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A Tw o M o r r o w s P u b l i c a t i o n

No. 4, Winter 2014

Cover art & color by Kevin Nowlan

The New Voice of the Comics Medium

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also inside: DAN GOLDMAN • MORT TODD • MARK WAID • DENYS COWAN • ROGER STERN

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A Tw o M o r r o w s P u b l i c a t i o n

Edited by JON B. COOKE, COMIC BOOK CREATOR is the new voice of the comics medium, devoted to the work and careers of the men and women who draw, write, edit, and publish comics—focusing always on the artists and not the artifacts, the creators and not the characters. It’s the follow-up to Jon’s multi-Eisner Award winning COMIC BOOK ARTIST magazine.

Subscribe at www.twomorrows.com 4 issues: $40 US, $54 Canada, $60 elsewhere Includes the DOUBLE-SIZE SUMMER SPECIAL!

No. 3, Fall 2013

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COMIC BOOK CREATOR #1 COMIC BOOK CREATOR #2 COMIC BOOK CREATOR #3

Former COMIC BOOK ARTIST editor JON B. COOKE returns to TwoMorrows with his new magazine! #1 features: An investigation of the treatment JACK KIRBY endured throughout his career, ALEX ROSS and KURT BUSIEK interviews, FRANK ROBBINS spotlight, remembering LES DANIELS, WILL EISNER’s Valentines to his beloved, a talk between NEAL ADAMS and DENNIS O’NEIL, new ALEX ROSS cover, and more!

JOE KUBERT double-size Summer Special tribute issue! Comprehensive examinations of each facet of Joe’s career, from Golden Age artist and 3-D comics pioneer, to top Tarzan artist, editor, and founder of the Kubert School. Kubert interviews, rare art and artifacts, testimonials, remembrances, portraits, anecdotes, pin-ups and miniinterviews by faculty, students, fans, friends and family! Edited by JON B. COOKE.

NEAL ADAMS vigorously responds to critics of his BATMAN: ODYSSEY mini-series in an in-depth interview, with plenty of amazing artwork! Plus: SEAN HOWE on his hit book MARVEL COMICS: THE UNTOLD STORY; MARK WAID interview, part one; Harbinger writer JOSHUA DYSART; Part Two of our LES DANIELS remembrance; classic cover painter EARL NOREM interviewed, a new ADAMS cover, and more!

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COMIC BOOK CREATOR #4 COMIC BOOK CREATOR #5 COMIC BOOK CREATOR #6 COMIC BOOK CREATOR #7 COMIC BOOK CREATOR #8

RUSS HEATH career-spanning interview, essay on Heath’s work by S.C. RINGGENBERG (and Heath art gallery), MORT TODD on working with STEVE DITKO, a profile of alt cartoonist DAN GOLDMAN, part two of our MARK WAID interview, DENYS COWAN on his DJANGO series, VIC BLOOM and THE SECRET ORIGIN OF ARCHIE ANDREWS, HEMBECK, new KEVIN NOWLAN cover!

DENIS KITCHEN close-up—from cartoonist, publisher, author, and art agent, to his friendships with HARVEY KURTZMAN, R. CRUMB, WILL EISNER, and many others! Plus we examine the supreme artistry of JOHN ROMITA, JR., BILL EVERETT’s final splash, the nefarious backroom dealings of STOLEN COMIC BOOK ART, and ascend THE GODS OF MT. OLYMPUS (a ‘70s gem by ACHZIGER, STATON and WORKMAN)!

SWAMPMEN: MUCK-MONSTERS OF THE COMICS dredges up Swamp Thing, ManThing, Heap, and other creepy man-critters of the 1970s bayou! Features interviews with WRIGHTSON, MOORE, PLOOG, WEIN, BRUNNER, GERBER, BISSETTE, VEITCH, CONWAY, MAYERIK, ORLANDO, PASKO, MOONEY, TOTLEBEN, YEATES, BERGER, SANTOS, USLAN, KALUTA, THOMAS, and others. FRANK CHO cover!

BERNIE WRIGHTSON interview on Swamp Thing, Warren, The Studio, Frankenstein, Stephen King, and designs for movies like Heavy Metal and Ghostbusters, and a gallery of Wrightson artwork! Plus writer/editor BRUCE JONES; 20th anniversary of Bart Simpson's Treehouse of Horror with BILL MORRISON; and interview Wolff and Byrd, Counselors of the Macabre's BATTON LASH, and more!

MIKE ALLRED and BOB BURDEN cover and interviews, "Reid Fleming, World's Toughest Milkman" cartoonist DAVID BOSWELL interviewed, a chat with RICH BUCKLER, SR. about everything from Deathlok to a new career as surrealistic painter; Tales of the Zombie artist PABLO MARCOS speaks; Israeli cartoonist RUTU MODAN; plus an extensive essay on European Humor Comics!

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TwoMorrows now offers Digital Editions of Jon B. Cooke’s COMIC BOOK ARTIST Vol. 2 (the “Top Shelf” issues)

CBA Vol. 2 #1

CBA Vol. 2 #2

CBA Vol. 2 #3

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NEAL ADAMS/ALEX ROSS cover and interviews with both, history of “Arcade, The Comics Revue” with underground legends CRUMB, SPIEGELMAN, and GRIFFITH, MICHAEL MOORCOCK on comic book adaptations of his work, CRAIG THOMPSON sketchbook, and more!

Exhaustive FRANK CHO interview and sketchbook gallery, ALEX ROSS sketchbook section of never-beforeseen pencils, MIKE FRIEDRICH on the history of Star*Reach, plus animator J.J. SEDELMAIER on his Ambiguously Gay Duo and The XPresidents cartoons for Saturday Night Live.

Interview with DARWYN COOKE and a gallery of rarely-seen and unpublished artwork, a chat with DC Comics art director MARK CHIARELLO, an exploration of The Adventures of Little Archie with creator BOB BOLLING and artist DEXTER TAYLOR, new JAY STEPHENS sketchbook section, and more!

ALEX NIÑO’s first ever full-length interview and huge gallery of his artwork, interview with BYRON PREISS on his career in publishing, plus the most comprehensive look ever at the great Filipino comic book artists (NESTOR REDONDO, ALFREDO ALCALA, and others), a STEVE RUDE sketchbook, and more!

HOWARD CHAYKIN interview and gallery of unpublished artwork, a look at the ’70s black-&-white mags published by Skywald, tribute to Psycho and Nightmare writer/editor ALAN HEWETSON, LEAH MOORE & JOHN REPPION on Wild Girl, a SONNY LIEW sketchbook section, and more!

Double-sized tribute to WILL EISNER! Over 200 comics luminaries celebrate his career and impact: SPIEGELMAN, FEIFFER & McCLOUD on their friendships with Eisner, testimonials by ALAN MOORE, NEIL GAIMAN, STAN LEE, RICHARD CORBEN, JOE KUBERT, DAVID MAZZUCCHELLI, JOE SIMON, and others!

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Winter 2014 • The New Voice of the Comics Medium • Number 4

t PLAYBOY W©©dy CBC mascot by J.D. King

About Our Cover

TM & © DC Comics.

Art and colors by Kevin nowlan

One of our favorite artists in the entire field, Kevin Nowlan, contributes this evocative portrait of our headline guest, Russell Deheart Heath, Jr., appropriately placed in a Western setting. As the veteran comics artist revealed in the career-spanning interview within, Russ has always had an affinity for the frontier, though never had a true desire to become a cowpoke. When contemplating a tribute cover, Ye Ed immediately thought of Kevin because of his lush style, not too dissimilar to the Heath approach. Kevin’s career was examined by yours truly in the comprehensive and lengthy Nowlan interview, which appeared in Comic Book Artist Vol. 1, #25, now available in PDF format from TwoMorrows. Please check out the ad in this ish or visit our website at twomorrows.com to learn more!

Comic Book Creator is a proud joint production of Jon B. Cooke/TwoMorrows

Ye Ed’s Rant: Ruminations on that “artist’s artist” of comics, Russ Heath...................... 2 Comics Chatter Goldman’s Digital Ghosts: Hannah Means-Shannon reports on digital graphic novelist Dan Goldman’s leap from pixels to print with Red Light Properties..................... 3 Incoming: Is CBC really a “new voice” for the medium? Plus a few corrections............ 8 The Good Stuff: Jorge Khoury discovers that Marvel makes good with a mammoth Omnibus devoted entirely to the Amazing Roger Stern’s Spider-Man epics................... 12 REMEMBRANCE Au Revoir, Rouge Enfant and Viscardi: Lamenting the passing of two greats......... 14 Hembeck’s Dateline: The Atlas-era Russ Heath “talking head” villain, The Brain, chats us up in Our Man Fred’s latest strip...................................................... 15 Aushenkerology: Michael Aushenker learns about Mort Todd’s Ditko years!............. 16 Irving on the Inside: The concluding installment of Christopher Irving’s career retrospective of award-winning veteran comics scripter Mark Waid.................. 20 The Human Gargoyles Return: Rich Arndt talks about a Skywald revival of sorts..... 25 Cowan the Conqueror: Part one of our interview with Milestone man and multitudinously talented comics creator and “animated” guy, Denys Cowan................. 26 The Lost Father of Archie Andrews: Who was Vic Bloom, the man listed on the first story featuring “America’s Typical Teenager,”and what happened to him?....... 30 SPECIAL RUSS HEATH SECTION “That Crazy Bastard Heath”: Legendary writer and editor Archie Goodwin tells us what makes Russ Heath such a great artist in a 1973 tribute..................... 36 Beautiful, Sublime & True: The Art of Russ Heath S.C. Ringgenberg examines the artistry of a true comic book master...................... 38 Above and Beyond: The Russ Heath Interview Comic Book Creator’s extensive career-spanning Q-&-A with the superb artist...... 46 Creator’s Creators: Christopher Irving shares his storied background.......................... 79 Coming Attractions: Join us for Kitchen, Romita Jr., Cruse, Cowan, Everett & Tilley!... 79 A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words: A Brian Bolland classic — No joke!.......... 80 Right: Detail from Russ Heath’s memorable G.I. Combat #130 [June 1968] cover. We kid you not! Every issue of Comic Book Creator includes a 16-page (sometimes more!) PDF bonus section containing exclusive material not found in the printed edition. So go and get your free CBC now!

www.twomorrows.com/freestuff Comic Book Artist Vol. 1 & 2 are now available as digital downloads from twomorrows.com!

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: $40 US, $54 Canada, $60 elsewhere. All characters are © their respective copyright owners. All material © their creators unless otherwise noted. All editorial matter ©2014 Jon B. Cooke/TwoMorrows. Comic Book Creator is a TM of Jon B. Cooke/TwoMorrows. Printed in China. FIRST PRINTING.

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This issue is dedicated to the memory of NICK CARDY ™

The New Voice of the Comics Medium

JON B. COOKE

Editor/Designer

John Morrow

Publisher & Consulting Editor

MICHAEL AUSHENKER

Associate Editor

KEVIN NOWLAN

Cover Artist & Colorist

JORGE KHOURY RICHARD ARNDT CHRISTOPHER IRVING TOM ZIUKO

Contributing Editors

Brian K. Morris Senior Transcriber

STEVEN E. Tice STEVEN THOMPSON Transcribers

J.D. KING

CBC Cartoonist

TOM ZIUKO

CBC Colorist Supreme

RONN SUTTON

CBC Illustrator

ROB SMENTEK CBC Proofreader

SETH KUSHNER Greg PRESTON

CBC Contributing Photographers

MICHAEL AUSHENKER FRED HEMBECK CHRISTOPHER IRVING JORGE KHOURY TOM ZIUKO

CBC Columnists

Comic Book Creator is always in search of interviews, art, and artifacts related to the field, and we encourage those interested to contact us at jonbcooke@aol.com or through snail-mail at CBC, P.O. Box 204, West Kingston, RI 02892 or call (401) 932-1967 2

Artist’s Artist

Paying tribute to the great and glorious Russell Heath, Jr.

Joe Kubert and Russ Heath would each tell their respective version of the same story when they’d describe their professional relationship with one another. Often with a chuckle, Joe would discuss how, when he was working in DC’s New York offices as an editor in the late ’60s and early ’70s, he would become increasingly frustrated with freelancer Heath’s consistently blowing deadlines on the monthly “Sgt. Rock” assignment. The editor would get so exasperated, Joe confessed, that while on the phone with the Chicago-based artist, he’d threaten to sock Russ in the jaw if only he were in the room there with Kubert. The lesson Joe seemed to derive from that situation was, in order to maintain their friendship, which by that time stretched back two decades, Kubert either had to learn to cushion the deadlines more to accommodate the artist’s habitual lateness… or find another freelancer. But Russ distilled something different from the incident. Call it motivated by guilt or a need to prove his worth, but because Russ Heath of Joe’s anger, Heath would say by Ronn Sutton he tried his very best to make good through the quality of the work delivered. He knew the assignment would arrive late, so he’d spend an exorbitant amount of time on the art to make up for his lack of diligence… and because he’d invest excessive attention to it, the pages were thus guaranteed to be tardy! Fait accompli, self-fulfilling prophecy, a man’s own worst enemy is himself… call it what you will, but this rectification has rewarded us with magnificent artistry that will be appreciated long after that anecdote is forgotten. Russ Heath, like his colleague Joe Kubert, will endure through the work. I confess that despite being an editor myself, I am more sympathetic with Russ’ reaction to pissing Joe off. Redemption is always an option, making amends is perpetually the honorable route, and striving for an “A” for effort is never a bad thing. It’s often the next right thing.

Comic book artists typically live a petty sedate, routine and humble life. Theirs is, on average, a solitary existence and unless they frequented social events or went regularly into the offices or took on editorial gigs, each day was pretty much like any other. Russ Heath? He’s lived a different life than most of his peers, and it is a great pleasure to feature the superb artist and raconteur in this tribute issue. And while the emphasis is on his comic book career, it’s important to remember he toiled in advertising agencies and in Hollywood animation studios as well. Dude, the guy lived in the Playboy Mansion at the height of the 1960s, where the artist said, there were just “piles of girls” and at a time when Hugh Hefner was the swingest cat around! Rest assured, Russ has a helluva story to share. This ish is a very long time in coming, as are the next bunch of CBCs to follow. Next time I finally sit down with cartoonist and publisher Denis Kitchen, a friend and longtime supporter of any number of projects. After that, we finally bring out Swampmen, the book well over a decade in the making and which will focus on the muck-monsters of the 1970s and ’80s. Then issues devoted to Bernie Wrightson, and a Michael “Madman” Allred/Bob “Flaming Carrot” Burden double cocktail (with David “Reid Fleming” Boswell chaser!). We pondered going bi-monthly but we’ll stick with foura-year for now… Special thanks this issue to Kevin Nowlan for his wonderful homage cover, on which the astounding artist performed triple duty of pencils, inks, and colors. What a beautiful piece, K.N.! And a big hello and good-bye to our ever-so-brief freelancing associate Hannah MeansShannon, who was all set to regularly contribute to CBC and then Bleeding Cool had to go hire her as their first-ever editor-in-chief! The nerve of them! Sigh. Congrats, Hannah! We knew you when...! (HMS contributes the Dan Goldman profile starting on the next page.) — Ye Crusading Editor jonbcooke@aol.com

cbc contributors Richard Arndt David Barsalou Mark Beazley Thom Haller Buchanan Russ Burlingame Shaun Clancy Christopher Couch

Ken Danker Dark Horse Comics Chuck Dixon Fantagraphics Florentino Flórez Heritage Auction Brian House Bruce Jones

Jim Keefe Denis Kitchen Stacey Kitchen Steve Kriozere Stan Lee Ely Liu Frédéric Manzano Antonio Martin

Marvel Comics David Saunders Hannah Cory Sedlmeier Means-Shannon David Scroggy Gabriel Ronn Sutton Morrissette Steve Thompson Mitch O’Connell Mort Todd Greg Preston Jim Vadeboncoeur, Eric Reynolds Jr.

Wayne Vansant Jen Vaughn Ivan Velez, Jr. Alyson Vetter Kendall Whitehouse Rob Yeremian & The Time Capsule Craig Yoe

#4 • Winter 2014 • Comic Book Creator

comic book zeitgeist

Goldman’s Digital Ghosts Dan Goldman’s odyssey from pixel screen to printed page in Red Light Properties

by Hannah Means-Shannon Discovering doorways into the strange and unknown in his local library made the young Dan Goldman a storyteller, picking up volume after volume in the “weirdo-occult” aisle with his new library card. Reading psychedelic and occult comics as a teen drove him to write comics, but it was only after realizing the potential behind digital composition when he took up the stylus as both writer and artist to create the reluctant exorcist Jude Tobin and the condemned, ghost-haunted Miami real estate of Red Light Properties. Now that the digital iterations of Goldman’s comic series are making their way to print, he is re-mastering and expanding the “case files” of an average guy who can talk to ghosts to turn a buck on cursed homes other agents finding just too hot to handle. Goldman has been making waves in both digital and print comics since his 2006 debut of webcomic series Kelly on the creatorowned site Act-i-vate Comix, followed by major digital first comics and graphic novels in a wide variety of genres, from 08: A Graphic Diary of the Campaign Trail with Michael Crowley and Ctrl. Alt. Shift in 2009, to his Eisner Award nominated Shooting War with Anthony Lappé from 2007– 2011. Goldman has found that exploring different genres and styles has led him to more personal choices in subject matter and an opus all his own. His creative journey led him to develop his now long-running and ongoing digital series Red Light Properties in 2010, and Goldman is rapidly approaching a career milestone with the release of the first print collection of the series from IDW in January. Red Light Properties, which follows the life of beleaguered haunted house exorcist Jude Tobin, his ambitious but estranged wife Cecilia, and their young son, represents a culmination of Goldman’s personal vision in storytelling and in artwork. It’s a watershed series for the creator, and one that he intends to pursue through multiple print volumes, based on updated versions of his digital comics, into new story lines. Red Light Properties, originally published on Tor. com, and now in digital distribution through MonkeyBrain Comics (monkeybraincomics.com), is a series that Comic Book Creator • Winter 2014 • #4

has attracted attention for many reasons, from its psychedelic and occult themes to its sensitive portrayal of tense family relationships and raw, realistic exploration of the impact of economic decline. It’s a comic about relationships and their haunting legacies, whether regarding the Tobins’ lives or in the lives of ghostly murder victims making Miami properties unsellable. There’s an edginess and depth of pathos in Goldman’s storytelling that’s only matched by his ability as an artist to convey supernatural experiences in ways that are both moving and visually arresting. In many ways, Red Light Properties is a series Goldman has been building toward since his earliest creative efforts, and the most personal work he has yet produced. “I want to tell adult stories organic to where my brain and my soul are,” says Goldman, a statement that suggests a certain degree of reflection at this point in his varied career. He wants to both create and read things that make him “feel something.” Red Light Properties may be a supernatural relationship drama, but Goldman is pragmatic about its components and the ways in which they appeal to readers. He comments that in Red Light Properties the “ghost stuff on a level is incidental. It’s really about relationships. But you just do relationship comics, who’s gonna read it?” There may be some truth in the idea that readers want to be taken off the beaten path of relationship dramas into unexplored realms of narrative, but the fact remains that Goldman has long been fascinated by the horror and occult themes now found in Red Light Properties and so is particularly equipped to wrestle them into narrative format. Goldman’s childhood is a rich mine of influences and material that continue to find expression in his work and also in his approach to life. Born in Detroit, he became immersed in Background: CBC photographer extraordinaire Seth Kushner snaps cartoonist Dan Goldman in New York’s Grand Central Station. Inset upper left: Dan illustrated 08: A Graphic Diary of the Campaign Trail. Inset left: The Anthony Lappé-scripted, Goldman-illustrated Shooting War was nominated for an Eisner Award. Above: Red Light Properties cover.

Photography by Seth Kushner 3

aushenkerology Mort Todd’s Monster & Metal Comics

Ditko, Me & Marvel

The cartoonist on Sturdy Steve and those Atlas reprints (and rock’n’roll funny books!)

Though Sturdy Steve’s appearance in the Marvel comics of the ’90s wasn’t unusual, the playful, self-effacing pin-ups are a throwback to better times at the House of Ideas, back in the early to mid-’60s, before the artist/plotter’s rift with Stan “The Man” Lee that led to his quitting Spider-Man and “Doctor Strange.” Who would bring the artist into such a comfort zone? Could it have been… a Todd called Mort???

Above: No, Doc. V., that’s not a ’50s Atlas comic you’re missing! Rather it’s the Zeus Comics title you’ve never seen! Oh, go to http://morttodd.com/ zeus.html and learn all about a line of delightful “lost” funnybooks! That Mort Todd, he’s a card, he is! Below: Mort’s the one sporting the Mr. A T-shirt; cartoonist Rick Parker is pointing the finger, in this photo of the chums courtesy of Jen Vaughn who took the shot in 2011.

Mort Todd: was he monster? Menace? Or both?!? Such was the type of hyperbole found in the monster and horror comics Steve Ditko produced back in the 1950s and early ’60s published by the pre-Marvel imprint, Atlas Comics. And the answer to those questions? Check number three: Definitely both! And we’re all the richer for having the monstrously talented cartoonist and creative menace of an editor! Back in the late ’80s–early ’90s, writer-artist Mort Todd (still an extraordinarily prolific and ambitious creator today) occupied a unique position at Marvel. As a free-floating editor, Todd was given an office on an under-utilized floor inside the building, where he was put under contract to deliver a slate of products that would give the industry’s leading comic-book company some hip cache. So what did the ardent Ditko fan do? He indulges in his greatest passions, of course: horror comics and hardcore music… employing alternative comics chums along the way. Todd was no stranger to the world of wacky, independent cartoonists. Previous to this House of Ideas gig, he had inked the Dan Clowes Lloyd Llwellyn comics and, as editor of Cracked, the most formidable and respected of the MAD knock-offs, he hired Clowes to create some comics for the humor mag. Now at Marvel, Todd was given access to the publisher’s vaults of Atlas-era stories, so he creates a handful of titles that would serve as vehicles to reprint treasured pre-Marvel works by Ditko, Bill Everett, Basil Wolverton, Russ Heath, Joe Kubert, and various other masters who had, before the arrival of Fantastic Four and Amazing Spider-Man, spread their horror spore like an insidious virus throughout the company’s publications. To bring this all full-circle, Todd capitalizes on a professional friendship with Ditko — established when Todd ran Cracked — by assigning the Spider-Man co-creator to contribute to the reprint books Monster Menace, Curse of the Weird, and Book of the Dead. (Todd also conjured up the Ross Andru/ Don Heck extravaganza Silver Surfer vs. Dracula during this time.) The books would be short-lived, and beyond the expert selection of topnotch stories reprinted, of note was the new material by the ever-reclusive and always elusive Steve Ditko, one of the founders of the Marvel Age of Comics. Interestingly, a Monster Menace peripheral item includes a new Ditko pin-up featuring a frightening,

font-festering creature leaping off of Ditko’s drawn page toward the artist himself. Meanwhile, in an editorial, Todd writes, “I asked Ditko if he’d like to comment on his early monster work… I’m expecting something soon…” Ditko responds with an illustration: We see an airborne bottle of ink, thrown by the out-of-frame artist, pinging around with a Ditko-drawn chem trail, bouncing off of Todd’s ajar office door.

by Michael Aushenker CBC Associate Editor

When Todd joins Marvel in the early ’90s, he capitalizes on a professional relationship with Ditko, a friendship that has already been established back when Todd was editor of Cracked (MAD’s arch-rival in the humor magazine field) — by assigning the Spider-Man co-creator to contribute nifty new cover art and peppy pin-ups to Todd’s line of the aforementioned reprint books. #4 • Winter 2014 • Comic Book Creator

Back in his Cracked days, Todd had not only worked closely with Ditko, but also with John Severin, as well as Gray Morrow, among other legends. Todd shares, “Steve was pleased with our collaboration and I always thought Ditko/Severin had the potential to reach the heights of the best Ditko/[Wallace] Wood stories. A few years later, I used Severin inks as an added incentive for Steve to draw an Atlas Shrugged graphic novel series to no avail. As Ditko appreciated Severin’s eye for detail, I can only imagine how intense Dagny Taggart’s locomotives would have been as drawn by Ditko and Severin.” (In the eyes of the mainstream world, Ayn Rand’s towering, twin literary achievements remain Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead. Can you imagine Rand philosophical subscriber and artist extraordinaire Steve Ditko illustrating the exploits of Howard Roark, female counterpart Dominique, and weakling architect rival Peter Keating in a comic-book adaptation of the latter? Unfortunately that never came to pass — however, Ditko did get a green light to adapt Atlas Shrugged… but more on that in a bit.) Full of vitality and verve, the young and brazen Todd had no hesitation about dialing up industry legends to pitch work. “I would be like, ‘Where’s John Byrne?’ No one in Marvel would think of calling John Byrne,” Todd said. And, natch, Todd thought of ol’ compadre Ditko.

Back at Cracked in the late ’80s, “I remember the ‘behind-the- scenes’ of Steve’s story in [Marvel’s Not Brand Echh-esque title] What The--?! #1, as I talked with Ditko and John Severin several times a week during that period,” Todd said. “Steve’s studio was not far from our Cracked offices so he would often drop in and chew the fat. He enjoyed checking out original art as it came in (physically in them pre-digital days).” “In particular,” continues Todd, “he was fascinated by Severin’s work and run his finger over the detail as if he absorbed it. I knew he would get a kick out of John inking his work and am ashamed I didn’t [suggest] it first. Steve liked doing humor pieces for Cracked and showed me his pencils Comic Book Creator • Winter 2014 • #4

to the What If—?! story. I might have learned about Severin inking the story before Steve did, and was curious about how John felt doing it. To paraphrase him, Severin said he didn’t know what the hell was going on in the story; he just inked it and it was another job.” By the time Todd landed at Marvel, “Ditko was not working for so long he needed to do a page rate. All these old artists beg for work — some were legally blind and the only way to make money is to keep working.” Todd’s attitude regarding guys such as Ditko, Severin, and Gene Colan was, “Give them a stipend where Marvel would put out their work and they would make their own money.” To be sure, Todd found himself with a cushy set-up at Marvel. “I was on a separate floor than everybody,” Todd explained. “I told them: I need cable TV [and] a sound system. My office was a party room. We ignored the smoking laws. For the first half-year, we held editorial meetings and retreats to figure out where new lines of Annuals should go.” Todd’s monster/horror reprint titles, in fact, happened as a by-product of Marvel Music, his oversight of the corporation’s rock-and-rap line that he was brought in to edit. For Marvel Music, Todd began negotiating with bands and making contracts. “To [Marvel], I was wasting time in traveling,” Todd said. “It took a while to launch, so they wanted me to do some reprint books, and I said sure.” He received carte blanche from editor-in-chief Tom DeFalco. “I could’ve done any kind of reprints I wanted,” Todd said. “I wanted to do horror. They said, ‘That’s an awful lot of work,’ and I was like, ‘Maybeeeeee.’ I was going through the archives.” Todd continued, “They had stats in storage a few blocks away. The building was on 25th and Sixth Avenue… right next to my favorite strip club where we’d have three- or four-hour lunches. I found incredible stuff. I found stuff that had never been reprinted. Wally Wood stuff, some zombie stories. It was every geek’s dream. They had stuff from the ’50s that no one can give a sh*t about…Ka-Zar, jungle, sci-fi, romance, tons of humor comics I read about but had never seen. Teen comics: Tessie the Typist,

Above: Floyd Hughes’ cover for the final issue of Monster Menace, #4 [Mar. ’94], featured the editor himself, Mort Todd! (Note the cute addition of the early ’60s “MC” logo for Marvel Comics!) Previous page inset: Courtesy of Heritage, a Steve Ditko Atlas splash page. Inset left: Looking closely at this Monster Menace pin-up by Steve Ditko, the largest letters along the creature’s back pretty much spell out “Lee Kirby Marvel Monsters”! Below: A couple of new Steve Ditko covers drawn for editor Mort Todd’s cool reprint titles from the ’90s.

irving on the inside

Irrefutable

Mark Waid & the Future of Comics

The conclusion of Christopher Irving’s interview with the celebrated scribe by CHRISTOPHER IRVING CBC Contributing Editor

#4 • Winter 2014 • Comic Book Creator

[Previously, Mark Waid described his early years in the comics industry, as an in-house staffer and subsequent freelance writer, as well as early success as the scripter of memorable runs on Flash and Captain America, as well as collaboration with Alex Ross on Kingdom Come. Last time, it was the early part of the last decade, as Marvel was going through some major leadership changes and the new regime looked to writer Waid to invigorate their flagship title, Fantastic Four.] “[Marvel] Editor Tom Brevoort called when he found out I was leaving Cross Gen, pitched it to me, and I wasn’t interested,” Mark Waid revealed in 2002. “I was aware of The Fantastic Four growing up, and had read it throughout the ’70s, but I was never a huge fan of the material. I had respect for the characters, and for

Portrait by Seth Kushner

what [FF creators and longtime respective writer and artist] Stan [Lee] and Jack [Kirby] had done, but I had never really connected to it. “My interest in the assignment wasn’t piqued until two things happened: One was that Tom mentioned that Ringo [artist Mike Wieringo] would be drawing it, and that immediately got my interest; two was that Tom and I started talking about Reed Richards, who was a character with a vast, untapped potential to be likable, but no one under the age of 40 thought was even remotely interesting. That right there seemed to be a worthwhile challenge to me. We started talking about him, then Sue and Johnny and, before I realized it, I was wrapped up in the characters and had more to say about them than I ever dreamed.” Fantastic Four reunited him with the late, great Mike “Ringo” Wieringo, and the results were comics magic. Publisher Bill Jemas, however, had other ideas towards what the book should be, and Waid found himself thrown off the title. Wieringo, out of loyalty to his friend, jumped ship as well. The backlash against losing the Waid and Ringo team was great enough, however, that they were back on the title within issues. Something potentially big was in Mark Waid’s future, and was both a dream come true, and the biggest disappointment of his career. “I know that, say, when it comes to Superman, it’s hard for me to find a unique perspective because Superman’s been in my thoughts pretty much every day since I was six,” Waid had said around 2002. Just as things had changed at Marvel, so had they at DC Comics. Dan Didio came in as Vice President of Editorial, and things were on the cusp of changing. One of Dan’s goals was to put a new polish on their oldest character, and the result was Superman: Birthright, a reboot of the Man of Steel’s origin by Waid and artist Leinil Francis Yu. “I think Birthright is the best long-form thing I’ve ever written in my entire life. I’m as proud of Birthright as I am of anything I’ve ever done. There was one creative misstep, and there were a bunch of marketing missteps, and a bunch of timing things that went kerflooey,” Mark observes. “First off, when we started the process, it was sold to me by Dan Didio and DC as ‘We really want this to be The Man of Steel for the 21st century, and the definitive new origin.’ We unfortunately got lost in a morass of legal stuff (this was when the Siegel and DC lawsuit was going, and there were questions over what characters and elements we could use) that was creatively stifling, but I managed to navigate that pretty well.” At the same time as Birthright’s release, DC also put writer Brian Azzarello and artist Jim Lee on the main Superman comic for a year—a move that stole the marketing muscle

Inset right: Last issue, Ye ed was late in asking Mark Waid, who was on the road for a good chunk of the summer, for personal memorabilia, but our interview pulled through with flying colors. Here is “William” Mark Waid’s DC Comics employee identification card. Below: Also courtesy of Mark, a photo of the writer (at right) and the late artist Mike Wieringo.

I took a chance by adopting a different approach to the book than my first run, and that wasn’t what fans wanted or were expecting. I blew it. I got out as soon as I could, but that was pretty much the end of my relationship with DC.” He was allowed to continue with DC’s team-up book, The Brave and the Bold, which he’d launched with George Pérez, “but when J. Michael Stracynzski asked for it, Didio sent me packing — not counting Fantastic Four, the only time I’ve ever been fired off an assignment, knock on wood.” Waid was done with DC Comics, the publisher he grew up with as an editor and writer. Two years later, DC Comics was rebranded and repositioned by its parent company Time-Warner AOL into DC Entertainment. Likewise, Marvel Comics was bought by media giant Disney in 2009. Mainstream comics characters had attained steady cinematic and media success, leaving many creators to fear it had come at the cost of any creative independence. “Look, it is what it is and does what it wants to do,” Waid says of DC. “They are now a company that targets a very specific demographic, which is guys that go to comic stores and are hungry for angry, violent entertainment. That’s a viable business strategy. They’re doing well enough by it, and I’m happy for them in that sense, but when I say it’s not the company that I know, I don’t mean that in a melancholy or bitter or judgmental way. It’s a simple fact. They’re not obliged to make comics for me, and they don’t.”

from Birthright. It didn’t help that Waid also went through two different editors in the course of the 12-issue series. Waid’s take on Superman took over from John Byrne’s 1986 origin, The Man of Steel, which had eliminated several older aspects of Superman lore. Birthright brought Lex Luthor back to Smallville in his teenage years, and restored the villain’s position as a mad scientist rather than just a corporate tycoon. Yu’s dynamic art gave Birthright the modern edge needed to make it — and Superman — relevant. “If you read this book and didn’t like the story, then you absolutely have the right to your opinion and I’m not trying to make excuses for the fact that it wasn’t embraced at the time. It was certainly one of the most crushing moments of my life. I finally got to play Carnegie Hall and nobody came,” Mark laments. The upside to it is that, since then, it continues to be one of DC’s best-selling paperbacks, along with Kingdom Come and The Return of Barry Allen, by now in its eighth printing. “Most happily, at every convention I go to, there are dozens of people who bring up Superman: Birthright. And the conversation is always this: “‘I really loved that Superman story.’ “I ask, ‘Have you ever read Superman before?’ “‘No, I didn’t think I liked him.’ “‘Well, then, I’m flattered. All I wanted to do was show you why I love him.’ Fans who loved John Byrne’s Superman or Superman in the ’90s were repelled by Birthright, and very vocally so. That’s okay. I’d much rather talk to people who had never read or liked Superman, because they were the ones I was trying to reach.” Despite the frustrations that came with Superman: Birthright, Waid returned to DC Comics in 2007 to once more take the writing reins of a relaunched Flash that heralded the return of his beloved Wally West — who was now the father of speedster twins. “It was a creative botch from the start, and that’s on me. Comic Book Creator • Winter 2014 • #4

Back in 2007, Mark Waid became editor in chief of fledgling comics publisher BOOM! Studios. Waid’s creative contribution was Irredeemable, a super-hero comic that shows what happens when Superman really does turn bad — rampages across the world — and stays bad. Using a character named the Plutonian as a stand-in for the Man of Steel, it was a gritty take on the 1960s era Superman comics edited by Mort Weisinger, and a far cry from the full-on optimism of his earlier writing. “To be brutally honest, all of Irredeemable springs from the way the Weisinger material laid eggs in my psyche as a kid that grew into hot-button issues for me as an adult. In retrospect, it should’ve been called Mort Weisinger’s Irredeemable. It’s autobiographical, scarily autobiographical, in ways I’m not totally comfortable talking about; all you need to know is that everything emotionally broken in me as a person I learned from Mort Weisinger.” Generally considered the most unlikeable editor in the history of comics, Mort Weisinger was reportedly a tyrant to work for. Known for yelling at his writers and artists (including a teenage Jim Shooter at the start of his career), there can be no doubt of his editorial genius. Under his tenure, the Superman stories were absurdest pieces of human drama: Superman or his friends are transformed into monsters and shunned by society; Superman rockets to Krypton through a time warp, only to witness its destruction from afar; Superboy inadvertently poisons his surrogate brother Mon-El with lead and has to send him to the Phantom Zone; Lex Luthor captures Superboy in the past, but only to keep him from saving Abraham

Above: Cover detail from Irredeemable Special #1 [Apr. 2010]. Art by Paul Azaceta and colors by Andrew Dalhouse. Inset left: The writer calls the 12-issue mini-series Superman: Birthright, “[T] he best long-form thing I’ve ever written in my entire life. I’m as proud of Birthright as I am of anything I’ve ever done.” First issue [Sept. 2003] cover art by penciler Leinil Francis Yu and inker Gerry Alanguilan. Colors possibly by Dave McCaig. Below: Page detail (reminiscent of Superman meeting Lois Lane in the first Christopher Reeve movie) from Superman: Birthright. Art by Yu and Alanfguilan.

an artist unchained

Cowan the Conqueror From edgy animation to Django Unchained, the artist has been there and done it all! Denys Cowan never left us. The once-prolific, two-time award nominee for the Will Eisner Comics Industry “Best Artist” category (1989-90), the penciler and inker has never really abandoned his career in comics. It just kinda… well, morphed. These days, the wiry, gregarious, East Coast-bred, West Coast-based creator of comics and cartoon shows is a devoted family man who doles out his energetic, quick-witted presence on Facebook or at the occasional comic book convention in smaller doses these days. He recently made a splashy return to comics when he created covers and penciled fill-in issues on DC Comics’ smash adaption of auteur filmmaker Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained movie (the first issue of which sold out quickly and warranted reprints). If Cowan has been more scarce in recent years within the pages of

#4 • Winter 2014 • Comic Book Creator

Marvel and DC Comics, it’s only because this nagging little side-career kind of intruded and took over his hemisphere. You know, Hollywood? Developing animated series and online content for Black Entertainment Television…? Working as a producer and supervising director for Sony Television Animation on the Boondocks series for Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim lineup…? Stuff like that. Breaking into the industry at an early age as a comic book penciler, the African-American New Yorker quickly landed the dream-making opportunity to draw some of Marvel’s most popular super-heroes of color, making waves via his collaboration with writer Jo Duffy on Power Man and Iron Fist, and by 1990, on the mini-series (and subsequent regular title) Deathlok — which ran four times longer than the classic original feature in Astonishing Tales! — the latter written by good friend and subsequent business partner, Dwayne McDuffie, who stunned the comics world in 2011 when he died at 49. It was only fitting that Cowan worked on 34 issues and the pair of annuals of Deathlok in the early 1990s. That was a full-circle moment for the artist, who had entered the comics industry at the ridiculously young age of 14 to work an assistant to the legendary Rich Buckler, creator and penciler of Marvel’s that most revered futuristic feature of dystopian demolition and destruction. The youngster had met Buckler through artist Armando Gill. “I was hanging out with Armando,” Cowan explained, “and he said, ‘I’m going to meet someone, you wanna come along?’” I didn’t know we were going to meet Rich Buckler.” Thanks to Gill, Cowan landed the gig to assist the Detroit-born artist at Buckler’s Upper West Side studio. Cowan drew backgrounds, cut out reference photos, and ran on errands for the Fantastic Four and Mighty Thor artist. “He literally taught me about doing comics,” Cowan recalled. “You have to do a lot of stuff you may not want to do, but it was invaluable experience. He put me in touch with other comics people to teach me things. But who was I? I was lucky to be there. He took a little colored kid from Queens [and created a professional artist].” The one-time protégé has nothing but praise for his mentor. “He’s one of the best drawers I’ve ever met,” Cowan said. “He was the Frank Miller of his day. He came out of Detroit with Jim Starlin. He is a very smart man. A smart, smart man. I tend to focus more on the art and that’s it.” (Years later, Cowan repaid the favor and hired Buckler to do some assignments after he had launched the Milestone Comics imprint.) Attending a vocational high school focused on art and design, “I started working in high school,” Cowan said, making his official start penciling a 1979 “Firestorm” back-up series in The Flash. At 17, Cowan became tight with one of his contemporaries, Trevor Von Eden, who had his own book, Black Lightning. At one point, Cowan, who had moved away from home in his late teens to live in Manhattan, shared a Queens apartment with Von Eden. As possibly the only two African-American teens working in mainstream comics, they had much in common. They had even more in common when Marvel editor-in-chief Jim

by Michael Aushenker CBC Associate Editor

revival of Steve Ditko’s Charlton Comics vigilante, when Marvel had him finish the last issue of the Panther mini-series… four years after doing the third issue! In some circles, Shooter has proven a polarizing figure, but not in Cowan’s sphere. “I never had any problems with Shooter,” he said, adding, “I didn’t draw the Marvel style. I was already a storyteller. He was just aiming for clarity. If you could tell a story clearly, you never had any problems.” Over at DC, Cowan had been drawing the last two issues of Vigilante and working on V, the science-fiction television adaptation, when The Question beckoned in 1987 after a veteran artist turned down the book. “The art was originally going to be done by Ernie Colón,” Cowan remembered. “Ernie couldn’t do it. [DC Executive Editor] Dick Giordano literally called me into the office with the finger wave. ‘Come see me!’ Like something out of a movie. He told me, ‘We’ve always liked your art. How would you like to do The Question?” It gets better. Giordano informed Cowan that Dennis O’Neil, one of the best writers in the medium, one who had tackled controversial social issues in Green Lantern/Green Arrow drawn by Neal Adams in the 1970s and who, as editor, helped guide Frank Miller on his legendary 1980s Daredevil run, would be scripting this reboot of The Question. Cowan’s art on Vigilante had become a back-door audition for this series. Ironically, The Question offer triggered a quizzical response by the artist capped off with a big question mark.

Opposite page upper left: Skybox produced a Milestone Media series of trading cards in 1993, which included this Denys Cowan self-portrait. Lower left: Collaboration with his oft-artistic partner of the day, Bill Sienkiewicz, on a print featuring DC characters (courtesy of Heritage). Inset: Denys Cowan in 2010. Photo courtesy of Ely Liu. This page top left: Cowan made an impact on his Deathlok series for Marvel. Cover of #1 [July 1991], with his pencils and inks. Above: Luke Cage carries the black man’s burden in this cover detail from Power Man and Iron Fist #83 [July ’82], pencils by Cowan and inks by Joe Rubinstein. Left: Courtesy of Ivan Velez Jr., a 1990s convention photo of [from left] the late Dwayne McDuffie, Icon cosplayer, and Denys Cowan. Special photographic effects by Ye Crusading Editor.

Shooter gave an 18-year-old Cowan the opportunity to draw Marvel’s Black Lightning doppelgänger: urban crimefighter Luke Cage, Power Man. “That was my first super-hero shot,” Cowan said of his work on the early 1980s series. Power Man and Iron Fist had become Marvel’s last-ditch effort to perpetuate two characters whose individual titles suffered from sagging sales. Cowan was paired with writer Mary Jo Duffy, who infused much verve and wit into her under-the-radar series, taking out the stuffiness. “I struggled with it because Mary [was] writing [Bob Hope and Bing Crosby’s] The Road to… type scripts. She was doing comedy. I was drawing directly opposite.” [May ’82’s PM&IF #81’s story was actually titled “The Road To Halwan” — Y.E.] But the pairing worked, and readers and critics took note of the Duffy/Cowan issues. “I can’t look at it anymore,” Cowan said, laughing of his early work, which has nevertheless become a treasured run of Power Man and Iron Fist. During this period, Cowan moved around Manhattan. “Back in the Marvel days, working for Shooter, my roommate was Bob Layton,” Cowan said and adding, “We never worked together.” Shooter next assigned Cowan a Black Panther miniseries [1988] in which T’Challa goes to South Africa. “It was intense!” Cowan said. “We did three issues [of the four-issue series]. They shelved it for four years. Just shut it down.” Over at DC, he had already been drawing The Question, a

Comic Book Creator • Winter 2014 • #4

by S.C. RinGgenberg Contributing Writer

#4 • Winter 2014 • Comic Book Creator

Above: Self-portrait by the artist in question. Coloring by the Masked Morrow. Below: Heath cover art, Outlaw Fighters #5 [Apr. 1955]. Is that Anthony Quinn?

If artistic talent were currency in the comics field, then Russell Deheart Heath, Jr., would undoubtedly be one of the richest men in the world. Heath, a veteran toiling in the field since the mid-1940s, has long been one of the most talented draftsmen in the business, but has become less a “fan favorite,” because he was usually working in genres other than costumed super-heroes, the industry’s dominant paradigm for the last four decades. Indeed, despite a comics career that has lasted more than six decades, he remains something of an enigma to mainstream comics fans. His work is, of course, well-known to fans of war, Western, adventure, romance, and humor comics because he has focused on those genres with only occasional forays into the realm of the “long underwear” characters like Batman or The Punisher. He is assuredly, as Archie Goodwin said, an “artist’s artist,” and among those who enjoy a story brilliantly rendered, his fans are legion. In addition to his peerless draftsmanship and slick inking, Heath’s work has always been characterized by intense realism, excellent use of lighting effects, and expert attention to historically accurate detail, whether costuming, vehicles, and other technology. This penchant for authenticity stems from his earliest childhood. Watching Western movies with his dad (who, in his day, had been a working cowboy), and listening to his father pick apart the clothing, horsemanship, and faulty depictions of the Old West gave Heath an early, and long-lasting respect for the value of authenticity. As Heath recalled in a 2002 interview for Comic Book Marketplace, “My father…had been a cowboy, and when we’d go these Saturday afternoon movies… at the movies they had these continuous things, like Tom Mix or the Lone Ranger — serials, I guess it was — and he’d say, ‘Oh, no self-respecting cowboy would wear that fancy thingamabob there… Anybody that was really in there, that was a cowboy, would know that, you know, that fancy hopped-up costume.’ And that, I guess, got me on the trail to be authentic so that the people, your audience, might believe

that you might have some knowledge or what the heck you’re drawing.” Given Heath’s preference for war comics and Westerns, it’s a little surprising that we can find only one story that mixed the genres: “Four Legged Tank,” which appeared in Star Spangled War Stories #36 [Aug. 1955], telling the story of a World War II cavalryman who mounts a stray farm horse while on a scouting foray, and takes on Wehrmacht soldiers and a German tank from horseback. After being released by the U.S. Army Air Corps at the end of the Second World War, Heath began his professional art career in earnest, first working as a gofer at an ad agency. During his lunch hour he would make the rounds, portfolio in hand, and wound up getting some work drawing Westerns for Atlas in 1947, at the time when the publisher was just starting to release a profuse number of shoot-’emups; editor Stan Lee recognized that Heath’s determinedly realistic style was perfect for the genre. As Heath’s later editor and scripter Goodwin noted in the 1973 Comic Art Convention souvenir book in his tribute to his friend, “While other artists of the period seemed mired in the fancy-dress look of Hollywood’s singing cowboys, his Westerns were always filled with convincing grit and realism.” Although Heath’s style was firmly rooted in reality, he was not quite as obsessive as was his friend John Severin, an avowed history fanatic. Since the ’50s, Heath did only a few Westerns, instead concentrating on war and adventure comics. However, whenever he does revisit the genre, he always invests his Wild West sagas with the same authenticity that got his work noticed in the ‘50s. While working for Atlas throughout the ‘50s, at a time when Westerns were one of the dominant cultural tropes in film, television, toys, and comics, Heath did a staggering number of covers and stories for titles like Frontier Western, All-Western Winners, Outlaw Fighters, Tex Taylor, Westerns Outlaws, Western Thrillers, Quick Trigger Western, Wild Western, Reno Browne Hollywood’s Greatest Cowgirl, Black Rider, and Wyatt Earp, as well as chronicling the adventures of a small army of Atlas’s “Kid” characters, the Two-Gun Kid, Rawhide Kid, Apache Kid, Arizona Kid, The Western Kid, and last but not least, Kid Colt Outlaw. His first earliest job for Timely/Atlas is not definitively established, but most Heath

scholars believe his first work for the company was a trio of short Western tales, including a “Kid Colt” story in Wild Western #4 [Nov. ’48], the second “Two-Gun Kid” story in Two-Gun Kid #5 [Dec. ’48), and another “Two-Gun Kid” story in Wild Western #5 [Dec. ’48]. After the ’50s, Heath focused more on war comics than Westerns, though he did contribute one strikingly composed cover of a DC Western reprint collection for Showcase #72 [Jan.–Feb. ’68]. When Heath drew the syndicated comic strip The Lone Ranger (with scripts by Cary Bates), which was carried by a handful of regional newspapers in the mid-’80s, the American adventure strip was all but defunct. Still, Heath gave the strip his artistic all from 1981 through ’84, and produced a beautifully drawn, exciting Western that deserves to be reprinted. [In 2011, Dynamic Forces had announced an impending hardcover release collecting 500 strips, but that has apparently yet to see print. — Y.E.] In 1981, Heath also lent his historical expertise and inking skills to Stan Lynde’s Latigo, the Western strip Lynde did after leaving Rick O’Shay in 1977 following a syndicate dispute. The word legend often gets bandied about when referring to many of the oldest, most venerable comics artists, some of whom are frankly unworthy of the appellation. However, Russ Heath, the comics artist, really is a talent of almost mythical proportions, though he was always less of a cartoonist and more the realistic illustrator in the mold of artists like his inspiration Hal Foster and Alex Raymond than a cartoonist in the style of a Sheldon Moldoff or Red Ryder artist Fred Harmon, also an early influence. As he said in the 2002 CBM interview, “I wouldn’t even use the word cartoonist. I don’t even like it for myself.” You see, Heath had originally intended to crack the slick magazines like Collier’s and The Saturday Evening Post as an illustrator, but when he tried to break into that market in the late ’40s, those magazines were either on a slow spiral to extinction, or changing from painted and drawn illustrations to photography, so that career was not be. “I didn’t start to look for comics, really. Of course, I looked at anything and everybody. It was a whole different setup in those days. You could look up some of the great illustrators in The Saturday Evening Post. A lot of them were in New York. And I’d just look them up in the phonebook and call them Comic Book Creator • Winter 2014 • #4

up and they’d answer. And I’d say, ‘I’d like to show you my portfolio.’ And they’d say, ‘Come on over this afternoon, after lunch.’ Which is, you know, unheard of today. They’ve got a barrier of secretaries to keep people out.” Despite his being an unknown quantity in the late ’40s, older established artists did allow Heath to visit and show his work. Among the famous illustrators he met this way was Albert Dorne, later one of the founders of the Famous Artists School. Heath even trekked to Philadelphia to show his portfolio to the Post, which at the time was still the Holy Grail for American illustrators. Unfortunately, none of Heath’s work ever appeared in that popular magazine. As disappointing as it might have been to the artist to miss out on the heyday of magazine illustration, we comic book fans are all the richer for it. Heath’s first professional work came in the mid-’40s when he was still in high school, penciling and inking a “Hammerhead Hawley” story for Captain Aero Comics [V3, #11, Jan. ’44] that he did over summer vacation from school after meeting Quinlan. Then after serving in the Air Force through the end of World War II, and from the late 1940s on, year after year, he quietly produced hundreds and hundreds of pages of gorgeous artwork, many of them for DC, but also for Warren, Timely/Atlas/Marvel, and the abortive 1970s Atlas/Seaboard imprint edited by Stan Lee’s brother, Larry Lieber. Although there isn’t much of it, his work for Seaboard is some of his best from the ’70s, especially a violent, hard-edged crime story entitled, “Tough Cop” executed in beautiful ink washes that appeared in Thrilling Adventure Stories #2 [Aug. ’75]. Heath also contributed a WWII P.O.W. tale to the first issue of Thrilling, [“Escape From Nine By One,” Feb. ’75, scripted by Heath] also executed in wash. Interestingly, Heath’s work here was accompanied by stories from some of his old E.C. Comics 39

Above &

Portrait by

Greg Preston 46

“Art comes to you proposing frankly to give nothing but the highest quality to your moments as they pass.”

Conducted by

JON B. Cooke

— Walter Pater

Back in the day, filled with an insatiable desire for more comics stuff, in an age when four-color funnybooks were suddenly hip, my brother and I would tread far afield of the exploits of super-heroes in search of Good Art. And it was in the pages of Warren’s black-&-white horror magazines and gracing the parodies of National Lampoon, as well as within comics as diverse as “Sgt. Rock” and Son of Satan, we’d find it, gorgeous and sublime, inscribed with the distinct signature of Russ Heath. Whether depicting the absurdity of an interstellar Amish family cavorting with aliens, a stroll through a Hieronymus Bosch-inspired Hades with the offspring of Lucifer himself, or a seemingly rational man inexplicably executing his wife and children on a perfectly lovely summer’s eve, Heath would draw the story with a panache and sensuality that was simply heart-stopping. I search now for comparisons to describe the magic of stumbling upon, often unexpectedly, a work by R.H.: the first time one tastes orange sherbet mixed with vanilla ice cream; seeing Billy Wilder’s Some Like It Hot; reading for pleasure The Catcher in the Rye as a teenager; encountering Billie Holiday’s voice on a scratchy old record; suddenly looking at the girl next door in an entirely new light. Distilled to a word: Satisfaction. Few put in the effort as has Russell Deheart Heath, Jr. This tribute is a long time in coming. I have been friends with Russ since first we met in San Diego, enough so I was invited to stay at his Van Nuys bungalow, where the following interview took place ten years ago, on Jan. 20, 2004. It’s is our sincere hope that this issue serves as proper kudos to that tremendously gifted artist and delightfully wry, witty rapscallion for a lifetime of outstanding achievement. Thank you, Mr. Heath. Transcribed by Steven E. Tice 47

Comic Book Creator #4