rough stuff #5

Hulk, Doctor Doom, TM & ©2007 Marvel Characters, Inc. Nexus ©2007 Steve Rude. Wonder Woman TM & ©2007 DC Comics.

Featuring

STEVE RUDE

N o . 5S u m m e r

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$ 6 . 9 5

N o . 5S u m m e r

2 0 0 7

$ 6 . 9 5

C e l e b r a t i n gt h e A R T

o f C r e a t i n gC o m i c s !

C e l e b r a t i n gt h e A R T

o f C r e a t i n gC o m i c s !

Interview & Art Gallery

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SUMMER 2007 • ROUGH STUFF 3

Volume 1, Number 5Summer 2007

Celebrating the ART of Creating Comics!

EDITORBob McLeod

PUBLISHERJohn Morrow

DESIGNERMichael Kronenberg

PROOFREADERSJohn Morrow and Christopher Irving

COVER ARTISTSteve Rude

CIRCULATION DIRECTORBob Brodsky, Cookiesoup Periodical

Distribution, LLC

SPECIAL THANKSJohn AlbanoChris BaileyMichael BrowningJim CardilloMichael EuryTom FlemingCully HamnerMatt HuesmanGil KaneDale KeownDaryl KuxhouseMichel MaillotDavid MandelStephen MolnarJ. Hiroshi MorisakiGene PoonyoJaynelle RudeSteve RudePaul SmithGerry TurnbullAshley Wood

ROUGH STUFF™ is published quarterly byTwoMorrows Publishing, 10407 Bedfordtown Drive,Raleigh, NC 27614. Bob McLeod, Editor. JohnMorrow, Publisher. Editorial Office: ROUGH STUFF,c/o Bob McLeod, Editor, P.O. Box 63, Emmaus, PA10849-2203. E-mail: [email protected]. Four-issue subscriptions: $26 Standard US, $36 FirstClass US, $44 Canada, $60 Surface International,$72 Airmail International. Please send subscriptionorders and funds to TwoMorrows, NOT to the edi-torial office. Central cover art by Steve Rude. Allcharacters are © their respective companies. Allmaterial © their creators unless otherwise noted.All editorial matter © 2007 Bob McLeod andTwoMorrows Publishing. ROUGH STUFF is a TM ofTwoMorrows Publishing. Printed in Canada. FIRSTPRINTING. ISSN 1931-9231.

FEATURED ARTISTS7 Cully Hamner

15 Gil Kane

34 Dale Keown

64 Paul Smith

77 Ashley Wood

ROUGH STUFF INTERVIEW44 Steve Rude

ROUGH STUFF FEATURE3 The Legend of Jonah Hex

Michael Browning

ROUGH STUFF DEPARTMENTS2 Scribblings From The Editor

Bob McLeod

30 Cover StoriesSteve Rude and Cully Hamner reveal the process of creating a cover.

42 PreProArt by Steve Rude, done before he turned pro.

80 Editor’s CornerBob McLeod

84 Rough CritiqueEditor Bob McLeod critiques an aspiring penciler’s sample page.

86 Rough TalkComments and opinions from our readers.

88 FREE! Preview of BACK ISSUE #23


Long-time comic book writerJohn Albano was working forDC Comics in the early1970s when editor JoeOrlando came to him with a

request: Create a new western hero for DC Comics’All-Star Western, which was soon changing toWeird Western Tales. Albano created Jonah Hex, a ruthless bounty hunter who had been scarredduring the Civil War, to fill a spot in All-Star

the legend of

By MICHAEL BROWNING

Jonah Hex TM & ©2007 DC Comics

6 ROUGH STUFF • SUMMER 2007

Western #10 in 1972. Jonah was featured in All-StarWestern #11 and then, when the title was changed toWeird Western Tales with issue #12, he carried over asthe star of the comic.

Albano wrote both of Jonah’s All-Star Westernappearances, in addition to those in Weird Western Tales#12-14, 16-19 and 21 before leaving the title to incomingwriter Michael Fleisher. Albano’s only other work onJonah Hex was in the form of a four-page satire originallyintended for a DC comic to be called Zany, which wasnever published. The story, drawn by Tony DeZuniga, waspublished in The Amazing World of DC Comics #13.

Sadly, this was Albano’s only interview with thecomics media. He died only weeks after it was conductedin early 2005. Albano passed away at the age of 80 in

late May, and he was still working incomics right up until a few weeks beforehis death. His last comics work appearedin Archie Comics and he was working on astage play days before his passing.

Artist Tony DeZuniga is still alive andwell and has drawn at least two Jonah Hex adventures in the new, ongoing serieswritten by Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti.DeZuniga still continues to produce fineartwork and commissioned drawings ofJonah Hex and other comic and literarycharacters.

In this excerpt from the three-hour longinterview with the writer, Albano discussedthe creation of Jonah Hex, how he drewthe breakdowns for artist Tony DeZuniga,and gives hints at an unknown origin forthe western anti-hero. “Tony drew, I’d say,99 percent of the stories I did on JonahHex,” Albano said, fondly recalling his workwith DeZuniga. “He had told someone thathe had created Jonah Hex. He did createwhat the character looked like after Idescribed him, how he had half his face hitwith a cannonball and was ugly as heck.Jonah Hex TM & ©2007 DC Comics

CULLY HAMNERThis is from the first issue of my aborted run on The Authority. I have a tendency, for good or ill, to gridout perspective during the early stages of a layout. For some reason it works with my thought process,helping me see the space the characters are occupying and making the dynamics and movementwork for me. As you can see from the layout, I work in a “tight, but loose” format: tight in the sense ofall the construction being there; loose because there’s no detail. It’s all body language and narrative.

Also, three penciled pages from the Hawksmoor story Warren Ellis and I did for the Gaijin Anniversary book, Wildstorm Summer Special. This was one of thelast times I worked with an inker, my brilliant studio mate Karl Story. To me, it’s an interesting lesson in penciling too tightly, as I don’t get anywhere close tothis level nowadays inking my own stuff. I’ve always liked this progression, though; Warren and I were really in sync on this story. It’s one of those rare timesin my career when everything, from the script to the inks to the lettering to the colors, just totally worked for me. And I went nuts on the architecture!


CULLY HAMNERCully Hamner was a new name to me,

but since his first work on GREEN

LANTERN he’s penciled many top books

for Marvel, DC and others. He’s an orig-

inal and continuing member of Atlanta’s

Gaijin Studios, and he’s currently working on the BLACK

LIGHTNING: YEAR ONE mini-series for DC. To my eyes, his

open, clean style is a breath of fresh air from the dark,

overly-rendered comics so abundant today.

F E A T U R E D A R T I S T

The Authority TM & ©2007 Wildstorm Comics


CULLY HAMNER

Batman: Tenses

Here, we have a couple of rejected cover sketches for Batman: Tenses.

I’d say more, but my original notes to editor Bob Schreck are reproduced

below…

Next, the sketch and final cover for Tenses #2, in which Batman faces of

against a nebbish clairvoyant with nothing to live for. Fairly simple, straight-

forward montage.CULLY

HAMN

ER

Batman TM & ©2007 DC Comics


CULLY HAMNER

The covers on Red were an interesting proposition for

me. Since it was a creator-owned book, I had no art

director or editor to have to get past; I was on my own,

design-wise. The theme of the number 3 had occurred to

me: Three letters in the title and three issues. So I had

the idea to have every cover use three consecutive

images— like a strip of film, almost (which also nicely

dovetailed the kineticism of Warren’s story and my

approach to it). On top of everything, I used the three

colors of a traffic light: The first one was monochromatic

red; the second, yellow; the third, green. I had a lot of

fun on these covers.

CULLY HAMNER

Spider-Man

Another one of those times that the idea was fully-realized from the

start, this time for an insert with a Spider-Man 2 DVD box set. Notice

how Spidey, in the foreground, frames his own reflection on the build-

ing in the background? Another thing to notice is that I put the reflect-

ed Spidey smack-dab on top of the awake vanishing point, in order to

draw the eye. Yes, it’s a cheap trick.Spider-Man TM & ©2007 Marvel Characters, Inc.


GIL KANEComics legend Gil Kane (real name Eli Katz,

1926-2000) worked in comics from the ’40s

right up until his death. I loved his work on

GREEN LANTERN, THE ATOM, SPIDER-MAN

and CONAN. His achievements are far too

numerous to list here, but I should mention that some consider

his innovative paperback BLACKMARK to be the first graphic

novel, and his daily newspaper comic strip STAR HAWKS was

noteworthy for using a wonderful two-tier format. His work was

always solid and dynamic and exciting, influencing many of

today’s top artists.


BOB McLEODAlter Ego #10

While I was still busy graduating from high school, Roy Thomas used this for the coverof his fanzine Alter Ego #10, way back in 1969. The great Marie Severin, who’ll be featured in Rough Stuff #7, drew the caricature of Gil in the middle, and then I think Gil himself added the montages on the sides. Gil was very tall, and had a lofty attitudeabout him, and Marie captured him perfectly.

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BOB McLEOD

Gil kept sketchbooks

and did practice

sketches every day.

This is an example

from one of his

sketchbooks. He

knew the human

form so well I think

this was mostly

because he just

liked to draw. He

wasn’t learning any-

thing new here, just

putting his thoughts

down on paper.

Notice the three-

dimensional way he

pictured the forms in

his mind, though. He

was sculpting with a

pencil.

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BOB McLEOD

His Name is Savage! #2

While most of his contemporaries were

content to just work in mainstream comic

books, Gil was continually pushing the

boundaries of comics. Even before his

landmark Blackmark project in 1971, Gil

also conceived, plotted, with scripting by

Archie Goodwin, and illustrated His Name

is... Savage in 1968, a self-published 40-page

comics novel in magazine-format.

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BOB McLEOD

Gil drew this tribute card for editor Julius

Schwartz’s 80th birthday in 1995. That’s Julius

in the middle, surrounded by several charac-

ters from comics he edited. It was then

mounted on posterboard and signed by many

people at DC Comics. As usual, he inked it in

marker, which had started to fade.

Unfortunately, that marker ink will eventually

fade to near invisibility.

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GIL KA

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BOB McLEODI don’t know what this was

used for, but it’s large

size (20" x 30") and

features a much

more detailed inking

style than he

employed later in his

career. Like many

artists, he pared his

style down to more

essential techniques as

he matured.

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BOB McLEODTarzanWhile drawing hisown Star Hawksnewspaper strip, inhis spare time Gilalso took on theSunday Tarzan stripfrom 1979-1981, following RussManning. I alwaysenjoyed Gil’s jungletechnique. As usual,he made everythinglook easy in thissequence, but justthink of all he wasasked to draw ineach panel here.Panel three alonewould challengemost artists: “ShowTarzan in the junglebattling a tribe ofgreat apes”. Heprobably batted itout in an hour.

Cour

tesy

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GIL KA

NE


COVER STORIES

What happensbetween the initial layout of acover, and the

finished, printed piece? Usually alot of changes—some broughtabout by the pencil artist, someby the inker (assuming they’renot the same person as the penciler), and some at therequest of an editor or publisher.

When an artist is self-publishing,however, as in Steve Rude’s caseon Nexus #5, everything istotally on his own shoulders.Here, the changes were made asSteve edited himself, improvingon his original idea as he pro-gressed from rough sketch tofinished painting. You can seethe color painting on the RoughStuff pages of my web site.


After some consideration, he

decided a raised fist and twisted

torso, with one foot forward and one

back, would be more dynamic for the

Nexus figure.

Before proceeding to color, he did a

value study to establish and balance

the lights and darks. Who needs

editors, anyway?

BOB McLEOD

He began with a basic

symmetrical design idea of

Nexus in the middle of the

two secondary figures.


DALE KEOWNDale Keown burst onto the comics scene at

Marvel back in the 1990s, wowing everyone

with his fabulously rendered and uniquely

envisioned Incredible Hulk. I was lucky

enough to snag the inking assignment on

his early issues, and had a great time. I reluctantly abandoned

inking Dale to pencil Superman in ACTION COMICS for the next

two years, and not too long after I left, Dale abandoned the Hulk

and joined the fledgling Image Comics, creating his own overly-

muscled character, Pitt!


DALE KEOWN

This Gray Hulk piece is pencil and white paint .

Once I start working on a pure pencil piece, It

seems there is never a dark enough pencil.

By the time it’s finished, it’s a smudgy mess. I

clean it up with a gum eraser and then white

paint on the main figure.

For a lengthy, art-filled interview

with Dale Keown, be sure to

pick up TwoMorrows’ new book

Image Comics: The Road To

Independence, on sale now.

Hulk TM & ©2007 Marvel Characters, Inc.


DALE KEOWN

The Abomination was a commission and is pencil

and white paint. When the main penciling is done,

the art takes on a brownish gray tone.

When the white paint is applied, it’s

an interesting contrast of

warm and cool.

DALE

KEOW

N


DALE KEOWN

Top Cow’s Inferno

cover. This was back

when I first started

scanning my own

artwork. I discovered

one could adjust the

contrast of a penciled

piece and color directly

from there.

DALE

KEOW

N

BOB McLEOD

I’m still trying to

explain the concept of

“rough pencils” to

Dale.......!


PRE-PRO

Did you ever wonder what a pro’s art looked like before he turned pro?Was he really any better than you as a kid, or in high school? SteveRude shows us he had the chops even back then.

STEVE RUDE

Hey! It’s my favorite animal—the Cheetah Leetah! I was probably 9 when I drew this. I always loved drawing my animals.


INTERVIEW

STEVE RUDEInterviewed by Bob McLeod

Steve Rude first became known in the early ’80s for his collaboration with writer Mike Baron on their

independent comic Nexus. Since then, he’s done work for several of the major publishers, but is now

recommitting himself to self-publishing, with the creation of his new Rude Dude Productions. We started out

recording this interview in late May, and got into discussing morning people versus night people. Steve and I, like many

artists I know, prefer to work late into the night, and are slow to get going in the morning. Steve’s wife, Jaynelle, told me he

often works until 2 a.m. But just as the interview was picking up steam and really going well, I glanced down and saw that

the tape had stopped! I couldn’t get my recorder working properly, so I reluctantly decided to continue the interview through

e-mails. Steve is doing a lot of interviews lately, as his new Nexus comic is about to debut, and he was very pressed for

time, but we e-mailed back and forth and with his wife Jaynelle’s help, we finally got this interview in under the wire. I’ve

always liked Steve’s clean, open style, uncluttered by all the unnecessary rendering so many of today’s comic artists use.

But I know many fans prefer all that rendering, so I asked Steve about that.

BOB: Not to dive right into the deep well of controversy, butyour style is kind of the opposite of where mainstream comicart has been heading in the last few decades, I supposemaybe beginning with Barry Windsor-Smith, and acceleratingwildly with the advent of Image Comics in the ’80s and really to extremes in some cases today. Are you confidentyou can capture the interest of today’s fans with your moretraditional approach?

STEVE: My style is the opposite of where mainstreamcomic art is going, and has been since the mid-’90s. Igrew up with Kirby, Romita, and ultimately studied theillustrators from the magazine era of the ’40s and ’50s. Iam a product of the time I grew up in, which was the’60s and ’70s. The traditional approach I use is my styleand is here to stay.


STEVE RUDEMoth #5, pg. 5

Here’s what my pencil

work looks like on the

Moth. Now that The

Moth is part of Rude

Dude Productions, I

can’t wait to fly back

into it. This is for the

yet unseen issue #5.

STEVE RUDEMoth #5 rough

And here’s what I do

when my over-

simplified brain can’t

figure things out. I

throw some tracing

paper over the figures

and work out the

lighting from there.


STEVE RUDENexus #99, pg. 4

Ah yes, my beautiful

Sunny Honey floating

in a tank as she

awaits delivery. Of the

baby kind. From the

upcoming debut of

our first Nexus book

in 10 years! Yes, you

read it right—10

years! Look for it

in mid-July! It’s a

stunner!


GERRY TURNBULLI contacted PaulSmith lastSeptember with thesimple brief of Docin the Sanctum.Three days laterSmitty sent me thescan of his firstprelims. On a singlesheet of A4 paperwere seven of thecoolest designs.Each prelim was awinner in its ownright, but my eyewas drawn to thelandscape formatat the bottom, withDoc and the Orb ofAgamotto. It lookedsuitably dramaticand magical. Myeye also kept being drawn to the Black Knight cunningly drawn at the side of the page, so I asked Smitty if he could integrate the two images. Four dayslater he sent me the final design sketch, asking modestly “How’s about this?” and after I had picked myself up I immediately told him to go for it. Smitty keptin contact the whole way through and after I asked how he was progressing, replied with “I’d show you what I got but at the end of stage two, things aren’tpretty. Kinda like popping in on your girl before the big date and finding her in curlers and half make-up. You know she’s going to be gorgeous but at themoment ... eek.” Couple days after that Smitty sent me the scan of the final inked piece, with the accompanying words “Hope you enjoy the work as muchas I did doing it, much fun and giggling and theme song singing and sound fx making was had.”

And then about a week later I had the page in my hands. Included was the full size blue pencil version Smitty had done. It’s the prize of my collection. PaulSmith is a true master. His art more than anyone out there is open and honest; he doesn’t use flashy techniques to obscure bad drawing or composition. His lineis beautiful and clean and deceptively simple looking. It’s only when you look closely you see just how detailed the work is with the different variety of texturesand techniques he uses .The whole experience was just wonderful. Smitty is really down to earth with a wicked sense of humor, and allows you to feel fullyinvolved in the process.

The inked final of the Paul Smith commission of Dr. Strange will be featured in Back Issue #24, shipping in September from TwoMorrows.

PAUL SMITHPaul Smith started his career in anima-

tion working with Ralph Bakshi on LORD

OF THE RINGS and AMERICAN POP

before moving on to Marvel in the early

1980s, drawing DR. STRANGE and then

following Dave Cockrum’s long tenure on UNCANNY X-MEN,

which he left after a few months. But he made a lasting

impression on his fans. My favorite work by Paul was the

Harvey and Eisner Award winning LEAVE IT TO CHANCE, a

fun comic for younger readers.



PAUL

SMITH

PAUL SMITH

Marvel Fanfare #1

Gotta’ start some-

where. My first

professional comic

page. Note the

superfluous notes.

Doing storyboards

for Filmation at the

time, there was an

unofficial, “Tell, don’t

show,” policy.

Everything was

explained because

showing meant

animating and that

meant money. Eek!

X-Men TM & ©2007MarvelCharacters, Inc.


ASHLEY WOODAustralian Ashley Wood began his career on Britain’s

JUDGE DREDD before moving to Marvel, DC and Image. In

addition to comics, though, he also has worked in movies

and TV, as well as advertising and fine art! His METAL

GEAR SOLID was one of the first digital comics for

PlayStation Portable. He combines oil painting with digital

techniques for a very distinctive style.


BOB McLEOD

I contacted Ashley in September 2006 to see if

he’d agree to be featured in Rough Stuff, and he

responded enthusiastically. I checked back again

in December and February, and each time Ashley

said he’d be sending some art and comments

right away. Unfortunately, I never received any-

thing and haven’t been able to get in touch with

him since. I very much regret not being able to

offer a better feature on this very talented artist,

but we’ll try again for a future issue. I wasn’t able

to find any appropriate preliminary art by Ashley

in time for this feature, but collector Gene

Poonyo graciously sent these three examples of

Ashley’s inked art.


Since I began editing Rough Stuff last

year, several people have asked me

why I haven’t shown any of my own

prelim art in these pages. I figured it

was enough for me to be writing

editorials, articles, interviews, and my “Rough Critique”

every issue, and the right occasion just hasn’t come up

before now. But this issue we have some extra room,

since a couple of our featured artists didn’t provide as

much art as we’d hoped, so I decided to take this oppor-

tunity to share some previously unseen work of mine with

you. After over thirty years in comics, it’s hard to decide

where to begin, so I

decided to just show

a sampling from

various jobs.

I’m probably still

best known for some-

thing I did 25 years

ago, co-creating a

younger group of

X-Men still attending

The School for Gifted

Students called The

New Mutants. This

was the splash page

of issue #1. It’s an

establishing shot to

introduce the charac-

ters, and I tried to

make each character

an individual, and

imbue them with a lot

of personality. This

was my first regular

penciling assignment

and we were behind

schedule from the

start, due to squeezing

in the graphic novel

first. I eventually left

the series rather than

rush out less than my

best effort.

EDITOR’S CORNERby Bob McLeod


BOB McLEOD

Following the New

Mutants, I penciled

several issues of

Star Wars for

Marvel, doing

breakdowns for my

idol Tom Palmer to

ink. After years of

inking other artists,

the finish was very

important to me,

and it was difficult

to focus just on lay-

out. But I wanted to

see what Tom

would do, and it

was fascinating to

see. He did almost

nothing the way I

would have done it.

He added a lot of

juicy detail, especially

with Chewbacca

and all robots and

the space ships. In

this scene, he had

to change Han to

Luke because Han

was away on an

adventure by the

time this was

published.


ROUGH CRITIQUEBy Bob McLeod

This issue’s sample page comes from the obviously verytalented Stephen Molnar. This is a real beauty of asample page, and I like it a lot. But it’s also an example of my pet peeve, the modern “no inker

needed” school of penciling. One of the problems with the penciler doingso much of the inker’s job is that all that time and energycould often be much better spent on the penciler’s mainjob, which should be layout and figure drawing.

The first thing that struck me about this page was theexcellent perspective, and the nicely done buildings. You don’toften see that in beginners. The figures have a very nice feelto them, with a lot of movement and life. And he does have animpressive, highly finished rendering style. I’m thinkingStephen is probably a pretty good inker, at least in the render-ing department. I like the amount of black he’s using, too. Thisis a very solid page, with a lot of depth and form. And he’smoving the camera around well and using good visual story-telling. We know just what’s happening without a single wordof script. I really think the big publishers should give him achance. I’m sure he’ll improve by leaps and bounds once he’sdrawing 22 pages a month. But let’s take a closer lookbeneath all of that nice finish at the underpinnings.

Stephen, the main thing you need to work on at thispoint is your composition. You can place the main elementsand focal points (usually the heads and hands) anywhereyou please, so be very deliberate about it. You shoulddesign your backgrounds to lead the eye to the center ofinterest and frame the focal points, not conflict with them.In panel 1, for instance, the hands are lost in a maze ofgrey patterns, with costume webbing and building windowsall melding together into a confusing mess. You don’t wantto place background objects where they’ll interfere withthe foreground, especially the hands and heads. In panelone, your main building on the right distracts from the lefthand. It’s also a little too obviously contained within thepanel. Mine partially goes off-panel, keeping it more firmlyin the background. Simplifying or eliminating the windowsremoves the conflict with his hand. I’m sure you’ve noticedthat I repositioned the arms at more divergent angles, creating a more dynamic pose and placing the hands sothey’re unobstructed. Your arms and the left leg are allbasically parallel, creating an awkward silhouette. And, uh,speaking of silhouettes, I think maybe you should movethat right foot.....!

The weakest panel compositionally is the second one.

Spidey and the Bugle lettering are the focus of the panel, so why have allthat wasted space below them? Place Spidey first, well into the panel, notshoved up in the corner. Then place the Bugle lettering to balance him, a bitlower down in the panel. Even without anything else in the panel, this muchshould be a balanced design. I tilted mine so the diagonals in the panel allgo toward the Spidey figure. In yours, everything in the panel seems to besliding off the page to the right, away from Spidey. I’ve deliberately placedmy buildings and the shadows on them to frame Spidey, making him the

Spider-Man TM & ©2007 Marvel Characters, Inc.

Edited by former DC and Dark Horse editorMICHAEL EURY, BACK ISSUE magazine celebratescomic books of the 1970s, 1980s, and today throughrecurring (and rotating) departments such as“Pro2Pro” (a dialogue between two professionals),“Greatest Stories Never Told” (spotlighting unrealizedcomics series or stories), and more! Issue #23 is our“Comics Go Hollywood” issue, featuring a “Pro2Pro”roundtable examining Spider-Man’s love life, withSTAN LEE, JOHN ROMITA, SR., JIM SHOOTER,ERIK LARSEN, and other top Spidey creators! Then,in the first part of a second roundtable, Star Trekwriters including PETER DAVID, MICHAEL JANFRIEDMAN, and MIKE W. BARR compare notes onwriting for the space franchise in comics and inother media. Also: star-studded behind-the-sceneslooks at TV’s ISIS and THE FLASH, with celebrityinterviews including Flash star JOHN WESLEYSHIPP; and spotlights on SUPERMAN movieadaptations and some of your favorite TV tie-incomics (including ISIS and WELCOME BACKKOTTER). Bonus: An 8-page color “ADAMHUGHES GOES HOLLYWOOD!” art galleryand cover. Bi-monthly!

(100-page magazine) SINGLE ISSUES: $9 US

SUBSCRIPTIONS: Six issues in the US: $40 Standard,$54 First Class (Canada: $66, Elsewhere: $90 Surface, $108 Airmail).

BACK ISSUE #14MIKE GRELL • DAVE COCKRUM

GARCÍA-LÓPEZ • JACK KIRBY

BACK ISSUE #18NEAL ADAMS • DAVE GIBBONS

JOHN ROMITA SR.

BACK ISSUE #21FRANK MILLER • MIKE MIGNOLAJOHN ROMITA JR. • MIKE ZECK

BACK ISSUE #17BRUCE TIMM • ADAM HUGHES

CARMINE INFANTINO

We hope you enjoy this FREE BACK ISSUE #23 PREVIEW!

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TwoMorrows. Celebrating The Art & History Of Comics.

© 2007 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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DAN JOHNSON: Stan, as the creatorof b oth Peter Parker and Mary JaneWatson, I was wondering what itwas in 1987 that made you realizeit was time for these two kids tofinally tie the knot.STAN LEE (Spider-Man co-creator): I had always wantedthe Spider-Man series to be asrealistic as possible. After afew years of Peter and MJhaving a romance, their

marriage just seemed like the mostnatural event. It had to happen.

JOHNSON: Jim Shooter, what were your first thoughtswhen you found out that Stan wanted to have Peter andMary Jane get married?JIM SHOOTER (Marvel editor-in-chief at the timeof the wedding storyline): First of all, that’s notthe way it happened. It was my decision. The waythat came about is this: Both Stan and I were guests atthe Chicago Con the summer before the wedding,1986 (I think). Stan was supposed to do a one-manpanel Q&A, but at the last minute, he asked me ifI’d come up onstage with him because he knewthat most, if not all, of the questions would be aboutthings going on in the comics, with which he wasvery out of touch. I was happy to help. We workedpretty well as a team in such situations, with mehandling the comics questions and Stan addingcolor commentary, anecdotes, reminiscences;essentially doing snappy patter and being entertaining,as only he can.

Starting in 1979 or 1980, Stan was based at theanimation studio in L.A. I don’t remember what histitle was, but his job was more or less just being Stan.He served as a creative advisor to the animation peopleand our face to Hollywood, trying to get film peopleinterested in Marvel properties. Who wouldn’t takeStan’s call? He also wrote the Spider-Man strip, ofcourse. Other than that, he wasn’t in charge ofanything. I don’t think anyone reported to himexcept his secretary.

I was EIC [editor-in-chief] and VP of Marvel then,head of creative for everything but the animationstudio. I reported to the president, Jim Galton, and onsome business affairs and other matters to publisherMike Hobson, who was mainly in charge of MarvelBooks, the children’s book line. As Stan used to say, Iwas Marvel’s “entire editor.” I used to say I had Stan’sold job. I did, actually, and I was the only one besidesStan ever to hold that lofty position. No one else,before or since, has had exactly the same job withthe same authority and clout.

by D an J oh n s on

Marriage isn’t an institution for the timid, especially in today’s world. Most husbands and wives are under terrificstress as they strive to have it all while balancing their careers and their home life. But can you imagine what itmust be like to also have to deal with the likes of the Green Goblin, Dr. Octopus, and the Kingpin on top of every-thing else? No doubt about it, it’s not easy being Mr. and Mrs. Parker, but Peter and Mary Jane have been mak-ing a go of it for an incredible 20 years since tying the knot in 1987 in The Amazing Spider-Man Annual #21.

In honor of their anniversary, BACK ISSUE gathered together some of Spider-Man’s most famous creators—Stan Lee, Sal Buscema, Gerry Conway, Tom DeFalco, Danny Fingeroth, Erik Larsen, David Michelinie, JohnRomita, Sr., Paul Ryan, Jim Salicrup, Jim Shooter, and Marv Wolfman—to examine:

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Technically, even the Spider-Man strip fell under myauthority because the “Special Projects” departmentreported to me. That said, I didn’t mess with the stripat all, ever.

Sometimes, when he had a little spare time, Stanwould call me up and ask for work! Talk about surreal.I recall an Erik Larsen job that he scripted on one ofthose occasions.

This is not meant to diminish Stan in any way. It’s justthat, at that point in his career, he was just not involvedin the governance of the properties and uninvolvedwith publishing except as a writer of the strip, andoccasionally a comic book. Technically, the wedding wasmy call, and Stan respected that, because that’s the kindof guy he is. That said, all technicalities aside, he was stillStan Lee, my mentor, the resident legend/genius, and Iwould have deferred to him about almost anything.

So there we were on this panel and someone askedwhether Spider-Man and Mary Jane were ever goingto get married. Stan said that it was up to me but thathe thought they should. He turned to face me andasked me, extra politely, if they could get married. Theaudience was screaming. Trapped!

Nah. Actually, if Stan thought it was a good idea, Isure didn’t have a problem with it.TOM DeFALCO (former Amazing Spider-Man writer): Iguess you could blame the whole marriage thing onRon Frenz and me. When we were on The AmazingSpider-Man, we proposed a storyline where Peter asksMary Jane to marry him, she accepts but eventually—in true Spider-Man fashion—leaves him at the altar.Jim Owsley was our editor and took the idea to JimShooter, who mentioned it to Stan … who thoughtthe couple really should get married. Shooter agreedand went ahead with the idea after Ron and I weretaken off Amazing.

At the time, I thought it was a veryyyyyy bad idea.History has proven me wrong. I now think Mary Jane andPeter really work well as a couple and their relationshipis one of the cornerstones of my Spider-Girl series.SHOOTER: Tom is mistaken. I never asked Stan abouthis proposed story. It happened exactly as I said. Therewere no preliminaries. JOHNSON: It’s still pretty interesting though to hear aboutwhat might have been with the Peter and Mary Jane rela-tionship. What else can you tell us about this idea?RON FRENZ (former Amazing Spider-Man penciler):One way to look at it is the best way to write aSpider-Man story is to make a list of all the sh*ttiestthings that can happen to a human being, then youeliminate all the things that other writers havealready done, and what is left are some story ideas.Certainly being left at the altar is the hugely sh*ttiestthing that can happen to a human being.

First LovesNo one is as dear to Peter Parker’s heart thanhis Aunt May; here she’s terrorized by the GreenGoblin in a Ron Wilson/Mike Esposito illo fora 1975 British reprint. And Peter’s first crush,Betty Brant, tied the knot in Amazing Spider-Man#156 (May 1976); cover art by John Romita,Sr. Courtesy of Heritage Auctions.© 2007 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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