back issue #4

T H E U L T I M A T E C O M I C S E X P E R I E N C E !

A p r i l 2 0 0 4

No.3$5.95

Celebrating

The Best

Comics of the

’70s, ’80s,

& Today!

J u n e 2 0 0 4

No.4$5.95

MARV

ELMI

LEST

ONES

:BYR

NE!C

LARE

MONT

!SIM

ONSO

N!WE

IN!Z

ECK!

ALL CHARACTERS TM & ©2004 MARVEL CHARACTERS, INC.

WALT

SIMONSON &

JOECASEY

PRO 2PRO

Wolverine

Pencil Art

ROUGHSTUFF

LEN Wein

talks Teen

Wolverine

GREATEST

STORIESNEVER

TOLD

The Punisher

Turns 30

BRINGON THE

BAD GUYS

Celebrating

The Best

Comics of the

’70s, ’80s,

& Today!

“ ”

Face front, truebeliever! It’s our

MarvelMilestones

issue!Volume 1, Number 4June 2004

Celebrating theBest Comics of the'70s, '80s, and Today!

EDITORMichael Eury

PUBLISHERJohn Morrow

DESIGNERRobert Clark

PROOFREADEREric Nolen-Weathington

SCANNING AND IMAGEMANIPULATIONRich Fowlks

COVER ARTISTJohn Byrne

COVER COLORISTTom Ziuko

CONTRIBUTORS

SPECIAL THANKS

The Ultimate Comics Experience!

Face front, truebeliever! It’s our

MarvelMilestones

issue!

M a r v e l M i l e s t o n e s • B A C K I S S U E • 1

EDITORIAL: REMEMBERING JULIUS SCHWARTZ..............................................................2The Marvel Universe owes a debt of gratitude to this late, great DC editor

PRO2PRO: CHRIS CLAREMONT AND JOHN BYRNE.......................................................3The legendary X-Men creative team discusses Wolverine

THE GREATEST STORIES NEVER TOLD:I WAS A TEENAGE WOLVERINE! ...................................................................................................26Creator Len Wein spills the beans on teen Wolverine

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, WOLVERINE! ART GALLERY .............................................................32Art by Arthur Adams, Colan and Williamson, Hughes and Townsend, Millerand Rubinstein, Pérez and Austin

ROUGH STUFF: WOLVERINE SPOTLIGHT.............................................................................36Wolverine pencil art by J. Buscema, Byrne, Chadwick, Cockrum, Hughes, Kane,Larsen, Lee, Liefeld, Silvestri, and Simonson!

SECRET WARS 20TH ANNIVERSARY QUIZ...........................................................................47Test your knowledge of Marvel’s first crossover. With unpublished Mike Zeck art!

BRING ON THE BAD GUYS: THE PUNISHER......................................................................50How Marvel’s vigilante went from antagonist to anti-hero

PRO2PRO: WALTER SIMONSON AND JOE CASEY........................................................62Relive the days of Simonson’s Thor, with never-before-published artwork

BACK IN PRINT: THE CHRONICLES OF CONAN.............................................................83Dark Horse’s reprints of Marvel’s classics, plus a “New in Print” glimpseat the new Conan and Iron Fist series

BACK TALK.........................................................................................................................................................86Reader feedback on issue #2

Jack AbelArthur AdamsRoss AndruTerry AustinBob BudianskyJohn BuscemaJohn ByrneJoe CaseyPaul ChadwickChris ClaremontDave CockrumGene ColanGerry ConwayMike EspositoMichael EuryDavid HamiltonRuss HeathAdam HughesDan JohnsonGil KaneJack Kirby

Erik LarsenJim LeeRob LiefeldTodd McFarlaneFrank MillerBrian K. MorrisGeorge PérezJohn Romita Sr.Joe RubinsteinPeter SandersonMarc SilvestriWalter SimonsonRoy ThomasTim TownsendHerb TrimpeLen WeinBob WiacekAl WilliamsonBarry Windsor-

SmithMike Zeck

Spencer BeckJerry BoydGlen CadiganComic Book

DatabaseKen DankerNick FordJedimaster GarayGrand Comics

DatabaseScott Green

Heritage ComicsSean KleefeldRichard KolkmanTed LatnerWayne OsborneBrent PetersonJohn PettyRose Rummel-EuryKevin VanHornJim Warden

BACK ISSUE™ is published bimonthly by TwoMorrows Publishing, 10407 Bedfordtown Drive, Raleigh, NC27614. Michael Eury, Editor. John Morrow, Publisher. BACK ISSUE Editorial Office: BACK ISSUE, c/oMichael Eury, Editor, 5060A Foothills Dr., Lake Oswego, OR 97034. Email: [email protected]. Six-issue sub-

scriptions: $30 Standard US, $48 First Class US, $60 Canada, $66 Surface International, $90 Airmail International. Pleasesend subscription orders and funds to TwoMorrows, NOT to the editorial office. Wolverine, X-Men, AlphaFlight, Iron Fist, the Incredible Hulk, Wendigo, Spider-Man, Punisher, Marvel Super-Heroes: Secret Wars, Magneto, CaptainAmerica, Thor, Beta Ray Bill, and all other related characters TM & © 2004 Marvel Characters, Inc. Superman, Batman, andthe Doom Patrol TM & © 2004 DC Comics. Conan TM & © 2004 Conan Properties International, LLC. All editorial matter ©2004 Michael Eury and TwoMorrows Publishing. BACK ISSUE is a TM of TwoMorrows Publishing. Printed in Canada. FIRSTPRINTING.

“ ”

No writer-artist team at Marvel has come close to equaling the creative brilliance of StanLee and Jack Kirby, with the possible exception of Stan Lee and Steve Ditko. But the team of

Chris Claremont and John Byrne came closer than anyone else. From Uncanny X-Men #108

through #143, they revolutionized the super-hero team book, created storylines that still

resonate nearly a quarter century later, and memorably shaped the personalities of characters

old and new.

Byrne and Claremont did not create Wolverine, but it was through their partnership

that the character truly caught fire. Building on the considerable contributions of his co-creator

Len Wein and artist Dave Cockrum, Claremont and Byrne developed Wolverine from a feisty,

somewhat comical supporting character into not only a star, but a new kind of super-hero:

more violent, more psychologically unstable, and yet with a genuine nobility.

Byrne and Claremont had, and have, very different creative visions, and so it was inevitable

that they parted as a team, each to go on to an extraordinarily successful career. In fact, readers

may be surprised to see in these “Pro2Pro” interviews just how widely different Claremont and

Byrne’s concepts of Wolverine are from each other.

Currently, Byrne and Claremont have again teamed up for a project, JLA #94–99. But in

this case, Claremont is simply providing dialogue for Byrne’s plot; it is not the close collabora-

tion that they had on X-Men, in which they jointly brainstormed the stories. That kind of

creative partnership will not happen again; both men have changed and moved on.

But for that short time that they worked together on X-Men, a little

over three years, those disparate creative visions merged into a

coherent artistic whole. Wolverine, as we know him today,

is one of the results of that brief, groundbreaking collabo-

ration between two of the most important comics

creators of their generation.

Ideally, a “Pro2Pro” interview would be conducted

with all the participants in the same place at the

same time. In this case, though, I ended up doing

separate phone interviews with Chris and John. I’ve

edited the transcripts so that one person’s response

to a question will segue into the other’s comments

on the same subject. It’s the next best thing to

being there. —Peter Sanderson

Byrne’s First X-MenThis mid-1970s illo

(right) was John Byrne’s

first rendition of

Marvel’s mutants. Note

the influence of then-

X-Men artist Dave

Cockrum in Byrne’s

version of Storm.

Courtesy of

Wayne Osbourne.

© 2004 Marvel Characters, Inc.

L a u g h i n g M a t t e r s • B A C K I S S U E • 3

Interviews conducted and transcribedby Peter Sanderson

Claremont and Byrne:Claremont and Byrne:

inte

rvie

w

PETER SANDERSON: Let’s go allthe way back to the beginning.How did your conception ofWolverine way back in the ’70s dif-fer from Len [Wein]’s?

CHRIS CLAREMONT: Well, Lenthought he was 19 years old [seethis issue’s “Greatest Stories NeverTold” for the full story]. Len’s orig-inal idea was the claws were in thegloves.

SANDERSON: Is this something hetold you when you took over thebook, or did you find out later?

CLAREMONT: Well, we found outlater. Dave [Cockrum] and I talkedabout it. Dave said Len thoughtthe claws were in the gloves andhe and I both agreed, why? Ifthey’re in the gloves, then any-body could wear the gloves.

SANDERSON: It raises the ques-tion of what made Wolverine a

mutant in the original stories, since the healing factor was-n’t established back then.

CLAREMONT: Well, the healing factor was always part of it.Dave and I figured it would be much more fun if the clawswere integral.

SANDERSON: I don’t know if the healing factor was alwayspart of it, unless it’s something that Dave and Len talkedabout that wasn’t actually written into the stories. I don’tbelieve it’s mentioned in Len’s stories [the initial Wolverineappearances in Incredible Hulk and Giant-Size X-Men #1].

CLAREMONT: In terms of his fighting the Hulk, otherwisewhat would make him a mutant?

SANDERSON: Yeah.

CLAREMONT: We needed something that made him amutant, something that made him unique. The claws wereobviously artificial, and if the claws were part of the glove,what made him a mutant? The reductium of the equationwas what makes him a mutant is the healingfactor. But if he has a healing factor, what about the claws?Well, let us make the claws part of him. The healing factorenables him to survive with the claws. Dave and I thought,this is cool, we’ll run with it.

SANDERSON: Did Dave and you differ in any way on whatWolverine should be like? Some people think Dave treatedWolverine more as a comedic character, who’d be the butt ofjokes.

CLAREMONT: Dave’s focus was more on different charac-ters. Certainly in the first run of [X-Men] books [thatCockrum drew], his first tenure on the series, we were busyestabl i sh ing everybody. His interest was more inNightcrawler, say, and Phoenix and Storm. John [Byrne] was

the artist who focused more in on Wolverine as a character.It was under John’s pen that he blossomed.

SANDERSON: How so? Did John want to use him more, ordid he draw him differently?

CLAREMONT: The interesting thing is actually that Dave isthe one who came up with the look, the hairline.

SANDERSON: Dave came up with what he looked likeunmasked and with the hair, and I assume he’s the one whocame up with the Western look of dressing.

CLAREMONT: Pretty much. ’Cause that was consistent withwestern Canada, the idea that he came out of the moun-tains of Alberta, so he should look like a Westerner. Johnjust liked him more. Dave’s signature character wasNightcrawler; John’s turned out to be Wolverine. You glomonto a certain guy.

SANDERSON: John, why did you pick Wolverine as yourcharacter when you started on X-Men?

JOHN BYRNE: Because he was a Canadian. [Byrne was bornin England, spent much of his life in Canada, and now livesin the United States.] Chris and Dave [Cockrum] had saidquite openly they could never figure out what to do withhim. Dave’s favorite character clearly was Nightcrawler.When I started, Chris was still conferring with Dave on theplot, and I was really just the art robot for the first two orthree issues, until finally I just protested and said, Excuse me[laughs], it’s not Dave any more. And Chris told me at onepoint, “We’re going to write Wolverine out because wedon’t know what to do with him.”

SANDERSON: Really!

4 • B A C K I S S U E • M a r v e l M i l e s t o n e s

Bad to theAdamantium Bone

Wolverine, by

John Byrne.

Date unknown.


Ready to RumbleA 1976 Wolverine sketch by Byrne.


BYRNE: Yep. And I stamped my little foot and said there is no wayyou’re writing out the only Canadian character. And so I made himmine. Whenever I do a group book I make one character mine andsort of focus on that character so I have a focus for the book. And Imade him mine, and I guess I can now say a big mea culpa, right?[laughs]

SANDERSON: Do you think it’s true that when Dave was on the book,Wolverine was more like a comedy character?

BYRNE: He was. He was like comedy relief. He was getting punchedinto orbit. Actually, that happened in my first issue, but it was a leftoverDave idea.

SANDERSON: Wolverine’s unmasked face is much more distinctive thanmost super-heroes’.

BYRNE: Yeah, that was Dave’s.

SANDERSON: Was that hard to get a handle on drawing?

BYRNE: It was hard to get the hair to work. In my entire run I was neversatisfied with how I drew his hair when he had his mask off. It was some-thing about the way the flat part on the front had to kind of blend into theplumes on the side. Of course, it was much slicker in my day; it wasn’t as wildas it is now. It’s probably much easier to draw now, drawing it as scruffy as it is.

SANDERSON: Would you say that as you got more interested in Wolverine’scharacter that Chris started to follow along in your wake?

BYRNE: To some extent. Chris did express a concern to [editor in chief Jim]Shooter that he was losing control of the characters at one point, ’cause moreand more of it was mine. Especially when [Roger] Stern and I wereun-indicted co-conspirators when Roger was editing the book.

SANDERSON: Since you adopted Wolverine, how did you get the ideato start doing Wolverine as this tough, military kind of guy?

BYRNE: That’s who he seemed to be. When he was first introduced inHulk and when he was enlisted by Xavier in Giant-Size [X-Men] #1 he was amilitary agent. He’d probably be a Mountie. Much of the stuff that’s done bythe CIA and the Secret Service and whatnot in the United States is handled bythe Mounted Police in Canada.

SANDERSON: Wolverine in a Mountie uniform is something we’ve never seenand I immediately want to see this.

BYRNE: This would be scary, wouldn’t it? He’s probably too shortand he’d scare the horses. [laughs] It just seemed a natural progression fromwhat we’d seen of the character that his background was covert military.

SANDERSON: Who was it who came up with the name “Logan”?

BYRNE: Chris. Or at least it predates me. It might have been Dave’s;I don’t know. Chris did not know this, but I did point out that MountLogan is the tallest mountain in Canada. It’s not a very Canadian-sound-ing name. I would think of a cowboy when I think of somebody namedLogan. He sort of is a cowboy.

SANDERSON: Chris, where did Logan’s name come from?

CLAREMONT: Mount Logan, a mountain in Canada.

SANDERSON: Was that your idea or John’s?

CLAREMONT: I think it was John’s. I don’t know, might have beenmine. Or Dave’s. I’d have to go back and look. But the idea was thetallest mountain being the name of the shortest character.

SANDERSON: And that leads to another question. Why is it importantthat Wolverine is short?

CLAREMONT: Why does every character have to be 6’ 3”?

Beginnings:First complete story art: Wheelie andthe Chopper Bunch #2 (1975)Milestones:Doomsday +1 / Rog 2000 / Iron Fist / Marvel Team-Up / Uncanny X-Men / Captain America / FantasticFour /Alpha Flight / Incredible Hulk / Man of Steel /Superman / Sensational She-Hulk / Namor theSub-Mariner / Wolverine / John Byrne’s Next Men /Wonder Woman / Jack Kirby’s Fourth World / X-Men: The Hidden Years / Superman and Batman:Generations / Fearbook and Whipping Boy novelsWorks in Progress:JLA / The Doom Patrol / DC Comics Presents(Julius Schwartz tributebook) / True Brit

Cyberspace:John Byrne Forum:www.network54.com/Hide/Forum/248951;writes “IMO” columnwww.ugo.com/channels/comics/features/johnbyrne/imo/html

Beginnings:Uncredited plot suggestion: X-Men #59 (1969)

First pro script: Daredevil #102 (1973)

Milestones:Iron Fist / Uncanny X-Men / Captain Britain /

Marvel Team-Up / Ms. Marvel / John Carter,

Warlord of Mars / Wolverine / New Mutants /

Black Dragon / Excalibur / Sovereign Seven /

Gen13 / X-Treme X-Men / Mechanix / Firstflight

novel trilogy

Works in Progress:

JLA / Excalibur (new) / X-Men: The End /

Uncanny X-Men /

Wolverine/Witchblade

Cyberspace:Co-hosts “Cordially Chris”

forum at ComiX-Fan Forums,

www.comixfan.com/xfan/

forums

M a r v e l M i l e s t o n e s • B A C K I S S U E • 5

SANDERSON: Well, you could well ask the makers of the X-Men movies this.

CLAREMONT: Well, ’cause Hugh Jackman is 6’ 3” and a realhunk. To me the image I used to have of Wolverine when Iwas writing the book years ago was Bob Hoskins. Not fero-ciously tall, but incredibly, dynamically frightening when hegets his anger up. The point with Logan is that peoplealways have underestimated him because of his size,because of his manner. Then he explodes into action andthere’s nothing left standing. With Colossus you expect it;with Wolverine you don’t, or shouldn’t.

SANDERSON: John, why is it important that Wolverine isshort? Why is it that Hugh Jackman is too tall to play him?

BYRNE: It’s not important. It’s just the way it is.

SANDERSON: Does it add something to the character?

BYRNE: It probably has a lot to do with who he is and hisgeneral mentality. I’m sure we could get to the same place

with a guy who was 6’ 4” if we wrote it right. But itcertainly gives him an extra layer. There’s not too manysuper-heroes who are running around who are 5’ 1”or whatever he’s supposed to be.

It’s not absolutely vital that he be 5’ 1”. But I figure aslong as that’s the way he’s been portrayed, that’s the wayhe should be portrayed. It’s one of my little bugaboos whenthey do adaptations. It’s like if this character is a6’ 2” redheaded Amazon, she shouldn’t be played byWhoopi Goldberg. It’s not like adapting a novel. We knowwhat these characters look like. I thought X-Men, with theexception of Halle Berry, who looked exactly like the Stormthat I drew, except for her hair, was horribly cast.

SANDERSON: I don’t know. I don’t mind Patrick Stewart.

BYRNE: He wasn’t the Professor Xavier who lives inside myhead. He got the job because he’s the bald guy. And if wemade this movie twenty years ago, he would have beenTelly Savalas, and if we’d made it forty years ago, hewould’ve been Yul Brynner. That’s the way Hollywood works.

SANDERSON: Apart from the height, what do you think ofWolverine in the movies?

CLAREMONT: I think it’s fine. Hugh Jackman did a spectacu-lar performance. It was everything I wanted out of it. Youcould always wish for more screen time and fight choreog-raphy, and I wish the kiss with Jean had gone on to some-thing more important, but I thought he was totally kickass. Ihave no problem with Hugh Jackman as Wolverine. I thinkif they ever do a Wolverine movie, he’d be the guy.

WOLVERINE’S AGE

SANDERSON: Chris, how did you decide to make Wolverineolder than 19?

CLAREMONT: It’s the way Dave drew him: he looked older.As I wrote him more and more, he felt older. We didn’tknow about [him being] 19; that was something that Lenmentioned years and years later.

SANDERSON: And as time went on you decided thatWolverine was in fact older than he looked.

CLAREMONT: If he has a healing factor, why not?

SANDERSON: When did you decide that in fact Wolverinecould possibly be over a century old?

CLAREMONT: The over a century old was something that[was decided] later on. But it was always something weplayed at, again, as it evolved. Through John’s tenure on thebook, through Frank’s [the Claremont/Frank MillerWolverine] miniseries. Again, it’s like everything else: Themore you get to know the character, the more you answerthe questions who, what, where, when, why, how, the moreyou try to differentiate him from the characters around him.One answer leads you to the next question, the next ques-tion leads you to a new answer, and you gradually build thestructure of the character.

SANDERSON: John, how did the idea that Wolverine was

6 • B A C K I S S U E • M a r v e l M i l e s t o n e s

Taking a SliceOut of Chrome

The cover to

X-Men #115

(1978), signed

by the artists.

Courtesy of

Terry Austin.


2 6 • B A C K I S S U E • M a r v e l M i l e s t o n e s

Funny, He Doesn’t Look 120A youthful Wolverine, from John Romita Sr.’s

original 1974 character designs.


It was an editor’s desire to appease Canadianreaders and his appreciation of a writer’s flair for

dialects that led to the creation of the most popular comic-book

character to emerge during the past 30 years.

In early 1974, Len Wein was the writer of his favorite Marvel title,

The Incredible Hulk, and was winding down a stint scripting the “Brother

Voodoo” feature appearing in Strange Tales. “I have a very good ear for

accents,” Wein reveals to BACK ISSUE. “I used to love writing accents

in books, trying to make you hear the voice with the accent.”

Wein’s Hulk editor was Roy Thomas. “Whatever his strengths as a

writer were, which were considerable,” Len reminisces, “Roy had no ear

for accents and loved the fact that I was doing Jamaican and Haitian

accents in “Brother Voodoo.” So he came to me one day and said, ‘I want

you to do a Canadian accent. I want you to do a Canadian character.

I’ve got a name: Wolverine. Go!’”

Thomas concurs, explaining his reasoning behind his mandate: “I

knew that we had lots of Canadian readers,” Roy says, “and I thought

having a Canadian hero (even if he started out as a quasi-villain, like so

many Marvel heroes) would be a good idea. I considered either Badger or

Wolverine as names, decided on the latter, and told Len over lunch that

I’d like a Canadian hero with that name. . . that he should be short of

stature and short of temper like his namesake. That was pretty much my

contribution to the character, although I do consider it a co-creation in

a sense. Len and Herb Trimpe [artist of Incredible Hulk #180–182, where

Wolverine premiered] are the major creators and did the heavy lifting.”

by Michae l Eury

M a r v e l M i l e s t o n e s • B A C K I S S U E • 2 7

Cantankerous CanuckThe Hulk (and readers) forgot about

the Wendigo once Wolverine clawed

his way into this 1974 issue.


I Was a

TeenageWolverine!

I Was a

TeenageWolverine!

SNIKT!

WOLVERINE’S DEVELOPMENT

Thomas’ directive inspired Wein to hit the books. “I researched wolverines,”

he recalls, discovering that “wolverines are short, nasty animals with razor-sharp

claws that will attack creatures ten times their size,” the perfect sound-bite

definition of this pint-sized Canuck who fearlessly challenged the towering Hulk.

At this developmental stage of Wolverine’s history, Wein’s embellishments

upon Thomas’ proposed hero began to take shape. “I don’t think either being

a mutant or having adamantium claws was part of my concept,” offers Thomas,

“even though I made up and named adamantium.” Wein’s recollection is that

he created Wolverine as a mutant, gifted with “tenacity and heightened senses,

like an animal.”

Wolverine’s claws, in Len’s mind, were vastly different from what we now

recognize. “They were retractable, but into the gloves,” Len notes. “I guess it was

Dave’s [Cockrum] and Chris’ [Claremont] idea to make them part of his body.

My feeling was, the claws were made of adamantium. Adamantium is an inde-

structible metal.” Wein envisioned that the gloves were made of fabric-covered

adamantium—“a logical way to approach this.”

Thomas’ and Wein’s memories diverge at this juncture. States Roy, “[Wolverine]

was intended to have some sort of regular presence in the Marvel books, if he

proved popular. . . but at that time there wasn’t any X-Men book yet. At least, I

don’t think I had any part in suggesting that the Canadian character necessarily

be part of the ‘international X-Men’ I envisaged in around the summer of ’74.”

[For detailed coverage of the development of the “new” X-Men, inspired by the

global ethnic composition of the Golden Age war heroes the Blackhawks, see

Thomas’ own magazine, Alter Ego #24, published by TwoMorrows]

Wein confesses that from his perspective, the invitation to make Wolverine

an X-Man was there from the beginning. “I was the one who decided he was a

mutant,” Len says. “But I never expected to be writing Giant-Size X-Men [the 1975

launching point for the new mutant team]. I always thought somebody else was

going to get that assignment. I created Wolverine to be a Canadian mutant,

knowing that the [X-Men] concept was going to be an international group of

characters. I figured, ‘Okay, whoever gets the book, if you want a Canadian guy,

you’ve got one.’ It was really a case of me being a good soldier, and preparing

something for the company’s future.”

WEIN’S TEEN WOLVERINE

Longtime readers are aware that the original X-Men, who premiered in 1963,

were five teenagers—Cyclops, Marvel Girl, the Beast, Iceman, and Angel—band-

ing together under the tutelage of an older mentor, Professor X. Wein assumed

that the new X-Men—banding together once again under Professor X’s wing—

would follow this tradition and be youths. And from that assumption he considered

Wolverine to be in his late teens, although for the character’s first appearance, he

gave his age little thought. “In the original story in Hulk, I never bothered with


Wolverine Prototype?Reader Richard Kolkman writes,

“I think I’ve discovered an

overlooked cross-company

‘prototype’ inspiration for

Wolverine (right down to

the SNIKT sound effect).”

From The Forever People #5

(November 1971).

© 2004 DC Comics.



Ready to RumbleJohn Romita Sr.’s original designs for

Wolverine. Romita laments to BACK ISSUE

that years ago, he sold these roughs for

a mere $50. The inset depicts Wolverine’s

first appearance, drawn by Herb Trimpe

and Jack Abel, from the last page of

The Incredible Hulk #180.


an age [for Wolverine],” explains Len. “It wasn’t important to that story. But

if you look at that story, he is kind of ‘youngish’ with that face, and the shorter

mask.” Nor was Wolverine’s age of much concern at the time to Hulk editor

Thomas: “I probably thought of him as early 20s, to the extent it crossed my

mind. I don’t think there was any such discussion [about his age].”

An examination of Wolverine’s original costume design by legendary artist

John Romita Sr. (working with Wein) speaks to the contrary. Romita’s full facial

shots of the character unmistakably depict Wolverine as much younger than the

figure we now know. Hulk penciler Herb Trimpe worked closely from Romita’s

model sheets, even mimicking one of Romita’s poses in Wolverine’s walk-on at

the end of issue #180.

After his Incredible Hulk outing, Wolverine lay dormant until the summer

1975 release of Giant-Size X-Men #1, written by Wein and penciled by Dave

Cockrum. Through Cockrum’s renderings and through Wein’s characterizations,

each of the new X-Men was clearly a teen or in his or her early twenties. The

fountain of youth even affected the Irish mutant Banshee, portrayed earlier

“Big” John N. Buscema was 61 years of age when he began his stint on Marvel’s first

Wolverine series (issue #1, cover date: November 1988)—61 years old! And yet, as it is fully revealed

here (minus the inks of titan Al Williamson), Mr. Buscema’s dynamic pencils pop off the page—a feat

not easily accomplished by artists less than half his age! This seventh page carries the added distinction

of being the only full-pager used in the first three-and-a-half issues of the series.

byDavid

Hamilton

WOLVERIN

E•

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feature


©20

04M

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Inc.

John Byrne’s return to Wolverine—a few years back—is perfectly showcased here

(Wolverine #17, page 22)! An action-packed page of graphite, folks!!!

WOLVERIN

E•

JO

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BY

RN

E


©20

04M

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Inc.

20th AnniversaryQUIZThis issue’s celebration of Marvel Milestones

would not be complete without a salute to

Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars, which debuted in

May 1984. Featuring “the combined might of Earth’s

most powerful super heroes” against “the ultimate

menace,” Secret Wars was the result of a merchandising

agreement to create a comic-book tie-in to a line of

action figures based on Marvel Comics heroes and

villains. The 12-issue maxiseries’ self-contained epic

story “crossed over” into a variety of Marvel titles,

birthing the crossover concept that has since become

an industry staple. Secret Wars reportedly sold in the

vicinity of 750,000 copies per issue, numbers unheard

of since the 1940s.

So how’s your memory, 20 years later?

Test your Secret Wars IQ by taking this pop quiz:

Your Secret IQ1. Secret Wars was Marvel’s first multi-title

crossover, but it wasn’t the company’s first

limited series to combine its characters.

That title was 1982’s:

a. Contest of Champions

b. Combat of Champions

c. Marvel Super Heroes Contest of Champions

d. Marvel Super Heroes Breakfast of Champions

2. The toy company behind the Secret Wars

action-figure line was (don’t peek at the photo!):

a. Mattel c. Playmates

b. Hasbro d. Ideal

spec

ialf

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d { Michae l Eury

Secret Wars20th AnniversaryQUIZ

Behold. . . Magneto!Mike Zeck’s energetic

cover pencils for Marvel Super

Heroes Secret Wars #2

(June 1984). Courtesy of

David “Hambone” Hamilton.


Plastic ManCaptain America was

part of the first of two

series of Secret Wars

action figures.

© 1984 Mattel, Inc.Captain America ©

2004 Marvel Characters, Inc.


YourSecret IQ continued

3. The “ultimate menace” that assembled

Marvel’s heroes and villains for conflicts

on a battle planet was named:

a. The Monitor c. Galactus

b. The Beyonder d. Lactose the Intolerant

4. Penciler Mike Zeck and inker John Beatty

illustrated 10 of the 12 Secret Wars issues,

with issues #5 and #6 penciled by:

a. Al Milgrom c. John Byrne

b. Jim Starlin d. Bob Layton

5. Which of the following Marvel heroes did not

participate in Secret Wars?

a. Iron Man c. Captain Marvel

b. Sub-Mariner d. Mr. Fantastic

6. Secret Wars #8 featured the following ground-

breaking event:

a. The death of Kraven the Hunter

b. The death of Thor’s alter ego Don Blake

c. The debut of Spider-Man’s new costume

d. Marty McFly travels back to the future

7. At the end of Secret Wars, the Thing

temporarily left the Fantastic Four and was

replaced in the FF by:

a. She-Hulk c. Power Man

b. Crystal d. Herbie the Robot

8. The second Spider-Woman premiered in

Secret Wars #6 and #7. Her real name was:

a. Jessica Drew c. Julia Carpenter

b. May Parker d. Richard Carpenter

9. Which of the following was not

a Secret Wars action figure?

a. Iceman c. Hobgoblin

b. Green Goblin d. Electro

Ans

wer

s:1–

C;2

–A;3

–B;4

–D;5

–B;6

–C;7

–A;8

–C;9

–B.

Secret WarsBirthday Bonus!

Here are two unpublished

Secret Wars penciled pages

(for an unspecified issue)

by Mike Zeck. The artist

remarks to BACK ISSUE:

“Changes were common-

place throughout that

series. In most cases,

changing a panel or

two would suffice. In the

case of the two pages

in question, I’m thinking

those were times when

the changes were enough

to warrant a complete

redrawing of the page.”

Art courtesy of Jim Warden.




Miami ViceComics great Russ Heath was one of many artists to illustrate

Marvel’s mob buster during the character’s early-1990s’ heyday.

From The Punisher #91 (1994). Courtesy of Heritage Comics

(www.heritagecomics.com).


©20

04M

arve

lCha

ract

ers,

Inc.

CurrentPunisher Comics

Writer Garth Ennisand artist Lewis Larosaare the new creative

team behind Marvel’spopular anti-hero, with

covers by Tim Bradstreet(like The Punisher #5’s cover

seen here, now on sale).Also available: The Punisher:

The End #1, by Ennisand the legendary

Richard Corben!

mea

nwhi

le

Calling CardThis 1987 rendering of the Punisher by

Mike Zeck was specifically produced

for use as a business card for art dealer

Jim Warden, who shared it with BI.


revi

ew


The EssentialPunisherA Review by Dan Johnson

Marvel Comics, 2003568 pages, black and white • $14.99

The Essential Punisher, Volume 1 is agreat crash course in finding out whothe Punisher is and how he came tobe. It collects every outing Marvel gavethe character before granting him hisown miniseries: The Amazing Spider-Man#129, ASM #134–135, Giant-Size Spider-Man #4, Marvel Preview #2, Marvel SuperAction #1, ASM #161–162 and 174–175,Captain America #241, ASM #201–202,Amazing Spider-Man Annual #15,Daredevil #182–184, and Peter Parker,the Spectacular Spider-Man # 81–83.

Many of the books reprinted inEssential Punisher are hard-to-findcollectors’ items not priced for thecasual reader. That is especially truefor the character’s earliest appearancesin Amazing Spider-Man, and his twoblack-and-white magazine one-shots,Marvel Preview #2 and Marvel SuperAction #1, the latter of which allowedMarvel to get around the restrictionsof the Comics Code. Marvel’s black-and-white Essential format is priced at a mere$14.99, just slightly more than you wouldhave paid for each comic individually ifyou had bought them when they firstcame out.

There are some drawbacks to thecollection that I feel I must make my fellowcomic-book fans aware of, though. Someof the early Spider-Man stories had numer-ous running subplots, and if you are not


familiar with Amazing Spider-Man fromthe early to late 1970s, you are goingto be left wondering whatever becameof the Jackal, what happened to HarryOsborn (did he really take up his father’smantle as the Green Goblin?), and whatwas it that sent J. Jonah Jameson overthe edge and caused him to “flip out”for a while. Also, in an apparent effortto save space in the book, only an eight-page segment featuring the Punisher isreprinted from Daredevil #182 (althoughthe other two issues in that story arc arereprinted in their entirety). But still, if itis the Punisher you are interested in, thenthis is the collection you have been wait-ing for. Also, if you are like me, someonewho got into comics as a kid in the 1970s,this book will also prove to be a real blastfrom the past. It features some wonder-fully nostalgic work by writers and artistswho helped to shape the comics scene in

the 1970s and theearly 1980s, such asGerry Conway (thecreator of the Punisher),Len Wein, MarvWolfman, Mike W.Barr, Keith Pollard,Tony DeZuniga,Denny O’Neil, FrankMiller, and the lateArchie Goodwin, and itmight just introduce thelate Ross Andru—the manwho penciled the firstPunisher story (and whowas one of the mostunderrated of all of Spidey’sartists—to a new generationof readers. Getting the chanceto see any of Andru’s Spider-Man work reprinted is worthmy $14.99 any day of the week.

©20

04M

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Inc.

Unsung

Spider-Man Artist

Page 31 of The Amazing Spider-Man #129,

penciled by Ross Andru and inked by

Frank Giacoia and Dave Hunt. Courtesy

of www.punisher-art.com.


One of the EssentialsThe cover to Amazing Spider-Man#202, illustrated by Keith Pollardand Joe Rubinstein. Courtesy ofwww.punisher-art.com.


The Mighty ThorA 1994 commissioned

drawing by Walter

Simonson. Courtesy

of Jim Warden

(www.doasales.com).



Just a little over 20 years ago, Thor #337 hitthe stands like a thunder crack (no pun intended).

It was writer/artist Walt Simonson’s inaugural

issue of a three-year-plus run, and the impact that

it made on me personally cannot be measured.

It’s one of my favorite super-hero single issues

ever. It’s also my first memory of a “hot” comic

book in the marketplace, back when that really

meant something.

Re-reading Walt’s run in preparation for this

interview gave me as much joy and inspiration

as an adult as it did when I first read Thor as a

kid, a testament to Walt’s enduring talent as a

storyteller. And talking to him about this seminal

work was an even greater thrill. Besides being a

consummate professional, Walt is well known as

one of the nicest guys in the business, taking

time out from his current art gig (a brand new,

Michael Moorcock-written Elric prestige format

miniseries for DC Comics) to talk about what

was, for me, an amazing—although not so

distant—era in mainstream comics. —Joe Casey

Simonson and Casey:Simonson and Casey:

Thor, First StrikeAn early example of pre-pro Simonson’s

Thor from his illustrated college thesis, circa

1969–70. Courtesy of David Hamilton.


A “Pro2Pro” creator dialogue

conducted on January 27, 2004, and transcribed

by Brian K. Morris.



JOE CASEY: So the first thing I need to do is give you

the disclaimer: There’ll be moments when I’m totally

waxing your car. I admit that freely. [Walt laughs]

But it’s completely genuine, which I hope makes all

the difference.

WALT SIMONSON: I’ll just think you’re talking

about somebody else. It’ll be all right. [laughs]

CASEY: It’s well documented that Thor was your

favorite super-hero series. I’ll be as delicate as I can

here. . . Was there anything specific that you felt you

could add to Thor that [creators] Stan [Lee] and Jack

[Kirby], in particular, hadn’t? Some unexplored areas?

Were you thinking of those things even before you

went pro?

SIMONSON: I think I took inspiration from the work

Stan and Jack did with Thor rather than regarding their

work as somehow needing an extra boost. [laughs]

My own interest in Norse mythology preceded my

discovering the Thor comic book and, no doubt, that

interest contributed greatly to my enjoyment in that

particular title. But I think I was captivated not only

by Thor but by the comics of that time in general.

CASEY: What can you say about your first stint as

the artist on Thor, a few years previous to scoring the

writer/artist gig? I know that Len Wein wrote it, and

I remember reading an interview with you where you

expressed how much you enjoyed it. . . but you also

said you’d felt like you’d burned through the more

“Kirby” aspects of the concept so that when you

came to it as a writer/artist, you came to it fresh. . .

SIMONSON: Len and I had a lot of fun doing Thor

for a year in 1977–78. I was drawing layouts rather

than full pencils during that run; Tony DeZuniga was

doing the actual finishes. But I was definitely drawing

Thor in a “Kirby” style. The work gave me a chance to

exercise all my Kirby chops with big figures and bold

strokes of design in my best Kirby manner. While I

wasn’t attempting to be Jack’s clone, I was drawing

heavily on his influence.

Beginnings:First published art: Magnus Robot Fighter #10(“guard-rob” fan drawing) / First pro story:“Cyrano’s Army” in Weird War Tales #10 (1973)

Milestones:Manhunter in Detective Comics / Alien movieadaptation for Heavy Metal / Thor / Fantastic Four /X-Men/New Teen Titans / Star Slammers /Meltdown: Havoc and Wolverine / MichaelMoorcock’s Multiverse / Orion

Work in Progress:Elric: The Making of a Sorcerer, written byMichael Moorcock (DC)

Cyberspace:I don’t have a websitemyself (too old andcrabby to go to thebother), but I hang outa fair amount atwww.comicboards.com/ newgods/.

Photocourtesy

ofww

w.FFplaza.com

.


By the time I took over the title as writer/artist,

a lot of artists had drawn Thor over the years. But

Jack’s was the defining work for me. Not only had

he drawn the character originally, but much of the

“world” Thor inhabited was clearly based on Jack’s

visual conceptualizations.

By spending a year hanging out in Jack’s world

in the ’70s, I found that when I came back to it in

1983, I was able to be inspired by Jack and yet strike

out in my own direction as my own thoughts took

me. I hadn’t planned it that way deliberately, but

that’s how it worked out.

The visualization of Asgard’s architecture is a

good example. In my earlier work, I drew Asgard as

Jack had drawn it with big heroically scaled statues,

gleaming metal building, gracefully arcing ramps—

a rather sci-fi-looking city. When I began drawing

Asgard a second time, I kept the “island in space”

look. But I took off in a rather different direction

with the city, using early Scandinavian architecture

as my model. I took the old surviving stave churches

of Norway as the basis for my Asgardian architecture.

Beginnings:Wolverine: Days of Future Past #2 (1997)

Milestones:X-Men: Children of the Atom miniseries /

Adventures of Superman / Automatic Kafka /

WildC.A.T.s Version 3.0

Works in Progress:The Milkman Murders (Dark Horse) /

The Intimates (Wildstorm) / Earth’s Mightiest

Heroes (Marvel)

Cyberspace:www.manofaction.tv

Photocourtesy

of JoeC

asey.

Thor, Second StrikeSimonson drew layouts for Thor #260 (June 1977),

below left, through #271 (May 1978), left.


So I began adding my own visual contributions to

the world of Thor.

CASEY: Okay, I’m curious about this question.

I never had the opportunity to work with [the late]

Mark Gruenwald, but it’s obvious that he was one of

the better editors working at Marvel at the time. In an

old interview you gave for Comics Interview, you said

that, when Mark offered you Thor, he gave you some

suggestions that were way more radical than what you

ended up doing in the actual book. Can you remember

any of those specific suggestions. . . ?

SIMONSON: Mark gave me a typed list of possibilities.

I believe there were about ten options. The only idea I

remember is the suggestion that Thor could be killed

and somebody else would become the new Thor

The Chroniclesof Conan

Volume 1:Tower of the Elephantand Other StoriesDark Horse Books • 2003Softcover • 168 pages,

color • $15.95

Volume 2:Rogues in the House andOther StoriesDark Horse Books • 2003Softcover • 168 pages,color • $15.95

The Chronicles of

CONAN

d { Michae l Eury

I’ll start with a confession: I’m not a fan ofwar stories, simply because I do not wish to see a graphic

recreation of the horrors of combat. Similarly, I’ve steered clear of

epic fantasy involving barbarism, swordplay, and sorcery—and yes,

I readily admit to the thousands of you reading this that I have not

seen any of the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Revoke my fanboy club

membership if you must, but that’s the truth.

It wasn’t always that way. During my youth, back before my

testosterone was diminished by watching romantic comedies with my

wife, I enjoyed “manly” adventures. I was an Edgar Rice Burroughs

devotee, saw Excalibur three times, and read Marvel Comics’ Conan

the Barbarian each month.

So nostalgically, I find it exciting that Dark Horse Comics is

reprinting Marvel’s Conan run in a series of astoundingly beautiful

trade paperbacks under the umbrella title The Chronicles of Conan.

And given this issue’s “Marvel Milestones” theme, the importance

of these tales cannot be overlooked.

Conan the Barbarian #1, cover dated October 1970, was a radical

departure from the titles (mostly super-hero, with the occasional Sgt.

Fury and Millie the Model thrown in for a hint of diversity) previously

published by Marvel during its 1960s’ Silver Age. Recalls Conan author

Roy Thomas in his exceptionally informative Afterword in Volume 1,

Marvel’s acquisition of novelist Robert E. Howard’s legendary barbarian

was rooted in reader feedback, which also included requests for Tarzan,

Doc Savage, and Lord of the Rings comics. Thomas’ regaling backstory

(worthy of a BACK ISSUE “Beyond Capes”— too bad you didn’t save

trad

epa

perb

ack

revi

ews

The Chronicles of

CONANbbyy RRooyy TThhoommaass aanndd BBaarrrryy WWiinnddssoorr--SSmmiitthh


Volume 1’s Afterword features

three panels of pencil reproductions

from Smith’s Conan artwork,

including this one.

Conan TM & © 2004 Conan Properties International, LLC.

Considered the seminal

installment of the Thomas/Smith

Conan era, “Red Nails” is included

in Dark Horse’s forthcoming fourth

The Chronicles of Conan volume.

Conan TM & © 2004 Conan Properties International, LLC.

this for us, Roy!) reveals how Marvel publisher

Martin Goodman’s penny-pinching almost led

to a deal to adapt Lin Carter’s Thongor of Lemuria

instead of Conan, and how then-newcomer

Barry (Windsor-) Smith was tapped to illustrate

Conan the Barbarian because Thomas’ A-list

choice, John Buscema, commanded too high a

page rate for this fledgling title.

Conan the Barbarian became a surprise hit

(although it took several issues to find its audi-

ence), ushering in a new comic-book genre—

“sword and sorcery”—inspiring a spate of

imitators including Kull the Conqueror, Red

Sonja, The Warlord, Sword and Sorcery, Wulf the

Barbarian, IronJaw, and even Thongor (in

the pages of Marvel’s Creatures on the Loose).

Without Thomas and Windsor-Smith’s Conan

convincing publishers that comics could be more than just super-heroes and car-

toon critters, the climate that cultivated everything from Cerebus to Sandman

might not have emerged.

The Chronicles of Conan Volume 1 gathers Marvel’s Conan the Barbarian #1-8,

with Volume 2 following with its reprints of issues #9-13 and 16 (Smith did not

illustrate #14 and #15). The historical significance of these stories aside, it’s fasci-

nating to observe the progression of the Thomas/Smith team. Issue #1’s “The

Coming of Conan,” an original story by Roy, is quite stilted: Thomas strains to

find a voice for both the barbarian and for his own narration, and Smith’s

anatomy is lopsided and weakly structured (although considerably solidified by

the inks of stalwart Dan Adkins). Despite these deficiencies, “The Coming of

Conan” still screams with innovation—no other comic had ever looked and read

quite like this one.

With each story in these trades, both writer and artist congeal as an artistic

team and help transform the trailblazing Conan into one of the most unique

comics of its day. After three issues of original tales or loose variations of

Howard’s work, with Conan battling other barbarians, beast-men, and spectral

warriors, Thomas strikes pay dirt by adapting Howard’s opus “The Tower of the

Elephant” in issue #4. In this classic, Conan encounters a tortured soul named

Yag-Kosha, a jade-hued humanoid with an elephant’s head. Yag-Kosha intro-

duced to Marvel’s Conan series the same concept that made so many of its super-

heroes a hit: larger-than-life, horrific beings with tragic lives. More bombastic

beasts follow in subsequent stories, although not all of them evoke sympathy.

Some, like the giant spider Omm, the Unspeakable from issue #13’s “Web of the

Spider-God” (from Volume 2), deserve a quick taste of Conan’s blade—and get it!


back issue #4

Documents

s s u e

i c s e x p e r i e

e s t o n e s b

j u n e

t h e u

new conan

marvel characters

wolverine spotlight