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All e-mails sent to Bob may be published on this Letters Page unless withholding is specifically requested.
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Dear
Mr. Layton, I
just read your interview (part 2) with Clifford Meth and it really
brought back happy memories. As a youngster, one of my earliest comic
memories is of the Iron Man cover with the Hulk in chains underwater. Wow!
This is exactly what kids wanted! Another was the story with
Whip/Blacklash. I can particularly remember an image of fire reflected
onto Iron Man's face--my eyes popped out of my 8 year-old head! I
was overjoyed when you returned to that title and I was a 'regular buyer'
and managed to snag some old Hercules as well (Was Galactus' face your
design? Nice). Anyway, I just thought I'd email to say thanks to you,
for in part being responsible for my love of comics, and I wish you the
best of luck in your future endeavors. John Bishop |
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Dear
John,
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Bob,
As
I celebrate my 40th season upon this earth today, I just wanted to mention
to you after reading last month's missives from the fans who were irate
over your critique of the Iron Man comic (Iron Man: The Inevitable #1) a
couple months back. These guys who personally attacked you are obviously
gents who are newer collectors/ readers to the forum. ( I postulate, of
course.) The
comment from 'Rufus Dayglo' about "changing his mind about
commissioning you"...? Well-- all I can say to that is if he
chooses to allow your candid, but not too rude, review on what was
obviously a truly inferior work cloud his decision on getting a true
masterpiece from a great storytelling icon...well--it's HIS
LOSS! I flipped thru the book after reading all the flak you
got and-- wow! I was very disappointed. I would never spend my
hard-earned cash on a book of that quality. The other guy 'BADLAND', I found to be quite rude. If
he felt this strongly and voiced his comments so profoundly, why didn't he
have the courage to state his true name and stand by his
convictions. what he did is a true coward's way out in these
technological times! I
also couldn't agree less with his comments. You, more than anyone
who has worn all the possible hats of the industry, don't
"moan", but simply state the facts as you saw them. Maybe
it's just that you see things more with eyes of an editor than a fan of
the title or character. In
my opinion, some of the best comic stories of all time came out in the
80's. Sure-- there have been those that stood above others in the
90's (though rare and not many at Marvel) and some more recently in
this new millennium. But I believe that most of the great stuff came from
creators in the 80's. Those were the days when story-telling,
characterization, and art all combined , as the medium was intended to be
utilized, and made truly great comics! With very few
exceptions, this doesn't happen nowadays. The current crop of
readers don't have the exposure to those books and take the fluff/ crap
that’s expelled monthly from Marvel as "good reads". Bob,
I been a reader since I was 8 and a collector since 12. I remember
trading my DC titles one-for-one for Marvel books when I was 14
to a neighbor kid and we thought we each had ripped the other off!
Man, I had it made. But... you know what? I find myself
filling out my Previews these days and the past couple months have raised
an interesting fact. I now buy more DC than I do Marvel! First
time ever! You know why? Better stories and artists
overall! They are doing what Marvel did back in the mid
60's. I believe they're changing the way comics have read and
been perceived over the last 15 years. Marvel
is stagnant now and producing books just to produce books. I'd
rather read titles from the 80's as re-reads than some of the monthly
tripe being produced and published by them. My
pal Jeff and I are in total agreement about All-Star Batman being all
fluff and hype, selling solely on the basis of names like Miller and Lee (and
you'd expect great stories from those two, but alas...) Sorry
for the long letter, but this has been brewing in me for a month and
finally found the time to write it down. I
wish more of you "tired leftovers from the 1980's who refuse to
accept that their time has been and gone " would return
and show the readers and creators who accept poor art and story
as the norm what it's truly all about!!! Larry
Clay
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Larry, Wow--that was a proverbial mouthful, my friend! I wish I could comment on some of your assertions but, as I stated in last month's letter column, I've said my piece on the whole Iron Man: The Inevitable #1 controversy. For me, it's over and done. However, I truly appreciate your loyalty in defending my stance on the issue and I believe you DO have some valid points concerning the state of comic publishing at the moment. Doing it "Old School" does have it's merits.
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Hello, I am interested to know if you are going to release the Solar Lithograph that you had done through Dynamic Forces? I know that the print available through them was cancelled, but do you plan on making it available through your website? I am a big fan of your work and a huge Valiant fan. I
know you probably get tons of e-mails like this every day. Thanks in advance for your reply. David Padgett
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David, Since the time I was initially contacted by Dynamic Forces about doing the Solar Litho, I have had absolutely no correspondence from them...whatsoever! My past experiences with them were no good and this current one seems to be no exception to that unfortunate reality. I really didn't want to do anything for them, but my agent was very persuasive and assured me that they would act honorably this time around. Oh, well... On the good side, they did pay me for my services, so what they do with the art after I'm done is not my business. But I think some common courtesy on their part would have been nice. I was never informed by them that they had cancelled the Solar print...or given an explanation as to why it was discontinued. To this day, I have no idea what precipitated that decision by D.F. Since I don't have the rights to Solar, offering it for sale on BobLayton.Com is totally out of the question, David. I apologize for any disappointment you may have suffered over the matter. I assure you that it'll never happen again. To quote Stephen Colbert, "They're dead to me!"
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Bob, I just had to write you and express what an amazing job everybody did on that X-O Double-page Spread piece last month. That is stunning! Do you know of any plans for a re-launch of any VALIANT characters? Those pre-Unity books still hold up today as easily the best reads of the 90's. I know somebody has a great X-O story yet to be told! Thanks
and keep working on paper! James Sharland
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Dear
James, I'm
very flattered by your kind words concerning my X-O DPS. To answer your question, I have no idea what the new owners of the Valiant properties are up to regarding a possible re-launch. They've been keeping their plans on the down-low ever since they acquired the characters. The 'word on the street' from several fan 'insiders' is that these new owners aren't big fans of mine, so I'm not getting too excited about the whole deal. For me, watching someone else muck around with my concepts once again (remember Fabian and V2) is not the most thrilling prospect. However,
if I hear of any definitive plans, I'll make sure to post them on my site.
Okay? Thanks
for taking the time to drop me an e-mail.
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Greetings! I
can't imagine why I have not searched for you online before now!
Thanks for the great web pages! Back
in the 80's, I was a BIG Iron Man fan, and I still am! Back then, I
did a LOT of "recreations" from the comics and your Iron Man
drawings were my favorite and still are. I made TONS of Iron Man
pin-ups. I know I still have them SOMEWHERE. Well,
until I can save up enough $ for a commissioned drawing, I have a
question for you-- Would
you mind if I do a recreation of your work into a quilt? My wife
does a lot of quilting and I have started as well. I actually got my
FIRST quilt published by Quilting Arts magazine and they took it on a US
tour! For my next quilt, I wanted to do a large (queen sized)
recreation of either an Iron Man pin-up or perhaps (if I can find a
good one) a full comics page. I
found your site while looking for good Iron Man pictures. I have a
bunch of comics on a CD, but they were of the "Jim Rhodes as Iron
Man." While I liked Jim as Iron Man (and started reading IM
during this run) it just NEEDS to be Tony in there (who except me
would know anyway?) Of
course, when it is done I would send you a photo. I mean, how many
Iron Man quilts are out there? Thanks! Thomas
Lang
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"Sigh...!" On that note, I'll end the letter column for this month and go wrap myself in my blue X-O blankie.
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1. The Big Five. Bob, you inked the work of the five all-time best IRON MAN pencillers: Jerry Bingham, John Romita Jr., Mark Bright, Butch Guice, and yourself. John Romita Jr. Great draftsman and illustrator. Other than the first installment of the Iron Man/Doc Doom "Camelot Trilogy," my fave storyline featured a space-armor-clad IM vs. Sunturion: IM, Vol.1 #'s 142-144, Jan.-Mar. 1981. JRJR adopted a more cartoony style later in his career and to date. You were to collaborate with him on a second IRON MAN run, but other than an Iron Man pinup and IM, Vol. 1, #256, May 1990, which you wrote, and is one of my all-time Iron Man stories, the partnership was never to be since you departed Marvel for Valiant. Could you explain the challenges, joys, difficulties, approaches, and techniques of inking Romita Jr.?
John Romita Jr.
But
allow me to preface this response: In answering your questions, I don't
want the readers to perceive this as my 'dissing' the artists. I
have nothing but respect for all of them but some part of the question
involves the challenges as co-author/finished artist of that
pencillers' work. The
good news is that we were all young at the time and we've all since
progressed way beyond the esthetic problems I mentioned. In
the case of JR.JR, he basically did breakdowns for me and left the
finished look entirely to my discretion. Johnny was one of the strongest
natural storytellers that I've ever worked with and I rarely had to do
anything to alter his work--I just enhanced it. As
I stated in last month's interview by Clifford Meth, I had just taken
over as writer/inker of Iron Man and had hooked back up with JRJR as the
new penciller beginning with Iron Man #256. Johnny and I had been as
close as brothers during most of my time at Marvel. (We even lived in the
same condo complex in Long Island.)
John Romita Jr.
However,
I made the painful decision to put those plans aside to go
work for the start-up company--Valiant. Career-wise, I felt I had a real
chance to do something more significant there than a third run on Iron
Man, which turned out to be true. Valiant wound-up becoming the third
largest comic company in America. Unfortunately,
that decision alienated JR from me and it cost us our friendship. I
don’t regret making the decision, Mike. But it did come with a price.
(an unfortunate truth that I've experienced more than once in my career.)
As I said to Cliff, it was the right choice for me at the time and
Johnny has certainly done okay for himself. I am troubled that JRJR
and I lost touch as a result. I'm
still a huge fan of JR's work and I think he's one of the all-time greats. 2.
Mark Bright equals "Armor Wars"! But perhaps I most enjoyed his
first IRON MAN issue wherein you and David Michelinie returned to the
title: IM, Vol. 1, #215, Feb. 1985.
Mark D. Bright
2. Mark Bright was a very competent penciller--but my largest criticism of his work would have to be that the acting (the way in which the characters expressions were visually portrayed) was not as strong as JR or Jerry. (Mark also had a bad tendency to shoot everything in the middle ground--which tended to be a little dull at times.) On the other hand, Mark was totally professional and never missed a deadline. When you're doing double-duty on a series like I was, that's a real plus! |
3. Jerry Bingham. My favorite story arc during his tenure: Iron Man vs. the Hulk, resulting in Scott Lang as Ant-Man hopping inside Shellhead¹s armor to reboot the crashed systems after IM knocks ol¹ Greenskin firmly on his emerald arse: IRON MAN, Vol. 1, #133, April 1980.
Jerry Bingham
Jackson "Butch" Guice
As
far as my comments about the penciler: Jackson Guice was the most polished
of the five Iron Man pencillers you mentioned--with very clean and
well-defined drawings. But, I always got the impression from Jackson that
Iron Man wasn't his 'cup-o'-tea' as far as characters goes. Jackson
and I have worked together on many occasions over our careers on projects
like Iron Man, X-Factor, George Romero's Copperhead, Thor and at
Valiant on X-O Manowar.
5.
My biggest problem in the sophomore days, as an Iron Man
penciller, was my drawing ability. I was a hog for doing
the storytelling, but my actual draftsmanship was poor in comparison to
the others you mentioned. As
I've stated in previous articles on this site, I’m not content with
doing the ‘status quo',
day in and day out. Many
die-hard Iron Man fans voiced their disappointment with the visual
direction I took with “Bad Blood”. I’ll
be the first one to admit that it was NOT the same artistic approach as my
last run on Iron Man. But, that was by choice. Feeling
it was very important to grow as an artist, I attempted to create a more
‘photo-real' look to the mini-series and, unlike previous stints where I
pulled characters from comic book central casting, I photo referenced
almost every single panel in the series. Many
fans were disappointed that they didn’t get the same ol' Bob Layton art
that they had in my previous runs—and that was true. They didn't.
And, I might add, ENTIRELY my fault. It
was a terrific learning experience for me as an illustrator and I’d do
it again in a heartbeat.
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IF YOU WISH TO CONTRIBUTE A LETTER OF COMMENT TO THIS PAGE, PLEASE SEND YOUR E-MAILS TO: BOB.LAYTON@BOBLAYTON.COM
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