Modern Masters Vol. 18: John Romita Jr by TwoMorrows Publishing

M O D E R N

M A S T E R S

V O L U M E

E I G H T E E N :

JOHN ROMITA JR.

By George Khoury and Eric Nolen-Weathington

MODERN MASTERS VOLUME EIGHTEEN:

JOHN ROMITA JR. edited by Eric Nolen-Weathington and George Khoury front cover pencils by John Romita, Jr. front cover inks by Bob McLeod front cover color by Tom Ziuko background photograph by Luke Partridge all interviews in this book were conducted by Tom Field and transcribed by Steven Tice

TwoMorrows Publishing 10407 Bedfordtown Dr. Raleigh, North Carolina 27614 www.twomorrows.com • e-mail: twomorrow@aol.com First Printing • July 2008 • Printed in Canada Softcover ISBN: 978-1-893905-95-5 Trademarks & Copyrights All characters and artwork contained herein are ™ and ©2008 John Romita, Jr. unless otherwise noted. Gray Area and all related characters ™ and ©2008 John Romita, Jr. and Glen Brunswick. Kick-Ass ™ and ©2008 Mark Millar and John S. Romita. Absorbing Man, Ammo, Archangel, Avengers, Ben Reilly, Bishop, Black Bolt, Black Cat, Black Panther, Bruce Banner, Captain America, Captain Marvel, Colossus, Daredevil, Dazzler, Dr. Doom, Dr. Strange, Elektra, Fusion, Green Goblin, Hawkeye, Hobgoblin, Iron Man, Jean Grey, Jigsaw, Jim Rhodes, Jubilee, Juggernaut, Kingpin, Kitty Pryde, Lady Sif, Loki, Mangog, Mary Jane, Mephisto, Peter Parker, Phoenix, Scarlet Spider, Sentry, Shotgun, Silver Surfer, Spider-Man, Star Brand, Storm, Thor, Typhoid Mary, Ultron, Vulture, Warbound, Warriors Three, Wolverine, X-Men and all related characters ™ and ©2008 Marvel Characters, Inc. Batman, Joker ™ and ©2008 DC Comics. Thorion ™ and ©2008 Marvel Characters, Inc. and DC Comics. Conan ™ and ©2008 Conan International Properties, LLC. Hellboy ™ and ©2008 Mike Mignola. Dark Tower, Gunslinger ™ and ©2008 Stephen King. Editorial package ©2008 Eric Nolen-Weathington, George Khoury, and TwoMorrows Publishing.

Dedication To John Romita, Sr.: For this former Marvel intern, there was nothing more educational than personally seeing your sheer professionalism and the courteous example that you set. — George As ever, to Donna, Iain and Caper — Eric

Acknowledgements John Romita, Jr., for his time and contagious enthusiasm. Philippe Cordier, for going above and beyond in sharing his art collection. Special Thanks Terry Austin, Glen Brunswick, Eddie Choi, Will Gabri-El, Alex Gonzalez, Milos Kivich, Nick Kivich, Bob McLeod, Mark Millar, Luke Partridge, Javier Soto, Tim Townsend, Thomas Vanderstappen, Diederik van Rappard, Jim Warden, Rick McGee and the crew of Foundation’s Edge, Russ Garwood and the crew of Capitol Comics, and John and Pam Morrow

Modern Masters Volume Eighteen:

JOHN ROMITA, JR. Table of Contents Introduction by Mark Millar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Part One: Growing up the Marvel Way . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Part Two: Opportunity Knocks! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Part Three: Amazing Adventures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Part Four: Finding His Stride—Full Pencils at Last . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Part Five: Artist Without Fear. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 Part Six: Storytelling and the Creative Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78 Art Gallery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87

Part 1:

Growing up the Marvel Way

MODERN MASTERS: When you were growing up, who was the boss in your family, your mom or your dad?

on me, and I would take a swing. But I didn’t get bloodied and cut up and beat, I was just pushed around, beat up, sat on, smacked around. I would fight back, and my brother would fight back and save me all the time. But my parents handled it very well. We were in a rough section of Queens, and then we moved when I was about eight, and everything worked out great. There was nothing really super-spectacular in any direction, good or bad, when I was growing up. A prototypical New York neighborhood.

JOHN ROMITA, JR.: It was a great combination of both, because my father worked at home. MM: Okay. Your mom was kind of stern, right? Or were your parents into the good cop/bad cop kind of parenting? JOHN: It was never that way. They were perfect parents. They yelled when they were supposed to, they disciplined when they were supposed to, they were nice when they were supposed to be. They did it just right. There was no shucking and jiving, no good cop/bad cop. When they got mad, it was very, very normal, and very well done.

MM: So it’s not a place you miss a lot? You don’t have a lot of nostalgia for it? JOHN: I have nostalgia for the ages of my late teens until I was about 30, because I had such a great growing-up period, that my parents prepared me so well for adulthood. From the time that I got a job—at 15, or 14, whatever I was when I got my first job, and art became a major part of my life—that part of my life was so wonderful. Things went well, I had a lot of fun, good friends, great family, and I look upon it fondly. Before that, when I was a kid, my parents didn’t have much money, but they treated us like gold. We did not want for much.

MM: I was an intern for Ralph [Macchio], and the only time I ever saw him stand up and be attentive and really serious was when your mom used to come in to the office. [laughter] She’d come in with the publishing schedule on her bulletin. JOHN: Yeah, well, she commanded respect. That’s the kind of woman she is. MM: How would you describe your upbringing in Queens? Was it nice or was it tough? Did you ever have to deal with bullies when you were growing up?

MM: Were you and your brother competitive growing up? JOHN: I was with him, but he never was with me, because he was always smarter, better looking, stronger. So I was competitive, and that’s good. It translates well to now, because I always have competition as an artist, and the people that are better artists than me don’t

JOHN: Oh, God, yes. I got beat up on a regular basis. MM: Why? JOHN: Because I didn’t know how to shut my mouth when they said obnoxious things, and they were picking 6

know that I’m always in competition with them, but I never run out of inspiration. MM: Do you see yourself being very different from Victor, personality-wise? JOHN: I see enough of my father and my mother in both of us to see the similarities, and that’s where it ends. He’s cool, calm, and collected, and I’m an angst-ridden, paranoid banana sometimes. I worry about everything, and he doesn’t. MM: Those are some of your dad’s traits, aren’t they? He worries about everything. JOHN: Well, he may worry, but he doesn’t show it. MM: He does show it sometimes, because he’ll always tell people, “I’m never good enough.” He’s always the first one to say that his drawings aren’t good enough. JOHN: But he’s not as much of a worrier as I am. I don’t know where that came from, I don’t know which part of the family it came from, but I am an innate worrier. And I sweat everything. [laughs] MM: Growing up, did you and your brother always hear your parents talk about how tight money was? JOHN: No. No, they were really good about that, and they didn’t let us know. They were very close to the vest about that kind of thing. We knew that my father was an artist. When he got fired from DC and didn’t have work and was delivering newspapers before Stan [Lee] called him, we didn’t hear about that until long after things had gotten better. MM: You could tell he was working a lot, while you were growing up? JOHN: Oh, yeah.

JOHN: That’s right. I slept well sometimes knowing he was up there to protect me from all the monsters that were coming out from underneath my bed. MM: At the same time, were you concerned, “Wow, my dad’s working his tail off”?

JOHN: Right above our bedroom, that’s correct.

JOHN: Well, that wasn’t a concern on my part. That was wonder and awe, and now, interestingly enough, it translates directly to me and my son, because my son always worries about me working unbelievable hours.

MM: So you could see the light on and know that he was up there?

MM: Would he have his radio on or would he just draw and keep very quiet?

MM: He would work in the room above you guys, right? The attic was above your bedroom?

Previous Page: 1960s photo of (left to right) John Jr.; mother, Virginia; and brother, Victor. Above: John’s pencils and his father’s inks from Amazing Spider-Man #400. Spider-Man ™ and ©2008 Marvel Characters, Inc.

next issue home. Find it.” And then I started making him fill in the issues. I would say, “Bring home this title from this year to this year. I want to read all about this stuff.” And then it got out of hand, and I started reading everything over and over and over again. Yeah, I’m sure it got to the point where I demanded issues, and demanded he bring them home quickly. And then I subscribed, and we got books sent to us in brown paper sleeves that were folded up. It just all naturally progressed, and became what everybody expected it to become. I was a fan geek before you know it. MM: When he started doing super-heroes, that’s when you started imagining yourself as a comic book artist? JOHN: Oh, yeah, definitely, definitely. MM: And you would secretly draw, and you wouldn’t show him anything? JOHN: No, I was ashamed of everything, because I saw how good he was. MM: But he knew you were up to something, didn’t he? JOHN: Sure! [laughter] MM: Was he was happy to see you take an interest in his work, at the time? JOHN: Oh, it didn’t bother him. He just didn’t want me to think that I had to do it just because he did it. Above: Another father/son collaboration, this time for a 1995 Marvel calendar. Next Page: The first page of John’s first story, a six-page back-up story in Amazing Spider-Man Annual #11. Inks by Al Milgrom.

MM: In some ways you were born into comics. You weren’t somebody that had to go out there and buy them. Your dad always had them around, right? JOHN: Umm... I don’t remember buying them, per se, but he brought books home at an early age, yeah, so I could say we were born into it, and we didn’t have to pay the ten cents, twelve cents, whatever it was at the time. MM: Would you ever ask your dad to bring in certain issues? “Dad, bring more of this Spider-Man stuff.” JOHN: I remember being so impatient for the next issues. “Hurry up and bring that 10

MM: When did you feel comfortable showing him your work? JOHN: Oh, I don’t know. I didn’t even show him stuff that I did in college. I don’t remember when I started showing him things. I think when I actually went up to the office and applied for a job, and Marie Severin gave me work—at that point he had to see it. But he saw my portfolio in college, eventually. And I still didn’t run out of my way to show him, but he saw it. MM: Your dad said, I think, that the Prowler was a character that you had a little germ of an idea for? JOHN: I just had the standard skin-tight costume. I was twelve or 13, whatever it was. It was a dopey costume, but, as a good father, he took it to Stan Lee and said, “Look at what my son’s been doing.” Stan said, “That’s a good name. I like that name. Don’t like the costume, but I like the name.” And it became what it became.

Part 2:

Opportunity Knocks!

MM: So it was through Marie that you got into Marvel?

there was a definitive British department, and Larry Lieber was the head of it. Bob Budiansky was also there, and he became another sketch artist. I don’t know how long I did work for the British department, but one day Iron Man opened up, and Scott Edelman at the time was the editor. He said, “I don’t believe in nepotism, but I don’t believe in anti-nepotism, either. I don’t believe in that. So, if you can do the work, let’s see what you can do.” Actually, I think I had done the six-page Spider-Man job before that. Archie Goodwin allowed me to do this six-page fill-in backup story, “Chaos at the Coffee Bean” first. Then, after doing that, and Al Milgrom saving it, they offered me Iron Man. And I was also working on staff as a production assistant. Let’s see if I get this correct now. After working in the British department, there was an opening as a production assistant, and I think I took that right after the British department. I continued to do little pin-ups and stuff. I did that for 18 months. I think during that 18-month period, I did the six-page Spider-Man story, and then with that, they saw that I could tell a story and they offered me Iron Man. And that ended my production assistant job. I think that was the chronology.

JOHN: Yeah, my father didn’t want to be that guy that perpetuated the father/son thing with all the problems that that would entail. I don’t know if he discussed it with Marie or not, but he told me, “I’m not going to give you a job. I’m not going to keep you from a job.” MM: How did this come about? You just needed a summer job or something? JOHN: Yeah, I was up there in the summer doing sketches and pin-ups. I would be a pest, and they would allow me to do a sketch or two here and there. And Marie said, “If you want to do sketches in your spare time, I’ll give you the work. I’ll give you five dollars a sketch.” And that allowed me to do work for the British department [Marvel UK], under Marie’s aegis, and it went from there. That was basically it. It was just a matter of Marie agreeing to a formula. In other words, “Yeah, you do the sketches and I’ll pay you.” That was it. Going from a lark of a thing to, “Hey, these sketches aren’t bad. You ought to do some sketches for us.” That was it. And then, “Listen, there’s a British department that’ll give you regular work on sketches, if you want to start doing freelance work for them.” MM: So you were doing work for the British department, for their black-&-white magazines, right?

MM: I believe somewhere it says you worked for Roy Thomas. What did you do for Roy?

JOHN: Right—in 1976. They would split the books into two parts, so they’d have to produce a new cover and a new splash page for the second part when they were printed over in England. That’s what I was doing. Back then

JOHN: As a production assistant, I was Roy’s liaison between he and John Buscema for their work on Conan. Roy was out in Los Angeles, and John Buscema was here in New York. John Buscema would send the work to the 11

Anybody that was my father’s contemporary that worked with me, they were wonderful to me. All the respect in the world. Frank Giacoia, John Tartaglione, Roy Thomas, all of them, all of the guys—well, Roy Thomas is younger than my father— but any of my father’s contemporaries just treated me very, very well. MM: When you got paired with those guys, you didn’t think, “What are they trying to do? It’s like they’re trying to make my work look like my Dad’s”? JOHN: No, I didn’t think that. I was very happy to have that kind of sage advice. They always helped me out, always gave me advice. Even when I didn’t want it. MM: I found a quote from John Byrne, and I wonder if you believe this. He said that you’re “definitely the best of those who came in after him.” JOHN: [laughs] That’s a typical John Byrne line, and I take it as a great compliment. Because I tend to think of myself along the vein of Byrne, which is good story, decent art.... To me, Byrne was head and shoulders—he and Walt Simonson, guys of that age—I thought they were head and shoulders above anything I ever did. I always wanted to be like John Byrne as far as prolificacy and quality. And then Byrne ended up being a great help to me; he helped me out, gave me advice. And I was able to work with him. MM: You were just a little younger than those guys, Frank Miller and Simonson, right?

Above: John’s first Spidey cover, with inks by Al Milgrom. Next Page: An example of John’s breakdowns from his early days on Amazing Spider-Man. Black Cat, Spider-Man ™ and ©2008 Marvel Characters, Inc.

MM: That didn’t happen to you with Contest of Champions? It was one of those books that you were glad to be done with when it was over, I guess? JOHN: Uhh, yes. [laughter] MM: The story didn’t seem to go anywhere. JOHN: It lost its luster when we boycotted the Olympics. MM: How did you feel working with some of your dad’s old cohorts, like Jim Mooney? JOHN: Oh, Jim Mooney was great to me. 20

JOHN: Well, Miller’s about my age; Miller and I came into the industry at about the same time. He just went off on his own tangent and became what he is. So I tip my hat to Frank, the genius that he is. As far as the generation before me, it was the Byrnes and the Simonsons and all. But Byrne was a great guy, and so was Simonson. They treated me well. They were never nasty to me. All the nasty things you hear about Byrne’s personality, I never saw it. He was always good to me, and we were good friends.

Part 3:

Amazing Adventures

MM: How did you end up being on Amazing Spider-Man?

MM: What did you think of his Spider-Man work? It has that quirkiness, like everything that your dad has done and what Ditko and Stan Lee had done, all mixed together. What you and Rog were able to do sort of brought back the character to the classic roots.

JOHN: I don’t remember how it happened. MM: Was it Denny O’Neil who was the editor? JOHN: I think so, yeah. I think he wrote some of the issues. Or did he write some of the Iron Man? I don’t remember. I think there was a certain novelty in having another Romita on it, and that I was more than capable, they felt, to do the book, so they said, why not.

JOHN: Sure, sure. I think we both were trying that, because we both needed to base it on something great instead of relying on our own wiles.

MM: Did you think it was going to happen that fast? I think it only took you four years to get there. It didn’t take very long. JOHN: No, it didn’t take very long. Instead of worrying about what people thought, I thought, “I’m very flattered.” MM: How did your dad feel about you coming on that title? JOHN: He was thrilled. He was thrilled. MM: The first go-round on Spider-Man, did you have a specific approach that you wanted to try out? Did you have an idea of what you were going to do on that book when you started? JOHN: No. I didn’t have an idea what I was going to do for many, many, many years. I just went along with the best I could do and whatever came out on time. MM: To me, it always felt that you and Roger Stern worked perfectly together. Did you like working with him? JOHN: Yeah, I did, because he’s a good friend. But I wasn’t good enough to be in such control other than storytelling. I knew what I was doing, but I was also just flying by the seat of my pants and trying to get as much done as possible, and get the stuff presentable, and base it on what I had learned for years before, and what I felt my father would do. That was all I could think of, because I wasn’t that good. 21

Part 4:

Finding His Stride— Full Pencils at Last

MM: How did the offer come to do Uncanny? Did that come from Louise Simonson?

strange. They said, “Listen, it’s got to be done. Can you get it done by Monday?” I said, “Yeah.”

JOHN: I don’t remember who came up to me.

MM: Did you have Paul’s pages to look at? JOHN: Yes, and I tried to make it look like his stuff, since it was the middle of the book. I believed in doing a slow grading into the next artist. I didn’t want to just shock everybody. At least, that’s what I said, when I could have just done my own stuff. So I did a little bit of Paul Smithesque stuff the first issue or so.

MM: It might have been Shooter? JOHN: I don’t remember who came to me first. I know Louise was the editor on that book, but I don’t know whose suggestion it was first. Maybe it was Shooter, I don’t know.

MM: Right from the start, it was a difficult book. Also, you hadn’t done a team book before.

MM: Did you feel like you were thrown into this thing with enough time to prepare?

JOHN: Right. Yeah, I didn’t realize it would be that tough.

JOHN: Uhhh.... Well, they might have felt I had enough time, but I wasn’t prepared completely. And yet I got better. I improved leaps and bounds because of working on that title.

MM: Did you feel the pressure of, “Oh, people are going to expect Paul Smith”? JOHN: Oh, yeah. I got nasty letters and everything. Oh, sure. Absolutely.

MM: Who decided to put you, right away, in that first issue, X-Men #175? It was a strange how they passed the art torch from Paul Smith to you mid-issue.

MM: Was this the first time you had to deal with a lot of criticism? JOHN: Yeah, that was the first time I felt the wrath of the fans.

JOHN: Oh, that was because Paul ran out of time. He had a scheduling problem, so they asked me to do eight pages over a weekend. [laughter]

MM: Did you read the Comics Journal issue where, I think, Heidi McDonald wrote a piece, “What’s wrong with the X-Men?” I couldn’t believe she was so harsh on you. Some of the issues she criticizes are my favorite ones that you did.

MM: You didn’t think that was a strange way of starting? JOHN: Well, it was an emergency, so it wasn’t 28

JOHN: What, this is a recent article? MM: No, it’s an old article. This is from 1985. JOHN: Oh, okay. MM: She had some issues with some of your art and the writing on X-Men at that time. JOHN: Oh, okay. So it was an article about my run that she did back when my run was ongoing? MM: Yeah, back in 1985 or so. JOHN: Well, that’s fine. [laughter] You can only imagine what it’s like to have the Internet so prevalent now. MM: Oh, it’s so much worse. JOHN: Yeah, there are a lot of nasty people out there. What are you going to do? MM: This scenario happens with every X-Men artist. When John Byrne left, who could ever replace him? JOHN: Right, everybody gets their own backlash, absolutely. MM: And then, once you left, I’m sure the same thing happened. “Yeah, he’s no John Romita.” JOHN: Ennnnh, I don’t know about that. [laughter] MM: Working with Chris Claremont, were you able to collaborate with him, or did you just work from full scripts? JOHN: Basically, he just gave very tight plots. They weren’t really scripts, they were plots, but his were very tight. MM: Were you able to discuss with him what you were going to do in the script? JOHN: No. I was a young artist, and he was an experienced writer. It was basically “do what he writes.” MM: He never invited ideas from you?

Most of the X-Men artists that I’ve spoken with said that was the way they worked with him. They talked about what they wanted to do, and pitched in ideas.... JOHN: No. I just did exactly what they asked. MM: So you never expressed to him, “Oh, I wouldn’t mind doing more Wolverine or more Colossus?” 29

Previous Page: 1983 sketch of Wolverine. Above: Cover art for Uncanny X-Men #196. Inks by Terry Austin.

Part 5:

Artist Without Fear

MM: When did you feel that your talent and your commitment to Marvel were finally appreciated? You went through some problems in the early ’90s. When did you feel like you were part of the team? JOHN: [chuckles] I never felt safe enough. I probably still don’t feel content enough, because I’m always worried that my work isn’t good enough. Always felt that way, always will. I’ve just always been my own

worst critic. So even when they showed me appreciation, I didn’t feel good enough about the work. It was a conflict trying to get better, always working hard. But I would say the mid-’80s was when I started feeling like I was doing something, and then the early ’90s, when I started working with Frank Miller, kind of secured it. I started getting some nice reactions from my fellow artists. MM: Have there ever been times for you that this was just a job? What do you do to stay motivated, to not think like that? JOHN: I hate to say money, but to survive, you’ve got to make a good living, a decent living, and I always want to have a nice roof over my wife’s head, that kind of thing. So I’m always... I guess I’m greedy. [laughter] Greed is good, bordering on being paranoid about it, but I have the urge to be the best. And I don’t know when I’ll know that I’m the best. I don’t know if it’ll come in the form of a big sign out on Times Square, or if it will ever occur to me. I hope it never occurs to me, because then I’ll stop getting better. But it’s the design to be the best, and the need for money, like anybody else. MM: There haven’t been any times when you felt like the work was beneath you a little bit? JOHN: As an artist, you mean? MM: Yeah, as an artist; a time you weren’t into what you were doing. In 30 years, I think, once in a while everybody hits a bump. JOHN: Yeah, there were times that I wasn’t too happy with the industry, but that had nothing to do with the industry, per se, it was because of some of the people. MM: But you never let it affect your work? I mean, say there was a book that didn’t turn out the way they promised you, after a while you don’t go, “Whatever,” and just get it out of the way? 46

JOHN: No, I don’t think I ever felt that. I never got complacent, never got cocky, never got to the point where I wasn’t enjoying the work. MM: Star Brand, for example, that was promised to be one thing, and right away it just fell apart. JOHN: Well, that was, first of all, a bad career move on my part. And, second, it fell apart because of various and sundry reasons that I’m not going to go into. MM: But you never felt like it affected your art, though? No matter what happened, you did the best you could, always? JOHN: Yeah, I always did the best I could. I don’t think there ever was a point where I slacked, honestly. And I don’t think I ever, ever slacked and said, “Let me get this over with.” Because there were days when, if you didn’t do a good job, you weren’t going to get work the next day. I don’t know if I’ve been in that situation in a long time, but before royalties were sure things, you worked for every dime you made, and you also worked to get your next dime. So I always had that feeling in my gut that, “Gotta do my best, because I have to please everybody, and then I have to please the fans.” MM: Redesigning Mephisto. Why did you feel like you had to do that, sort of making him into Blackheart? JOHN: I didn’t make him into Blackheart. I made him look like a disgusting demon, and then Blackheart kind of morphed on his own into what he is. It always bothered me that Mephisto looked like a guy in a costume. The devil doesn’t wear tights and a cape, that’s all. So I just thought of something demonic. That’s all. Why I did it is because it bothered me that Mephisto wore a cape and shorts and boots. MM: For years they stuck to your design up until recently, right? JOHN: Yeah! What does he look like in “One More Day”? MM: He looks like the old Mephisto, the one John Buscema drew.

JOHN: Okay. I didn’t say my idea was great. But, as the devil, you can morph into any shape you want. MM: What was your thinking going into Man Without Fear? JOHN: Originally I wanted to do a graphic novel with Frank, a Wolverine graphic novel. But he said, “Nah, everybody’s doing Wolverine. Let’s try a Daredevil job.” Then he said, “I have this script for a teleplay, a screenplay that didn’t pan out, and I can adjust it into a comics plot, so let’s do that.” Kind of a “Daredevil: Year One,” was the conversation, and that’s the way it was. 47

Previous Page: Like most of Ann Nocenti’s Daredevil stories, this was as much a psychological drama as anything else. Daredevil #268, page 22. Inks by Al Williamson. Above: Cover art for Daredevil #280, featuring Mephisto. Daredevil, Mephisto ™ and ©2008 Marvel Characters, Inc.

Part 6:

Storytelling and the Creative Process

MM: What’s a typical working day for you? When do you start in the day?

MM: Which are the main ones? Andrew Loomis? JOHN: Oh, yes, of course. Loomis and Bridgman’s anatomy, but they go way back to college. And then I have books on the illustrator, Gibson; Moebius; J.C. Leyendecker—those kinds of things.

JOHN: I start around nine or ten in the morning and work until eleven o’clock at night, so I put in ten, eleven, twelve hours a day each day, six days a week. MM: What do you do to keep yourself focused? Do you listen to music?

MM: When you start working, do you loosen up? Do you sketch?

JOHN: Talk radio. I’m a political junkie. And I listen to a lot of music on weekends, and comedies, actually, British comedies.

JOHN: I work out. I exercise every day.

MM: Do you have any security blankets that you keep around? Are there things you like having by you as you work?

JOHN: Oh, drawingwise. Nope, I go right to what I was doing.

MM: But, drawing-wise, do you—

MM: And you can always remember where you were? Don’t you usually try to finish what you’ve got before you?

JOHN: The rest of my family over the place.

JOHN: No, not necessarily. I can pick up right where I left off.

MM: Is there anything else, like toys? JOHN: No, not really toys, but there’s a lot of comedy to be gotten to, and what I mean is, I listen to comedy on satellite radio, I listen to comedy on cable, reruns of British comedies. Those are my toys, basically—a lot of comedies.

MM: What kind of pencil do you use? Do you use a mechanical pencil? JOHN: I use a mechanical 2H lead to layout, and then I use a mechanical HB lead to tighten up. MM: And I’m guessing you like a certain kind of paper, too, right? Nothing too glossy?

MM: Do you have any favorite art books that you keep nearby?

JOHN: That’s correct. I don’t like it too glossy, so the paper I use is this 2-ply Bristol board paper.

JOHN: Yeah, I keep a lot of anatomy books—illustrative anatomy, and not a lot of photographic anatomy. And books of some of my favorite illustrators, and things of that nature, but it would take forever for me to list all the guys that I have.

MM: Do you pencil differently depending who the inker is? Do you think differently if you know who’s going to ink it beforehand? 78

JOHN: Only if it’s somebody I haven’t worked with, but since I’ve worked in the past with everybody that I’m working with now, it’s not necessary to be careful in any particular spot. MM: You haven’t worked with Tom Palmer a lot, from what I can remember. JOHN: Yeah, about ten years ago, but intermittently he had done some covers, and then he would help on The Eternals series, so he’s worked on my stuff quite a bit. MM: Okay. So you don’t like it completely silent when you work? JOHN: No, I don’t like it quiet. I don’t like to hear my heartbeat. MM: Do you get distracted a lot during the day, with your wife and son? JOHN: Yes, there are always distractions, but I manage to overcome them. MM: Do you ever ask how your books are doing when talking to your editors? JOHN: Worry about them? Yes, I always worry, because if my stuff doesn’t sell, then I won’t be given the amount of work that I’m used to, and of course there’s always a concern with sales. MM: But you don’t go online looking for the top 200 books, do you? JOHN: No, the only thing I look at occasionally are a couple of message boards that I get links to from people who I’ve told to send them to me. MM: Who’s sending you these links? Why do you want to know? You know these people online are often hiding behind fake names and false identities, and I don’t know if I would consider a message board proper criticism. To me, it’s not.

JOHN: No. As a matter of fact, half of the people who say the nasty things are doing it just to be nasty. I actually read the criticisms, because no matter how silly or foolish some of them can be... some of them have merit, but the silly ones I read, it actually keeps me on my toes. MM: How have fans changed, in your view, from the day you started until now? Is it different interacting with fans? 79

122