CBA Interview
Weezie Jones Simonson Louise discusses her life & times as a Warren editor Conducted by Jon B. Cooke Though she’ll forever be immortalized as the model for the auburn-haired, well-groomed damsel on the cover of the first Swamp Thing appearance in House of Secrets #92, Louise Jones Simonson will also be remembered as one of comicdom’s great editors (especially for her tenure at Warren) and as a fine writer of fun comic book stories. Weezie (who was first married to artist Jeff Jones) is fondly recalled for her self-referential Power Pack comic for Marvel in the ‘80s and her current stint as writer on Superman. She is married to fan-fave artist Walter Simonson (who makes a cameo appearance during this talk). Weezie was interviewed by phone on January 25, 1999, and she submitted the final copyedit. Comic Book Artist: Did you have an interest in comics and genre material when you were a kid? Louise Jones Simonson: I read comics in the usual way that kids read comics. The most memorable comics story from my childhood, heaven help me, was in an EC comic—a Wally Wood story with two old couples sitting down to dinner. Aliens carried off the two women and neither man remembered it afterwards. The guys ended up as two old bachelors eating dinner together. That just blew my little child mind! I thought, “Oh man, what if that could happen? What if that were true? Whoa!” I read a lot of stuff but more books than comics. CBA: Where’d you grow up? Louise: Atlanta, Georgia. CBA: When did you meet Jeff? Louise: In 1964 at Georgia State College Art Department. I was an art/English major. Jeff was also from Atlanta. Above: Richard Corben’s original cover sketch to Eerie #77, featuring his and Bruce Jones’ great story, “Within You… Without You.” Art ©1975 Richard Corben.
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CBA: What is your artistic forte? Louise: [laughs] I didn’t have much of a forte! I’m a better writer! [laughs] I was such a naive kid—I don’t think I thought of either talent seriously in terms of a career. It was like, “Oh, well, I like to draw. Oh, well, I like to write.” I had never met any professional artists or writers; in a way, that was far above anything I aspired to. I guess I thought that professionals were some sort of gods and I dared not look so high. [laughter] I knew that real people wrote books but…! [laughs] CBA: Was Jeff ambitious? Louise: Certainly. He knew he wanted to be an artist; whether it was doing comics or book covers. Though he had a more serious interest in painting. We got married during the Summer of ’66. CBA: What did you two do after college? Louise: We moved to New York. CBA: Were you looking for an editorial position?
Louise: Oh, no. I was pregnant at the time and looking to have a baby. Jeff was looking for art jobs—book covers were his main focus, though he did do a little bit of comic book work. CBA: Do you recall when he got his break with Warren and was first published? Louise: Gee, no, I don’t. [laughs] It’s bizarre but I don’t! I know he did something for Larry Ivie’s Monsters & Heroes. CBA: And he did about four stories at Warren. Louise: I have only the vaguest memory of those stories. Isn’t that funny? If you had asked me if he had done any Warren stories, I would have said no. So, there you go—that’s what my memory is worth. CBA: Jeff was obviously in the fan circles. So were you starting to socialize with other fans and comics professionals when you were in the New York area? Louise: Oh, yeah. Gee, we met everybody! At the time, there were “First Fridays” which were comic book meetings held on the first Fridays of every month when everybody got together; and quite often they would be at our apartment—maybe because we were centrally located but I can’t even remember why. CBA: Roy Thomas says he started First Fridays. Louise: Maybe he was out of the city by that time? I can’t remember why they were at our place, or why they were at other places other times. It’s been 30 years, give or take a few. [laughs] CBA: Well, I’m chronicling history here, Louise! [laughs] Louise: Yeah, it’s probably just as well that you get it down now because [laughs] memory is going to fade even more! CBA: Alex Toth might be contributing a regular column to the magazine and its title is “Before I Forget.” Louise: Fabulous title and quite appropriate. Alex’s memory is probably lots better than mine because obviously I’m fuzzy on a lot of stuff already! [laughs] CBA: Were First Fridays memorable get-togethers? Louise: Sure. You’re looking for names: Let me see: Archie Goodwin, of course. (I met Anne later through Archie.) Neal Adams. Bernie Wrightson. Mike Kaluta. Alan Weiss. I don’t remember if Woody was ever there. Bruce Jones, I think… Len Wein. Marv Wolfman. Bill Pearson. Allan Asherman. Roger and Michele Brand. Vaughn Bodé. Flo Steinberg. Marty Pasko, maybe…? There were lots more people. CBA: Word has it that you had a big apartment. Louise: We had a couple of bedrooms and a pretty big living room. It was in one of the old pre-War buildings on 72nd St. CBA: Would the parties go on into the wee hours? Louise: I suppose, though I don’t remember them running particularly late—but then I’m a late-night person so I probably wouldn’t have remarked on that. I don’t think they lasted till dawn, anyway! Ask somebody else! [laughs] We had a lot of fun and I remember enjoying them a great deal. CBA: Do you remember Roy Krenkel? Louise: Of course. What a character! He was cranky, talented, lazy (in his own way)—no, lazy is an ill-chosen word; what he wanted to do was what he wanted to do, and he didn’t want to do anything that anybody else wanted him to do unless it happened to coincide with what he wanted to do. That’s not lazy but just cranky. He was a bit misogynistic—which didn’t bother me at the time because he was funny about it so it was hard to take him seriously. It was pretty apparent, though, that he thought wives were a drag on an artist. He didn’t have a wife (as I remember—and we know what that’s worth—he lived with his mother) and was pretty much a COMIC BOOK ARTIST
Spring 1999