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Event plans more for 1997 from CBG #1211

CBG #1211 (31 Jan 1997)

Here an article from CBG #1211 (31 Jan 1997)

Event plans more for 1997

Crossovers, creator-owned series, and a second ongoing series are all scheduled

By Rob Samsel

1996 was a year of development for Event Comics. The company, founded by art team Joe Quesada and Jimmy Palmiotti, continued its Ash series and launched a new girl-gang comic book called 22 Brides. In addition to its comics endeavors, Event. also signed an agreement with Dreamworks SKG to develop Ash as an animated feature, Quesada and Palmiotti said they have decided to take things a step further in 1997. In addition to inter-company crossovers (with DC and Top Cow), the Event line-up will expand to include creator-owned series by such professionals as Daye Ross, George Pérez, and Tony, Harris. Event will also launch its:second ongoing title, Painkiller Jane (a spin-off of 22 Brides), later in the year. CBG sat down with Quesada and Palmiotti to get the lowdown on the company’s plans to make 1997 a huge coming-out party.

CBG: This March, Event and DC are producing Ash/Azrael. What was it like returning to the character that was responsible for much of your early success?

Quesada: Returning to Azrael as a real thrill. For me, it was getting to work on one of the more successful characters that I had designed for another company. Mixing him with Ash seemed like a natural thing. Both characters are based in fire, and, while Azrael is the reluctant hero, all Ash wants to be is a hero; that dichotomy made for a very interesting storyline. Working with Denny O'Neil and Archie Goodwin, of course, was the best part.

CBG: What was working on the crossover like for you?

Palmiotti: It was 48 pages, so it’s basically two issues of a comic book, so it was a big project for me. It’s probably Joe’s best work to date. It’s a challenge from that standpoint and from having to fill the shoes of[original Sword of Azrael inker] Kevin Nowlan, and those are huge shoes to fill. With this book, Joe is creating something new with every page, and it definitely won’t look like any other comic book out there. I think it will be one of those comics that will be re-ordered year ‘round, because it looks so good. It’s been a lot of fun.

CBG: Were you pleased with the story?

Quesada: It was great! One thing I told Denny was that I didn’t want a story where they meet, they fight, then they become friends. And Denny was in favor of avoiding that scenario altogether. They meet, they fight the bad guy, they walk away, and it’s done. We even get to use Firefly, one of my all-time favorite Batman villains [laughter]. Batman is sort of the catalyst that sets the story in motion. A rash of fires have broken out, and the description of the arsonist is similar to what Azrael looks like, if someone were seeing him for the first time, with the fiery swords. Batman accuses Jean-Paul Valley of setting those fires, which, of course, offends him greatly. Bat- man then tells Azrael to prove that he’s not the killer, and that mission takes him to New York City, where he runs into New York’s number one firefighter, Ash, I love drawing Azrael, so the experience has been great so far, but, then again, I’m partial. What can I say? [Laughter]

CBG: Was it daunting for you to follow Kevin Nowlan’s inking on Azrael?

Palmiotti: I can’t ink like Kevin. He's a little more than an inker. He goes in and redraws things, so in that respect, he’s not an inker, he’s a finisher. He goes in and makes things his own, where the artwork becomes more Kevin than the guy who pencilled the work.

When Kevin inked Azrael, his 2¢ were more like 48¢. He took Joe’s look and changed things around to make them more Kevin Nowlan-ish, if there is such a word in the English language. I’m not doing that. I’m very loyal to Joe’s pencils. I may thicken some line weights here and there, but that’s it. I'm taking a much different approach to this comic book than I normally do, This issue, in my opinion, has a much slicker look than Ash does. I handled it with much more brushwork than I normally do. I just can’t say enough about the job Joe’s doing on Ash/Azrael. The fans will be very pleased when they see it.

CBG: Your next crossover project is with Top Cow, crossing over your Painkiller Jane character with The Darkness. How has it been working with Garth Ennis so far?

Quesada: With just 24 pages, he was able to come with the most amazing story. All I'll say is that the story is called “Stripper,” but it’s not what you think. Palmiotti: Garth is a dream to work with. You give him the idea. and he knows the characters, especially since he writes The Darkness. Lo and behold, we get a script in the mail, and it’s fantastic. Joe, Amanda Conner, and I all flipped out when we read it. It was exactly what we wanted, and it was typical Garth. It reeks of fun, you can tell he had a great. time writing it. Amanda is really excited about this project, and it’s just a dream job for both of us. I think Amanda’s going to take everyone by surprise with this crossover. She’s a master storyteller, and people will discover how great she really is with this.

Quesada: Both characters are on the hunt for this lowlife Mafia con man, and somewhere in the middle, they meet and realize they’re after the same person, and all kinds of wackiness ensue from there. It’s vintage Garth insanity.

CBG: Since Painkiller Jane hasn't really made her debut yet as of this writing, can you tell the readers a little about her?

Quesada: The crossover will spin Painkiller Jane into her own monthly series. Painkiller Jane is an ex-New York City undercover cop who lost everything in her life.

She lost a few years of her life in a coma, she lost her family, her fiancé: Basically, anything that was important to her, she lost. She has no special abilities, except for the fact that she may be immortal. She can take bullets with the best of them, except they don’t bounce off her, they go through, and it hurts. The character’s going to be fleshed out much more thoroughly by Mark Waid and Brain Augustyn [who are writing the Painkiller Jane series]. The stuff we've seen so far is very film noirish, which is really cool.

The series may remind some people of Will Eisner’s early Spirit stuff, She’s a very tragic character. PKJ, as we like to call it, will be a rocking series. She will be going after some of New York’s more unapproachable villains. I think it’s going to be a great series for Event.

Palmiotti: Garth gives Painkiller Jane/Darkness a real royal treatment, and it’s great place to spin off from the ongoing series by Mark, Brian, Rick Leonardi, and me. The crossover will be something new, where the two main characters are new, rather than established icons. So readers will learn something about both characters in the story. Garth is king. and we lucked out getting him to work with us. He did this because he liked the project; it’s not as though he doesn’t have enough work to do.

Painkiller Jane will be monthly, and Rick Leonardi is drawing the series. Rick’s real strength is his storytelling. His art is beautiful, but we also needed someone whose storytelling could be strong enough to keep up with Mark and Brian. The sketches he’s done are great. As long as the public likes the series, we'll keep doing it. With Mark and Brian on it, it will be a very personality-driven series, and we're really psyched about it.

CBG: Will the series tie into 22 Brides?

Quesada: The Brides are going to be supporting characters to Painkiller Jane. Through the series, we'll be able to focus on one Bride at a time and be able to flesh the characters out better. We'll be able to see why each of these girls became Brides and why the Brides were formed in the first place. There are one or two Brides whom Jane is a little closer to, because of their pasts, and we'll find out more about that in the series.

CBG: Mark Waid, Brian Augustyn, and Humberto Ramos are set to take over Ash. Why are you bringing on a new creative team?

Quesada: It’s a decision we felt we had to make. Obviously, the biggest complaint- from retailers was that Ash always sells well when they have it, but they don’t have it enough. We didn’t start Event with three issues in the bag as we should have, which was an immature thing to do.

In order to rectify the situation, we decided to put out Ash on a monthly basis with a substitute creative team and then come back with Ash on a monthly basis with me at the helm. We figured we couldn’t put just anybody in as the team, so we figured we'd shoot for the top. We asked Waid and Augustyn, and they were thrilled to do it, and we asked Humberto, and he was dying to do it.

Mark, Brian, and Humberto will take over Ash for six issues, During the time Humberto is working on Ash, I will be, too, but my issues won't begin seeing print until November, in time for our third anniversary. James Robinson will be writing the monthly series for me, which is very cool, also. James was going to do a three-issue arc, but now he just wants to keep going on the series.

CBG: Are you nervous about Ash coming with a different creative team?

Palmiotti: No, I don’t have time to be nervous, because I'll be too busy inking it. I can’t wait, because I know Mark and Brian are going to develop the character in ways that Joe and I have been asking, due to the fact that we're novice writers. I also can’t wait because we'll be on the way to having Ash out monthly, which is what everyone has been asking for. So, actually, I’m excited.

I've been inking Humberto on and off for the past year and a half, so this will be a ball for me. Nervous is the wrong word; excited is more like it. This will give Joe and me more time to do the stuff with James Robinson. We'll have steady issues coming out, and I can’t wait for it.

CBG: Do Mark and Brian have to have everything approved by you two?

Palmiotti: We initially sat down and discussed where we wanted the story to head in the six issues; basically what we want to have happen and be taken care of during the six issues. Realistically, we're giving Mark and Brian all the room they need, because they're great.

Quesada: Those guys are so darned good, they don’t have to approve anything with us, but they want to. They realize Ash is our baby, but they understand the character so well that, for those six issues, it'll be their baby.

Palmiotti: Those two guys can do no wrong as far as Joe and I are concerned. We trust them with our character, which is the ultimate trust. Look at those two guys right now, they’re on fire! Look at who we have writing for us in the next year: Mark Waid, Brian Augustyn, James Robinson, Garth Ennis. These guys are writing some of the best comics in comics, and they’re all going to be working for Event. That pact that Joe and I made with the devil must have paid off, to get those guys to work with us.

CBG: What are the plans for a creator-owned title by Mark and Humberto?

Quesada: They’re not ready to talk about it yet. They're really happy working with Event, and anything they want to do is fine with us. They want to stick around and have fun, and that’s the basic idea behind Event, having fun. Our company is small, it’s comfortable, and we have a good time.

Palmiotti: That'll probably happen later in the year, once Mark and Humberto have a little more time. They have carte blanche to do anything with us.

CBG: How are the other creator-owned things going for Event?

Quesada: We're really looking forward to putting out Tony Harris’ The Hour of Reckoning.

Thrax is a really nice looking comic book, and I hope the readers pick up on it, because Dave Ross is doing a tremendous job on it. George Pérez’s Crimson Plague is awesome; it’s the best stuff I think George has ever done.

When talking about the Event creator-owned comics, regardless of whether they're commercial or not, they'll all be great-looking, great-reading, top-quality comics.

Palmiotti: George's series will start in May, and it will be bimonthly. We don’t know how many issues it will be, but it’s looking great. It’s a real thrill to work with George. We talked with him at North Carolina at the Heroes Convention, and he said he was talking with other companies about publishing Crimson Plague. He felt Event was the place, I guess. I think the reason people want to work with us is because of our personalities. We talk to creators on a professional level. We think creators know that we treat other people's creations as if they were our own.

As far as Thrax goes, we hope that readers get to check it out, because Dave's work is just beautiful. It’s one of those series that, once you see the first issue, you'll definitely want the second.

CBG: How do you plan on handling the future of Kid Death and Fluffy?

Quesada: It’s whatever Kid Death wants. It’s his world; he’s just letting us live in it. The next. special, Legends of Kid Death, is hysterical. It’s four separate stories by four separate creators, and each take on Kid Death is just too funny. I can’t even talk about this issue in a family magazine like CBG, it’s just too offensive. [Laughter]

Palmiotti: Legends will be done by John Cebollero, Amanda Conner, Dan DeCarlo, and Rick Parker. It will catch everyone by surprise with how sick it is. People are always asking about Kid Death, and ‘we'll put out the specials as Jong'ds they keep doing well for us, Kid Death’ has‘d great, underground following. The specials are almost a necessary evil for Joe and me, because we do such politically correct work most of the time, and this allows us to get our angst out. Kid Death is our evil side on paper.

CBG: Jimmy, you’re doing so much work for Event these days, is it time to become Event-exclusive?

Palmiotti: Not now. Maybe some time in 1997. I don’t know if I could be exclusive to Event, because then I couldn’t do a cool project like this. I’m always open to something good. Being exclusive is a mistake in any freelancer’s life, in my opinion, even though I have my own company. I love comics and I like to work for everybody.

CBG: Anything else you'd like the readers to know?

Quesada: I think it’s important for readers to know that Ash is not being abandoned by its creators. We're still in the trenches. We're trying to get things going so that we can get this series out monthly for the fans. We know we've been letting down the fans and retailers by not coming out more regularly, so we don’t think we’re letting them down at all by putting Humberto Ramos on the series. We’re taking the bull by the horns and getting a little more responsible as a publishing company, in order to give the fans more Ash. If you can believe it, by God, at the end of the year we'll be corning out with Ash monthly, because there will be three issues in the bag. And you know when Ash comes out monthly, it’ll be the end of Western civilization as we know it!

Palmiotti: I just want people out there to know that Event isn’t a big money company, not yet. What we’re really in this for is to put out quality comics, and we hope the fans are enjoying what we're doing, because we're doing it all for them.

 

Source: CBG #1211 (31 Jan 1997)

Here's Looking at Peter David from Wizard #31

Wizard #31 (Mar 1994)

Here an article from Wizard #31 (Mar 1994)

Wizard Profile

Here's Looking at Peter David
Revered as one of the industry's finest writers, Peter David is best known for his long-term plotting, sharp dialogue, and, perhaps more importantly, his tremendous sense of humor.

Born in an army hospital in Fort Meade, Md., the 37-year-old David says he’s been a comics fan since around age five. He cites numerous influences, including Edgar Rice Burroughs, Harlan Ellison, and Stan Lee, and says that he grew up reading Superman, Batman, and other DC Comics.

His story of how he got into comics is a peculiar one. In the early ‘80s, David was in the sales department of Playboy Paperbacks, which was ready to go out of business. Since he wanted to pick up more money, David took on a writing assignment from Comics Scene about the comic book direct sales market. One of his interviews for the piece was with the late Carol Kalish, Marvel Comics’ then-new direct sales manager.

According to David, the two hit it off well, and he “accidentally” mentioned he would soon be out of work. Kalish, in turn, asked David to interview for a position as her assistant, and he was hired shortly thereafter. “I was in the unique position of having interviewed my boss before the boss interviewed me,” David jokes.

While he was assistant direct sales manager at Marvel, David, with Kalish, edited the early issues of Marvel Age, and also wrote some articles for it. His first comics writing assignment was for Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #103, but his first printed story was in Amazing Spider-Man #266.

David, who currently lives in New York State with his wife and three children, has a full plate of writing projects. His assignments include writing Marvel's Incredible Hulk and SpiderMan 2099, DC's Aquaman, Bravura’s Dreadstar, Epic's Sachs and Violens (created by him and George Pérez), and Claypool’s Soul Searchers and Com- pany (co-written with Richard Howell). In addition to this, he writes a weekly column, But! Digress, for Comics Buyer’s Guide, the best of which is currently being compiled in paperback form.

While future comic book projects include Marvel's Tales to Astonish bookshelf one-shot and a Showcase story with the Penguin, David is also concentrating on side projects like writing screenplays for Trancers 4 and 5, Oblivion, and Oblivion 2. He also has a new Star Trek novel due out in ‘94, Q-Squared. As for what the future holds, David will continue to fill his busy schedule by writing more comics, screenplays, and novels. He does want one thing that he can’t get from a life in comics, though. “A good night's sleep,” he sighs.

First comic book read...
The first superhero comic I read was an issue of Action Comics. It was a “Superman on Krypton” story.

Favorite comic of all-time...
Amazing Spider-Man #33, the Master Planner story. The sequence where Spidey lifts the machinery off himself is one of the most dazzling combinations of writing and artwork that I've ever seen.

Favorite work of your own...
The Atlantis Chronicles [a mini-series for DC], because it was the most involved project I’d ever done, and it allowed me to try storytelling techniques I never utilized before.

Comics you currently read...
Sandman, Cerebus, Bone, Groo, and Daredevil. The one person you would like to meet... Thomas Jefferson. I think his mind was one of the most amazing we have ever seen.

What superpower would you want?
I would love to fly at a good clip. I am so impatient, and I would love to be able to get around quickly.

Favorite munchie at 2 a.m...
My wife.

What do you collect?
I collect animation cels and laser discs.

Favorite pastime or hobby...
That would have to be my wife and kids. Unless it’s 2 a.m.

Favorite television show...
Presently, it's L.A. Law. I’m pleased the show has improved.

Last good book you read...
The Color of Light by William Goldman.

Last good movie you saw...
Carlito’s Way.

Who would play you in a movie about yourself?
Bill Murray. We share similar complexions.

Favorite cartoon...
My all-time favorite is the old Fleisher Superman cartoon. Now it's the Batman show.

Person you would most like to work with?
Steve Ditko.

Why do you read Wizard?
I like reading the interviews, although I must admit that I like looking at the Top 10 hottest writers list. I also like looking at the custom action figures section.

Source: Wizard #31 (Mar 1994)

Sonic Youth from Wizard #56

Here an article from Wizard #56 (April 1996)

Wizard #56 (April 1996)

Sonic Youth
by Matthew Brady

IT ALL BEGAN WITH A YOUNG BOY showing a lot of thigh in 1940. That was the year Dick Grayson joined Batman's side as Robin, the Boy Wonder.

Shortly thereafter came a rapid-fire succession of kid sidekicks: The original Human Torch had Toro in the late 1940, while Captain America's Bucky, the Star-Spangled Kid, and the Young Allies showed up in 1941; the Boy Commandos and the Newsboy Legion debuted in 1944; and Superboy made his first appearance in 1945. A new comics sensation had been born: the teenage hero.

According to Denny O'Neil, the editor of DC Comics' Batman titles and Robin's guiding supervisor, these younger heroes served a very useful purpose. "It's always helpful for the hero to have somebody to talk to so he can explain why he's doing what he's doing, and the reader can eavesdrop on this conversation." and having the sidekick be a teen, the adult hero can be more explanatory than they would in a conversation with another adult.

(Excerpt)

TEEN BEAT

“I plan to do it, I look forward to doing it, and the best we can say at this point is that it's going to happen,” said Dan Jurgens, confirming will head a Teen Titans relaunch in the near future, with George Perez inking.

But Jurgens warns fans not to expect any kid with an "R" on his chest, a li'l Amazon princess, or any of the other traditional Teen Titans to be members. “While I have nothing but respect for what Marv Wolfman and George Perez did [in the '80s revival The New Teen Titans], the characters have aged. Nightwing is older. Speedy is older, has a kid and is called Arsenal, while Aqualud may be dead. They've all been through so many changes that to me, the Teen Titans need an entirely new group of kids, so it's going to feature predominantly new characters," Jurgens notes.

Jurgens wants to avoid the "Junior JLA" cliché by keeping Impulse, Superboy, the young Green Arrow and other established young characters out of the mix. "I think if s crucial in a book like this to be able to do a lot of character development, and you can't do that when it's someone else's character," he says. "What I want to do is find maybe one or two existing characters, and then fill the roster with brand-new characters. That way, the stories are all new, the villains are all new, and the direction is unknown so I can surprise the render and really make it something that is totally its own, rather than borrowing piece meal from here and there."

■ M

Source: Wizard #56 (April 1996)

The Hot Seat from Wizard #139

Wizard #139 (Apr 2003)

Here an article from Wizard #139 (Apr 2003)

The Hot Seat

This Month Featuring: GEORGE PEREZ Artist of Marvel/DC’s upcoming JLA/Avengers and CrossGen’s Solus

Wizard: George, you've had historic runs on Teen Titans and Avengers. Now you're tackling JLA/Avengers and Solus for CrossGen. How do you get it all done, ye?
PEREZ: Slowly...very slowly.

Besides doing awe-inspiring comics, you're also known for your Hawaiian shirts. So that begs the question, how much of your annual income goes to Hawaiian shirts?
[Laughs] I don't even want to think about it. But actually my wife, Carol Flynn, has been making them for me for a long time now.

Wearing Hawaiian shirts seems like it would get some attention. When's the last time you were in a fistfight?
Oh, not since I was in grade school, This kid ripped my Thor comic and then he punched me. I think I ripped his jacket and then he punched me. Then I just ran home.

That's sad, brother. Did you ever get revenge like Batman would?
No.

Well, we know you weren't born to stalk the street of Gotham protecting the innocent. What else are you not born to do?
I hate drawing cars, especially moving cars.

Does that mean we won't see Cap and Superman driving around in a Saab together in JLA/Avengers?
What?

Uh-huh, that's what I thought. So when was the last time you weren't thinking about JLA/Avengers?
Until you brought it up, at least five minutes.

Okay, which writers are you dying to work with and what projects do you want to tackle with them?
Alan Moore and Neil Gaiman spring to mind. And if lever get to work with them, I'd let them pick the project—anything they want to do.

Here's the big question. Who plays George Perez in the George Perez CBS Movie of the Week?
Why am I on CBS?

Just go with it.
I used to say Burt Reynolds and I've heard Dorm DeLuise, maybe some kind of strange morph of those two?

Maybe CBS could call it "George Perez's Cannonball Run."
Maybe.

Okay, check out these art legends: Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, Bob Kane, and George Perez.
Whoa, I've started to hear that “legend” tag more and more, but I'm not even 50 yet. I'm like, “Hey, slow down. I'm too young to be a legend!”

■ Mike Cotton

Source: Wizard #139 (Apr 2003)

Career Moves from Wizard #35

From Wizard #35 (July 1994)

Career Moves

Creator George Perez reminisces about his 20-year career, the Justice League/Avengers crossover follies, and his upcoming work on Malibu's UltraForce.

by Patrick Daniel O’Neill

Wizard #35 (July 1994) JLA/Avengers: What Happened? A lot of mystery surrounds the unpublished 1983 DC/Marvel Justice League of America/Avengers crossover. After artist George Perez addressed the controversy in his interview with Patrick Daniel O'Neill, Wizard contacted Jim Shooter and Dick Giordano to see if Marvel's then editor-in-chief and DCs then vice president and execute editor, respectively, could set the record straight. Shooter's response to Pérez’s comments: “George is very much misinformed. The plot for the JLA/Avengers [book] had indeed been submitted to me before George started drawing it. It was weak, full of holes, and replete with continuity glitches. I rejected it in writing. Dick Giordano subsequent telephoned me to ask if I would mind if he told [writer] Gerry Conway that DC had rejected the plot instead of me, for some strange reason of infernal polities which I never did understand. I said I didn't care what DC did internally as long as I got a revised plot. A month or two later, I heard a rumor that George Perez had drawn 21 pages of the rejected plot I couldn't get Dick on the phone, so I sent him a telegram telling him to stop immediately. "Dick sent me copies of the pages. To George’s credit, he had indeed fixed many, but not all of the problems. I judged that most of the pages were not only usable but excellent and that the unusable pages could be fixed with minor corrections. I asked that the corrections be done and a revised plot be submitted before work progressed. "I'm not sure what went on at DC but at one point Dick took me to lunch and asked that they be allowed to finish the book as originally plotted. Again, he cited DCs internal political strife. His position was basically this: who cares if it's wrong or bad, it'll sell like crazy anyway. He confirmed those sentiments later in a letter to me. Well I cared if I was wrong or bad, and I insisted on corrections and a revised plot. "The first time I knew that George was angry at me was when I read an interview in a fan magazine in which he unjustly condemned me. Why he didn’t simply call me and ask me what was going on amazes me to this day, George shouldn’t make presumptions about my motives. “I had no vendetta against DC. I was in fact the one who reinstated the crossovers, along with [DC Present and Publisher] Jenette Kahn. Why would I sabotage them? "The president and business affairs brass of Marvel backed my position to the point that they were will to let the project die, taking perhaps several hundred of thousand dollars off our bottom line. They would not have allowed such an event to occur over some personal vendetta of mine, I assure you." Giordano declined to comment on the matter, instead referring inquirers to an edition of his "Meanwhile..." column. The column ran in DC issues cover dated January 1985. DC Comics say that the column accurately reflects DC's feeling at that time. In the column, Giordano admitted that he (not Len Wein, as Perez believes) was at fault for allowing Perez to begin penciling the crossover without getting written approval of the plot from Shooter, as Shooter had requested. "I thought this request to be logical but largely a formality," Gordano wrote. In a letter to Shooter that he reprinted in the "Meanwhile.." column, Giordano conceded that the original script had been somewhat problematic. "Yes, there still remain some questions left unanswered in the plot, but no more or less than are left unanswered in most plots. More often than not, these questions are resolved while the work is in progress, and I'm sure that you'll agree the levels of skill possessed by George Perez. [writer] Roy Thomas, Len Wein, and myself are sufficient to resolve those plot "holes" to everyone's satisfaction." In the column, Giordano added, "With one page and a few panels redrawn and a few copy changes, the motivations for the characters' behavior were right..." He came to believe that Shooter was stalling plot approval. Giordano's conclusion? "In my view, the JLA/Avengers book will not be published because somebody or several somebodies, at Marvel simply doesn't want it to be published," presumably a reference to marvel's editorial team. He then apologized to the fans for not being able to print the crossover. Will the unfinished crossover someday be published? Although both publishers now have different editorial teams, it seems unlikely. Neal Pozner, DC's group editor of creative services, says that although he as a reader would like to see it published, DC doesn't feel that the time is right for it. A high-level Marvel source says that while the company always entertains new ideas and concepts, this particular project's status - it was officially cancelled over 10 years ago - that has not changed. - Brian Cunningham

Bronx-Born George Perez is a self-taught artist who after two decades in the business finds himself among those rare few who are acknowledged favorites - not just of longtime comics readers who have followed his work for years - and also of relative newcomers. Now 40 years old, he first came to the attention of fans at age 20 with a run on Marvel's Avengers. His reputation grew when he co-created the New Teen Titans for DC Comics. He has since garnered accolades for Crisis on Infinite Earths, Wonder Woman, Infinity Gauntlet, and Sachs & Violens. Perez is currently gearing up for Malibu's new book Ultraforce.

Wizard: You've just finished up Sachs & Violens, the Epic mini-series written by Peter David. Did you have any qualms about doing a story like that, with adult content?
Perez: Heavens no! It's all I can do not get more fetishes in.

On the first issue, I was a little more constrained because I was concerned about doing a book like that. How much of it would come off as prurient, as opposed to a good story with some kinky elements? With all the respect I have for Peter's writing, would the story be strong enough for the readers to see through the initial sleaziness of content?

As it turned out my fears were unfounded. Then I noticed Peter putting in more stuff and he noticed me putting in stuff with bondage and leather, and he realized we had hit the right note of perversion.

You had hit the line you couldn't cross?
Right. But first and foremost, it works because we were both trying to tell a story. It's a real challenge to do an urban crime story, where you can't be fanciful and make stuff up. I always wanted to do "good girl art" - I'm as kinky as the next guy, depending on who the next guy is - and I started letting go more.

Part of the reason the first issue isn't as explicit as the later ones is I wanted to give readers something to look forward to. If JJ Sachs was shown totally nude from the beginnings, we would have thrown all our cards on the table and have had no game left.

Were the scheduling problems on Sachs & Violens just another case of overwork on your part?
Yeah - whenever things are delayed it's overwork and often some economics as well.

You know I have gotten to the point that I can say "No." I've actually turned down a lot of work lately.

So you did the two Break-Thru bookends last year for Malibu as an economic tide-over and now you're doing Ultraforce?
Yeah which is basically Malibu's version of the Avengers and Justice League teaming up their existing characters with new ones. It also the first book since Wonder Woman that I actively campaigned for.

I heard about Ultraforce from [Malibu Editor] Hank Kanalz, who was calling about doing three fill-in issues of Prime and he asked me to design the new characters. Ultraforce #0 will appear as a two-part addition to two issues of Wizard, meaning that probably more people will see it than any other Malibu comic up until now.

I said if I was going to design the characters, I'd like to draw the book as well. I don't feel comfortable designing characters for other people to draw. they sent me Gerry Jones's script and after talking with all the business types, I agreed to do #0 and at least six issues more. I haven't done a legitimate group book since New Titans and I was really jazzed about starting something from the ground floor again.

Are you also doing something for Bravura at Malibu?
I hope to be. The negotiations are underway. It's called Gladiator. It’s still in the legal morass. In fact, Jim Lee at Image says they would like to be involved in the negotiation and could maybe offer a better deal. [Image is] another player I hadn't reckoned on.

[But] I really, really enjoy working with Malibu. Financial considerations aside—Lord knows I've made a lot of money working for DC and Marvel—Malibu has a genuine respect for the creative personnel. Even on a work-for-hire basis, they've gone out of their way to help me. I had a slight medical emergency at one point and they were there to help.

They acknowledge talent as the bastion of the industry; they're not going to have any books unless they have talent working on them. They treat the new people with the same professional respect as the established pros.

We met when you were still in high school. I guess the stuff Jim Glenn and I published in our Factors Unknown fanzine in 1971 when you Were 17 was your first work to see print. How did you make the break into the professional ranks?
Incredible luck. I was making the rounds [at] the conventions, as so many aspiring artists do, right out of high school. I had also begun making the circuit of the publishers—DC, Marvel, Continuity. [The conventions were] where I got my first taste of criticism—which left me shell-shocked and nearly caused me to quit. In hindsight, I realize the criticisms were harsh only because I wasn’t used to [them].

I got in with [Factors Unknown], but meanwhile Sal Quartuccio [now head of Sal Q Productions] had shown my stuff to [artist] Rich Buckler. Rich needed an assistant and called me up with an offer. I was working as a bank teller at the time.

My first published pro work was on Rich’s first issue of Deathlok, Astonishing Tales #25. He gave me a two-page cartoon sequence at the end showing how he and Doug Moench came up with Deathlok from discarded ideas in a trash pail. My art being what it was at the time, I penciled everything except the Deathlok figure.

By being Rich’s assistant, people at Marvel got to know me. And people like [editor] Jim Salicrup and [writers] David Kraft and Bill Mantlo saw my work, liked it, and got me my first work under my own name. George Tuska needed a break on the Man-Wolf feature in Creatures on the Loose and Dave Kraft liked working with me, so he asked me to stay.

Around the same time, I was given a fill-in on the Sons of the Tiger feature in Deadly Hands of Kung Fu #6, but Bill Mantlo asked for me to stay on as well.

Thanks to them, I was given regular work fairly quickly. That was around 1974, only two years out of high school. Within six months after that, Rich Buckler fell behind. Since I was Rich’s assistant, they asked me to pencil what was supposed to be a Fantastic Four annual and turned into two issues of the regular book [#164-#165].

George Perez on Who Killed Myndi Mayer from Fantasy Advertiser #107

Fantasy Advertiser #107 (1988)

From APA Interlac 73 (originally from Fantasy Advertiser #107), thanks to Isamu H

When I did "Who Killed Myndi Mayer", no one counted on it being an anti-drug book, by it's very nature. And even when we found out she was an addict, no one criticized her for being an addict. One person said, "if she was an addict, I'd feel sorry for her," they were more concerned that she was a criminal, they thought she was doing criminal acts. The fact that she was an addict, was something "that happens, and unfortunately it was happening to her. She's dead now. Criticizing her because she was an addict, now that she's dead, didn't seem the right thing to do. Also, one person pointed out , and it never really occurred to me in the Myndi Mayer story, which is probably why it showed a message without being as blatant as it could had been: it's one of the rare times in comics that a drug story was done with the victim not a teenager.

She's a forty-year-old woman, obviously a woman who would know better. Doesn't have that same peer pressure a child would have, but still, just as a much a victim. That the drug problem is practically ageless, really.

KG: Sure is.

GP: To me it was such a natural progression of the character, it never occurred to me that I was doing something different, because, again, like the scene with Menalippe, it seemed logical, it just followed through. It never occurred to me that it was unusual.

Source: bsky

The Wizard Q & A: Kurt Busiek

Wizard #71 (July 1997) Vital Stats Name: Kurt Busiek Occupation: Comic book writer Born: September 16, 1960 Base of Operations: Vancouver, Wash. Career Highlights: Power Man and Iron Fist, Red Tornado mini-series, ShadowHawk and Vampirella before hitting it big with Marvels and then Astro City, Thunderbolts and Untold Tales of Spider-Man. Favorite City: Portland, Ore.— “[It has] more movie screens per capita than anywhere else in the country. Everything plays here.”

Here an article from Wizard #71 (July 1997)

The Wizard Q & A: Kurt Busiek

Poised to take over 'Iron Man' and ‘Avengers, hot writer Kurt Busiek proves that success doesn’t always come overnight

by Andrew Karon

It was an overnight success after 12 years in the business,” says Kurt Busiek in his usual jovial and slightly nasal voice. And he's not kidding.

The popular 37-year-old writer's name became hot on fans’ lips with his 1993 collaboration with painter Alex Ross on Marvel Comics’ acclaimed Marvels mini-series, and has since proven he’s no one-hit wonder.

He's continued his all-star status by working on his own Astro City for Image Comics, Marvel’s sleeper hit Thunderbolts and the critically acclaimed Untold Tales of Spider-Man. And Marvel knows it has a winner in I Busiek: he’s currently a contract away from I writing The Avengers and Iron Man when the books return from the “Heroes Reborn” universe later this year.

As for those other 12 years, the Boston-born Busiek worked his way around the indus‘try. Growing up in New England, Busiek always had his sights set on being a comic book riter. While attending Syracuse University, he landed a seven-page back-up story in Green Lantern #162. “I made that sale on Thursday, and graduation was Saturday,” says Busiek.

From there, it was more back-ups, a gig on Power Man and Iron Fist for Marvel, a Red Tornado mini-series for DC and an assistant editorship at Marvel Age magazine. After a brief stint as a literary agent, he continued freelancing until Marvel brought him on board as Direct Sales Manager overseeing the science fiction anthology Open Space. Though the series only lasted four issues, it was there that Busiek met then-unknown painter Ross. And since then, Busiek’s career hasn't slowed down for an instant.

Now, with his Jron Man dream project in his sights, Wizard caught up to Busiek. And in between writing numerous scripts and taking bites of a pork egg foo young sandwich, he found some time to...well...chew the fat.

WIZARD: Even though you haven't signed the papers yet, what would be your approach to Iron Man?
KURT BUSIEK: I am a long-time Iron Man fan. I have always liked Iron Man because Iron Man, to my mind, is four characters in one. He's an adventurer, an inventor, a businessman and a ladies man. All four of these aspects could support a series on their own, and Iron Man is four of ‘em at once. So Iron Man is a multi-faceted character with a lot of possibilities.

Iron Man is also one of the few early Marvel Universe characters who doesn't have a motivating crisis. He got the armor to save his life, then he got back to the states and kept being Iron Man. Well, he had to wear the chest plate to keep him alive, but he didn’t have to go around being Iron Man. Unlike Spider-Man, there is no Uncle en there. He's had his business destroyed, he’s become an alcoholic, he’s had fiancées kill themselves. He's been through an awful lot as a result of being Iron Man and yet he still does it. So the question I would like to resolve fairly early on is, “Who is Tony Stark? Why did he become the kind of person who would do this?”

And the other thing I really like about Iron Man is that he’s got this weird secret identity set up. How many other superheroes pose as their own employee? It’s not just the idea of that, it’s the fact that Iron Man traditionally interacts with the same people Tony Stark does, but they think he's a different guy. So when Iron Man is in the man, people can talk about Tony as if he’s not there, and Iron Man—behind this iron wall—is having people talk about himself.

What would the series be like?
I think Iron Man should be a book about suspense and intrigue. I think there should be enemies all around, whether it’s corporate enemies or villians like the Mandarin. I think there should be a healthy dose of shadows, intrigue and paranoia in the book and I hope to be getting that in there.

How are you going to handle the fact that right before “Heroes Reborn,” Tony Stark actually died, and was replaced by a teenage Tony Stark?
[Choke] Excuse me, I was just clearing my thoat...We're going to be solving the teen Tony problem before the book starts. The plan is for the Heroes Return” books to start out clean, so creators can step into it even if they know nothing about Iron Man. We'll start out from ground zero, tell you who he is and get moving, We will have an adult Tony Stark who remembers everything. You know how the Batman on the animated Series isn’t any of the existing DC continuity Batmans? He's kind of like the boiled-down essence of the best of all of them. That's the Tony Stark I want. And it may take some jumpin’ and juggling to get him to that spot, but we'll do all that behind the scenes so the readers don't have to think about it, It'll either be addressed before [the first] issue or in an annual somewhere, It's just not gonna bog us down.

You mentioned in Marvels #0 that you and Alex Ross made a pitch for Iron Man that was rejected. Will your new proposal be similar to the old one?
I made a pitch for Iron Man three times. I was beaten out by David Michelinie, John Byrne and Kaminski. So I've worked up a lot of different Iron Man ideas, and many of the ideas from the earlier proposals have made their way into this proposal, But Iron Man is a book that I have wanted to write for probably 20 years now. So it feels very good to be this close to actually getting to put some of these ideas in print.

Which armor are you planning on using?
One you haven't seen before, We have some weeping changes in mind for Tony's set-up and relationship with the armor, the way the armor works in the series, But one of the traditions of Iron Man, particularly in recent years, is start a new era on the book, get a new suit of armor. When Tony comes back from “Heroes Reborn,” he won't simply be wearing the “Heroes Reborn” suit, since that'll sort of get left behind. We haven't worked out the details yet, but I don’t see that he’s gonna Zo back to the suit he was wearing immediately before “Heroes Reborn”—for one thing, he’s a good six inches taller! We have some specific ideas I how we can make it the next generation of cool, cutting-edge looking armor. I've always liked the red and gold look, but it’s a little too early to say.

And how about the Avengers? Who makes your team?
To my mind, the Avengers works best when you've got kind of a two-level structure. You've got to have the big guns. You've gotta have Thor, Iron Man and Captain America. Maybe not all of them every issue, but they're the core of the Avengers They're the power hitters. They're the people that make the team Earth's Mightiest Heroes. And then around them, you've got the sort of resident Avengers. The people who are living in the mansion. For them, Avengers is their home title. I think a real classic period for this was when Steve Englehart was writing the book and Thor, Iron Man and Captain America were kinda setting policy for the team and responding to the big adventure stuff. And the Vision and Scarlet Witch, and the Swordsman and Mantis are having this romantic squabble going on. So you've got the big grand glorious heroic stuff, and you've also got the cool-textured, involved personal stuff. So George [Pérez, artist currently slated for Avengers] and I are planning a team that will have that flavor, that will have a core of big guns and other characters around that will flesh out the team.

That sort of feel would you want with the title?
We want it to be a mixture of big cosmic adventure and involving personal stories. To my mind, if you look over Avengers’ history, the villains are rarely stand-out guys. Even in the great Avengers stories that you remember, like the Kree/Skrull War, who were the villains in that? They were a bunch of Skrulls with guns. Wow. I'm shakin’. It was the atmosphere of it. It was what was going on with the Avengers characters, with the Vision having to save Wanda because he hadn't declared his love for her. We want to do big epics. We want to start off with a bang, but not with some big, extended, cosmic thing. We want to start off with something that gets everything set in place, So everyone wants to know what's going to happen and explore the team for a little while. Keep things hopping, keep a variety of villains going on, from supervillains to conspiracies to terrorists, always with a costumed superpower element to it. The best way I could put it is classic Avengers-type stuff.

Your creator-owned Astro City has really been picking up steam lately, garnering tons of critical acclaim. What does Astro City mean to you?
What Astro City is to my mind is a vehicle. The superhero genre is a rich compelling genre, and there's gotta be millions and millions of pages of superhero stories done, but very few of them explore the genre beyond just the commercial thriller formula. I've always been fascinated by what else you can do with the superhero story. So Astro City is designed to be a book in which I can do anything with superheroes. I can go anywhere. So metaphorically, I think of the superhero genre as a big area and we've been building this city in one corner of Bit. The city has gotten bigger and more complex. What I've built with Astro City is a car, and I'm gonna go driving all over the place looking for the stuff we haven't done.

Where is Astro City heading? Do you have an ending in sight?
I don’t have an ending in mind, so much as I know that toward the end there’s one story I'm saving till then. Near the end, I will tell the story of how Astro City got its name. There've been hints dropped already in the books. But no, this isn’t Sandman, this isn’t something where it's a story and I know where it’s going and where it ends. I would like to go 10-15 years [on it]. This is not a destination; this is a journey.

Part of the book’s success is your unique writing style, where you're continually changing characters and points of view. Will you eventually settle down with one main cast?
This is an ensemble cast book, but it’s an ensemble cast of about 3,000 or 4,000, We'll tell a lot of one-issue, shorter stories, and probably have a maximum length of six issues on any one story. If you don't like where the series is at the moment, In a couple of months we'll be dealing with another character, doing something else. The only ongoing character is the city and we will even have stories that don’t take place in the city.

There are rumors that you're leaving Untold Tales of Spider-Man because you've run out of “untold tales” to tell. Any truth?
I am leaving Untold Tales. They are canceling it at issue #25. I could certainly think of more untold tales to tell, but I've been thinking of them for two years now, and I have the opportunity to do other things where I can vary my workload some more. I was planning to leave Untold Tales and start another creator-owned book. And then Marvel offered me Avengers and Iron Man...

How do you plan on ending Untold Tales?

We'll be wrapping up all the plotlines. We've got things like Batwing living with the Connors family in Florida, but the next time he shows up in Spider-Man continuity, Batwing ain't there. We're gonna do something with Betty's mom, because shortly after Peter goes to college [in Amazing Spider-Man #31], Betty leaves town for a little while, which is not something she can really do with a comatose mom. So we've gotta do something about Betty's mom. Also, Jason is in the middle of a plotline that we're gonna have to resolve. He took some advice from the Vulture: Hate Spider-Man.

Would you ever he interested in writing a current continuity Spider-Man title?
The problem with the current continuity Spidey is that there are four core titles, the new Marvel Team-Up series and Spider-Man Unlimited. So anybody who's writing one of those, only gets to write a piece of Spider-Man. You're kinda dealing with consensus. In my case, I have a collaborator. His name is Stan Lee. He's done. [Laughs] I know everything he did and all I have to do is match that. With Spider-Man or Superman or Batman or X-Men, you are sharing those characters every single time. I think that would be hard.

You recently took readers by storm with the end of Thunderbolts #1, revealing that the starring “heroes” are really the Masters of Evil in disguise. Will you be changing the book’s direction, now that “Heroes Rebom” is ending and all the heroes are returning?
We've always figured that the heroes were coming back and we worked that into our plans for Thunderbolts. Back when I started reading comics, I was dumb enough that I [thought] maybe Spider-Man would die next issue. And that feeling that I didn’t know what was going to happen was one of the reasons that I liked the X-Men when they came back [in 1975-76] with Chris Claremont writing, I had no idea what was gonna happen. It was really exciting. And the great thing I’m enjoying about Thunderbolts, is the readers don't know what we're gonna do. The series is going to go in some different directions. I mean we are going to build up to a revelation, where Baron Zemo’s plan finally kicks in. But we have places to go after that.

How are the Thunderbolts going to react to the Avengers’ return?
[Laughs] You can’t figure that Baron Zemo is gonna be happy about it. But they're not in a position to say “Ha! There can’t be any Avengers anymore. We got the job.” So there's not a whole lot they can do about it aside from making sure that whatever plans they've got come to fruition soon enough, so that Avengers won't be able to do anything about it.

Looking at your current and upcoming workload, did you ever envision you'd be this involved in comics?
I didn't ever imagine that I would be about to write my two favorite comic books at the same time. But I've always seen myself as writing four books a month and being a full-time comics writer. And that’s where I am.

--
Adrew Kardon is real ticked off that he’s not con- sidered one of the Avengers’ “big guns.” After all, he’s not afraid of a buncha Skrulls with guns.

Source: Wizard #71 (July 1997)

My JLA/Avengers from Wizard Zero

JLA/Avengers article from Wizard Zero (Sep 2003)

MY JLA/AVENGERS

Comics’ ultimate crossover has been 20 years in the making, and with the project debuting in September, the artist details the challenges, the exhilaration and how he almost called it quits

by George Perez (as told to Mike Cotton)

Wizard Zero (Sep 2003) FIRST THINGS FIRST... What happened with the 1983 JLA/Avengers Crossover? In the early 1980s, it looked like nothing could stop a JLA/Avengers crossover nothing but Marvel and DC Comics. Following up on a very successful string of crossovers like 1976's Superman vs. Spider-Man and 1982's X-Men/New Teen Titans, Marvel and DC agreed to a JLA/Avengers one-shot crossover. Gerry Conway plotted the story and George Perez was assigned to pencil it, but before long, problems began to surface that would eventually torpedo the project. Conway's initial plot, which reportedly revolved around time travel and set the JLA/Avengers up in a Contest of Champions-style competition, took almost two years to complete. By February of 1983 though, Marvel Editor-in-Chief Jim Shooter was finally able to review a plot—he refused it flatly, claiming the story made no sense. Everyone agreed that a revised plot was needed, Unfortunately, no one told that to Pérez, who began drawing the rejected plot. “It was excruciatingly annoying,” says Pérez today, the only person to work on both the original one-shot and the current four-issue crossover shipping in September. “I drew 21 pages before I got the call to stop penciling immediately.” Eventually writer Roy Thomas re-scripted the initial plot but the in-fighting between Marvel and DC's editorial teams put the project in jeopardy. Everyone from Pérez to Thomas to Shooter did interviews about the project’s continued delays and by May of 1984 both publishers officially scuttled the one-shot. ■ MC

I've waited my entire life for one day—the day JLA/Avengers became reality.

Sure, for the last two years, I've been drawing the JLA/Avengers match-up pitting the classic superteams from rival publishers DC and Marvel Comics. And after pushing for 20 years, a handful of false starts, scuttled plans and mis- steps, I wasn't sure if JLA/Avengers was ever going to see the light of day.

Back in 1983 we came close. I actually drew 21 pages of a JLA/Avengers one-shot, but company politics and editorial wrangling torpedoed the project before I ever put pencil to paper on page 22.

And, of course, there were always rumors. A comic convention never went by when someone didn't ask me, “When are you going to do JLA/Avengers?” Over the years, the project took on mythical proportions with expectations and speculation rising with each passing year. And if it were up to me, I would've done it in a second. But when you're dealing with the two biggest publishers in comics (and some of the biggest egos to boot), nothing's easy. But today, June 27, 2003, as I finish off the inks (did I mention, I'm penciling and inking the entire series?) on issue #3, I can hardly believe JLA/Avengers is almost complete.

This is my diary from the first time I seriously began talking to Marvel and DC about the updated version of the crossover, Everything from the first phone calls in 1999 to today as I review the colors on the Batman/Captain America fight. If you think you know everything there is to know about the new JLA/Avengers, think again.

FALSE START
Jan 10, 1999— I've been approached on and off over the years about a JLA/Avengers project. But now that both JLA, with Grant Morrison and Howard Porter, is successful, and Avengers is successful under Kurt Busiek and myself, it looks like we might get a shot at actually doing the series. Kurt and [Avengers Editor] Tom Brevoort believe it’s a perfect time. Now that these two books are hot, why don't we start negotiating it? Everyone is a little concerned that I won't have time to draw the regular Avengers series and the crossover, so we decide it will just take place in both regular series and I'll draw the Avengers half with Howard drawing the JLA half. It’s a terrible monster to coordinate, though.

Jan 15, 2000 — Thankfully, Marvel and DC have ceased negotiations. No one wants to do this series more than I do, but I don't think Grant really had any enthusiasm to do a crossover book like this. I'd rather draw the entire thing myself. This is my baby and I don't want anyone else breast feeding her.

Aug 5, 2000—Now that Mark Waid’s been tapped to write JLA, there's been talk of working out another crossover with Mark and Kurt co-writing it. But this time, I 'll draw the entire series, I'm keeping my fingers crossed!

Aug 28, 2000— I finish my last issue of Avengers today. I'd hoped to be working: on JLA/Avengers by now, but who knows when that will happen.

Sept 3, 2000—Joe Quesada took over as editor-in-chief of Marvel Comics a few days ago. I am a little disappointed when I call to congratulate him and he tells me that he isn't interested in doing any more crossovers with DC. Joe feels that the novelty of inter-company crossovers has been diluted by the recent glut of such projects. I can't really disagree. Even I wrote one, the Silver Surfer/Superman crossover in 1997! Joe doesn't dash all of my hopes though. According to him, there's one crossover he’d do— JLA/Avengers. He also says that the project's mine if he can get it approved. He says he'll keep me informed. I won't hold my breath.

Oct 5, 2000- I just started doing CrossGen Chronicles and [CrossGen President] Mark Alessi calls me today to ask if I'd be interested in working for his company full time. I’m seriously considering his offer, but with JLA/Avengers being talked about again, I'm not sure if I want to lock myself down in an exclusive contract with CrossGen even though it’s very enticing.

Oct 18, 2000—Both DC and Marvel have how expressed interest in having me pencil JLA/Avengers, but no one’s even started talking about contracts yet. Also, Mark [Waid] just signed an exclusive with CrossGen, so Kurt would have to write it solo, I wonder if this is just going to turn into another debacle.

Nov 22, 2000— I've informed Marvel and DC that if I don't receive a written agreement by Dec. 15, I'll sign an exclusive contract with CrossGen and won't be able to work on JLA/Avengers for at least two years.

GO TIME
Dec 15, 2000— I finally receive the contract for JLA/Avengers, and I inform Mark Alessi I will go exclusive with CrossGen as of October 2002.

Jan 17, 2001—While Kurt, Tom and Dan [Raspler, JLA editor] work on a plot, I work on the first promo art for a joint announcement at March's Orlando MegaCon and Wizard #116 in March. I can hardly believe I’m being paid for an actual piece of artwork for JLA/Avengers. This isn't a fan commission—this is the real deal!

March 2, 2001 —By the time we all get together in Orlando to announce the project, everyone was already talking about it. I guess a project this big can’t be kept under wraps for too long. And since Marvel and DC already announced they'd be co-hosting a panel, most fans and pros have already put two and two together. It eases my mind a little bit now that everyone knows JLA/Avengers is a go again. Now that DC and Marvel have put their collective reputations on the line, I don't see anything holding this project back anymore.

March 24, 2001— As expected, the plot is taking a long time to be approved. I'm already receiving pieces, but I can't get a real feel for the story without everything. I like what I see so far, though.

April 6, 2001- Wizard wants to run the first art from JLA/Avengers, so I'm jumping ahead in my work to push through the pencils and inks on the first two double-page spreads. I can't wait for fans to get a look at this stuff. So far, I haven't drawn any pages of the JLA and Avengers interacting, so we pick out pages of the JLA fighting a major Marvel villain (Terminus) and the Avengers taking on a major DC villain (Starro).

April 8, 2001— There’s so many characters in this series, I'm doing research like crazy. I literally couldn't remember what Terminus looked like today!

April 15, 2001—Marvel and DC have a very different vision of what the coloring on JLA/Avengers should look from mine and [colorist] Tom Smith's. I feel bad that Tom's caught in the middle.

April 20, 2001— I am growing increasingly annoyed with the coloring on the two spreads we're sending Wizard for their “First Look." When I voice my displeasure to Tom [Brevoort] and Dan, both decide that Tom Smith and myself are more than welcome to make any grievances public. I guess no one wants to be the person who has to go to their bosses and say, “I'm the one responsible for George Pérez quitting this book.”

May 2, 2001—I just finished page #21 of the first issue. As I wrote “JLA/Avengers issue #1, page #22” on the next art board, I realized this is further than this project has ever gone before. I called Tom Brevoort immediately to celebrate. This is a landmark day!

May 17, 2001—The plots are slowing down and I don't think it’s Kurt’s fault. [DC Editor] Dan Raspler doesn’t want to approve anything until he gets a complete plot. I'm getting annoyed. He seems to be very indecisive and that’s something we can't allow with a project this big.

May 21, 2001-Since a holdup in plot approval doesn’t allow me to continue pencilling, I start to ink what I've already penciled for issue #1. I want this project to be “all George Pérez,” a complete representation of my art.

June 7, 2001—Now that issue #1 is penciled and I'm halfway through penciling issue #2, DC's business department wants to have a firm date when JLA/Avengers will ship, but that’s impossible at this point. There's no way this book should have a ship date until we know it can ship. I tell Marvel and DC that I'll walk away from this project if they don’t hold to their word when they said, “JLA/Avengers will ship when JLA/Avengers is ready to ship.”

June 18, 2001—I work on the first meeting between the JLA and Avengers today, and Thor cracks Superman with his hammer in a scene that’s going to be huge! I would expect no less from Kurt.

July 10, 2001—As I'm thinking the last pages of issue #1, I learn I'm going to have to go back and redraw Green Lantern's costume. DC recently updated his look and it'll need to be reflected. After speaking with everyone involved, we agree that this will be the last costume change we make. If costumes or characters change from now on, they won't be reflected in the crossover.

Aug 1, 2001-With the pencils on issue #2 almost complete, I make preparations to take a brief vacation to France with my wife this September. I look forward to taking some time off.

Sep 11, 2001—As my wife and I prepare to go to the airport we hear the news about the World Trade Center disaster. I can't believe any of this. We cancel our trip.

THE NIGHT SHIFT
Jan 5, 2002—Looking over my bank records, I realize I'm losing about 30 percent of my income now that I'm only working on JLA/Avengers. I'm very worried about bankruptcy. I've called my art dealer and he's set me up doing some commission pieces to help out.

June 3, 2002—The plans for my new CrossGen book Solus haven't been finalized yet, so I've got a one-month reprieve to work on JLA/Avengers. Plot approval remains slow. I'm at a standstill on issue #3 pencils, and I continue inking issue #2.

Aug 20, 2002—I draw the Batman versus Captain America fight today, This one will make the fanboys go crazy!

Oct 1, 2002—My CrossGen contract has gone back into effect, From now on, I'll only work on JLA/Avengers at night and on weekends. I'm still penciling and inking issue #3. I'm jazzed to be working on Solus with Barbara Kesel, but I wish I had a little more time to devote to JLA/Avengers.

March 7, 2003—I can't ever recall working longer days. I work on JLA/ Avengers off the clock constantly. Even when I sit down to watch TV with my wife these days, I find myself bringing a board and pen with me to finish the inks on issue #3.

Apr 23, 2003—We're in the home stretch. Although the final plot is still being worked on, I begin penciling the first third of JLA/Avengers #4. We decide to solicit the project for September— the first issue debuting Sept. 3 —and I'm confident we can meet that deadline, but it’s still going to be tight. We may have to go to a six-week shipping schedule, but I'm sure each issue will be worth the wait.

June 27, 2003-Now that we're less than three months away from shipping issue #1, I've finally got some breathing room. Although most of my week is taken up working on Solus, the pencils on JLA/Avengers #4 are coming along nicely and the inks on issue #3 are almost done.

Looking back, this has been one of the most enjoyable and creative experiences of my 30-year career. People ask me how I feel, and I tell them to get back to me Sept. 3, I'll feel a lot better then.

==
Florida-based writer/artist George Pérez has been drawing comics steadily since 1974, gaining a rep for ultra-detailed artwork. He achieved superstardom in the 1980s reviving DC's New Teen Titans and drawing Crisis on Infinite Earths (both with writer Marv Wolfman). In the ‘90s he illustrated a popular Avengers reboot, which led to his dream job, JLA/Avengers.

Source: Wizard Zero (Sep 2003)

Jerry Ordway Interview from Comics Scene #3

Here an article from Comics Scene #3 (May 1988)

The Other Man Behind SUPERMAN

When the Man of Steel beckons, it's up, up & away for all-star artist Jerry Ordway.

by Hank Kanalz

Comics Scene #3 (May 1988) "I always feel more comfortable doing everything," confesses Ordway. photo by Jonathan Peterson

Superman may be able to change the course of mighty rivers with his bare hands, but for almost two years, he has been at the mercy of a man who routinely gives him more trouble than Lex Luthor ever dreamed of causing. Armed not with a chunk of Kryptonite, but only lead and graphite, Jerry Ordway has kept the Adventures of Superman as action-packed as possible.

Ironically, the young Ordway had always preferred the works of Neal Adams and Wally Wood, two artists who influenced his work, to the exploits of the Man of Steel. Yet, thanks to the first Christopher Reeve film and the chance to become involved in a project's development, the artist has taken to the hero faster than a speeding bullet.

COMICS SCENE: How did you break into comics?

JERRY ORDWAY: I tried on many occasions before actually breaking in. Mike Machlan and I went down to New York in Summer '77. We went to get work at Marvel, but we brought our samples and met with editors at DC and Vince Colletta, their [then] art director. He basically gave me a hard time because I didn't have any pencil samples; all I had was this inked stuff. Mike Machlan almost got work, but the “DC Implosion” [a mass cancellation of titles] took care of that. So, we went to Marvel. Jim Shooter was just an editor then. He met us in the lobby and gave us a real good critique. Then, he went into the bullpen and got all sorts of photocopies of stuff on hand so we could do some ink samples. And we never did.

CS: Did you have any formal art training?

Ordway: I went to a technical high school. They had a three-year commercial art course. It was very basic; it really only nurtured me and I learned—and still do—most everything on my own. Most of my art training came from a commercial art studio. I learned how to do storyboards, how to paint—stuff other than comics, which I think is very important. If I hadn't gotten that job, I wouldn’t be as broad-based as I am. It really got me looking at other artists; I no longer had that one-track mind on comics as it was like schooling for me, even though I got paid for it.

One of my last projects there was doing these activity coloring books for Western. I did one with DC heroes that went over well. I ended up working with another guy and did four books, Everything Work books, with Marvel characters. I was winding up that project and. Thad one-and-a-half more books to do. It was summer 1980 and the Chicago Comics Con was coming up. I heard that DC would look at portfolios, so I thought, “I’ll take a shot at it.” The DC people who had approved my project had liked what I did. I thought that they might know who I was, so I took a shot at it. I sat in line in a real hot room with 20 other people. We sat and sat. Joe Orlando was at the end of his day, and he looked like he was ready to burn out. Paul Levitz kept coming up to him and saying that it was time to go to dinner, but Joe kept saying, “I’ve gotta get this done. These kids have been waiting!”’ I kept thinking, “Please, please, get to me before you quit!”

I was the last person he saw! I got up there and he was looking at the DC stuff I did for Western. Paul came up again to tell Joe that everyone was going to dinner. He looked down at my name, looked up at my face and said, “JERRY! We've been trying to get a hold of you for months! Give me your address and we'll send you some stuff!” So, after waiting for hours in this hot room, it turned out it could have been much easier!

Running the Infinity Gauntlet from Comics Scene #19

Here is the full George Perez interview from Comics Scene #19.

Running the Infinity Gauntlet

Assembling as many heroes as possible, Jim Starlin confronts a crisis in the Marvel Universe.

by MICHAEL McAVENNIE

COMICS SCENE #19 (Jun 1991)

Over the years, writer/artist extraordinaire Jim Starlin has been known to bring many good things to an end. He was responsible for the deaths of Adam Warlock, Marvel Comics’ Captain Marvel and, most recently, Jason Todd, the second Robin. This time, however, Starlin and artist George Perez pull out all the stops with The Infinity Gauntlet, Marvel’s new six-issue mini-series, by killing half of all the living beings in the universe.

“The Infinity Gauntlet is the accumulation of what has been going on in The Silver Surfer and The Thanos Quest," says Starlin about his new project. “Thanos has put the six [Soul] Gems on a glove and now has control of all power: the mind, the soul, time, space and reality. In effect, he is God, a supreme being in this reality. Having accomplished this in Thanos Quest, Infinity Gauntlet is about him finally exercising the power, and the Marvel heroes banding together to stop him.”

Unable to stop Thanos in his own book, the Silver Surfer returns to Earth and warns Dr. Strange about the threat of the all-powerful villain.

Simultaneously, Adam Warlock will also make his return. According to the scribe, these three characters play major roles throughout Infinity Gauntlet.

As for who else will appear in the series, Starlin says, “We’ll have Eros, Firelord, Thor, the Hulk, the Vision, Scarlet Witch, Sub-Mariner, She-Hulk, Cloak, Wolverine, Cyclops, Spider-Man, Iron Man... At some point or another, George Perez will be drawing, every hero in the Marvel Universe.

“As the battle progresses, other Marvel characters will also become involved, including Eternity, Galactus, the Stranger and Quasar," he adds.

“There are also two new cosmic characters called Love and Hate, as well as the Watcher, the Celestials, Lord Order and Master Chaos. It's going to be a grab bag of characters. Almost everybody is going to make an appearance in. this series.

"Mephisto will also be there, acting as sort of a 'sidekick' for Thanos. Eventually, however, Mephisto's going to betray him." Despite letting readers in on this information, the writer doesn't think he's actually revealing anything. "It's really no big secret. After all, what else is Mephisto going to do?" he laughs.

Now that Thanos is a supreme being, Starlin points out that he will use the Infinity Gauntlet in his attempts to win the love of Death. “One of the first things he's going to do is fulfill his obligation to Death, now that he has the power of everything in the universe. That obligation was to obliterate one-half of the universe, because she felt it was 'over-populated.' And he does all of this within the first issue."