MM: Where in New York were you living? Right: 1977 illustration which ran in the fanzine, Vertigo. Below: The 5-page wordless story, “Homer’s Idyll,” appeared in the October 1979 issue of Heavy Metal. Charles incorporated etchings from his years in college as backgrounds. Next Page Top: An illustration from the third story in The Horns of Elfland, “The Fiddler and the Swan.” Next Page Bottom: A panel from “Zealot’s Lake,” a back-up in Sabre #2. Charles: “This panel shows my attempt at a big Hal Foster type crowd scene. I was also consciously emulating Foster’s ink work at that point.” Zealot’s Lake ™ and ©2007 Elaine Lee & Charles Vess. All other characters and artwork ™ and ©2007 Charles Vess.
CHARLES: Upper West Side, the same place Michael has been living at since 1971. It’s rent-controlled. I didn’t have any money for a cab or subway, and was walking 70-some blocks down to the studio. I was hanging out with three or four artists that had just quit comics. One of the things most younger artists just seem to take for granted is that you get your artwork back. At that point in the ’70s they were maybe getting $25 a page, but you didn’t get the artwork back. You never saw the artwork again, and you were only in it if you really, really wanted to be. It was just in that time period, the late ’70s, that the artwork started to be returned. The ’80s, then, were sort of the rise of the independents... independent companies that were hiring, managing to get artists that might have worked for bigger DC and Marvel with the promise of better page rates. So Marvel, in the early ’80s, decided to launched a graphic novel line. They started with Jim Starlin [The Death of Captain Marvel], who was working with [Marvel Editor-in-Chief Jim] Shooter on developing a standardized contract for these graphic novel projects. These contracts were including royalties and ownership of the characters by each artist who had developed them. This was really the start of our modern system of creator-friendly contracts. There are many things Shooter may be scorned for, but that was certainly a beneficial landmark for all artists and writers! MM: Going back to the studio, were you considered a full-fledged member? CHARLES: No, are you kidding? I was just hanging out. MM: So you were a kid sidekick? CHARLES: I was not quite Jimmy Olsen. [laughter] MM: At least you didn’t get mutated every month. [laughter] CHARLES: When I had the energy, I would walk down there. It was really exciting. 24