anthony Kraft (DAK).

Yak with DAK

The shortest Up Front to date. I only mention it because he spotlights the 25th issue, which is not too far away and he promises it will be an instant collectable. I’m going to let you peek behind the curtain and admit I had a look ahead, and it is worth the wait. I’m pretty excited about it.

W.R.I.T.I.N.G Agents

Every interview in this issue centres around the newly launched T.H.U.N.D.E.R Agents at Deluxe Comics. I wonder if David Singer, who is later interviewed, put up a decent sum of money to feature TA talent in the whole issue? I further wonder if he was pleased with the outcome, as you will see a lot of the interviews stray far from that subject. Getting back to the Bierbaums, their Lightning story in #2 of TA is their first work in comics. They outline how neither of them had heard of the characters before and brought as many back issues as possible as prep. I did always wonder why this iteration of the characters carried Wall Wood’s name as part of the title. Interviewer Ken Jones shares my intrigue and tries to get to the bottom of things. Tom Bierbaum can’t offer up an answer but has this to say: “Associating his name with this project is the right thing to do, reading the original comics I can safely say he was the star.” I came to Wall Wood via his Daredevil work and later read a biography on him. TA is the work of his that most appeals to me, so I guess I’ll be looking for a collection! One theme of the book that comes up is spies as superheroes. Now, to me, these two shouldn’t go together. Spies are subtle and discreet; superheroes wear bright costumes. The only reason they go together in comics is because superheroes sell! There are two examples I can think of where it works, and they are Greg Rucka’s Checkmate and Ed Brubaker’s Sleeper. For it to work, in my opinion, you have to lean more into one than the other. Maybe in today’s climate TA are due another run out.

Dynamic Dave Cockrum

Without stepping on Dwight Zimmerman’s intro, if you don’t know who Dave Cockrum is you have obviously been living under a rock. Having co-created and established the new flavour in the pages of X-Men, he is returning for a Nightcrawler mini series and working on Wally Wood’s T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents, a series he is a fan of as a reader. Also in the works is The Futurians, a series that started as a Marvel Graphic Novel, which is now an ongoing series at Deluxe Comics. The move came about as Cockrum had it written into the contract that if someone offered a better deal that Marvel couldn’t match, he could take the title to other publishers. At this stage in his career he is stretching out as he is writing both Futurians and the Nightcrawler mini. What stands out about him is that he had no consultation with Claremont on the story. We all know how protective he is of his corner of the Marvel Universe, so this came as a surprise. He got the gig after an offer from editor Louise Simonson and he does joke that if he does something Claremont doesn’t like he will probably undo it anyway in the pages of X-Men!

Keith Giffen

Here we have another big two artist who has been snapped up by Dave Singer’s Deluxe Comics to work on T.H.U.N.D.E.R Agents. It’s rather strange that we have two superstar creators interviewed in this magazine. A magazine that features T.H.U.N.D.E.R Agents on the cover and they barely talk to them about it. After Cockrum said his favourite character was Dynamo and his least was Undersea Agent. Giffen adds he wants to do horrible things to Lightning and that is the extent of it. A lot of the Giffen interview is spent talking Legion of Superheroes, and it feels like a retread of #1! It then moves on to the Ambush Bug mini series he has finished writing. To my knowledge, this is a series with a rather big cult following.

Colour Commentary

On to our third creator who has made the move to Deluxe Comics. Colourist Greg Theakston’s credits to date include ghosting for both Frank Brunner and Dick Giordano on Doctor Strange and Wonder Woman, respectively, as part of Continuity Studios or the Crusty Bunkers as they were more colloquially known. In fact, I think that may be the first time we have seen the group referred to by that name in CI, making this a key issue! Despite being in comics since graduating high school and coming under the banner of a colourist interview, T.H.U.N.D.E.R Agents is only his second gig in the role after Jack Kirby’s Hunger Dogs graphic novel. Again, this is a little short on TA talk but it does go deep into the process, so it is a better read than the previous two interviews. He talks up the benefits of laser separations over the traditional style. He goes on to cite Jack Adler and Frank Frazetta as inspirations for his colour work. He drops some comics history when he explains all comics used to be sent to the plant as black and white and the colours would be decided there. It was this way that Jack Adler came up with the colours for Captain Marvel, then progressed into comics work from there.

Ad Space

A very cool piece of comics history as we get a full page ad for TMNT #2. I have seen people selling CI #27 on eBay, claiming it to be the first in print of the TMNT. This ad would debunk this. I think the high price for that specific issue is because it is just a CI Special Edition. Although I have also seen it advertised as Casey Jones’ first appearance. The Hunger Dogs mentioned in the Greg Theakston interview also gets a full page spread. Theakston’s colouring style over Kirby is a rather strange combination. Obviously it’s not helped being in black and white, I don’t know where I stand in it yet? The ad that really caught my eye was Crossfire from Eclipse, by the creative team of Mark Evanier and Dan Spiegle. I like how much storytelling and motion is portrayed in the one-page ad. It is essentially a James Bond trailer brought to the comics ad page.

A Sing-Song With David

Fifth time lucky, is David Singer going to drop some hot T.H.U.N.D.E.R Agents chat?! First we have to do the origin story. At 12 years old he sent stories to Archie Goodwin at DC, if it had gone well he could have given Jim Shooter a run for his money in the young writer stakes. When he did finally break into comics it was at Archie on their Red Circle imprint. We have actually seen the birth and death of Red Circle Comics in the pages of CI, as Singer reveals they are no more. I even brought an issue of Black Hood based on an advert I saw in CI! David has now launched Deluxe Comics and the conversation can finally turn to TA. It was a comic he enjoyed as a reader in his younger days, which is why he sought to publish it. One of the reasons he liked it was that it depicted the heroes in a more realistic light. I have read one issue of a later iteration and I liked it for what it was, but I needed a bit more to sink my teeth into. TA does have the feeling of a comic that could be awesome but it keeps landing at publishers that don’t last. This one series at Deluxe only ran for five issues.

Chambana Comix Club

When I saw this name on the cover I didn’t know what I was in for. Looking back at it now, as I write this, it seems kind of obvious it was going to be a ‘fan on the street’ interview. It was the comics fan in me getting carried away with the captions on the cover! The best place to start is by introducing the members of the Chambana Comix Club; Jack Bird, Mel DeSart, Folo Watkins, Julie Watkins, Daniel Weber, Mary Healy, Fritz and William Hill. The problem with interviewing eight people in one go is a question of digestibility. Like right from the go I wanted the origin of the club, we don’t get that. I do get why it’s comics with an ‘x’ not a ‘cs’. But the opening exchange is all short answers from nearly all eight members. You do get a sense of the group camaraderie, but it reads like they are talking over each other. After the opening exchange they launch into a story without explaining too much. It very much feels like mates interviewing mates. Interviewer Darrel Boatz doesn’t break in for them to explain points to the reader who might not be in the know. Then things get a little odd, well not odd, they just start shitting on books. It presents a bit of a Catch-22 situation. If this is a case of friends interviewing friends, they are then shitting on books that have been supported in interviews. So whose side are they on? Als,o we have had creators in interviews say how The Comics Journal is too confrontational on purpose. Now, here we have a group seeking conflict on purpose. As an example, they shredded a copy of World’s Finest and sent it back to DC, simply because they didn’t like it. These guys would be at home in the YouTube generation of comic fandom. I’m all for people liking the comics they like, they shout out Judge Dredd and American Flagg as two favourites among the group. They have the fake news element too when they say these two books are outselling X-Men! When they went on to say Marvel’s superheroes as a soap opera was a trend no one should like I checked out of the interview.

Letters Page

Nothing really of note to call out. Barry Dutter returns to talk more She Hulk and I am completely bored of this now. I do wonder if I was reading CI back on the day would I have had he energy to write in and call him out? The only other thing of note are the two letters from creators in the role of fans. First up is Larry Marder, famous for his Tales of the Beanworld series, as well as being Image’s Executive Director from 1993-1999. Then the pages of CI are graced by comic book royalty in the shape of Superman co-creator Jerry Siegel.

NEXT: Wizard Magazine #119 WTF???