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Remembering Julie Schwartz Julius Schwartz, comics’ most legendary editor,

series, the return of the original Captain Marvel in

died on February 8, 2004, at age 88.

Shazam!, and an unprecedented 16-year editorial

Julie is best known as the father of comics’ Silver Age. His 1957 revival of DC’s scarlet speedster, the

I first met Julie Schwartz on June 22, 1985, at the

Flash, ignited a wildfire of character resurrections that

Charlotte, NC, Heroes Convention, when I interviewed

recharged the super-hero genre. That you know.

him (and Swan and Anderson) for a Superman panel.

What you may not know is that the “Marvel Age

and editorial staffs

But I first “met” him in print when I was an elemen-

of Comics” of the 1960s owes its start not to Stan Lee

tary-school student in the late 1960s, in the days before

or Jack Kirby, but to DC’s Julie Schwartz.

DC credited its creative teams. I recall reading “Julius

Legend has it that during an early 1960s golf game,

DC Comics’ production

run on the Superman titles.

Schwartz, editor” in the indicias of my favorite DC

DC’s publisher Jack Liebowitz enjoyed some bragging

titles and thinking, That must be a cool job! By the

rights over the phenomenal sales of his new title

time I finally got that cool job and landed at DC in

starring a team of super-heroes, Justice League of America

1989, Julie had officially retired but remained a con-

surprised Julius Schwartz

—a concept brainstormed by its editor, Julius Schwartz—

sultant, stopping by the offices each Wednesday for

by bumping the

to Marvel Comics’ publisher Martin Goodman. Goodman

visits I grew to cherish. He also represented the com-

planned contents of

marched back into the Marvel office and mandated

pany on the convention trail for many more years.

1985’s Superman #411

his editor/writer, Stan Lee, to create a group of super-

and substituting this

heroes for his company’s line. The result was Fantastic

Julius Schwartz’s footsteps as the editor of DC’s cheeky

special 70th birthday

Four #1, cover dated November 1961, the comic that

character Ambush Bug. In Ambush Bug Nothing Special

tribute story featuring

launched the entire Marvel Universe. So without Julie,

(1992), the unemployed Bug covets Julie’s “cushy job”

there might have been no Marvel Milestones to com-

as DC’s goodwill ambassador, but upon finding out

memorate this issue.

that Julie has the post for life, decides to travel into the

In the early 1990s, I had the honor of following in

Julius Schwartz’s myriad accomplishments as an

future to a time when Julie’s no longer around. No

agent for science-fiction authors and as the driving

matter how far into the future the Bug goes, Julie

force for so many of the Silver Age’s super-heroes is

Schwartz is always there!

well documented. I’d like to instead acknowledge some

Plotter/penciler Keith Giffen, writer Bob Fleming,

of his achievements that took place during the era of

and I shared a gaggle of guffaws at good-natured Julie’s

BACK ISSUE’s focus, the Bronze Age of the 1970s and

expense in the Nothing Special. But we really believed

the (early) Modern Age of the 1980s. Julie nurtured a

our joke that Julie was immortal. And you

wealth of new writing talent, from Len Wein to Elliot

know what? We were right.

S! Maggin. He united Curt Swan and Murphy Anderson

Julius Schwartz may no longer be

as “Swanderson,” one of the finest artistic teams to

among us in body, but each time one

ever draw Superman, and routinely paired another

of us reads a Superman or Batman comic

creative team supreme, penciler Neal Adams and

book, or when one of our children tunes

inker Dick Giordano.

in to the latest episode of Justice League,

Additionally, Julie was the editor of Batman’s detour

we keep his spirit alive.

to his “creature of the night” roots, the 1970 “There’s a new kind of Superman coming!” revamp of the Man of Steel, the groundbreaking Green Lantern/Green Arrow

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Michael Eury, editor

Claremont and Byrne: Interview s condu by Pete cted and transcri

son

interview

r Sander

bed

No writer-artist team at Marvel has come close to equaling the creative brilliance of Stan Lee 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 collaboration 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

Byrne’s First X-Men This mid-1970s illo (right) was John Byrne’s first rendition of Marvel’s mutants. Note the influence of thenX-Men artist Dave Cockrum in Byrne’s version of Storm. Courtesy of Wayne Osbourne.

coherent artistic whole. Wolverine, as we know him today, is one of the results of that brief, groundbreaking collaboration 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

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PETER SANDERSON: Let’s go all

the artist who focused more in on Wolverine as a character.

the way back to the beginning.

It was under John’s pen that he blossomed.

How did your conception of

SANDERSON: How so? Did John want to use him more, or

Wolverine way back in the ’70s dif-

did he draw him differently?

fer from Len [Wein]’s?

CLAREMONT: The interesting thing is actually that Dave is

CHRIS CLAREMONT: Well, Len

the one who came up with the look, the hairline.

thought he was 19 years old [see

SANDERSON: Dave came up with what he looked like

this issue’s “Greatest Stories Never

unmasked and with the hair, and I assume he’s the one who

Told” for the full story]. Len’s original idea was the claws were in the gloves. SANDERSON: Is this something he told you when you took over the book, or did you find out later? CLAREMONT: Well, we found out later. Dave [Cockrum] and I talked about it. Dave said Len thought the claws were in the gloves and he and I both agreed, why? If they’re in the gloves, then anybody could wear the gloves. SANDERSON: It raises the question of what made Wolverine a mutant in the original stories, since the healing factor was-

Bad to the Adamantium Bone

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 claws

Wolverine, by

were integral.

John Byrne.

SANDERSON: I don’t know if the healing factor was always

Date unknown.

part of it, unless it’s something that Dave and Len talked

came up with the Western look of dressing. CLAREMONT: Pretty much. ’Cause that was consistent with western Canada, the idea that he came out of the mountains of Alberta, so he should look like a Westerner. John just liked him more. Dave’s signature character was Nightcrawler; John’s turned out to be Wolverine. You glom onto a certain guy. SANDERSON: John, why did you pick Wolverine as your character when you started on X-Men? JOHN BYRNE: Because he was a Canadian. [Byrne was born in England, spent much of his life in Canada, and now lives in the United States.] Chris and Dave [Cockrum] had said quite openly they could never figure out what to do with him. Dave’s favorite character clearly was Nightcrawler. When I started, Chris was still conferring with Dave on the plot, and I was really just the art robot for the first two or three issues, until finally I just protested and said, Excuse me [laughs], it’s not Dave any more. And Chris told me at one point, “We’re going to write Wolverine out because we don’t know what to do with him.” SANDERSON: Really!

about that wasn’t actually written into the stories. I don’t

believe it’s mentioned in Len’s stories [the initial Wolverine appearances in Incredible Hulk and Giant-Size X-Men #1]. CLAREMONT: In terms of his fighting the Hulk, otherwise what would make him a mutant? SANDERSON: Yeah. CLAREMONT: We needed something that made him a mutant, something that made him unique. The claws were obviously artificial, and if the claws were part of the glove, what made him a mutant? The reductium of the equation was

what

makes

him

mutant

the

healing

factor. But if he has a healing factor, what about the claws? Well, let us make the claws part of him. The healing factor enables 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 what Wolverine should be like? Some people think Dave treated Wolverine more as a comedic character, who’d be the butt of jokes. CLAREMONT: Dave’s focus was more on different characters. Certainly in the first run of [X-Men] books [that Cockrum drew], his first tenure on the series, we were busy e s t a b l i s h i n g e v e r y b o d y. H i s i n t e r e s t w a s m o r e i n Nightcrawler, say, and Phoenix and Storm. John [Byrne] was

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BYRNE: Yep. And I stamped my little foot and said there is no way you’re writing out the only Canadian character. And so I made him mine. Whenever I do a group book I make one character mine and sort of focus on that character so I have a focus for the book. And I made 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 punched into orbit. Actually, that happened in my first issue, but it was a leftover Dave idea. SANDERSON: Wolverine’s unmasked face is much more distinctive than most super-heroes’.

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BYRNE: Yeah, that was Dave’s. SANDERSON: Was that hard to get a handle on drawing?

: Cyberspacedially Chris”

BYRNE: It was hard to get the hair to work. In my entire run I was never

or Co-hosts “C ms, iX-Fan Foru forum at Com com/xfan/ n. fa www.comix forums

satisfied with how I drew his hair when he had his mask off. It was something about the way the flat part on the front had to kind of blend into the plumes on the side. Of course, it was much slicker in my day; it wasn’t as wild as 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’s character 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 more and more of it was mine. Especially when [Roger] Stern and I were un-indicted co-conspirators when Roger was editing the book. SANDERSON: Since you adopted Wolverine, how did you get the idea to start doing Wolverine as this tough, military kind of guy? BYRNE: That’s who he seemed to be. When he was first introduced in Hulk and when he was enlisted by Xavier in Giant-Size [X-Men] #1 he was a military agent. He’d probably be a Mountie. Much of the stuff that’s done by the CIA and the Secret Service and whatnot in the United States is handled by the Mounted Police in Canada. SANDERSON: Wolverine in a Mountie uniform is something we’ve never seen and I immediately want to see this. BYRNE: This would be scary, wouldn’t it? He’s probably too short and he’d scare the horses. [laughs] It just seemed a natural progression from what 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 Mount Logan is the tallest mountain in Canada. It’s not a very Canadian-sounding name. I would think of a cowboy when I think of somebody named Logan. He sort of is a cowboy.

Beginnings :

First compl ete story ar t: Wheelie the Chopper and Bunch #2 (1 975)

Milestones :

Doomsday +1 / Rog 20 00 / Iron Fist Up / Uncan / Marvel Te ny X-Men / amCaptain Am Four /Alpha erica / Fant Flight / Incr astic edible Hulk Superman / Man of Ste / Sensation el / al She-Hul Sub-Mariner k / Namor / Wolverine the / John Byrne Wonder W oman / Jack ’s Next Men / Kirby’s Four Men: The H th World / X idden Year s / Superman Generations and Batman / Fearbook : and Whipp ing Boy nove Works in P ls ro g re ss: JLA / The D oom Patrol / DC Comic s Presents (Julius Sch wartz tribut e book) / True Brit

Cyberspace :

John Byrne Forum: www.netw ork54.com/ Hide/Forum /248951; writes “IM O” column www.ugo.c om/channel s/ comics/feat ures/johnby rne/ imo/html

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 been mine. Or Dave’s. I’d have to go back and look. But the idea was the tallest mountain being the name of the shortest character. SANDERSON: And that leads to another question. Why is it important that Wolverine is short? CLAREMONT: Why does every character have to be 6’ 3”?

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BYRNE: Yeah. He had the hots for Jean, he felt Cyclops was

were six. The Sabretooth thing for me would be sort of know-

a total wuss. It was more about Wolverine’s training, and

ing glances. I was never entirely sure whether Wolverine

how he was taught to deal with things, and Cyclops was

would ever learn for himself that Sabretooth was his father.

a much more straitlaced kind of guy. We should all remem-

I thought that perhaps Sabretooth would know, but that

ber, of course, that when X-Men #1 first appeared, it was

Wolverine himself might not ever know.

Cyclops who was the instant breakout star, ’cause he was the

SANDERSON: Chris, what was the intention in originally

cool guy. Tells us how far we’ve come, I guess.

creating Sabretooth? Was he meant in your and John’s

SANDERSON: John, when I asked Chris if, despite Wolverine’s

minds to be Wolverine’s dad?

attraction to Jean, she and Scott are still meant for each

CLAREMONT: Yes.

other, Chris said if he were still writing Jean, he’d play with

SANDERSON: Would this underline the theory that what’s

this. I suspect you have a different opinion.

wrong with Wolverine is genetic, because dad’s got it, too?

BYRNE: Yes. [laughs] Jean and Scott should be together;

CLAREMONT: Well, no. It depends on how you look at it.

that’s just a given. But hey, Peter Parker should still be in

Wolverine is the more human, the more evolved, the next

high school.

step on the road. But Sabretooth doesn’t see it that way. In his eyes Wolverine is sloppy seconds. To him Wolverine is

WOLVERINE AND SABRETOOTH SANDERSON: John, how about Sabretooth? Was he indeed created to be Wolverine’s dad? BYRNE: Not created to be, because he first appeared in Iron Fist [#14]. But when I did that story, I had done a design for what I thought Wolverine looked like without his mask on, which I sent to Chris. And Dave had already done one, which I didn’t know about. And I ended up using that design for Sabretooth. And that sort of planted little things in my head, and then I got to thinking about that storyline, that typically Chris throwaway line in that Sentinels story [X-Men #98 –100] in which the machine said he [Wolverine] was a

the capacity for rational thought; the rational thought is devoted to serving his appetites, which are huge and insatiable. But extraordinarily varied nonetheless. SANDERSON: Is it wrong to say that Wolverine and Sabretooth both have this genetic predisposition towards uncontrollable violence, but Wolverine, because he’s a step evolved further, has learned to cope with it better?

was his father and that Sabretooth was the mutant and that

have the desire.

the mutation had bred true. So Wolverine was actually the

You could argue, “Does Wolverine have a soul? Does

first of a new species, and that’s why it confused the

Sabretooth have a soul?” The argument that I would toss

Sentinel. Then we got to playing about how Wolverine is 50

back and forth is that the difference between Wolverine and

years old and Sabretooth is 100 years old.

Sabretooth is that Wolverine has a touch of the divine,

on the book, it was just piling stuff into Wolverine, because I had seized upon him as my guy. SANDERSON: Do you think Sabretooth should have been

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Sabreteeth—doesn’t really. The difference is that he has

capacity to say no. Sabretooth has the capacity; he doesn’t

was on the book, the three years or whatever it was I was

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phrase Richard Dreyfuss, he walks, he eats, he makes baby

mutant and the Sentinel said he wasn’t, or vice versa. And I

BYRNE: Yeah. Because my whole thrust the whole time I

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Sabretooth is exactly what his name implies: he is a big, unstoppable engine of desire and destruction. To para-

got to thinking about that, and I suggested that Sabretooth

while you were on the book.

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defines him. Makes him a wuss. Makes him lesser in his eyes.

CLAREMONT: Wolverine has in him the desire and the

SANDERSON: So that sort of thing was beginning to evolve

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lessened by all the moral scruples, by the moral center that

that spark that allows him to embrace a moral concept, whereas Sabretooth doesn’t. He may embrace something that resembles a moral concept out of whim, but it means nothing to him. He is a true sociopath.

CLAREMONT AND MILLER SANDERSON: The Wolverine miniseries with Frank

revealed as Wolverine’s father or is that something that

[Miller]. That was intended by you to be the next step in

should only have been hinted at?

Wolverine’s development as a character, where you think

BYRNE: For me that was backstory. Everything I came up

Wolverine’s character really came together.

with was backstory that we would never reveal. I love to do

CLAREMONT: Yeah. For me if there was ever an origin story

that when I’m writing. I love to know every detail about a

or a story that defines Wolverine in all the ways that matter,

character even if it’s never going to be revealed, because it

that’s it.

allows me to do little throwaway lines and little references,

SANDERSON: Did you go into this project knowing that this

the way people talk. You’ll make a reference to something

is what you wanted to do, or is this something that evolved

that happened to you when you were six that means

once you started talking with Frank? How much input did

nothing to anybody else, and it doesn’t require that you

Frank have?

then do a story about what happened to you when you

CLAREMONT: Oh, it’s a collaboration, top to bottom.

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I Was a

Teenage Wolverine!

Michael E

ury

It was an editor’s desire to appease Canadian readers 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

Cantankerous Canuck

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

The Hulk (and readers) forgot about

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

the Wendigo once Wolverine clawed

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

his way into this 1974 issue.

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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

Wolverine Prototype? Reader Richard Kolkman writes, “I think I’ve discovered an overlooked cross-company

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 indestructible metal.” Wein envisioned that the gloves were made of fabric-covered adamantium—“a logical way to approach this.”

! T K I SN ‘prototype’ inspiration for Wolverine (right down to

the SNIKT sound effect).”

From The Forever People #5

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—banding 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 © 2004 Marve l Characters, Inc .

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

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

Ready to Rumble

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

John Romita Sr.’s original designs for

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

Wolverine. Romita laments to BACK ISSUE

the end of issue #180.

that years ago, he sold these roughs for

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

a mere $50. The inset depicts Wolverine’s

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

first appearance, drawn by Herb Trimpe and Jack Abel, from the last page of

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

The Incredible Hulk #180.

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

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Happy Birthday,

Wolverine! Art Gallery

special feature

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Michae

Wolverine int Makes a Po

made DC’s Just before he te, ns a fan favori New Teen Tita ’s penciled 1979 George Pérez #3, with inks X-Men Annual in. Courtesy by Terry Aust omics of Heritage C ecomics.com). (www.heritag . Characters, Inc © 2004 Marvel

Happy birthday to you... M a r v e l

M i l e s t o n e s

l Eury

Wolverine Goes Solo

m enal pages fro Two phenom written sue Wolverine, 1982’s four-is d by mont, pencile by Chris Clare e d inked by Jo Frank Miller, an Danker ourtesy of Ken C . n ei st in b u R m). scollectibles.co (www.monster Characters, © 2004 Marvel

Inc.

Happy birthday to you... M a r v e l

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“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.

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David Hamilton

WOLVERINE • J O H N B U S C E M A

feature

WOLVERINE • J O H N B Y R N E 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!!!

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Yes, folks—our cover-featured illustrator from BACK ISSUE #2 (still in stock, so order now!) was actually doing interior pencils that far back! This beautiful example of Adam’s super-hero storytelling serves to prove just how fully formed his style and energy was—even years ago! These “Children of the Adam” (HUH!?!)— the title of this Annual—never had it so good. Now, join me in a shout out to Adam: “Come back to the inside, my boy!”

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X-MEN ANNUAL • A D A M H U G H E S

Here’s an extremely rare glimpse of Adam Hughes’ take on Wolverine (X-Men Annual #2, 1992).

Secret Wars th th

special feature

20 Anniversary

QUIZ d{

This issue’s celebration of Marvel Milestones

Michae

l Eury

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 IQ 1. Secret Wars was Marvel’s first multi-title crossover, but it wasn’t the company’s first limited series to combine its characters.

Behold. . . Magneto!

That title was 1982’s:

Plastic Man Captain America was part of the first of two

a. Contest of Champions

Mike Zeck’s energetic

b. Combat of Champions

cover pencils for Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars #2

c. Marvel Super Heroes Contest of Champions

(June 1984). Courtesy of

d. Marvel Super Heroes Breakfast of Champions

David “Hambone” Hamilton. 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

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A Very Graphic Graphic Novel Mike Zeck’s pen-and-ink drawing for the 1987 Punisher graphic novel, Return to Big Nothing, upon which the cover painting was based. Courtesy of Jim Warden (www.doasales.com). © 2004 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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Number One with a Bullet: 30 Years of the

Punisher

hnson by Dan Jo

The early 1970s saw some major changes come to the comic-book industry in the way comics characters reflected the world around them. At the forefront of these changes was Marvel’s most popular title,

The Amazing Spider-Man (ASM). In one landmark storyline written by Stan Lee, Spider-Man confronted the issue of drug abuse (ASM #96–98, May–July 1971). These books went up against the Comics Code Authority [industry “standards” board], and Marvel actually published three issues without the Code’s seal on the cover. This unprecedented move helped the industry to consider a revision of the Code, rethinking which restrictions should and should not be placed on comics. In another landmark story, “The Night Gwen Stacy Died” and the follow-up issue where the Green Goblin was killed (ASM #121–122, July–August 1973), a new level of tragedy and maturity was brought to the character of Spider-Man. Whereas the drugabuse story had earlier established new freedom to address real-world issues, the Goblin story cost Spider-Man his innocence and his naiveté in ways still felt by the character. Amazing Spider-Man was the mainstream Marvel book at the time to watch to see the changes that were in the air at the publisher

First Blood The Punisher’s

and for the industry as a whole. Both storylines were intended to hit readers hard and to drive home the point that Marvel was the place to be for innovation in the 1970s, much as it

inaugural appearance

had been in the 1960s. In Amazing Spider-Man #129 (February 1974), though,

in Amazing Spider-Man

a character was introduced that would alter the landscape of Marvel Comics,

#129 (1974). Cover

and indeed comics as a whole forever. The character was a disillusioned war

art by Gil Kane and

hero—Frank Castle—who lost his family to mob violence and swore to do

everything in his power to make criminals everywhere pay for their sins. Unlike Spider-Man, who had lost his Uncle Ben because of a criminal, this character wasn’t just going to bring lawbreakers to justice—he was determined to put the guilty in their graves. He was a man who had no problem blowing away a bad guy (but who couldn’t do it too often in his first few appearances because of the Code). This was a man for whom blood cried out for blood, and he was determined to paint the underworld red with it. In many ways, he helped pave the way for Batman to become the Dark Knight he is today, and he prepared the comics world for the likes of Judge Dredd and Watchmen’s Rorschach. This was the Punisher, and on the surface, he brought graphic violence back to comics,

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the likes of which had not been seen since the days before the Comics Code was first introduced. But in the process, he also brought something much more important.

His ASSIGNMeNT: KILL SPIDER-MAN! To mark the occasion of the Punisher’s 30th anniversary, BACK ISSUE sat down with the men who first brought Frank Castle to life and who started him on his one-man war on crime. “At the time I was writing The Amazing Spider-Man, my goal was to do a continued storyline that would involve two or three interacting villains,” Gerry Conway, creator of the Punisher and currently the supervising producer of the highly successful television series

Law & Order: Criminal Intent, explains. “I had this main villain called the Jackal who was going to turn out to have a fairly important influence on SpiderMan’s life, and I wanted to keep him, for the first couple of issues, as a puppeteer behind the scenes, [as] somebody who was involved, but not necessarily [fighting] one-on-one with Spider-Man in those stories. I needed to have some secondary villains who would be coming in, either partnering with the Jackal, as hirelings of the Jackal, or being misdirected

by the Jackal. The character of the Punisher was really an answer to that need.” It soon became apparent to Conway that the Punisher was much more than a throwaway villain for Spider-Man. “As I was writing [that first story], I found myself becoming more interested in the character, and not necessarily in the story. That’s a sign that either it’s a good character or a weak story,” Conway says. “As I was writing [the Punisher], I found myself admiring his sense of honor. Even at the end of the [first] story, when he realizes

Man in Black

he’s being manipulated, even though he doesn’t

John Romita Sr.’s original

consider Spider-Man to be a friend, he doesn’t see

costume design for the Punisher.

him as an enemy and he backs away [from killing

Note the names originally

him]. The response in-house [at Marvel] and among

considered for the character.

readers was so strong, we decided we had to keep

Courtesy of the artist.

bringing him back. Occasionally you come across characters that take on a life of their own beyond

your initial intentions. That was certainly true of the Punisher.”

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FIREARMS AND FASHION The basic look of the Punisher hasn’t changed that much in the 30 years since he was first introduced, a testimony to the brilliance of former Amazing

Spider-Man artist, John Romita Sr., who designed the character’s familiar uniform with its distinctive skull design. “I had drawn up a rough sketch of what I thought [the Punisher] should look like and

costumes,” Romita adds. “I was in the office and I was an available art director. I did [the design for the Punisher] even though I wasn’t penciling

Spider-Man anymore. I inked Gil Kane’s cover where the Punisher appeared the first time. The first thing that came to mind was, if the Punisher is a killer, is to use a skull. I remembered the Black Terror from the 1940s, all in black, with a small skull and crossbones on his chest. When I sat down to draw the Punisher, I didn’t want to make the

I brought it to John to ‘fix it’ and make it look

small skull and crossbones on his chest, so I devised

good,” Conway tells BACK ISSUE as he outlines how

it where the skull became almost his entire torso

the look of the character took shape in Romita’s

and the nose hole of the skull and the eyes coor-

hands. “I had drawn a basic black costume with a

dinated with his musculature. The eyes fit where

small skull on the chest of the character. John took

the pecs were and the nose fit right at the base of

that and brilliantly expanded the skull head to

his sternum. I ended up putting the teeth of the

encompass [his] entire chest and made the teeth

skull as a buckle and to look like a cartridge belt.”

into the bullet bandoleer around the waist. His

Romita mentions something very interesting

design influence on it was pretty dramatic.”

about the character’s design, a small joke he

“Most times when they were going to do a

played that actually made the Punisher even more

Spider-Man villain, if it was Stan [Lee] or Gerry

of a threat. “I did [the Punisher] without a mask.

Conway or anybody, I would be asked to do

In my mind, I was thinking somebody will be

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Simonson and Casey:

gue

dialo Pro” cr2ea00to4r, and transcribed A “Pro2 , 7 2 ry a

conducted

on Janu K. Morris. by Brian

Just a little over 20 years ago, Thor #337 hit the 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

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Back Issue #4