2nd Roger Stern Interview

For this interview I went into full fanboy mode. As I mentioned in my last Roger Stern interview, Roger’s was my favourite writer as a kid and I was happy that after many years of not working for Marvel he was writing for them again. I pretty much used this interview to help promote his upcoming work as I was worried that his ‘star power’ had dwindled since the 1980s and his work wouldn’t sell.

 

An Interview With Roger Stern

Roger Stern has been working in the comic industry for a long time, lately he’s been doing numerous special mini-series for Marvel Comics. I had the pleasure of interviewing him back in May of 1998 and decided it was time for an update. In this interview, he talks about what he’s doing now, in the future and what might have been. Enjoy!

 

Jamie: The first issue of AVENGERS TWO starring Wonder Man and the Beast just came out. What was it like working with penciler Mark Bagley?

Roger Stern: Great fun! I’d briefly worked with Mark before — on an 11-page story for IRON MAN #21 — but this was our first opportunity to collaborate on a longer piece. And if you liked the first issue, just wait’ll you see #2 and #3!

 

Jamie: For those of us who didn’t read the end of the Wonder Man series, what was it that Simon Williams did that was so bad and needed cleaning up?

Roger Stern: Well, Simon blames himself for the deaths of a couple of people … there are some other folks to whom he inadvertently gave super-powers (which messed with their lives greatly) … and then, there’s the matter of the woman he was engaged to marry! He died before he could come to terms with any of that. So now that he’s back, there’s just a wee bit of business to settle. But you’ll find out all you need to know by reading AVENGERS TWO.

 

Jamie: My understanding was the original plans for MARVEL: THE LOST GENERATION was to re-write ‘Marvel time’ to fit in to a 7 year period. Why was that scrapped?

Roger Stern: You misunderstood. There’s no need to re-write time. Marvel has operated under a sliding time scale, since long before I first started working there in 1975. In fact, it’s that sliding time scale that made LOST GENERATION possible.

 

Jamie: Where did the idea to turn the Marvel Universe series into a series exploring Marvel’s hidden past come from?

Roger Stern: That was the idea right from the start — Tom Brevoort’s idea, to be specific! — and a pretty good one, I thought.

 

Jamie: Will MARVEL: THE LOST GENERATION have only previous Marvel Characters or will there be some new ones in the series?

Roger Stern: Previous, in the sense that their careers pre-date the origin of the F.F. — new, in the sense that you’ve never seen them before. Unless you go ‘way back and remember the Eternal Brain!

 

Jamie: Okay we know that AVENGERS INFINITY is a follow up to the very successful AVENGERS FOREVER you wrote with Kurt Busiek. So what is AVENGERS INFINITY all about?

Roger Stern: It’s about four issues long. It’s about a select group of Avengers who are specially assembled to deal with a serious threat from beyond the farthest star. It’s written by me, penciled by Sean Chen, and inked by Scott Hanna. And since the first issue won’t go on sale until July, it’s a little premature to say anything else about it … except that it’s never to late to start bugging your favorite comics retailer to carry it.

 

Jamie: Do you think there will be another series after AVENGERS INFINITY?

Roger Stern: You mean, spinning off from the events of the series, the way that INFINITY spins off from FOREVER? Maybe. But that’s really in the future!

 

Jamie: Tell us about this new GREEN GOBLIN mini-series you’re doing with Lee Weeks.

Roger Stern: The working title is SPIDER-MAN VS. the GREEN GOBLIN. It’s three issues long, and Lee will start penciling it as soon as he finishes his DOCTOR OCTOPUS project. And, as it won’t go on sale until the end of August, I’m not going to say much more about it … except that it focuses mainly on Norman Osborn, and it will have some serious effects on issues of the regular SPIDER titles which follow it!

 

Jamie: You mentioned that some of your unused MARVEL UNIVERSE stories were to be used elsewhere. Do you have anything else from the series that can still be printed?

Roger Stern: Yes, there’s a DOCTOR STRANGE story which Neil Vokes has penciled. As soon as I get some breathing space in my schedule, I’m going to script it. Then, it’ll be Tom Brevoort’s job to find some way to get it into print! Oh, and elements of a rough idea I had for a Sub-Mariner/Yellow Claw encounter will be turning up in LOST GENERATION.

 

Jamie: Can you tell us about any proposals that you have given to Marvel for either comic books or novels?

Roger Stern: There aren’t any. I’m lucky to be too busy to turn out proposals these days.

 

Jamie: Have you been offered any titles that you turned down? If so, why?

Roger Stern: Years ago, I was offered POWER MAN & IRON FIST, but didn’t have the time. I was also offered the last six issues of CAPTAIN ATOM at DC; but since I loved the old Charlton series and didn’t care for the DC version of the character, I passed. I was also offered the NEW WARRIORS some years ago, but — as there’d been about fifty issues of the series at the point, and I’d never read single one — I figured that I wasn’t the best qualified for the job. Oh, and I recently had to pass on writing a few issues of PETER PARKER: SPIDER-MAN … just had too many prior commitments.

 

Jamie: Would you work on a Marvel Knights title if it were offered?

Roger Stern: I never say never. It would depend on the project, the artist, and the schedule.

 

Jamie: Since you and Busiek are good friends, one has to wonder if you’re going to do a creator-owned series through the GORILLA imprint at Image?

Roger Stern: I’d love to, but I haven’t been asked.

 

Jamie: You did the scripts for the original SPEEDBALL series, would you like to do another series on him?

Roger Stern: Gee, that was so long ago. I really haven’t followed the character since I scripted those stories. I hear they changed his costume a couple of times.

 

Jamie: Any changes to the Photon/Captain Marvel name situation? You said you didn’t want her name to be changed.

Roger Stern: I didn’t want her name to be changed from Captain Marvel. I do want it changed from Photon. I have some ideas along those lines.

 

Jamie: I heard that before you left the AVENGERS in the mid 80’s you planned on doing a story with Iron Fist. Is this true and were you going to make Iron Fist an Avenger?

Roger Stern: Couple of things wrong there. I didn’t leave the AVENGERS — I was fired! And my plan was to write a story featuring Power Man, not Iron Fist (who was fairly dead at the time; it was only later that he got better). Whether or not Luke would have become an Avenger, I can’t say.

 

Jamie: I recall reading that your Wife Carmela was writing some Legion stories uncredited when you were doing the Legion books. Does she want to do more comic book writing?

Roger Stern: Actually, Carmela assisted Tom McCraw and me in co-writing LEGIONNAIRES from shortly before issue #50. And I had just about gotten DC to agree to give her a rate and a real credit before there was an editorial shift. If not for her help and support, I probably would have left the series after the Mordru story. She’s pretty busy these days with volunteer work to do much more than proofread my stories, which is a shame.

 

Jamie: Last time we had an interview, you mentioned having a number of pet snakes. How many do you have and which ones are your newest?

Roger Stern: Sixteen, not counting the babies. The newest is actually the oldest as well … a 30-year-old ball python, whom we adopted when his owner passed away. He’s a mellow old gent. We hope he has many happy years ahead of him.

 

Jamie: Who are your inspirations?

Roger Stern: I always liked Roy Orbison.

 

Jamie: What do you do when you’re not writing comics?

Roger Stern: I read, though not as often as I’d like. I hit the health club three days a week, and with the hint of warmer weather in the air, I’ll soon be hitting the pavement more often. (The simple act of walking is one of life’s great pleasures.)

 

Jamie: Anything else you’d like to tell the world?

Roger Stern: Read more and take time to smell the roses.

Erik Larsen 2nd Interview

Originally published in July 1999. If you’ve been reading my republished interviews you can probably tell I was big on asking about controversies and conflicts that were going on in comics at the time. One of the reasons being was that Wizard Magazine (the most popular comic magazine at the time) wouldn’t cover those topics, even when the creators wanted to address it. I guess that’s one of the drawbacks of being dependent on big publisher advertising. CollectorTimes was an all volunteer organization and I took advantage of not having those constraints. Erik was one of those creators who wasn’t dependent on the big publishers and was willing to talk.

 

An Interview With Erik Larsen (Again)

 
In April 1998, we kick started Collector Times Online with a short interview with Erik Larsen. It’s 15 months later and boy, have things changed! Erik has gone from just submitting two proposals to Marvel and DC to starting and leaving a couple of titles due to either editorial interference or low sales and he’s picked up Wolverine along the way. This time around we get Erik to discuss good and bad editors, Jim Lee and Image, Savage Dragon, Superman, Spider-Man, Wolverine, Nova, Marvel Knights and more!

 

Erik Larsen at 2009 San Diego Comic Con

Jamie: Previously you said that DC editor Kevin Dooley asked you to rip off other peoples stories for Aquaman. Can you tell us what stories?

Erik Larsen: He asked me to do variations on a Batman story where a bunch of kids sitting around a campfire tell stories about what Batman looks like– I refused but he had somebody else write the story anyway for inclusion in Aquaman Secret Files. He also suggested that “we” rip off Frank Miller’s story where Stick gives Daredevil back his powers to give Aquaman back his powers– as luck would have it, he left before I actually had to write that story.

 

Jamie: Over the last 10 years you’ve gone through having normal editors, to having no editors, sometimes being an editor at Image, and then working under some free hand and heavy handed editors. In all what are your opinions on editors after all this?

Erik Larsen: It varies a great deal– I think those editors who actually trust the people they hired to do the job end up with better comics. Glenn Greenberg was great on Nova– he asked the right questions and his input made the story better, not worse. For the most part, however– I can’t say I’m too impressed.

 

Jamie: 6 years ago, in your famous “name withheld” letter you railed against mediocre writers. Now that your writing and dealing with editors and such, do you still feel the same way?

Erik Larsen: Sure. I think people misunderstood what that letter was about– it was in reaction to a writer bitching about artists! My basic point was– geez, guy– we don’t need you– we can do this fine without you. Now, people have taken it to mean NO artist needs to work with any writers but they’re missing the point– certainly there are artists who don’t write– who don’t want to write or am incapable of it– the point is some of us CAN do it and if it’s an option of mediocre stuff from established writers or something from a fresh perspective– I’d like to see that artist given a shot at it.

 

Jamie: What is your relationship like with Jim Lee? Has the Wildstorm split caused any friendship riffs between Jim and the other Image founders?

Erik Larsen: It’s no different than it was. People may get the impression that we always hang out together but in reality, all of the Image partners live nowhere near each other. I see these guys at shows and Image partner meetings– but it ends up just being a couple times a year.

 

Jamie: Some fans felt Wildstorm leaving Image would hurt the company. Economically speaking, what effect has the split had on Image Comics?

Erik Larsen: Each book Image publishes kicks in dough to run the office. Since Jim split, there haven’t been those books to help support the company. That’s about it– we did pick up some new books so it hasn’t affected us THAT much but initially it was a problem because the books were there one month and gone the next with no warning so that we could prepare for it.

 

Jamie: If returnables were a distributing option do you think Image Comics and other publishers would use it?

Erik Larsen: I can’t speak for the company but I’d use it.

 

Jamie: What’s the latest status of the Superman / Savage Dragon crossover?

Erik Larsen: Karl Kesel and Jon Bogdonove’s is nearing completion– mine has barely been started.

 

Jamie: What the status of the Mighty Man mini series? Have you given up on Gil Kane yet?

Erik Larsen: It’s stalled. The thing was written for Gil– if he’s not interested in doing it, I may just have it appear in Savage Dragon instead and do it myself– I’m not that pumped on just getting any guy off the street to do it.

 

Jamie: In both Savage Dragon and Aquaman, you’ve added pregnancies galore. Why do you keep using that as a surprise / story?

Erik Larsen: Planting seeds for the future. In a book like Dragon, which is set in real time, I need to prepare for the future. It may seem like overkill but if you’re that age, it’s not uncommon to have any number of your friends have kids. Since Savage Dragon started, I’ve gotten married, Reuben Rude (SD colorist) has gotten married and Chris Eliopoulos (SD letterer) has gotten married– My wife and I have had two kids, Reuben’s wife spit out one and as I write this, Chris’ wife is a few weeks from having twins– and that’s just people who work on Savage Dragon! I’ve got a number of friends who have popped out kids over the last few years. It’s far from unrealistic but it’s pretty rare in comics, I must admit.

 

Jamie: Many self publishers seem to be having trouble doing a monthly comic book. Yet you kept Savage Dragon monthly or almost monthly for 6 years now. How do you do it?

Erik Larsen: I’m on a roll. It can be mind-boggling at first to set things up but by now it comes pretty easily. You’ve just got to sit down and DO THE WORK. There’s no big secret here– you just have to work on your book rather than play video games, watch videos and screw off.

 

Jamie: With Savage Dragon, the types of stories have ranged from gritty cop stuff to Kirby style sci-fi stuff. What kind of stories will readers see in the future?

Erik Larsen: More of the same– I like getting in a lot of variety on this book– I don’t feel the need to restrict myself in any way.

 

Jamie: Would you do Savage Dragon in black & white if the sales dropped too low?

Erik Larsen: I’d certainly rather not. The next step would be to raise the cover price. Right now, I’m hoping to hang in there for a while longer.

 

Jamie: Do you think Marvel should consider doing ongoing titles in black and white?

Erik Larsen: It’s not my call.

 

Jamie: Spider-Man fans want to know when is the next time you are going to work on him?

Erik Larsen: In Nova #5– I wouldn’t work on one of the regular books unless it was “my” book– I like to do long runs on titles– I’m not interested in doing a story arc.

 

Jamie: In Wolverine #140 we saw ‘you’ as the big thug getting clobbered by Logan. Who were the other people in the scene?

Erik Larsen: That wasn’t supposed to be me as far as I know. The character designs are Leinil’s department.

 

Jamie: What does the future hold for Wolverine?

Erik Larsen: I have no clue– I’m just trying to keep the editors happy– my agenda keeps getting pushed back– I’m not sure when I’ll ever get to do stuff that I want to do.

 

Jamie: How much input do you have on the Wolverine getting his adamantium bones back story?

Erik Larsen: Zero. I told them that it was my priority but the actual story will be done in another book by somebody other than me.

 

Jamie: Nova has made some dumb mistakes in his first couple issues. Will he always make dumb mistakes are will he learn over the issues?

Erik Larsen: He’ll learn– but the book is just going to #7 so there won’t get to be THAT much learning! Obviously, had it continued I’d have the character grow and change but it was taken away from me.

 

Jamie: Who came up with the “Blast it to Buckethead” letter column name?

Erik Larsen: Me. I’ve wanted to use that for years.

 

Jamie: You’ve said Nova might not make it past issue 7. What would readers be seeing if Nova does make it past issue 7?

Erik Larsen: No point in going over it. I’ll try to work some of my plans into other books. We’ll see.

 

Jamie: You mentioned that if Nova does get cancelled, you would probably look for another book to write. If you were asked to do a Marvel Knights title in a super serious fashion, would you accept?

Erik Larsen: No.

 

Jamie: Anything else you want the world to know about?

Erik Larsen: I think Nova’s New Warriors costume is really awful just like the rest of you.

 

John Byrne Interview

I can’t deny that John was probably my favourite artist when I was a young comic fan in the 1980s and early 1990s. I did a couple of interviews with him. This is the ‘good’ one from August 1998, back when he was still working with Marvel Comics.

 

An Interview with John Byrne

What more can be said about John Byrne? Anything that could be said about him has already been spoken. John talks to us about his upcoming runs on Amazing Spider-Man, Incredible Hulk, and the new X-men book.

 

Jamie: What will you do with Amazing Spider-Man that is different and exciting?

John Byrne: The main problem presented by the whole Spider-Man mythos in its present state is finding a way to fix something which, for a majority of readers, does not appear to be broken. Those of us who have followed Spider-Man through all the years of his existence remember times when there was something almost magical about the stories, the art, the whole package, and it is that which has, slowly but surely, eroded away, as mistakes were made which, to the people in charge, did not seem to be mistakes at the time. Thus, the best thing we can think of to make Spider-Man “different and exciting” is to press “REWIND”, but to do so in a fashion that will seem a logical outgrowth of all that has gone before, and not simply a massive erasure.

 

Jamie: Will you be creating new villains for Spider-Man or using old ones?

John Byrne: The intent is to use mostly new villains – and, indeed, a new supporting cast in AMAZING. Since the old tried-and-true villains will be appearing at the same time in my “Year One” project, this seems a good way to have our cake and eat it too!

 

Jamie: Will there be more “revamps” of Spider-Man villains (eg. Female Dr. Octopus)?

John Byrne: No such is planned. We would prefer the new villains to be just-that-new!

 

Jamie: When does your run on Amazing Spider-Man start and what will the first story be about?

John Byrne: Howard Mackie and I will begin with the issue of AMAZING that comes out in November of this year. That’s far enough away that, concerned as we are with wrapping up the storylines in the current books, we have not yet given much thought to the specifics of our first stories.

 

Jamie: Would you be interested in doing Alpha Flight again in the future?

John Byrne: Nope. Alpha is a definite case of “bin there, dun that”!

 

Jamie: What are your thoughts on the new Alpha Flight?

John Byrne: I have not read it.

 

Jamie: After many years of the Hulk having some intelligence, how do you plan on making “Hulk Smash” interesting?

John Byrne: The same way it was made interesting in the past-by creating interesting stories, places, people, etc. with which the Hulk can interact.

 

Jamie: What can you tell us about your first Hulk story?

John Byrne: Nothing – it’s not plotted yet. Still several months before Ron Garney and I will be prepared to actually get to work on the title.

 

Jamie: What will be the title of the new X-Men book your working on?

John Byrne: The working title is X-MEN: HIDDEN YEARS. It may be called something else by the time it actually comes out.

 

Jamie: It will feature the original X-men in new stories during the re-print era correct?

John Byrne: Correct.

 

Jamie: Do you know what kind of format the new title will be in? Will it be done “Untold Tales of Spider-Man” style, or like a normal comic?

John Byrne: The plan is to present it as a normal, ongoing monthly series. The “gap” it fills was about 29 issues long, but I am not restricted to that. If the series is a success it could run 100 issues. Not necessarily all by me, though.

 

Jamie: When does the first issue come out?

John Byrne: We’ve been talking about the fall of 1999, though that close to the Millennium, I would not mind seeing it pushed back to January 2000.

 

Jamie: Will we be seeing some X-men villains from the 60’s that we don’t see anymore?

John Byrne: At present I am still in the process of doing the background research necessary to determine who was available, not only in terms of familiar X-Men villains, but characters and villains from other Marvel books of the period. This also requires figuring out if any of the old, familiar faces can, in fact, have appearances during this period, of if established Marvel continuity has made that impossible. Luckily I have already discovered that it will be possible to do a Magneto story almost at once.

 

Jamie: Do you plan on creating new X-villians that could pop up in present day X-men titles?

John Byrne: Possibly. At this point there has been very little discussion of just how my book will impact on the present day X-Books-or vice versa. Clearly, since I am working in the past, it would be difficult, if not impossible to do anything that impacted on the present unless the writers on the present day books wanted it to.

 

Jamie: Will we be seeing a sympathetic Magneto or a pure evil Magneto?

John Byrne: We will see Magneto as he was then-a ruthless megalomaniac with a desire to subjugate humanity to the will of “homo superior”. Xavier’s precise opposite, in other words.

 

Jamie: Out of the original X-men characters, do you have a favorite?

John Byrne: Cyclops has always been “Mr. X-Men” to me.

 

Jamie: Do you think you will find some time to re-start Next Men?

John Byrne: It’s less a question of time than it is of the state of the marketplace. NEXT MEN sold very well in its original run – better than I expected in fact – but during what I planned to be merely a brief hiatus, the whole industry crashed, and now books like NEXT MEN are swept away without so much as a ripple. I would need to see a far greater stability in the marketplace before I would risk a relaunch.

 

Jamie: How will you deal with hostile fans at San Deigo?

John Byrne: The simplest way of all – by not being there. I have no plans to attend the San Diego Con.

 

Jamie: Do you have any desire to become an editor in the future?

John Byrne: Somehow that would seem like a step down. Sometimes I wonder what I would do if Marvel or DC offered me the top spot, the editor-in-chief job, but I think the answer would be “Turn it down”. The bean-counters are running the show, these days, and the job of most editors is to meet their demands. Perhaps this will change, and we can get back the a more creative approach to comics – something not driven by marketing-but until then, it seems as though an editorial position would just be frustrating.

 

Roger Stern Interview

Originally published in June 1998. I was really excited about this interview. The first comic I ever bought was Avengers #276 by written by Roger Stern. The following story line in Avengers (Assault on Olympus) made me a comic fan for life. Back when I first started reading comics I wasn’t paying attention to the credits in them. After I graduated college (and was poor) I couldn’t afford very many new comics, so I did a lot of re-reading of my old ones. That’s when I discovered that I really liked Roger Stern stories and they also held up really well. Roger is one of the creators I’ve not yet met in person, but some friends of mine has (they actually had a sit down lunch with him, his wife Carmela and Kurt Busiek) and they told me he is a great guy.

 

An Interview with Roger Stern

When long time comic readers think of great writers, Roger Stern is a name that always pops up. He has written everything from Avengers to Starman, from Dr. Strange to Legionnaires. This month, we got him to talk about his past, present, and future work. Plus, his life outside the comicbook industry.

 

 

Jamie: Do you remember the first comic book you read? What was it?

Roger Stern: No, I read my first comic over 40 years ago, so I don’t remember which one came first. But it was probably an issue of WALT DISNEY’S COMICS & STORIES.

 

Jamie: Did you always want to become a comic book writer or were you aiming for something else?

Roger Stern: Actually, I set out to be an engineer. But I became disenchanted with engineering school and transferred to Indiana University, where I majored in radio and television. After graduation, I worked at a radio station in Indianapolis for a couple of years, and did a little freelance writing (for little or no pay) on the side. I had actually sold a PHANTOM story to Charlton when the radio gig dried up. (Charlton canceled THE PHANTOM before my story was ever used, but at least I was paid.)

 

Jamie: What kind of formal writing education did you receive?

Roger Stern: Very little. I tested out of the college level composition courses. I did take some journalism courses as part of the radio and television curriculum, but most of my education was on-the-job, writing commercial copy, record reviews, and the like.

 

Jamie: What other jobs did you have before writing comics full time?

Roger Stern: Before the radio job, I worked as a drill-press operator at a couple of small factories and a general worker for a machine shop. And of course, there were all those summers of mowing lawns and painting fences.

 

Jamie: How did you break into the comic industry?

Roger Stern: I got the chance to test for a proofreading position at Marvel in December of 1975. I passed and have been working comics ever since.

 

Jamie: Marvel is going to make your Masters of Evil II / Mansion Under Siege Avengers story into a TPB (Trade Paperback). Do you know if anything else you’ve written is going to be reprinted as a TPB?

Roger Stern: The Avengers story is the latest trade paperback reprinting that I know of. My work has also been reprinted in THE BEST OF MARVEL COMICS, CAPTAIN AMERICA: WAR & REMEMBRANCE, RETURN TO THE AMALGAM AGE OF COMICS: THE MARVEL COMICS COLLECTION, SENSATIONAL SPIDER-MAN: NOTHING CAN STOP THE JUGGERNAUT, SPIDER- MAN: HOBGOBLIN LIVES, SPIDER-MAN: THE ORIGIN OF THE HOBGOBLIN, SPIDER-MAN: THE SAGA OF THE ALIEN COSTUME, SPIDER-MAN’S GREATEST VILLAINS, THUNDERBOLTS: MARVEL’S MOST WANTED, THE VERY BEST OF SPIDER-MAN, X-MEN VS. THE AVENGERS, X- MEN: DANGER ROOM BATTLE ARCHIVES, and over a dozen Superman Trades.

 

Jamie: Of all your stories, which ones are you proudest of?

Roger Stern: The Avengers Mansion story is up there … along with a half-dozen or so SPIDER-MAN stories, my run on CAPTAIN AMERICA, some DOCTOR STRANGE stories, several Superman stories, and most of my run on STARMAN.

 

Jamie: You wrote the Death and Life of Superman novel, what are the differences between writing a book vs. writing a comic book?

Roger Stern: You have to work harder to sell an action scene in prose. With a comic, you can tell the artist to draw a spectacular explosion, and there it is! Describing that explosion effectively in cold hard type is serious work. On the other hand, I found that long dialogues — which in comics can come off as a series of talking heads (if you’re not careful) — are much easier in prose.

 

Jamie: Are you planning on writing other novels?

Roger Stern: Not at present.

 

Jamie: I hear you and Kurt Busiek are going to change Photon’s name to something else… any winners yet on the new name?

Roger Stern: I’m still lobbying for Captain Marvel, as that is who she was created to be. Unfortunately, someone else is currently using that name.

 

Jamie: What’s up and coming with new Marvel Universe stories and creative teams?

Roger Stern: After the initial Strucker/Invaders arc, there’s a four-issue arc with a quartet of Monster Hunters set in the era of the pre-hero TALES OF SUSPENSE, TALES TO ASTONISH era. After that, we have — in no particular order — a Revolutionary War story (inspired by a subplot from one of Jack Kirby’s Captain America stories), the story of Doctor Strange’s return to America (after his apprenticeship to the Ancient One), maybe a story featuring a pre- FF Reed Richards and Ben Grimm, and eventually (I promise!) the Eternal Brain!! Upcoming artists include Mike Manley, Jason Armstrong, Neil Vokes, and Brent Anderson.

 

Jamie: Other than Marvel Universe and Legionnaires, what else will you be doing?

Roger Stern: I recently co-plotted SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN #259-261 with Glenn Greenberg and a CAPTAIN AMERICA/IRON MAN ANNUAL with Kurt Busiek (which Mark Waid will be scripting). I’m about halfway through the scripting of SUPERMAN: A NATION DIVIDED, an Elseworlds one-shot set during the Civil War. And I’m plotting a secret project which I can’t tell you about yet.

 

Jamie: Last year at San Diego Con you said “But there’s just so many of them!” in regards to writing Legionnaires. How do you feel about the big cast of characters now that you have been writing them for an additional year?

Roger Stern: Still too many of them. But we hope to get around this by focusing on subsets of the team … probably to the sounds of wailing and teeth-gnashing from the hardore Legion fans who want to see all the Legionnaires in every issue (and don’t have to write the bloody things).

 

Jamie: How do you feel about the new editorial decision to move Legionnaires to a more action oriented plot lines?

Roger Stern: No problem with that. (Actually, we’ve always tried to put as much action into the stories as we could. It was just hard to see with all of those Legionnaires in the way!)

 

Jamie: I hear you’re a big lover of snakes, can you describe your pets? How many snakes do you have? What kind of snakes are they?

Roger Stern: Carmela and I have a dozen or so … some common Garters, a couple of King Snakes, several Rat Snakes, and a Ball Python. They’re clean, non-demanding creatures who don’t take up a lot of room. They don’t bark and when they shed, it’s all at once. Did I mention that they’re hypoallergenic? If you’re allergic to dog and/or cat dander, you might want to consider a snake. Of course, they won’t fetch …

 

Jamie: Did your love for snakes cause you to change Princess Projectra into a snake? Or was there another purpose for turning her into a snake?

Roger Stern: I -didn’t- change Princess Projectra into a snake. In the new continuity, I introduced a new character with similar powers, a divergent background, and a more serious name. I decided that Sensor would be a snake because — as Carmela has rightfully pointed out — there are too many snake-based villains out there. And, as I was being forced to add some Legionnaires anyway, I wanted to add a non-humanoid to the mix, as well as a member (Umbra) who was -not- white and male.

 

Jamie: Are there any members of the Legionnaires about whom you would like to write a solo series?

Roger Stern: Not off hand, no.

 

Jamie: If you could buy one comic character and do an indy title with him/her, who would that character be?

Roger Stern: I wouldn’t be interested in removing any established characters from their home universe. I don’t see any point in that.

 

Jamie: Do you have any aspirations to become an editor?

Roger Stern: I’ve been an editor. Didn’t like it.

 

Jamie: What did you think of the last episode of Seinfeld?

Roger Stern: I wish that it had been as funny as the rest of the series.

 

R.I.P. Paul Ryan (1949 – 2016)

Paul Ryan, 2004 Paradise Comics Toronto Comic Con

Paul Ryan, 2004 Paradise Comics Toronto Comic Con

Artist Paul Ryan has passed away at the age of 66. You hear about comic creators dying and while they are all sad, this one hit me harder than most. I met Paul at least once or twice at conventions and was always happy to see and talk with him.

Paul drew the 2nd comic I ever bought, which was D.P. 7 #2. I would eventually go on to collect the entire series. It is one of my favourite comics of my youth. Paul drew all 32 issues of the comic but Lee Weeks drew the D.P. 7 Annual. The entire New Universe line of books were panned back in the day, but many noted that D.P. 7 was easily the best of the bunch and is fondly remembered by fans like myself.

Paul and D.P. 7 writer Mark Gruenwald worked together on the first 6 issues of Quasar. While I didn’t collect it I did buy the odd issue, particularly the issue that had Quasar go to the New Universe and visit the D.P. 7 cast of characters. I’ve never had any desire to buy original art but I had a serious look at Paul’s D.P. 7 pages. If I saw something I really liked for a decent price I likely would have bought it. Sadly most of the good pages I would have been interested in had been bought already.

Amazing Spider-Man Annual 21

Amazing Spider-Man Annual 21

Paul’s most famous 80’s comic was The Amazing Spider-Man Annual #21, which featured the marriage of Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson. I also enjoyed Paul’s run on Fantastic Four with Tom DeFalco in the 90s. I know those comics get a bad rap but they were fun, fast paced, popcorn reading. At the time comic industry sales were crashing and if I remember Dan Ravi’s Comic Wars correctly the editors were put under immense pressure to increase sales every quarter in spite of this. DeFalco (who was then the Editor in Chief) and Ryan did their best to do entertaining stories while keeping the upstairs people happy. Their run was filled with with gimmick covers, shocking revelations (Alicia is really a Skrull named Lyja the Lazerfist!), costume changes and more. Paul would go on to draw many more comics for Marvel, DC and other publishers.

Paul had been drawing the Phantom newspaper strip since 2005 and I always happy that he found solid, steady work as he fell out of flavour in comic books. Sadly, many artists do not and are heavily reliant on the convention circuit and fan commissions to support themselves. Many more just don’t get any more work in comics and have to go into some other field. Paul’s consistency and clarity in telling a story were among the qualities that lead to him having a long and successful career in comics.

Comic History Secrets Revealed!

I’ve been going to comic book conventions since 2003 and have been audio recording panels and awards since 2005. Along the way creators have spoken about some behind the scenes happenings that don’t always become public knowledge.

DC Bloodlines Logo

Marvel Superstar!

 

On the Comics Can Be Good column at CBR, Brian Cronin writes about the 1993 DC Bloodlines Annuals. In these annuals a new superhero character was created, which was a selling point to get fans to buy these books. The vast majority of these characters were not very popular and went into comic book limbo almost immediately after their appearance. The same thing happened with the 1993 Marvel Annuals that had new characters in them too.

 

 

 

 

 

Creator Mike Grell wrote the Green Arrow Annual #6 and came up with a character called The Hook. Grell was at the 2008 Toronto Hobbystar ComiCON and was on a panel along with Bob Layton and David Michelinie. It was called The Men of Iron / Sketch Off Panel where Layton and Grell did sketches and all 3 talked about their careers, focusing mainly on their time on Iron Man. The panel was moderated by Blake Bell.

The conversation drifted towards working with editors and around the 37:30 mark, David Michelinie spoke about declining to work on the Marvel annual (he was writing Amazing Spider-Man at the time). Mike Grell spoke about working on the Green Arrow Annual #6.

Michelinie: I remember one year in the annuals. (…) One year they had everybody create a new character which Marvel would then own. So I declined to do the annual that year. You always have a choice. You can always say no.

 

Grell: DC had that policy. There was a line of books that they did. They mandated that everybody had to create a new character and by the way, it was work for hire and DC owned the character. Being a professional prostitute [laughter from the panel] I did, but I accidentally created a good one. I had already sent in the outline for the story as soon as it went in I went “OH CRAP! THAT’S A GOOD CHARACTER!” [Laughter] I got on the phone with the editor and I unsold it. [Lots of Laughter] The character that I created, I convinced them it wasn’t very good. The character I created, the one that showed up in print was this war veteran who had a prosthetic hand or a prosthesis and when he would active his power, his hook would become this giant hook/claw thing that could cut through anything. By the time I’m done the editor was going “Yeah that’s great! That’s great!” *Whew!* that was close.

GreenArrowAnn-06-47

The Hook from Green Arrow Annual #6 – created by Mike Grell and Mike Collins.  © DC Comics

 

Marvel and DC likely did this because of Image Comics. They began publishing in 1992 and very quickly became the #3 publisher in the industry. Image was creating lots of new characters that had fans excited. Marvel and DC likely wanted to counter with their own “exciting” new characters but didn’t want to pay creators for them. So they got what they got. I should say that not all characters to come from this were a bust. Garth Ennis and John McCrea created Hitman, who had a well loved solo series.

I can’t speak for all creators, but I think with a lot of creators would really hate to have created a character and have it earn all sorts of money and none (or very little) of it going to them. It bothers them a lot and it can bother them for the rest of their lives. Much like if somebody broke into your house and stole your prized possession and then flaunted it in front of you at every chance they got for the rest of your life and you can’t do anything about it. The pain is such they’d rather not have created the character at all.

Plus there is always the possibility that they might use the character in a situation where it’s much more agreeable to them. It could be with another publisher or even the same publisher with different editorial policy down the line. Some creators work in other mediums like prose books, cartoons, video games, etc.. and those other fields may provide better deals. There is simply no reason for creators to provide good characters to non paying publishers if they think they’re going to regret the decision.

Deadpool and X-Men Origins: Wolverine revisited

Deadpool Movie

 

I have yet to see the new Deadpool movie, but by all accounts it’s very popular and people are loving it.

The new movie reminds me of the previous Deadpool appearance in the film X-Men Origins: Wolverine. In that movie we first see Ryan Reynolds play Deadpool and people were happy in the early part of the movie because he got the snappy patter part down. The sucky part was at the end, where they made Deadpool the main villain for Wolverine and changed him.

wolverine-deadpool-origins-thumb

Don’t get sick.

 

As more than one person mentioned, they took the ‘Merc with the Mouth’ and removed the mouth.

What the new Deadpool movie popularity shows is why they did this. Imagine if they had Deadpool, as he is in the recent movie, battle Wolverine at the end? Would everybody want to see the hero of the movie Wolverine win? As popular as Hugh Jackman and Wolverine is I think an extended fight scene against classic non stop black humor joking Deadpool would not have worked out so well for him in his own movie. So they decided to change Deadpool into a character that you wouldn’t like and did so by taking away his mouth and his costume. Now it’s clear, cheer for Wolverine and boo the bad Deadpool.

You may think they shouldn’t have had Wolverine fight Deadpool in the first place and I agree. Superhero movies always seem to want the villains to have some sort of connection to the characters origin. Examples being the Joker being the one that killed Bruce Wayne’s parents in the first Michael Keaton Batman movie or the hamfisted Sandman connection to Uncle Ben’s death in the 3rd Tobey MaGuire Spider-Man film. The Wolverine movie was supposed to be about Wolverine’s origin and they already used Sabretooth in the first X-Men film. While Sabretooth plays a major role in this film, he was last seen by movie goers as a fairly minor player in the first X-men film who gets killed. This makes Sabretooth an unsatisfying final villain for this film. Another major villain with origin ties was Lady Deathstrike, but she was used and killed in the 2nd X-men film. None of the other characters on the “Team X” would work as the main villain either.

I also think felt they had to tie into the Weapon X story line since it’s so featured so much in the 2nd X-men film. There was backstory there and this movie was to fill it. Ideally, they would have done a better job with Sabretooth in the first X-men film (have him kick Wolverine around some then disappear) and used him in the 2nd in a similar way to set him up as the big bad Wolverine specific villain you wanted to see him go up against. Hindsight is 20/20 though, I imagine when they were making the first X-men film they were just hoping the movie wouldn’t bomb and were not planning for a solo Wolverine movie 9 years later. So with all other options gone, they decided the main villain had to be Deadpool, but a version of Deadpool that wouldn’t be liked and that’s what we got.

 

wolverine-vs-wendigo
Personally, I’d have liked to see Wendigo be the big villain for the first Wolverine movie. He ties into Wolverine’s first appearance in Hulk #180 & 181 but there obviously wouldn’t have had the Hulk in a FOX movie. They could have brought in Shaman from Alpha Flight to explain/deal with the ‘human soul trapped with the Wendigo curse’ bit. If they go a little further than the comics did at the time and add in the cannibalism part of the origin it would have been a horror movie element to the film, making it stand out. I know when they do movie rights specific characters are put into groupings and I don’t know that Wendigo would have been in the X-men grouping or the Hulk’s grouping since the character has appeared in both characters stories over the years, not to mention many other Marvel characters. The same goes with Shaman, I have no idea of Alpha Flight are their own grouping or if they are part of the X-men.