A discussion related to Adventures Into Digital Comics.

1)  Can you tell us about your background?

  I have a two-year AAS degree from a local college, majoring in commercial art.  I graduated in 1983, started freelancing, and immediately started getting work in the commercial art field.  I worked for local advertising agencies focusing mainly on regional jobs, but did manage to snag some national work now and then.  Some of the jobs I did were pretty creative, but most weren’t.  The bulk of my work came from technical illustration and product illustration.

2)  What do you find in comics that you wouldn't find in another type of visual exercise?

  The commercial art field in my area started to wane after my ten years in the business, at least for me anyway.  All I can remember wanting to all my life was draw super-hero comics.  I had an opportunity in ‘92 to enter the comic business as an inker, so I went for it.  Even working over someone else’s pencils offered more creativity for me than drawing roto-tillers and cans of soup.  I was guided in my “training” as an inker by what I view as some of the best and most recognizable names in the industry at that time.  They taught me a new “philosophy” for inking.  Gone were the days of mindlessly tracing the penciled line.  My style of inking includes redraws, multi-media applications, a full range of textures and values as well as the standard requirement of technical skill.  Of course, you need to know when to pull back or forge ahead with any of these.  Even though I came into the industry as an inker, I was still able to create final pieces of black and white artwork that were clearly my vision as well as the penciler’s.

  I have seen expanded my trade as an inker to actually penciling covers as well as penciling a number of commission pieces.  With each piece I pencil, I gain more confidence and hope to gain enough experience to actually pencil for a living.  To me, there is no greater satisfaction than starting with a blank sheet of Bristol and creating a visually dynamic page of art that comes from within, and only I as the penciler, have any idea how it might turn out before I actually put pencil to paper.

3)  What was the overall mood in the industry when you began your career?  What was its commercial state?  How has it evolved?

  It was a very exciting time for me.  I came in at what I believe was the tail end of the speculator’s market.  I think everyone thought that the money was going to last forever.  I started out at Marvel with a page rate that is literally half of what it is even now.  But the royalties I would receive for the next few years were just incredible.  I can’t even imagine what they would’ve been if I came into the business even 3 years earlier.  I was making six figures up through ‘96 and have steadily made less every year (save for these last two) to what I believe is probably a more realistic but still very respectable wage.  I think where we are now in comics is “real”—no speculators jacking up the numbers.  I think things have even picked up just a bit in the past year or two.

4)  Comic book stores were created during the 70’s as a boosting solution for the market.  But as years went by, the direct market became the major distribution channel at the expense of the “newsstand” channel.  Do you think that the industry is now paying the price for what was considered as the only viable solution back then?

  I know very little about newsstand distribution, but what I’ve heard is that it is very hard to monitor newsstand sales and there is a very big risk of losing more than it’s worth to distribute through newsstand.  I don’t know what the difference is now to when I was a kid, but back in the early 70’s, you couldn’t find a drugstore or confectionery without at least one carousel rack of comics.  It was very easy to find just about any comic you were looking for.  If the one store didn’t have it, all you had to do was walk a block to the next and you would most likely find it there.  The direct market makes it a bit difficult for the average 10 or 11 year old to just “happen” on his very first “omigodthisisthecoolestthingIeversaw!” comic book.  Unless his/her parents or uncle or someone specifically introduces this kid to the direct market stores, how is he ever going to just come across that first comic that turns into a life-long love affair?  Yeah, there are a few comics out in the newsstand arena, but nowhere like it was in the 60’s and 70’s.

5)  1986 has been a turning point for the industry with works like Batman: The Dark Knight Returns and Watchmen.  It seems that since then, the comic book audience has grown up with the industry and that there are just no new readers.  Has the industry at that time completely forgotten its younger target audience?

  I believe my previous answer addresses the point of no new readers to a degree, but I do think that comics have matured to a point where it leaves the younger audience with little chance to experience a true super-hero comic-book.  Everything is targeted for the R rated audience, it seems.  Demographically, I suppose they’re the ones that will spend the most money, but few parents I know will give any child under thirteen cash to purchase a t&a or overly violent/graphic comic.  They may however, allow that child to purchase Captain America, Superman, The Avengers or Spider-Man among dozens of others, if they were more readily available.  Some of these titles sell very well in today’s market, but I wonder what they could be selling if they were targeted to both the under 13 and over 13 age group.

6)  1993 was the last profitable year for the American industry.  The market has been shrinking ever since.  What do you think are the causes of the industry’s collapse in the 90’s?

  The speculators were inflating the numbers causing a false sense of security.  When they pulled out, the industry collapsed, leaving in its dust only the most determined artists, writers and creators who stick it out for something they believed in.  I also think that the industry panders to the “flavor of the week” artists who think they can take their sweet time and have no concern for deadlines because the world will wait for their genius.  It works for a little while, but in the meantime, books that are looking for an audience get sacrificed at the direct market level because there is not enough money in the pot to order both.  So we wait and wait, while a book that might have been something gets passed over again and again for that “holy Grail” that could put the comic store in the black for once.

7)  For the past few years, we've seen the big companies trying to improve quality: better paper, big names from other industries, etc.  Do you think that it had an impact on sales?  What could be a key to solve the sales' problem?

  I think any effort to improve the quality of the physical comic is a necessary evil.  Kids and adults alike have all been spoiled with the computer wizardry that’s available now in every graphic form.  I don’t think I could go back to the flat cuts for color that anyone over 30 will remember well.  We’ve all come to expect nothing less than perfection.  We want to be visually blown away by what we are reading or watching.  Bringing in big writers from movies or television seems to have a short-term effect directly related to that comic he/she is involved with, but I really don’t see a wide spread improvement of comic sales because of it.  I really don’t know what the key is; maybe newsstand is the key.  Maybe we need to bring in more pages of advertising without reducing the number of story pages so we can drop the price on the books.  When I was twelve, I could walk into a drug store with $5 and walk out with something close to 20 comics.  Today, it would cost at least $40.

8)  We had an interview with Marv Wolfman who told us that the industry had become a “flavor of the month” type.  Can you tell us about your experience in the 90’s and your thoughts about the industry nowadays?

  Marv is more optimistic than I am, I guess.  I gave them a week in question 6 instead of a month!  I believe I covered my experiences and thoughts about the industry above.

9)  In the 90's, publishers began to create alternate covers, and made a lot of—sometimes unnecessary—relaunches.  What do you think of those "gimmicks"?

  Short term fixes in a shrinking market.  Greed or necessity to keep your company’s head above water was the catalyst, I’m sure.  This again forced the retailers to order 10 alternate covers, say, 20 of the primary and 10 each of the alternates of some hot book, thereby disallowing them the ability to purchase say 100 issues of various other books because they have a finite number of books they can order each week.  It’s a vicious circle.

10)  To make more money and be able to reach different places such as bookstores, the publishers have created the trade paperback.  As an example, many people have read Sandman when it was available on paperback, but not before.  Do you feel that the comic book format had its days, and could be replaced by the paperback?

  It seems to be the wave of the future.  You’re able to get your book out in the direct market as well asng up the secondary market as well.  People who would not normally even know there is such things as comic book stores would be able to find the latest X-Men graphic novel at your nearest Barnes & Noble.

1 2 3