Write Now! #14 by TwoMorrows Publishing

INSIDE: SPIDER-MAN WRITERS’ ROUNDTABLE!

695

In the USA

#January 14 2007

A POINTED POINTED INTERVIEW INTERVIEW WITH WITH A

BRIAN BENDIS! STAN LEE TODD McFARLANE J.M. STRACZYNSKI PETER DAVID MILLAR && McNIVEN'S McNIVEN'S MILLAR MARVEL CIVIL CIVIL WAR WAR MARVEL SCRIPT && PENCILS PENCILS SCRIPT

JIM STARLIN STARLIN JIM JOHN OSTRANDER OSTRANDER JOHN

The Magazine About Writing For Comics, Animation, and SCI-FI

M AG A Z I N E Issue #14

January 2007

Read Now! Message from the Editor-in-Chief . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 2

The State of the Bendis Interview with Brian Michael Bendis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 3

SPECIAL 45th ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION: SPIDER-MAN WRITERS ROUNDTABLE Amazing, Spectacular, Ultimate Q &A with great SpiderWriters past and present, including:

Stan Lee, Brian Michael Bendis, Tom DeFalco, Roger Stern, Todd McFarlane, and many more . . . . . . . . . .page 27

Conceived by

DANNY FINGEROTH Editor-In-Chief

Not A Platypus or The Rebirth of Mystery in Space Jim Starlin documents the winding road he traveled to get his current DC cosmic project approved . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .page 47

Just The Facts, Ma’am: Secrets of Non-Fiction Comics Scriptwriting Fred Van Lente explains how you can create non-fiction comic books and takes you behind the scenes of his acclaimed Action Philosophers series . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .page 55

Adapting To the Cinematic Sandbox Lee Nordling explains the realities of how movies are made from comic books . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .page 67

Feedback Letters from Write Now! ’s Readers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 71

Cover art and coloring by

ALEX MALEEV Managing Editor

ERIC FEIN Designer

RICH FOWLKS Transcriber

STEVEN TICE Circulation Director

BOB BRODSKY, SEASTONE MARKETING GROUP Publisher

Nuts & Bolts Department Script to Pencils to Finished Comic: CIVIL WAR #1 Pages by Mark Millar and Steve McNiven . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .page 17

Script to Pencils to Inks: MYSTERY IN SPACE #1 Pages from “Eschatology,” starring Captain Comet, by Jim Starlin and Shane Davis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .page 52

Script to Finished Comic: ACTION PHILOSOPHERS Pages from the series by Fred Van Lente and Ryan Dunlavey . . .page 62

JOHN MORROW

Special Thanks To:

THE SPIDER-WRITERS!! And… BRIAN MICHAEL BENDIS ALISON BLAIRE TOM BREVOORT BOB BRODSKY KIA CROSS RYAN DUNLAVY RICH FOWLKS CHRIS IRVING ALEX MALEEV BRANDON MONTCLARE ERIC NOLENWEATHINGTON ADAM PHILIPS CHRIS POWELL BEN REILLY BOB SCHRECK ALEX SEGURA JIM STARLIN VARDA STEINHARDT MICHAEL SWANSON FRED Van LENTE STEVEN TICE VARDA STEINHARDT

Danny Fingeroth’s Write Now! is published 4 times a year by TwoMorrows Publishing, 10407 Bedfordtown Drive, Raleigh, NC 27614 USA. Phone: (919) 449-0344. Fax: (919) 449-0327. Danny Fingeroth, Editor. John Morrow, Publisher. Write Now! E-mail address: WriteNowDF@aol.com. Single issues: $9 Postpaid in the US ($11 elsewhere). Four-issue subscriptions: $24 US ($44 Canada, $48 elsewhere). Order online at: www.twomorrows.com or e-mail to:twomorrow@aol.com All characters are TM & © their respective companies. All material © their creators unless otherwise noted. All editorial matter © the respective authors. Editorial package is ©2007 Danny Fingeroth and TwoMorrows Publishing. All rights reserved. Write Now! is a shared trademark of Danny Fingeroth and TwoMorrows Publishing. Printed in Canada. FIRST PRINTING.

ARTICLE NAME | 1

READ Now ! Message from Danny Fingeroth, Editor-in-Chief et’s keep it short and sweet this time around. Here’s what we proudly present in this issue: Brian Michael Bendis sat for an in-depth interview in which he gives us his take on the state of comics today. Not to be missed.

Marvel writer Fred Van Lente gives you the lowdown on his indy sleeper hit Action Philosophers— and shows you how he and Ryan Dunlavey put the book together.

Then, Brian joins over a dozen more Spider-Man comics writers, past and present, to talk about writing the wall-crawler’s adventures in our Spider-Man Writers Roundtable! Who are these other scribes, you ask? Here’s the list: • Stan Lee • Dennis O’Neil • Todd McFarlane • Howard Mackie • Roger Stern • Len Wein • Gerry Conway • Marv Wolfman • Tom DeFalco • Roy Thomas • Peter David • Danny Fingeroth (it was • J.M. DeMatteis tough to get this guy, but • Louise Simonson we were able to)

And Lee Nordling’s back to talk about your comic and Hollywood!

If that ain’t enough of an issue for ya, we’ve also got an incredible Nuts & Bolts section featuring a heaping helping of Mark Millar’s script and Steve McNiven’s pencils for Marvel’s Civil War #1! More? Jim Starlin’s here to tell you how his new Captain Comet series in Mystery in Space came to be, including some of his cool script and Shane Davis’s art for the series.

What’s happening next issue? Check out the ad below and be informed! See? Short and sweet. Oh yeah—remember to buy TwoMorrows’ How to Create Comics From Script to Print. It’s chock full of important how-to goodness, and Draw’s Mike Manley and I made the book just for you! Write away!

Danny Fingeroth P.S. Please join me in welcoming Managing Editor Eric Fein to the Write Now! team. Eric was an editor in the Spider-Man group when I was running it, and wrote all sorts of cool stuff, including the Solo limited series! Eric’s worked as an editor for DC’s licensed publishing division and, as a freelance writer and editor, has written numerous books for children and young adults and is currently working on several comic and graphic novel projects. Write Now! has him—and I couldn’t be happier.

NEXT ISSUE: Featuring an all-new cover by MIKE PLOOG!

M AG A Z I N E

This issue’s got:

#15

Plus: Incredible NUTS & BOLTS from DC’s smash hit 52*! • Script pages by WAID, RUCKA, JOHNS, & MORRISON! • Breakdowns by GIFFEN! • Pencil art by BENNETT and BATISTA! Plus: • OTTAVIANI! OSTRANDER! Tips on self-publishing! More Nuts & Bolts! • And much, much more! 2 | WRITE NOW

An interview with Justice League’s J.M. DeMATTEIS about his and PLOOG’s Disney-published ABADAZAD!

the state of the bendis:

THE BRIAN MICHAEL BENDIS INTERVIEW

Conducted via telephone by Danny Fingeroth 10-23-06 Transcribed by Steven Tice

DANNY FINGEROTH: When we first spoke, which was almost five years ago, you were at the beginning of your mainstream success. It’s five years later, and you’re still riding this incredible wave. Did you think you still would be back then? BRIAN MICHAEL BENDIS: No, no. I’m too show biz savvy, pop culture knowledgeable, not to know that you either get a two-year shelf life or you get to ride maybe a little longer. So, yeah, this is much more than I had hoped I would get. But I’m thrilled to bits and I take it very seriously, and I don’t take it for granted. But, no, this is way more. DF: I’ll flatter you by saying it’s because of your talent, but do you see any other explanation? BMB: Well, I appreciate that, but, as I just mentioned, I’m pop culture savvy enough to know that talent has very little to do with it. There’s a lot of talented people and there’s a lot better writers out there than myself, and it’s very amazing for me. DF: So is there anything you would attribute it to, or is that too much of a superstitious question to even ask about? BMB: It’s hard to say. The one thing I’ll pat myself on the back about is, I seem to be a little more business savvy than some people I’ve met in this business, both older and younger than myself. I do ascribe that to my wife’s

Photo by Alex Maleev.

rian Michael Bendis has become so prominent in the comics writers world, it’s hard to believe that he’s only been in the “mainstream” for about six years. After nine years of steadily increasing success in the indy world on his creator-owned titles such as Jinx, Goldfish, and Torso, he was hired by Todd McFarlane to write the Sam & Twitch minseries and soon found himself launching the then-controversial Ultimate Marvel line. Brian is still the writer (after over 100 issues!) of Ultimate Spider-Man, and has also become a mover and shaker in the regular Marvel Universe, writing often-controversial titles like Alias, New Avengers and The Illuminati. His and Mike Oeming’s indy noirsuperhero series, Powers, is still going strong and is now a part of Marvel’s Icon line. Brian’s jinxworld.com website is a vibrant hub of discussion about comics. He is also active as a creator of movies, TV and computer games, but his first love and loyalty is comics. I first interviewed Brian, back in 2002, for the premiere issue of Write Now!, and he, Oeming and Powers were the subjects of WN #6’s “In Depth” look at the series. Now, we check in with Mr. B again, to get his take on comics writing and a host of other topics in 2007 and beyond. —DF savviness. And also, I learn as many lessons as I can from those who came before me and study them very carefully. That is one of the reasons I love almost everything TwoMorrows publishes, because of that, because it’s right there, it’s accessible, and people are very honest about their place in the world, and you do study it and think about repeating their mistakes and making your own new ones. DF: What mistakes do you think you’ve avoided? BMB: There’s a sense of entitlement that seems to come over people when they get a book that sells, whatever gets into the top ten for whatever generation. Once you have a top book, there seems to be a royal entitlement. And I do not have that in me. I just don’t have that in me at all. I get almost neurotic about people spending $2.99 on a book that I wrote, and I take it very seriously, and that never goes away at all. And I do see that that does get across to a lot of people, even people who beat the h*ll out of me online. No one says I’m lazy. DF: No one could ever accuse you of that. BMB: So I take it very seriously, and I think people respond well to the fact that they know that I’m not using comics as a stepping stone, I don’t have an agenda other than to entertain and provoke and do something worth buying. BRIAN MICHAEL BENDIS | 3

DF: You’ve anticipated a question of mine. You’re clearly not a guy who’s using comics as a stepping stone, because you could have stepped if that was your intent. Why haven’t you? BMB: Because, well, I’ve gotten a taste, I have gotten to write a couple of movies—I just wrote one recently—and I’ve gotten to work on television shows. I worked on the MTV Spider-Man show, which is a perfect example. See, when I was offered the show, I actually didn’t even understand that I was going to be working on the staff of the show. I was offered to write the pilot. I was writing the Ultimate Spider-Man comic, and it’s the greatest job I’d ever had in my life. It’s completely fulfilling on every conceivable level. So I figured that writing the TV show in addition would be twice as good. And when I started working on the show, immediately it was not fun. I would, literally, have a meeting where the executive would say, “Why does it have to be a spider?” And he wasn’t joking! And the movie was already out! And I’m like, “No, seriously, what’s the meeting about?” And then I find out that that was really what the meeting was about! And then you find out this is not as fun or–”fun” sounds immature—as inspiring and as fulfilling as working on the comic book. There’s this false thing that floats out there that movies and television are better than comics. And they’re not at all. In fact, there’s a lot of arguments that say that comics are five years ahead of every pop culture curve that has come our way. Whatever’s going on in comics, five years later happens in movies. I remember some executive telling me when I was working on the show and I was frustrated with some lines getting dropped or whatever, and he said, “Well, you know, in television, if you get forty percent of your script on-screen, it’s considered a success.” And I was like, “Wow! No wonder all of TV sucks.” Not that everyone ever thought it was genius, but you’re shooting for forty percent? You’re aiming for it? How about aim for a hundred? Which has never occurred. I mean, it was just so frustrating. And then I realized, oh, yeah. You get spoiled. Even though you’re working for a big corporation, Marvel Comics, every word you write gets on the page. Everything you write. You know, if I f*ck it up, it’s me who did it—not some faceless producer or whatever whose name no one knows. DF: And comics get out to the world much quicker. BMB: Yeah, it’s immediate and it’s visceral, and there’s a lot to be said for that. And that’s why you see so many television and film people actually coming towards us more than we’re coming towards them. DF: It’s been a remarkable thing. BMB: A lot of us in comics and TV and movies are friends and we put it out there, “Boy, every word I write gets seen by the public.” That’s an intoxicating feeling, especially for people who have been frustrated that a whopping forty percent of their work is seen on screen. And they come to comics and they have a blast. The double edge is that I love movies and I love great television, even though you can count the number of good television shows on one hand. 4 | WRITE NOW

DF: You’re doing comics and you’re doing the other stuff, as well. BMB: Yeah, I’ll do the other stuff, but I’m very, very picky, and I don’t hustle there. I wait until stuff happens. And also, because of the nature of the beast, like, my graphic novel, Jinx, just got sold. But from now on, I don’t sell it unless I’m the writer. Mike Oeming and I sold Powers to Sony and I wasn’t the writer, and they offered enough money where we could justify it. Plus, we were both just coming up and couldn’t afford to turn down the money. But the scripts that were being handed in just weren’t filmable. And they were by good writers, they just weren’t getting it, you know? They were writing superhero scripts instead of cop drama. And it took them five years to realize that they were on the wrong genre. And so, from now on, we don’t sell anything where I’m not the writer. And also, my comics success has allowed me to side-step a lot of the screenwriting ladder. Like, now I write major motion pictures. DF: Is that Jinx that you just wrote, or something else? BMB: That was Jinx, and I know the thing went well. I just found out this week. I’ve had other times when people tell me they love a script that they were lying right to my face. But when they offer you another job...

DF: That’s the meaningful compliment, right? BMB: Right. Now I got offered a couple of gigs, one from the studio I wrote Jinx for. It’s like, “Ohhhh, okay. This is what lying isn’t.” You have to feel the other thing before you realize that. I’ve actually been invited to the Jinx meetings. I know that’s a miracle. DF: It’s like that in comics, too. The ultimate compliment is, “Here’s the next gig.” BMB: Exactly! But, you know, they lie to you in Hollywood with such blank-faced verve. You know, it’s on a whole other level. No one in comics has the ability to lie to you like film people can lie to you. I’m not used to it. When someone looks me in the eye and says “great job,” I figure I’ve seen the truth. DF: No, no. There’s always quotes around it. BMB: So I’ve learned. DF: They might even think it’s a great job, it’s just not what they or their boss want. BMB: Yeah. Or they’re speaking some kind of code. DF: There’s that saying, “There’s no such thing as a bad meeting in Brian first rose to comic Hollywood.” book prominence as the BMB: Mm-hm, that’s writer and artist of such right. That’s right. That’s crime noir series as another thing, too. In Jinx and Goldfish. Hollywood, there’s an [© 2006 Brian Michael Bendis] inordinate need to have meetings. They’re just so full of meetings so they can justify their jobs, and I really would rather just work. I need to go out there for Jinx and Powers and a couple other things, so I cram two days full of meetings, and we do all those meetings, and my manager distills down the ones that are b*llsh*t and he just gets rid of them. Because I just don’t want any more “get-to-know-ya’s.” Every moment away from my child has to be meaningful, so I need get out of L.A. real fast. DF: Is that why you don’t live in L.A. or New York, to keep a distance like that? BMB: I love New York. I would rather live in New York than L.A. I would never want to live in L.A. I totally despise the place. People just living off of other people’s fear and distrust. And it’s such a damn power play, and I know it’s kind of a cliché, but I’ve actually seen very talented friends of mine who are out there for a long period of time, and

you realize they’re being preyed upon, and you go, “Dude, dude, dude, dude! Cheer up! You’re doing really well!” But you can’t possibly do well enough out there. You go to a party and say, “Oh, I’ve got a show.” And the other person says, “You mean a show in development. Not such a big deal.” They just smack you down. They can’t be happy for you. It’s impossible. So I wouldn’t live there for a second. DF: But New York…? BMB: New York I like, but I think actually, in this day and age, it’s actually a plus not to live in New York. If Marvel saw me every day, I think I’d be out of work. I think it’s nice that they rarely ever see me. I think it makes them like me more. DF: Yeah, it makes you exotic. BMB: Yeah, exactly. DF: Now, you are the comics establishment, or a big part of it, and closely aligned with Marvel. That must be a little weird, considering your indy roots. BMB: I guess it’s all about state of mind. I think about this a lot. I was talking to [Ultimates writer] Mark Millar, and we’ve kind of been connected at the hip by fate because we both broke in virtually the same week. We’re both completely different animals with completely different agendas, but we’ve talked about, “Okay, we’re here now. We get to stay, and I’m under contract for a while, so I’m guaranteed the work and whatever. So what are we going to do with it?” And I do think that being part of the establishment, if that’s the case, is to not forget how you got here. And I got here by a little indy comic p*ss and vinegar, and that’s still in me, that’s not squashed. Let’s build that up, and at the same time, what was the goal before I got here? Oh, yeah, comics excellence. Let’s do that. Make comics that we would buy. Every script I write, I sit there and I go, “Would I buy this?” And if I wouldn’t, I just toss it. It’s that simple. DF: You’ve gone from the Ultimate universe to the mainstream Marvel universe? Any difference in writing those two? BMB: Yeah, there is. There’s a lot of baggage in 616 [the original Marvel universe]. I’m writing the Illuminati series right now, and I’m purposely and gloriously retconning BRIAN MICHAEL BENDIS | 5

It’s the job of the artist to translate the writer’s directions into appropriate art. Notice the art direction for panel one: “Close on Cap, moody and eyes narrowed.” Now look at the first panel of pencils and notice how McNiven has chosen to tilt Cap’s head down slightly and to show the tension in Cap’s neck muscles. This gives him a more menacing attitude and adds tension to the panel. In this way, the penciler plays the role of “actor,” “director,” and “cinematographer.”

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In a major crossover event as big as Civil War, the writer and artist will have to coordinate their efforts with not only their editor, but with other writers and artists as well. Notice the note to the artist in panel 4. It lets the artist know that some of the characters he will have to draw have been designed by another artist— Howard Chaykin. If the note wasn’t there, McNiven could have reasonably assumed it was his job to design the “Cape-Killers.”

CIVIL WAR | 19

Here, McNiven delivers on Millar’s request for an image of Cap that will leave the readers breathless. Feel like playing writer? Try scripting these pages. As you do, decide if you would put captions and dialogue where there are none. Think about the decisions you made, and compare them to the ones Millar did.

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THE END

mazing (and Spectacular) as it may seem, Spider-Man debuted almost 45 years ago in the pages of Amazing Fantasy #15. Over the course of those years, the wall-crawler has had his comics exploits written by dozens, if not hundreds, of writers. All these folks took their lead from the character who was created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko back in 1962.

In honor of this occasion—not to mention the fact that there’s a third Spider-Man movie coming our way this spring—I decided to get together a virtual roundtable discussion of some of the greatest Spider-Man Writers of all time. I say “virtual” because I didn’t actually sit these folks down in one room. I asked them all (with one exception) the same dozen questions and am running their answers consecutively. So there’s no “cross-talking” as there no doubt would have been were all these writers in the same room. Most of the writers chose to answer the questions via e-mail, while two—Todd McFarlane and Brian Michael Bendis—decided they’d rather be interviewed by phone. And if a given Roundtabler doesn’t have an answer to a given question here…it’s because he or she chose not to answer it. Since yours truly had the honor of doing some Spider-Man writing over the years, I decided I’d also answer the questions—which explains why I’m both the interviewer as well as one of the panelists. As I mentioned above, there was one writer who got his own special set of questions. Needless to say, that was Stan Lee himself. I couldn’t really ask him what it felt like taking over a character with a legacy like Spidey’s—since Stan was responsible for so much of that legacy! So while some of the questions the other writers answered are relevant for Stan, it was a no-brainer that he’d need a bunch of his own unique ones, too. His incredible responses lead off the section, and then we take off with the other writers’ answers. There’s a webful of fascinating and insightful information in the pages that follow. So…read on and enjoy!

Danny Fingeroth Editor-in-Chief

WRITE NOW! SPIDER-MAN WRITERS ROUNDTABLE WRITE NOW! SPIDER-MAN WRITERS ROUNDTABLE WRITE NOW! SPIDER-MAN WRITERS ROUNDTABLE WRITE NOW! SPIDER-MAN WRITERS ROUNDTABLE WRITE NOW! SPIDER-MAN WRITERS ROUNDTABLE WRITE NOW! SPIDER-MAN WRITERS ROUNDTABLE WRITE NOW! SPIDER-MAN WRITERS ROUNDTABLE WRITE NOW! SPIDER-MAN WRITERS ROUNDTABLE WRITE NOW! SPIDER-MAN WRITERS ROUNDTABLE

SPIDER-MAN WRITERS ROUNDTABLE

WRITE NOW! SPIDER-MAN WRITERS ROUNDTABLE WRITE NOW! SPIDER-MAN WRITERS ROUNDTABLE WRITE NOW! SPIDER-MAN WRITERS ROUNDTABLE WRITE NOW! SPIDER-MAN WRITERS ROUNDTABLE

SPIDER-MAN ROUNDTABLE | 27

STAN LEE ON SPIDEY

The Man himself leads things off with his thoughts about chronicling the wall-crawler’s adventures… DANNY FINGEROTH: What’s the hardest thing about writing Spider-Man? STAN LEE: To me, the most difficult thing was coming up with different villains and different threats to the superhero Spidey—and to Peter Parker as a young, troubled man. DANNY: What’s the most fun about writing Spider-Man? STAN: The dialogue, always the dialogue. I got a kick out of adding gags, wisecracks and, of course, whatever dramatic, hopefully memorable speeches I could come up with, although I never quite topped the Gettysburg Address. DANNY: Once Spider-Man became a hit, did you feel you had to treat the character differently than you had when you thought that “no one was looking”? STAN: Nope. I always wrote everything the same way, whether I thought it was a hit or not. Of course, if it wasn’t a hit, I might have experimented more and tried to change the style a bit, but with Spidey there was no need to ever do that. DANNY: You had Spider-Man graduate from high school in pretty much “real time.” Was it your intention that the character age in real time—that he’d get a year older every year? When did you realize you couldn’t do that anymore? STAN: Yeah, I thought it would be great to have him age in real time. I never really knew that it couldn’t be done. You may recall, after high school I put him in college and then after he’d been there for a few years I made

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him a grad student. Later we had him get married—or maybe it was earlier, I can’t quite remember. I’d have eventually had MJ get pregnant, also. However, Martin Goodman, the publisher, didn’t want him to age in real time so that put a stop to it. DANNY: Do you identify with Spidey more than (or differently from) other characters you’ve written? STAN: Not really. I identify with each and every one of them, all in different ways, of course. DANNY: Who’s your favorite Spider-Man villain, and why? STAN: I’m really not good at picking favorites. I love ‘em all or I wouldn’t have done them. But if I have to pick one, I guess it might be Doc Ock because I thought his tentacles were a real original concept, although I also liked Sandman and Kraven and Lizard—aw, forget it! There’s no way I can just pick one! DANNY: What are you proudest of that you’ve done on Spider-Man? STAN: The fact that we managed to inject some humor and a considerable amount of realism into a superhero series. DANNY: Would you ever want to write a regular Spider-Man series or limited series/ graphic novel again? Where it all began: Stan and STAN: Probably not. Steve Ditko introduced Perhaps an occasional Spider-Man to the world in special issue— Amazing Fantasy #15. Cover preferably one with by Jack Kirby and Ditko. a humorous angle— [© 2006 Marvel Characters.] but to do a series, whether limited or not, would be what I did years ago, and I kind’a prefer to move forward in life rather than backtracking. DANNY: How is writing the Spider-Man newspaper strip different from writing the comic books?

STAN: The biggest difference is the pacing. As you can imagine, it’s tougher to tell a story in three panels a day than in twenty pages a month. Also, in syndicated strips there’s a terrible size constraint. There’s no way to draw any big, spectacular panels in the amount of space allotted to us. DANNY: What’s the appeal of Spider-Man that’s made him so popular for so long? STAN: I think the realistic quality about Spidey makes it easy for readers to empathize with him and, as you know, empathy is one of the most important qualities in a fictional character. DANNY: If you could meet Spider-Man, what would you like to ask or tell him? STAN: In case nobody has told you, Spider-Man is a fictitious character. It’s not likely that I’ll ever meet him. I really don’t spend time wondering what I’d ask or tell Robin Hood, or Sherlock Holmes or James Bond. It’s a full-time job just thinking of what to tell the people I work with day after day. DANNY: Is there anything you’d like to say about writing Spider-Man not covered by my questions? STAN: ‘Fraid not, Danny. You seem to have covered everything. Well, actually, there is one thing! I can’t understand why people think J. Jonah Jameson is sort-of a villain— especially since I modeled him after my loveable self. Stan Lee co-created the Marvel pantheon of characters including—in addition to Spider-Man—the X-Men, the Hulk and the Fantastic Four. His Sci-Fi Channel series, Who Wants to Be a Superhero?, was the TV hit of the season, and will be returning soon with 10 new episodes!

Now that we’ve heard from The Man, let’s hear what the rest of the roundtable has to say about he wallcrawler… DANNY FINGEROTH: What made you want to write Spider-Man (besides being offered the gig)? BRIAN BENDIS: I am Peter Parker. There is no character I have to do less work to get me excited than Peter Parker. And also, every wound from high school is as fresh as if it happened yesterday. And I’m moved by the philosophy. “With great power comes great responsibility” is something you can live by. GERRY CONWAY: I was a fan from about issue #6 – it was a dream assignment, the fulfillment of a childhood (and maybe childish?) ambition. Also, I kind of identified with Peter Parker. PETER DAVID: Who wouldn’t want to write Spider-Man? He’s Marvel’s flagship character, he’s the everyman of the superhero community, and he’s quite possibly the single best character ever to come out of Stan Lee’s imagination. His appeal is limitless, and there’s just so many directions you can go with him. TOM DeFALCO: While I was always a fan of Spider-Man, I never planned or wanted to write him. I had done a fill-in, a few guest star appearances and a few issues of Marvel

Team-Up and I struggled to get his voice right. In those days, a character had a particular voice and it was the writer’s job to replicate that voice. I thought Roger Stern had done a great job and I was totally intimidated when Danny Fingeroth asked me to follow Rog. In fact, the assignment scared me so much that I knew I had to take it. J.M. DeMATTEIS: To be honest, in the beginning—and I started my acquaintance with Spider-Man with a lengthy, and fairly mundane, run on Marvel Team-Up—it really was the gig. I liked Spider-Man as a character...who doesn’t?...but, at that point in my career I would have been thrilled to take anything that was offered to me. “Wanna write Millie The Model?” “Cool!” Of course Spider-Man was one of the Great Marvel Icons and that was a treat. It was only in writing the character that I came to really love Spider-Man. Peter Parker is the most wonderfully complex, and wonderfully human, character in any superhero universe. It’s a case of becoming a bigger fan of the character as a professional than I was as a reader. DANNY FINGEROTH: I had been editor of the Spider-Man line and had gained an appreciation of the character I actually didn’t have as a kid, when my favorites were the FF, Captain America, Iron Man, and Daredevil. With my enhanced appreciation of the character, I thought I could contribute something to his universe. SPIDER-MAN ROUNDTABLE | 29

I’d also like to say thanks to Stan Lee, Steve Ditko and John Romita, Sr. If it wasn’t for what those guys did...we wouldn’t be having this conversation!

And people don’t want to hang around guys like that too much. You have to introduce a little bit of levity, and Peter already had some of the levity built into him.

FINGEROTH: It’s really an incredible feeling to write adventures for a cultural icon, knowing that whatever you write—good, bad, or indifferent—will become part of the Spider-Man canon forever. Talk about great power and great responsibility!

MILGROM: Probably, but I’d better get back to work, so I’ll have to think about that at a later date.

McFARLANE: I think Spider-Man has a lot of flavor, and unlike Superman, Batman, and some of the other mainstay characters—Captain America I put in that category, maybe even Thor with Blake, Bruce Banner— they don’t seem to want to smile and goof off as much as Peter Parker. Peter Parker can understand that if he takes this too seriously, a la Batman, he probably will drive himself insane because of the reality of what he’s doing. So because of that, whether it’s a survival mechanism or it’s just an internal thing that he does because he’s actually just a goofball, he does it. He sees that it doesn’t have to be dead-nut serious. I had to actually introduce that element into Spawn years later, because I knew that my guy was going to be this grim, solemn guy, y’know?

SPIDER-WRITER BIOS: Spider-Man-centric info about the roundtablers. Needless to say, their complete resumes are much longer than this. ASM = Amazing Spider-Man MTU = Marvel Team-Up, Starring Spider-Man

SSM = (Peter Parker) the Spectacular Spider-Man Web = Web of Spider-Man SM = (adjectiveless) Spider-Man Brian Michael Bendis has been writing Ultimate Spider-Man for more than a hundred consecutive issues—starting with #1—and shows no signs of stopping. Gerry Conway wrote ASM in the 1970s and SSM in the ’70s, ’80s and ’90s. He wrote the groundbreaking death of Gwen Stacy story in ASM #121 and co-created the Punisher in ASM #129. Peter David has written ASM and SSM, including the “Death of Jean DeWolf” in SSM. He helped launch the Marvel 2099 line as writer of Spider-Man 2099. Peter recently returned to Spidey as writer of Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man. Tom DeFalco wrote ASM in the 1980s when he and Ron Frenz introduced Spidey’s black costume. Tom returned to Spider-Man in the 1990s, first on SSM, then moving onto ASM. He co-created, Spider-Girl— starring Peter and Mary Jane’s daughter— which he continues to write today.

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O’NEIL: Nope. SIMONSON: Nope. Except that I really was grateful for the opportunity to do so. So thanks! THOMAS: No, except that there are days I wish I’d written The Amazing Spider-Man again when Stan gave it up permanently a few months after he returned... because they reprint those stories, and the royalties—excuse me, incentive payments... would be nice. But I feel Gerry Conway had a better feel for the character than I would have. WEIN: When it’s working, it’s probably more fun than human beings should be allowed to have. WOLFMAN: Nope.

J.M. DeMatteis first wrote Spider-Man in the pages of MTU, then unleashed the groundbreaking Spidey saga, “Kraven’s Last Hunt.” He’s had memorable stints on SSM and ASM, including the landmark issue ASM #400. Danny Fingeroth wrote a run of Web, as well as three Spider-Man limited series, including The Deadly Foes of Spider-Man. He was also Group Editor of the Spider-Man line. Howard Mackie started his career as a Spider-Man writer when he took over Web in the early 1990s. He later took over the writing chores of SM, and then in the late ’90s wrote both SM and the re-launched ASM. Todd McFarlane’s association with Spider-Man began when he was tapped to take over the penciling of ASM with issue #298. During this time, he co-created Venom. He then went on to become the writer and artist of SM. Al Milgrom wrote a year’s worth of SSM, including issue #100, in the 1980s. He returned to Spider-Man in the early 1990s to script the six part story “Round Robin: the Sidekick’s Revenge.” which ran in ASM #s 353358. Al was also regular penciler on SSM in the ’80s.

Dennis O’Neil had a run on ASM in the early ’80s, and did a couple of memorable Spidey annuals with Frank Miller. Louise Simonson had a short but distinguished tenure as a Spidey writer. She wrote the first three issues of Web as well as MTU #149 &150, and MTU Annual #7. Roger Stern got his start as a Spider-Man writer scripting SSM in the late 1970s. He soon jumped to ASM, where he wrote many well-remembered stories, including the intro of Hobgoblin, and the classic “The Kid Who Collects Spider-Man.” Roy Thomas had a brief stint as the writer of ASM (#s 101-104), during which he co-created Morbius the Living Vampire. He also wrote the first issue of MTU. He also wrote a one-shot The Way to Dusty Death teaming SpiderMan with Doctor Strange. Len Wein wrote 30 issues (#s 151-180) of ASM in the 1970s. Len also co-wrote, with Marv Wolfman, the first prose Spider-Man novel, Mayhem in Manhattan. Marv Wolfman wrote more than 20 issues of ASM during the late 1970s, including issue #200, and co-created Spidey’s sometime adversary, sometime girlfriend, The Black Cat.

THE END

NOT A PLATYPUS:

THE REBIRTH OF MYSTERY IN SPACE

by Jim Starlin

ast issue, writer-artist Jim Starlin showed us some cool script and art from his The Weird feature in Mystery in Space. This time around, Jim gives us the lowdown on how he got involved with MIS to begin with—including his reimagining of Captain Comet. Take it away, Jim… —DF All things evolve, figuratively going from single cell organism to plankton to fish to amphibian to mammal and eventually becoming their equivalent of either man or platypus. Businesses and business practices are no exception to this rule. In the comic book industry, evolution has made some huge leaps in the past couple of decades. Hand lettering and little old ladies sitting in a windowless office somewhere in New Jersey, separating comic book colors for publication, have evolved into much simpler operations done on computers. But I believe the greatest change has taken place in the area of how a comic book comes into being: the conception process. Now to establish my own bona fides, let me remind the reader that I have been in the biz since 1972 and enjoy a pretty successful career in the comic book industry. Today there are perhaps only a half a dozen other creators that have more collected volumes of their past work currently in print. So one would think that getting a comic book project off the ground wouldn’t be a problem for me. Well, you’d be wrong. Process is king. Back in ’72, after a run on Captain Marvel, I stopped by the Marvel Comic offices to speak to then editor Roy Thomas about my next project. At that meeting we decided I’d take a crack at another outer space oriented hero. That night I began penciling the first page of the Warlock series. But since then movie tie-ins and myriad merchandising deals have come into the equation. DC and Marvel Comics aren’t the small operations they once were. So let us now consider a new project I’m working on at DC: the revival of Mystery in Space. Warning: this tale will be strictly from my prospective, the freelance artist/writer point of view. I have made no attempt to fill in empty spaces in my knowledge by interviewing anyone up at DC about the following events. This is absolutely an exercise in subjective ignorance.

So to begin with, I was in the middle of the second volume of Kid Kosmos for Dynamite Entertainment and decided, once this graphic novel was done, that getting my name out there more broadly amidst the comic-book-buying public would be a wise career move. The best method for accomplishing this end would be taking on a job for either DC or Marvel Comics. There’s two ways one can set about gaining such employment. #1: You can phone overworked editors, most of whom are desperately trying to catch up with their deadlines, and leave a message on their answering units, to see if they’re interested in working with you on some project. What will probably then happen is said editor will write a note to remind him or herself to give you a call back. That note will then disappear beneath a mountain of late work and never be seen again. #2: You can go to a comic book convention, have a few drinks in the evening with fellow freelancers and editors and something may just rise out of this strange mix of camaraderie, reunion, alcohol, ego inflation and JIM STARLIN | 47