Comic Book Creator #20 by TwoMorrows Publishing

™

$9.95

in the USA

A TwoMorrows Publication

No. 20, Summer 2019

THE “NOT YOUR AVERAGE JOES” ISH!

82658 00362

Joe Sinnott Joe Jusko Joe Field Joe Maneely plus Some Guy Named Yoe and Kristina Deak-Linsner!

Cover by Joseph Michael Linsner

S u m m e r 2 0 1 9 • F i v e J o e s a n d a Yo e I s s u e • N u m b e r 2 0

T THE DEVILISH SAINT WOODY CBC mascot by J.D. KING

Ye Ed’s Rant: Robert Crumb’s generosity of spirit and Ye Ed’s newest book................... 2 COMICS CHATTER

About Our Cover

Up Front: A Guy Named Yoe: Part one of a close look at Craig Yoe of Yoe Books........ 3

Art by JOSEPH MICHAEL LINSNER

The Great Sinnott: Bob Andelman shares his 2007 interview with the inker............... 18

Incoming: Chattering about the Wallace Wood and Steve Rude issues....................... 14 A Gathering of Weirdos: Kendall Whitehouse captures a historical conclave............ 24

Cry for Dawn TM & © Joseph Michael Linsner. Others TM & © the respective trademark owners.

Darrick Patrick’s 10 Questions for Stan Sakai: Q’s for Usagi Yojimbo’s creator .... 28 Joe Fields on the Idea That Saved Comics: The secret origin story of FCBD!......... 30 Hembeck’s Dateline: Our Man Fred on Steve Ditko’s “Just a Guy Named Joe”......... 36 Comics in the Library: Rich Arndt shares his second war comics installment............ 37 THE MAIN EVENTS Oh, Lucky Linsner!: CBC converses with Joseph Michael Linsner about three decades with Dawn and his amazing, “lucky” life as a comic book artist...... 38 Joseph Michael Linsner Timeline: A chronology of JML’s comics career................ 62 Above: The headliner of our “Not Your Average Joes” special ish, JOSEPH MICHAEL LINSNER shares this spectacular illustration, which features his signature character, Dawn, and masks of various other characters he’s worked on over the years, including his own creations, Sinful Suzi and Obsidian Stone, as well as Killraven, Harley Quinn, and Vampirella. Regarding the latter character, Joe and his wife, Kristina Deak-Linsner, teamed to produce the 2018 mini-series, Vampirella: Roses for the Dead, written by Kristina.

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Kristina Deak-Linsner, Joe’s Better Half: A chat with the writer/artist about her collaborations with husband Joe Linsner and the joy of working on Vampirella .... 64 Joe Jusko’s Pop Art Productions: The great comics painter talks about his wonderful “Corner Box” creations featuring Marvel’s fabled heroes....................... 68 What If… Joe Maneely Had Lived?: Atlas Comics expert Michael J. Vassallo speculates on what could have been at the dawn of the Marvel Age of Comics.... 74 Buckler Bounces Back: The final portion of Michael Aushenker’s interview with the late artist on working for corporations and reinvention as surrealist painter.... 82 BACK MATTER Creators at the Con: Kendall Whitehouse captures the Monster Makers among us!.... 94 Coming Attractions: Eric Powell celebrates 20 years of The Goon................................ 95 A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words: Tom Ziuko shares another treasure............. 96 Right: At right is a detail of Joseph Michael Linsner’s signature character, Dawn, from the cover of Dawn/ Vampirella #1 [Sept. 2014].

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COMIC BOOK CREATOR is a proud joint production of Jon B. Cooke/TwoMorrows

Comic Book Creator ™ is published quarterly by TwoMorrows Publishing, 10407 Bedfordtown Dr., Raleigh, NC 27614 USA. Phone: (919) 449-0344. Jon B. Cooke, editor. John Morrow, publisher. Comic Book Creator editorial offices: P.O. Box 204, West Kingston, RI 02892 USA. E-mail: jonbcooke@aol.com. Send subscription funds to TwoMorrows, NOT to the editorial offices. Four-issue subscriptions: $45 US, $67 International, $20 Digital. All characters are © their respective copyright owners. All material © their creators unless otherwise noted. All editorial matter ©2019 Jon B. Cooke/TwoMorrows. Comic Book Creator is a TM of Jon B. Cooke/TwoMorrows. ISSN 2330-2437. Printed in China. FIRST PRINTING.

This issue is dedicated to the memories of JACK TREMBLEY, STEPHEN HILLENBURG, TED STEARN, KEN BALD, EVERETT RAYMOND KINSTLER, and BATTON LASH ™

JON B. COOKE Editor & Designer

JOHN MORROW Publisher & Consulting Editor

MICHAEL AUSHENKER Associate Editor

JOSEPH MICHAEL LINSNER Cover Artist

GEORGE KHOURY RICHARD J. ARNDT TOM ZIUKO Contributing Editors

STEVEN THOMPSON STEVEN TICE ROSE RUMMEL-EURY Transcribers

J.D. KING CBC Cartoonist

TOM ZIUKO CBC Colorist Supreme

RONN SUTTON CBC Illustrator

ROB SMENTEK CBC Proofreader

GREG PRESTON CBC Contributing Photographer

MICHAEL AUSHENKER FRED HEMBECK GEORGE KHOURY TOM ZIUKO CBC Columnists To contact CBC, please email jonbcooke@aol.com or snail-mail Comic Book Creator a/o Jon B. Cooke P.O. Box 601 West Kingston, RI 02892 2

Life gets really, really busy with The Book of Weirdo to Crumb’s “generosity of spirit.” And Yep, this issue is egregiously I gotta say the “low-brow” painter late, but yours truly is trying his completely nails it with that phrase. best to juggle a whole bunch The world, of which most would have of different projects and recent encountered Crumb through the obligations that have come in titular documentary or his portrayal the wake of the publication of in American Splendor, mostly views my newest effort. Published by the cartoonist as a cranky, oversexed Last Gasp of San Francisco, The curmudgeon. But the reality is he’s Book of Weirdo is my 12-yearsa very nice, funny, playful man, and in-the-making history of Robert his philosophy to open the pages of Crumb’s humor comics anthology Weirdo to any outsider artist up to the of the 1980s, a magazine whose task (as opposed to the closed ZAP impact on alternative cartoonshop) is testament to its nurturing and ists and veteran underground supportive founder. comix artists far outweighed its (And Crumb, in supporting my popularity back in the day (as it efforts, kindly consented to an never had a run over 10,000 per interview that was to become the printing). Anyway, the events debut episode of my podcast series surrounding the book’s May exploring the history of underground release have me on the road for and alternative comix. Subterranean much of the spring and summer, Dispatch, of which I’ll be adding epand it looks like fall will be a very isodes as I find time during this busy busy Weirdo season, as well. season, can be found on iTunes.) One of those events this It’s also been fun to bring my lovespring was a personal highpoint: ly wife of 32 years into my convention spending time over lunch with antics, and Beth will be joining me the person I consider the greatnext in San Diego for Comic-Con Inest cartoonist of all, R. Crumb ternational. Stop by the TwoMorrows himself. The great caricaturist/ and the Last Gasp booths and say illustrator Drew Friedman and howdy to us, will ya? my oft-collaborative partner and But all these Weirdo-related brother, Andrew, joined us in a Joseph Michael Linsner by Ronn Sutton goings-on do not supplant my Manhattan restaurant, and the TwoMorrows projects, so I appreciate your patience mighty Crumb confirmed in person that he loves my while I manage all of these “problems of abundance!” book, and it is, as he told Denis Kitchen, my pal and Immediately after putting the finishing touches on publisher of the forthcoming Weirdo trading card set I this issue and sending it off to press, I’ll be designing produced, “The greatest tribute to me that’s ever been Roger Hill’s Mac Raboy: Master of the Comics book and done, ever could be done.” My head swelleth! completing the anniversary retrospective, The World It’s been positively joyful working on that history of TwoMorrows, which celebrates 25 years of John over a dozen years (not straight-through, mind you, and Pam’s wonderful publishing company. Much of the but sporadically, as those who are aware of my output intent behind my effort will be to send a Valentine to my know that lots of other work was accomplished since pal and publisher, hopefully conveying my gratitude and 2007). The best experience over those years was appreciation for John introducing me into this wonderto associate with the great cartoonist himself, who patiently answered my many, many questions, and was ful, wacky world of publications about comics. I’ll do my best to keep up a regular schedule, though genuinely engaged to help see the book to fruition. that’ll be tough. After The Book of Weirdo activities After the contributor copies were mailed, I heard tell that Robert Williams — who, along with Crumb, is a subside, I hope to make CBC a tad more frequent even fellow ZAP Comix collective member — had nice things as other book projects will arise. There’s nothing better to keep one’s feet firmly planted on the ground, than to say about the book. So, ever in search of a blurb, I having the obligation to (try and best) meet magazine rang up the renowned surrealist painter and, to quote deadlines. I can only say I’ll do my best. Deal? the man, he said The Book of Weirdo was a testament

cbc contributors

Bob Andelman Mark Arnold Rich Buckler Andrew D. Cooke Beth A. Cooke Kristina Deak-Linsner Joe Fields

Drew Friedman Cliff Galbraith Michael Gerber Dan Greenfield Clizia Gussoni Heritage Auctions Joe Jusko

—Y e Crusading Editor jonbcooke@aol.com

J.D. King David Scroggy Aaron Lange J.J. Sedelmaier Joseph Michael Linsner Cory Sedlmeier Marvel Comics Joe Sinnott Tom McWeeny Rob Smentek John Morrow Patrick Sun Stan Sakai Ronn Sutton

The Time Capsule Rick Trembles Jim Valentino Michael J. Vassallo Kendall Whitehouse Rob Yeremian Craig Yoe

#20 • Summer 2019 • COMIC BOOK CREATOR

KENDALL WHITEHOUSE CBC Convention Photographer

Generosity of Spirit

up front

A Guy Named Yoe Part one of a two-part interview with cartoonist/publisher/historian Craig Yoe

Craig Yoe portrait © Kendall Whitehouse. Books TM & © the respective copyright holders. Photo, Yoe Books logo © Craig Yoe.

Conducted by JON B. COOKE Comic Book Creator: Where are you from, Craig? Craig Yoe: I was born in the corn and raised with the pigs in Iowa. My family soon moved to the Rubber Capital of the World, Akron, Ohio — “Tire Town.” Breathing the rubber fumes from the factories as a tender child made me the person I am today! CBC: [Chuckles] What did your dad do? Craig: My dad, Duane Yoe, was an inventor and worked for various rubber companies in Tire Town. You know what they say, Jon: “You can’t reinvent the wheel.” But, my dad outlandishly went against all sense and convention, and spent years of his life and tons of Goodyear’s dollars in a crazy effort to do just that. He came up with the ludicrous idea of a triangular tire! I have a photo of me, right here on the wall above my drawing board, sitting on a tractor with the prototype triangular tire! The idea was to get more traction in muddy fields, but, of course, it didn’t work! They are right when they say you can’t reinvent the wheel, but I am immensely proud of my old man, who went against all logic and tried anyway! Dad’s brazen act inspires me to this day. In my lifetime, I sure have invented a lot of triangular tires! CBC: Was your dad an engineer? Craig: He was a chemical engineer, who dreamed up new ideas, chemical and otherwise. Dad was an independent thinker and independent soul. He always wanted to be his

own boss, get way from working for The Man, and he achieved that dream at times. Working for myself is in my DNA. Another one of Dad’s creations was also very influential to me. When I was into comics, he was collecting coins. He brainstormed, produced, and sold a wacky device to cut holes in plastic sheets to display collector’s prized coins. My dad called his tiny home-based company, Yoe and Son. Geez, I love him for that. I wasn’t even a teenager—this name for the company was so affirming! I’d help dad assemble, package, and mail his invention. This activity educated me in how businesses worked, how products were created, manufactured, advertised, the importance of customer relations, and so on. The knowledge was all revelatory and eventually very helpful to me. I try to follow my dad’s example and encourage my young kids by involving them in comics and our work. Griffin, age eight, and Grace, age six, are stupendous artists and writers. They made their own comic books and we had them printed up. They sold their comics alongside my books at a recent comic convention—to great success! Jim Steranko was there. He got copies of their comics and gave them some good advice: “Keep doing lots and lots of drawings. Don’t worry about what you draw, just fill stacks of paper, and have fun!” That was Steranko’s secret he shared with my kids! Griffin also chose the stories for the Ditko’s Monsters: Gorgo vs Konga comic book we just published. So Griffin

Top inset: Portrait of Craig Yoe by Kendall Whitehouse. Above: Various books produced by Craig’s imprint, Yoe Books. Left: Young Craig poses on one of his inventive dad’s notions. For farm tractors,“He came up with the ludicrous idea of a triangular tire!” Craig exclaimed. COMIC BOOK CREATOR • Summer 2019 • #20

This page: Pop culture that made an impact on young Craig, including Annette Funicello, TV horror host Ghoulardi, Carl Barks’ Disney duck comics, Little Lulu comics by John Stanley, and the Batman TV show.

Next page: More influences: Roger Bollen’s Animal Crackers comic strip and Stan Lee & Steve Ditko’s Spider-Man.

#20 • Summer 2019 • COMIC BOOK CREATOR

Mickey Mouse Club, Uncle Scrooge TM & © Disney Enterprises, Inc. Little Lulu TM & © Classic Media, LLC. Ghoulardi TM & © the respective copyright holder. Batman TM & © DC Comics.

Above: Rich Buckler’s first professional job was a fourpage historical adventure in the back of Flash Gordon #10 [Nov. 1967], starring the father of our country, George Washington. Inset right: The cover of that very same comic book, artist unknown. Below: Before becoming a full-time professional, Buckler was a prolific art contributor to comics fanzines in the 1960s, even publishing his own, Intrigue and Super-Hero. This is an ad for the former, replete with a self portrait.

got credit as the editor on the cover. His teacher and classmates were super-impressed when we showed this comic at “Show and Tell,” or, as I like to call it, “Yoe and Tell!” I’m sure these experiences will build Griffin and Grace’s confidence. CBC: Did your dad do art, too? Craig: Not like you and I think of as art. He did drawings for his inventions and architectural plans for apartment buildings he built when he got into that — another scheme to work for himself. So I got to see what it was like to put pencil to paper. When I became the senior designer for Marvin Glass and Associates, in Chicago, the world’s first and largest toy think-tank, my dad’s abilities inspired me to come up with creative ideas on the mechanical side. Marvin Glass designers invented toys and games like Lite-Brite, Mr. Machine, Simon, Rock ’Em Sock ’Em Robots, Operation, those plastic wind-up chattering teeth, and Mouse Trap. After I found a Rube Goldberg book in the company library, the Mouse Trap inventor confessed to me that the game was inspired by Goldberg’s wacky inventions. At Marvin Glass, I was inventing toys for Mattel, Hasbro, and many others of the 50-some toy companies of the time. I came up with all kinds of stuff… games, dolls, action figures… I have six toy patents in my name. Marvin Glass was a crazy place. Being there was like Tom Hanks in the movie Big, with all its drama, back-stabbing, comedy, and a little romance… I lived it! CBC: Where does the name “Yoe” come from? Craig: I’m not entirely sure, Jon. I was told that a “yeoman” was a member of the respected middle class in England. As such it refers to someone doing a good job, “a yeoman’s work.” Maybe I’m part of the British Invasion! At some point, the “man” was dropped and the letters switched around a bit to become “Yoe”! But I don’t really know much about my background, yo! CBC: Were you creative at a young age? Did you draw? Craig: I made some of my own toys, rubber-band guns, things like that. I loved to draw, like all kids. That’s before critical parents and teachers beat the creativity out the little snot-nosed ones so that they fall in line like good little soldiers. In kindergarten, I remember the teacher passing out coloring sheets of a ducky and going around to look at our drawings. Smiling she said to me, “Craig, that’s really good!” I was busting with pride! However, without missing a beat, she frowned, “But you colored outside the lines!” At that moment I knew two things: number one, I wanted to be an artist and, number two, I defiantly wanted to color outside the lines! “Hey, teach: f*ck you very much!” (I want to be somewhat respectful). [laughter]

In contrast, my fourth-grade teacher, Mrs. Leonard, showed us on the blackboard how to draw snowmen. She taped everybody’s finished creations on the wall. Being Yoe, my drawing was alphabetically last. She went down the line commenting each and every piece. Every kid’s drawings looked slavishly like her example — except mine. I don’t remember what I did. Maybe I put the little snowball on the bottom and the big one on top. Maybe I had a pickle for a nose rather than a carrot — I do like surrealism! All the kids were waiting in gleeful anticipation for her to blast me for my off-model snowman. But, instead she applauded my creativity and praised me for breaking the rules! That was another defining moment for me! The idiot teacher on one hand and the encouraging teacher on the other propelled me further into being an artist. By the way, Jon, dig this: Mrs. Leonard’s daughter, Polly Leonard, became a cartooning teacher — and herself a cartoonist! Last time I saw Polly, she was dancing with Charles Schulz at a National Cartoonist Society annual gathering! CBC: Hah! Were you watching TV as a kid? Craig: Sure, I was feverishly sucking on the glass teat! There was plenty of playing outside, but I’d run home from school to watch The Mickey Mouse Club and drool over Annette Funicello. Ms. Funicello started my life-long love for Italian women! I grew up watching cowboy shows, the shoot-’em-ups. Later, I saw the Batman TV show and, to this day, I think it’s the best screen version of super-heroes. I can’t think of any other I can even stomach except the Lego Batman movie—that was cool! Adam West and Julie Newmar, Batman and Catwoman, blew my little mind! And then there was the TV appearance of The Beatles. A couple days ago was the 50th anniversary of their debut on The Ed Sullivan Show. I watched it live on its original night! While I was listening to and eyeballing The Beatles, I was also looking at the reactions of my parents, sister, grandparents, aunts, and uncles. I was fascinated by how aghast they all were and that excited me. As much as I liked the music, I liked the rebellious side of John, Paul, George, and Ringo — they colored outside the damn lines! CBC: How old were you then? Craig: I was born in 1951, so I guess I was 13. At that time, the wild late-night TV horror movie host Ghoulardi hit the local airwaves. Ghoulardi was every bit as big as The Beatles for me and Northeast Ohio kids. Another iconoclast and an immeasurable influence in my life! I dedicated one of our horror comic Yoe Books collections to Ghoulardi. In his words, “Stay sick, knif!” CBC: Did you read comics? Was that a part of your culture as a kid? Craig: I blame my mom for all this comics stuff. When I was about seven, my mom, Betty Hamilton Yoe, got me a subscription to Walt Disney’s Comics and Stories. I loved running to the mailbox once a month and the thrill of immersing myself in the world of those amazing Carl Barks Donald Duck stories. If I was going to summer camp or we went on a long vacation road trip, Mom would also buy me a Little Lulu comic. John Stanley was my other comic book “god” besides Barks — not that I knew their names. I thought Walt Disney drew Donald Duck and Marge drew Little Lulu… it said so right on the covers!

Animal Crackers TM & © Tribune Media Services. Spider-Man TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

I spent a lot of time reading comics. I once was in therapy and the shrink asked, “What was your favorite memory from childhood?” My answer was, “Laying in my bed reading comic books.” [chuckles] I don’t know what he derived from that knowledge. I was going through hard times with some relationships, with some people. What I was strongly remembering was the pleasure of being alone with my favorite form of escapism, the four-color funnies! When I became a man, I put away childish things. When I say, “became a man,” I mean when I went to junior high school! You didn’t read comics then because you were supposed to be grown up and be cool. However, a couple of school friends like Dave Scroggy and Jon Hartz, later comic industry guys, secretly got hooked on Marvel comics. Chuck Case was the one who confided to me that he was reading Spider-Man. I didn’t know what the hell a Marvel comic book was, but it sounded intriguing. On Chuck’s recommendation, I covertly bought a Spidey comic at the drug store, after casing the joint and making sure there was no fellow classmate around. Back then, you didn’t dare let people let know you were reading comics — that would be social suicide! For this initial comic book purchase, I even concocted an alibi. If some girl from my class happened to walk in the store and see me at the embarrassing, immature-sounding “Hey!! Kids Comics” spinner rack, I planned on saying, “Oh, hi! I, a cool mature teenager like you, am going to be babysitting my nephew this weekend. So I am buying the cute little tyke a silly comic book to amuse him!” [Jon chuckles] You didn’t want anybody to find out you were reading comic books and thinking you were some kind of arrested-development drooling idiot! These secret comics collector friends were what are known now as “Marvel zombies.” They were only into the he Marvel Bullpen’s House of Ideas. Myself I thought, “Well, these Marvel comics are cool, but I bet all comics are cool!” So, I started haunting used bookstores and thrift stores. I was buying back issues of all kinds of comics, from all kinds of publishers, even back to Golden Age fare — all for half-price, five cents a pop! And at the stores, I bought hardback books like ones by cartoonist Milt Gross, collections of New Yorker cartoons, and books about the radical commie cartoonist Art Young and his ilk. I’d glom onto a book of comics by the brilliant early magazine cartoonist A.B. Frost or a collection of Thomas Nast political cartoons. I fell deeply in love with all things comics and cartoons. I was very interested in not just what was currently on the Hey Kids Comics spinner rack, but what had been published 50, 100 years before that! A lot of the older folks who were founders of comics fandom like Jerry Bails and Roy Thomas were interested in the past, too, so I took a cue from them. Most were primarily interested in Golden Age super-heroes. But my friends Don and Maggie Thompson were into comic strips like Crockett Johnson’s “Barnaby” or Fredrick Opper’s “Happy Hooligan,” and more! CBC: Were you already going to used bookstores before you discovered comics? Were you already interested in books? Were you a regular reader? Craig: Interesting question, Jon! No, not really. The guys that got me into comics got me into reading “real books,” too. Well, not that real. Low-brow stuff like James Bond paperbacks. I carefully removed a safe-for-school paperback cover from the Odyssey and pasted it over the cover of the contraband Spy Who Loved Me. This way I could clandestinely read the forbidden fruit in study hall. You could get hauled into the principal’s office for reading a James Bond book, have to pull down your pants, and get swats with a leather paddle as punishment! Ian Fleming Bond books had “dirty parts,” which I, of course, dog-eared for easy repeated readings. Today a teacher would be just damn thrilled to see a kid reading a damn book! CBC: Did a daily newspaper come into the house?

Craig: Yes, definitely: The Akron Beacon Journal. Every day, with a thump on the porch, the rolled-up paper, wrapped with the useless news and sports sections to protect the precious comics inside, magically arrived… “Peanuts,” “B.C.,” and “Wizard of ID”… I loved all that stuff! CBC: Did you have a favorite cartoonist? Who’s somebody you wanted to draw like? Craig: I wanted to be Steve Ditko! I still do! Some of my first fanzine creations were for Mike Raub’s Wonderment. I was sharing the zine’s pages with Gene Simmons, later of KISS. Gene just wrote an intro to our second volume of the popular book series Super Weird Heroes. For Wonderment, I did a twopage comic of the super-hero I dreamed up, The Cyclone. Every damn panel was a swipe from Ditko! He was and is my idol. Ditko is the undisputed King of Comics, right?! As far as comic strips, I loved “Animal Crackers.” Does anybody remember that? The artist, Roger Bollen, was a Cleveland guy, so I thought, “Oh, gee, somebody not from New York is doing comics.” That intrigued me. Maybe I can be a cartoonist even though I’m stuck in Akron F*cking Ohio! My dad played a big, important part in this, too. On Sunday mornings, when I was a cute little tyke, he’d send me out to the porch to bring in the Sunday funnies. I’d climb into bed with him and he’d read me the comics out-loud. Blondie, Dick Tracy, and Beetle mania! I think some of my love for comics has to do with good family feelings. I think nostalgia’s not a popular word in fandom right now, but I’m nostalgic about those times. Now, with my kids, we read comic books together: Little Lulu, Uncle Scrooge, Stan and Steve’s Amazing Spider-Man, Dog Man, Jimmy Olsen, Sugar and Spike. It’s very special. CBC: I used to read Kamandi and Sgt. Rock to my kids. Hey, that’s what they wanted. “You want me to read them? Okay.” [laughter] Better than Spawn. Craig: Dear God, Jon! With that line-up, I’m sure your kids have “issues” now! If I had known you were doing that, I would’ve called Child Protective Services on you! [laughter] Reading Sgt. Rock to your kids instead of Little Lulu! Bad parenting! [laughter] CBC: We would go off on adventures and march around. The youngest of my boys would be Bulldozer and middle one would be Little Sure Shot. My oldest would be Sgt. Rock.

COMIC BOOK CREATOR • Summer 2019 • #20

a chat with joltin’ joe

The Great Sinnott

Bob “Mr. Media” Andelman’s interview with the superb Mr. Joseph Sinnott!

Editor’s note: Great Godfrey! Ye Ed has long planned to finally make his long-promised sojourn to Saugerties, New York, and take Joe Sinnott out for Sunday brunch and to talk about the Joltin’ One’s fondly-recalled Treasure Chest work in the 1960s and other fun stuff. But, alas, when it came time to take a drive up the Hudson Valley, it was the dead of winter — the same time of year when Sinnott the Snowbird waits out the season and soaks up the rays in sunny Florida! We promise, God willing, to catch up with the genial gent this spring and feature our Sinnott Sunday Brunch chat next ish. In the meantime, CBC pal Bob “Mr. Media” Andelman kindly shared his convo with Joe! Inset right: At convention appearances, “Joltin’” Joe Sinnott offered prints of this selfportrait of the artist surrounded by Marvel characters. Below: For Jack Kirby’s surprise 70 th birthday party in 1987, Joe drew up this centerspread tribute for a commemorative booklet.

[When you spend your professional career interviewing famous people, there are always a few that stand out in your memory. I’ve been a comic book fan since the mid-1960s. I love comics. In fact, I wrote the only authorized biography of Will Eisner — Will Eisner: A Spirited Life — and when I started interviewing people about Will, he handed me his handwritten Rolodex and said, “Call anyone you want.” Hello, Neal Adams. Hello, Stan Lee. And so on. So, when I started hosting and producing the Mr. Media® Interviews podcast [https://MrMedia.com] in 2007, I was always on the lookout for comics-related interviews. One day that July, comics historian Tim Lasiuta reached out and told me about the oral history he wrote, Brush Strokes of Greatness: The Life & Art of Joe Sinnott. I said if “Joltin’” Joe would do an interview, I was in. What you’re about to read is the result of that phone interview. I remember it like it was yesterday because it was so damn cool talking to Joe. The man was there when the Marvel Universe was germinating and he was a delightful conversation partner. — Bob Andelman.] Bob Andelman: Let’s start with a general point of information. What on Earth does a comic book inker actually do, and how do you explain your career to the layman? Joe Sinnott: Well, actually, it’s all I ever did. I drew from the time I was three years old, I can remember, and it’s the only thing I knew. All my brothers could build houses, they could do all that. I couldn’t drive a nail, but I could draw, and I drew all the time. I drew on paper bags, whatever I had. Things were tough growing up in the Thirties, but we made the best of it, and it paid off in the long run, I guess. Bob: What is the difference, for someone who doesn’t know, between someone who does pencils and someone

who does inking? Joe: Well, there’s all types of penciling, Bob. Years ago, most of the artists used to pencil thoroughly and complete pencils, put the blacks in and everything, and it progressed down to the point where a lot of the artists would pencil very loosely like a thumbnail sketch, and the inker, if he was capable, was required to finish the art. So he really was a finisher. Not all artists can do this, but some can, and fortunately, I was able to. Of course, the first 12, 13 years I was with Marvel, I did my own pencils and inks, and that’s the way I used to like it. But that was a different world back then. Bob: When did it change for you? When did you stop focusing on penciling? Joe: Well, I started at Marvel in 1950, with Stan Lee. It was Timely Comics back in those days. And, around 1961, Jack Kirby didn’t do his own inking, and he asked me if I could fill in and [ink] a Jack Kirby. He couldn’t find anyone to ink it, and so I inked it, and Stan liked it quite a bit. He liked the combination. So it progressed from there and Stan just kept sending me more Jack Kirby stuff, and I felt I could make as much inking as I could penciling, so I proceeded to ink primarily for Stan. Of course, I had other accounts, Treasure Chest and Dell and whatever, and there I did my own pencils and inks. Bob: I wondered if you could actually make as much inking as penciling. I would have guessed not, but from what you say, I guess you could. Joe: It seemed like I could, maybe because I was a faster inker than I was a penciler. A lot of times with penciling you had to research and do things like that, which used up a little of your time, but it never seemed to be a problem with me. The inking came very easily.

#20 • Summer 2019 • COMIC BOOK CREATOR

All characters TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc. Artwork © Joe Sinnott.

Interview conducted by BOB ANDELMAN

Bob: How different is one man’s inks from another’s? Again, if we’re describing this for people who really aren’t that familiar with it, some people would just think oh, inking, you’re just taking an ink pen and going over someone’s pencils, but it’s more than that, right? Joe: Don’t I wish! No, I felt down through the years I’ve added a lot to whoever I was working on, and I’m sure a lot of my friends would tell you the same thing. Some inkers, I must say, do, so to speak, ink over the lines that the penciler has put down, and other inkers have to do a lot of what we call finished art. We have to finish the art. Some pencilers don’t put any blacks in whatsoever or details, and the inker has to do that. He’s primarily, like I said, finishing the art. He’s completing it. He’s adding to it. He’s an embellisher. Bob: What do you think is the difference between the art you were inking in the early ’60s, the start of the real Marvel Age, and today? Has it changed? Joe: Oh, a great deal. Of course, being off in the old school, I prefer the old method. I feel things are too technical today and too slick, and they don’t look like a comic book should look. That’s my feeling. Of course, in the old days, everyone did this same type of art. Reproductions were basically the same, but it looked like a comic book. It had the classic look. I prefer the Kirby, the Buscemas, the Colans, the Romitas. It was just great. It was stylized, but it was realistic art, whereas today, it’s hard to say what the new method would be called. We’re influenced a lot by the Japanese today, as you know. Not my preference. Bob: Have the changes had anything to do with improvements in printing technology? You get a finer printing today than obviously you did 40 years ago. Joe: I’m sure there has been a great change in printing obviously. Of course, we have better paper, but then again, here we go, the old comics had that old comic book feel to it. A lot of people that I know, especially people my age, certainly prefer the old classic comic style and reproduction. Bob: I guess one of the things that I think of when I think of your work in the ’60s, is, particularly working with Kirby, was that it was a heavier line, it seemed like a thicker, heavier line in those books than maybe we would see today or maybe even in some other books. Is that a mistake? Joe: I think you’re correct in that regard. I know, looking back, when I worked on Kirby in particular, I used an awful lot of brush, and certainly, with a brush, you’re going to get a heavier line. But Jack’s work, it almost demanded a brush because he had big, bold pencil strokes, and usually four, five panels at the most on a page. And you could really do big drawings, and you could get in there with a brush and let yourself go. It’s not like today when I’m inking the Sunday Spider-Man page for Stan and King Features. I use an awful lot of pen. The drawings are so small, and they’re reproduced so small that you have to use a lot of pen because brush is just too big, and the lines would be too heavy. Bob: You had worked in comics for 10 or 11 years by the time that first issue of Fantastic Four came your way. You had seen the super-heroes go away, Westerns come on, things like that. When the Fantastic Four came to you, what did you think? Did you think it was another monster comic? Was it a big deal at the time or was it just another assignment? Joe: It was no big deal at all. When the Fantastic Four came to me at #5, I had never heard of the book. But as soon as I saw the characters, I said, “Gee, what great characters.” Of course, in those days as you know, through the ’50s and ’60s, we were always looking for a new trend. We had the Korean War, then we had the horror comics, we had romance, we had science fiction, and then we had

the monster books in the late ’50s and early ’60s. And then, when Stan came out with a few super-heroes, we didn’t think anything more of it. We thought, even Spider-Man, we just thought that was another character, that it would soon fade, and we’d be doing something else. Certainly, as you know, it caught on and took off. Bob: I think I need to correct myself on something from something you just said. You actually came on Fantastic Four with the fifth issue not the first issue. Joe: That’s right. The introduction of Doctor Doom. Bob: How did the whole perception of the industry you were working on start to change in the early ’60s as these comics took on a life of their own that they had not had? Joe: It was pretty obvious. Most of the comic houses — we were dropping houses at that time — really concentrated on the superheroes. DC, of course, with their Justice League and Batman and Superman and whatever. They brought them all back. The same with Marvel, only Marvel created more characters. Of course, we did have Captain America and a few like that, but basically, we had all new super-heroes. I think Stan was surprised that they were so popular. Bob: And Stan created kind of a culture personality around everyone who worked on those books, didn’t he? Joe: Yeah, he certainly did. Bob: How was that different than the way the industry had operated a decade earlier? Joe: Well, that’s pretty hard to ascertain, Bob. I really wouldn’t know how to put a finger on it, to tell the truth.

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Above: Portrait of the artist by CBC convention photographer Kendall Whitehouse, taken at the East Coast ComiCon, in May of 2018. Below: In his book, Brush Strokes with Greatness: The Life and Art of Joe Sinnott (designed by Ye Ed in 2007), the artist recalled this mid-’70s ad artwork, “[O]ne of my favorites of that time.”

secret origin of free comic book day

The Idea That Saved Comics Comic shop retailer Joe Field blames the whole idea for FCBD on Baskin-Robbins! Inset right: In mid-2001, comic shop owner Joe Field came up with an idea that significantly impacted the direct market. In an article for the trade publication Comics & Games Retailer, the retailer wrote, under the headline, “The Power of Free,” about shop owners offering gratis comics one day a year to entice new and lapsed readers into the fold. Here’s Joe sharing his enthusiasm at his Flying Colors comic shop during a FCBD a few years ago. Below: The first page of the retailer’s article also included a positive response from Diamond Comic Distributors, which offered to solicit feedback from their extensive list of accounts. (Cover repro is representative.)

by JON B. COOKE [Maybe our headline is a bit overstated, but those who recall the perpetual boom and bust cycles of comics in the past, with periods of wild speculation and media frenzy inevitably followed by the closing of hundreds of shops due to low sales, know the precarious modern history of the American comic book industry. But since the advent of Free Comic Book Day some 18 years ago, overall the field has had steady, pragmatic, and widening growth, and the effort FCBD provides to retailers — to welcome new readers young and old to the form with the enticement of free comics — certainly is one reason. Yours truly interviewed the idea’s originator, Joe Field of Flying Colors Comics and Other Cool Stuff, a few years back (a talk that appeared in my short-lived ACE: All Comics Evaluated mag in early 2015). This was transcribed by “Flash” Thompson. — Y.E.]

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Comic Book Creator: Joe, can you tell us the story behind Free Comic Book Day? Joe Field: One day [in 2001] I saw a line in front of the Baskin-Robbins next door to my comic book store and, realizing that comics are a whole lot cooler than ice cream, I got to thinking we could do the same thing with comics. Instead of a free scoop, we could give free comics. I took that idea and wrote a column about it for an industry trade publication and, to my complete surprise, everyone loved the idea and wanted to make it happen. It was published in Comics and Games Retailer, which was published by Krause Publications [also publisher of The Comics Buyer’s Guide]. It was an industry trade magazine, so it wasn’t on the stands. CBC: How did you hear the response? Joe: Well, knowing that I’d written columns for a number of years, response was always a very delayed — I’d write a column one month, it would be published the next month, and there would be another few months before we’d get any response — so I thought this idea was probably a little bit too good to wait that long to try to make things happen. So I got permission from the editor at that time to get response before the article saw print, and print them alongside in the same issue, and that response was very instantaneous and positive. CBC: What was the appeal of the

idea and what was the reason for it? Joe: We had just come through some difficult years in the ’90s and things were really turning around. All of a sudden a lot more creative things were being done in comics and the general feeling was that things were going really good except we had no mechanism to invite new people in to see what was going on. So this was seen as a way to just give an invitation to everyone to visit their local comic shops. CBC: Did you outlay a specific plan for dealing with outside media and what it became? Joe: I laid out some parameters for what I wanted to see, not so much in terms of the outreach (although that was a part of it), but a lot of what I originally intended came through. It just worked on a lot of different levels that way. CBC: So what was the plan? Joe: The idea was essentially best foot forward and every which way we could do that. Initially there were only a few publishers involved — Marvel, DC, Dark Horse, Image, and Oni, I think, were the original ones — and it was basically “best foot forward.” Give us something we can give away that is a complete reading experience and that will make people want to come back and read more. That’s really how it’s worked. It’s not a matter of giving away samplers where, you know, you’ve got the first five pages of the story and you have to jump over to something else to read the rest of it. It’s been about giving a full scoop of cool stuff. CBC: I don’t know if the public is aware of what the process is. Can you explain it? It’s not per se that the publisher’s giving free comics to the retailers, right? Joe: Correct. What happens is that there’s a process for this now every year since we’re going into the 14th year. Publishers apply to be FCBD suppliers. They fill out an application that tells us what their comic is going to be, how much it’s going to cost, the creative content, what they’re gonna do to promote it — not only to the comics world, but to the outside world — and then all of those submissions are sent to a committee of retailers which I spearhead. We then go through all of these applications and make decisions on which ones are accepted into FCBD. There is a maximum of 50 comics chosen for FCBD. That breaks down to 12 for what we call “Gold Level,” and those are the ones that every participating store will have available. Then the “Silver Level,” titles that are sort of smörgåsbord types. Stores can pick and choose what they bring in for the day. CBC: Why would some titles not make the cut? Joe: That’s not information that I can really give out. What I would say is that this year there were 69 titles that were in the application process, and those needed to be whittled down to 50. And some of the criteria for what gets in and what doesn’t is marketability — what the track record of the title is, for instance, and the track record of the publisher. Is it something that has an audience? Can it be a whole lot wider than it currently is? Does it reach a different

market than the other titles? And then, past that, what kinds of promotion does the publisher plan to do to help promote FCBD, in general, and their title, specifically? So there are hard choices to make each time we do this and I think we’ve done pretty well so far. CBC: Some titles have actually debuted on FCBD over the years, including Umbrella Factory, Atomic Robo, The Sixth Gun, correct? Joe: Right, there have been a number of series that have launched on FCBD over the years from publishers of all sizes. What’s difficult about launching the series on FCBD is… We had started to see publishers wanting to make their debut on that day and it’s really not the best place for that because it’s completely unknown to retailers who are ordering the books and to fans and whatnot. It really helps to have a little bit of wind in the sails of a book behind it before doing the FCBD release. Now, there are still some series launches and those are from publishers who are more established and have a track record of being able to promote their books well. So we are definitely not saying that you can’t debut a new series on FCBD, but it is one where we’re being a little bit choosier about how that process works. CBC: And the process is that the publisher sells to Diamond and then purchased by the storeowners? Joe: Yes. All of this gets funneled through Diamond. All the books are solicited through them, once the titles are approved by the retailer committee, and then retailers make their choices as to how many that they want to buy of each of them. And the retailers do pay for them. The prices on those vary from as little as 5¢ or 10¢ a copy up to over 50¢ each. What we’ve found is the more expensive a title, the less pick-up it’ll get in terms of orders. There is kind of a sweet spot in there of comics that are available to retailers at 20¢ to 30¢ apiece and those are the ones that seem to get the best orders. CBC: It’s remarkable to see the number of kids’ titles that are available and I’ve certainly been witness to any number of families coming into comic book shops. It’s a rather joyful thing to see. Is there any evidence that first-time people come in and they actually return? Joe: Oh, yes! Every year, in our store, we keep track of where people are coming from, whether it’s their first time in the shop, that sort of thing. In Year 13, still more than 20% of the people who came to out event had never been in before. So this is definitely outreach as there are people coming in to the stores for this event. I’m sure that holds true for other comic shops as well. And the idea is essen-

tially most of the Gold Level books are going to be all-ages friendly. I wouldn’t say they’re kids books, but they’re all-ages friendly — comics that are going to be accessible to as wide an audience as possible. Then there are books of varying content in terms of age and subject matter that are in the Silver Level. But I do think that FCBD has been part of this renaissance in comics that are all-ages appropriate. (Some people just refer to them as kids’ comics and I guess that’s okay, but that really does a disservice to pigeonhole them that way. Books like Tiny Titans or the Archaia hardcovers including Mouse Guard and Cowboy and some of the things that were in that. They really appeal to people of all ages even though they are kid-friendly.) CBC: Now that we’re going into two decades with FCBD, are we seeing a generational shift? They might have been children to start but are regular comic readers now? Joe: Oh, sure! A lot has changed since the first FCBD. I don’t ever put FCBD on a pedestal and say the art form survives because of FCBD, but I do think that it is an essentially healthy part of a good, strong, and growing comics market. There have been so many things that have changed in the last number of years. Growing numbers of female comics readers, of kids readers… a growing number of readers, period, and people are willing to just recognize that reading is reading — whether it’s comics or books. That’s something that I think a lot of educators are paying more attention to. When students of any age are interested in reading, through comics or whatever means, they’re going to be happy readers for a long time. Comics are a really strong ingredient with that.

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Top: FCBD logo, which is emblazoned on all the free offerings of that first Saturday each May. Above: An early Marvel FCBD edition was Ultimate Spider-Man #1, offered for the 2002 event. Inset left: Sergio Aragonés, the great MAD magazine cartoonist, created this awesome and amusing tableau for the 2010 FCBD commemorative T-shirt, the first of its kind. Below: Along with his friendship and business dealings with Stan “The Man” Lee, father of the graphic novel Will Eisner was a supremely important professional relationship for Joe Field, who said, “In 2004, [Eisner] came to our retailer programming and he sat in the audience for one of the panels. When there was a small break, he turned around and said, ‘Joe, I gotta tell you, Free Comic Book Day is a really great idea!’ And to get validation from Will Eisner was one of the pinnacles of my career!”

Interview Conducted by Jon B. Cooke 38

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In 2010, asked what was the best investment he ever made in life, Joseph Michael Linsner, the Queens, New York-born creator of Cry for Dawn, told an interviewer, “All the thousands of dollars that I spent on comic books in my youth. They made me the man and the artist I am today.” And, before and since, Joe’s gratitude has never faded. In the following interview, he confesses, “I loved comics so much that my lifelong dream was to be a comic book artist. I feel so lucky that I’ve been able to make that happen.” All well said, but it was more than luck that got Joe to where he is today.

Truth to tell, hard work and tenacity — and a massive amount of exceptional talent — has brought Joe to the top of his game today. Most mind-blowing is the fact that he is an entirely self-taught artist! From the start, Joe has been tethered to two women. The first is his signature creation, Dawn, who started as a mere host for a horror anthology, and he continues to write and draw her exploits in this, the 30th year since her debut. The other woman? Among the first to buy his first comic book, back in the summer of 1989, Kristina Deak, who is now happily married to the guy!

Transcription by Rose Rummel-Eury COMIC BOOK CREATOR • Summer 2019 • #20

This page: Clockwise from above are Joe Linsner’s grade school ID; Joe proudly displays his mural artwork in 1978; the Linsner boys, George, Joseph, and William, in 1977; 1984 drawing by Joe of “Adam Hunter”; and 1984 photo of Joe taken in his mom’s kitchen.

old when I saw that. CBC: How was Queens? Was it city-like or suburban? Joe: We lived in a very small, one-bedroom apartment. My two brothers and I slept in the bedroom and my parents slept in the living room on a fold-open couch. It was pretty urban. I got mugged as a kid. I had a guy put a knife to my throat. CBC: How old were you? Joe: I was around seven. I’d gotten some money for Easter and me and my older brother went to go buy a Mego action figure, which I wanted. We were standing outside the department store and I was counting my money. These older kids came by and one of them put his knife to my throat and I wouldn’t let go of my money. I told him to get lost! My brother almost fainted, but I wouldn’t let go. Finally the kids realized it wasn’t worth it and they left us alone. CBC: [Chuckles] Was it a typical childhood? You watched TV and…? Joe: Oh, yeah. Every day, I lived for Batman. I think my love of Batman came from Adam West, more so than from the comic books. It came on five days a week, Batman was on and I would levitate watching Batman. It was the coolest thing in the universe. CBC: Did you get a chance to go to Manhattan — into the city? Joe: I remember my mom taking us to see different things at Radio City Music Hall, like at Christmas, there’d be some big thing. Aside from that, not too much. CBC: For you, when did comics come into play? Joe: I can’t remember my very first comic book. I was “reading” them before I could actually read, just absorbing the story through the pictures. My mom would take us shopping and we’d stop at a newsstand and my mother would say, “Okay, you guys can get something.” My brother was into baseball cards, so he’d get a pack of cards and I’d get a comic book. I’d always get Batman or something like that. I can’t even remember the first one because they were just always there. CBC: In a chronology you wrote for me, you pointed out your first Conan the Barbarian comic. [laughter] Joe: My father was an electrician and he had a friend come over for dinner one night, who was a younger guy and something of a hippie. My father told him I read comic books and he brought me a copy of his favorite comic, which was Conan. I had never heard of Conan and at first I thought his name was “Co-man,” because everyone in comics was a “man”: “Superman,” “Spider-Man”… it took

#20 • Summer 2019 • COMIC BOOK CREATOR

Comic Book Creator: Joe, where does the name Linsner come from? What’s your family’s ethnic background? Joseph Michael Linsner: Linsner is a German name. My father was German and my mother was Irish. My mother’s maiden name was Breen and both families came to America around the turn of the century, I think. Both my parents were from Astoria, Queens, and they met in the early ’60s, got married, and had three kids, and — tah-dah — here I am! CBC: Where are you among the siblings? Joe: I’m the middle kid. I have a brother who is three years older and a brother five years younger. CBC: All boys, huh? Joe: All boys, so there was plenty of fighting and crashing downstairs; all that stuff. CBC: Were your parents creative at all? Joe: When I was growing up, my parents did needlepoint and crocheting, but part of me thinks my mother was a frustrated artist. From the time I was four years old, my mother really encouraged me to do the arts thing. Maybe in a different life, my mother would have pursued art, or maybe she got it out vicariously through me. CBC: So, she would speak encouraging words to you about your work and support you? Joe: Yeah, from a young age, I remember her sitting me down and saying, “You should watch this,” [the movie] The Agony and the Ecstasy… Michelangelo painting the Sistine Chapel. It really blew me away. I must have been five or six years

me a second to realize it was “Co-nan.” From that moment on, I fell in love with Conan. CBC: What was about the character you liked? Joe: It was something raw and direct about Conan. Even at that age, it used to frustrate me that Batman would catch The Joker time and time again, but would never kill him! The Joker would just get loose again and cause more chaos. Why didn’t Batman just kill him? It made no sense to me. [chuckles] Conan didn’t have that problem… “Whack!” He just took out his enemies! That made more sense to me. CBC: This is the John Buscema and Roy Thomas’ Conan? Joe: Yeah, my first one was by Rich Buckler and Ernie Chan, or Ernie Chua as he was known at the time, but I fell in love with Buscema’s work through Conan. Right after that, I got my hands on the Savage Sword of Conan. My first issue of that is the one where he gets crucified, which I still think is one of the most amazing comic books ever done. CBC: Why is that? Joe: The power, the intensity — of all the insane things, he gets crucified and lives through it! The mythic resonance of the hero being crucified, like Prometheus chained to his rock. And Conan survives it. He survives and then gets revenge on the guys who nailed him up. So awesome. The art is by John Buscema and “the Tribe”, but I think the best pages are inked by Tony DeZuñiga. The crucifixion scene where he kills a vulture with his teeth is one of the all time great comic book sequences. And when he pulls the nails out of his own bloody feet — so powerful. CBC: [Chuckles] Did you have a religious background as a kid? Did you go to church? Joe: No, thank God. [laughter] My older brother had to go through his communion… we were supposed to be Catholic. He went through it and because it was such a hassle, my mother gave up by the time it came to me. CBC: So she didn’t make you go to catechism? Joe: I hated regular school so much, to do anything more than that seemed like a nightmare. My mother, until the day she died, had strong religious beliefs, but she let me pursue whatever I wanted to on my own. CBC: When did she pass away? Joe: She passed away in 2012. CBC: Did she ever look at your work? Did she ever have any comments about religious themes in your work? Joe: No. She was always very encouraging and I can say that I’ve never drawn a single thing I’d be ashamed to show my mother. I would do pin-up art and nudes, and my mother was a firm believer that there was nothing more beautiful in

the universe than the human body. I had friends say, “Wow, if I drew that, my mom would yell at me,” but, no, my mom was always very encouraging. CBC: The early years, before you moved to Long Island, would you say your family was poor? Joe: Lower middle-class, I would say. I had friends who would come over to our house to play and they would think I had a lot of toys and there were other kids’ houses I would go over to their house to play and I thought they had a lot of toys. We were somewhere in the middle. CBC: You were a pretty sociable kid? Joe: Yeah. I guess I stuck to myself, but I was also that weird kid in class who drew. That’s a particular niche, I think, that I clearly fit into. Every school has that weirdo in the corner who draws. At my school, that was me. CBC: What did you draw? Joe: Batman, the X-Men… and then Conan. CBC: You were known as an artist…? When I was a kid, I would use that to “impress the girls,” that was a part of it: being known as an artist. I would draw cartoons for girls. Joe: Come to think of it, any time I’ve connected to a girl, it’s been through my art. Yeah, I guess, as a teenager, I’d draw things for girls and befriend them that way. CBC: What did you want to be when you were in grade school? Joe: When I was really young, I may have dreamt of being an astronaut, but as soon as we moved to Long Island, the concept of being an artist took root in my head. I knew from age 10 or 11 that I was going to be an artist somehow. Plus the isolation of moving to a new neighborhood and having to make all new friends really forced me to develop my inner world. I

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This page: Clockwise from far left is JML drawing in his bedroom, 1985 (among the items tacked to his wall is a quote from the TV show, The Odd Couple, one attributed to Felix Unger: “Never overstay your welcome or you’ll never be welcome to stay over”; JML riding an “Iowa Dragon” in 1986; convention ID from 1993; Adam West as the Caped Crusader; and JML’s “Adam Hunter,” circa 1987.