All e-mails sent to Bob may be published on this Letters Page unless withholding is specifically requested.

Bob,

I was a comic reader in my teens and now approaching 40 years old.  I am upset that the creators of past decades can't seem to get along with the present creators and editors of today’s comics.

I feel that your art style could really benefit the comic book industry today.  You are from the 'old school' (and I REALLY HATE to use terms like that!) of artists who are true storytellers.  There are many artists today that understand what it means to tell a story.  I don't care for the "Splash Page" artists of the '90's like Silvestri, even though his more recent work has been great.  Can't stand anything that Rob "I don't know what proportions mean" Liefeld draws.  I never saw torsos 1/8 the length of entire bodies until Liefeld showed up on the scene!

But artists like Mike Gaydos (Gotham Central-DC), Alex Maleev (Daredevil-Marvel), David Mack and Frank Quitley are extraordinary storytellers.  Other detail-oriented artists such as Ethan Van Sciver, David Finch or Rags Morales are also great storytelling artists, provided that you line them up with the correct writer.  Even John Byrne, whose art has become increasingly more sketchy, has managed to keep a regular job with the help of good writers and inkers and still knows what it means to tell a story.

When it comes to writing, I know that you don't like the fact that everything that is put out today has to fit into a six-issue arc in order to put out a trade paperback, but that seems to be the nature of the beast.  And it sells books.

As a fan since Iron Man #116, I would LOVE to see you conform to the current standards and put out monthly work.  You have been THE most influential person in my life, artistically.  Forget Byrne.  Forget Adams.  Forget Wrightson.  Forget Starlin.  Forget Windsor-Smith.  OK.  Maybe NOT Windsor-Smith...but the things that you have done, and could CONTINUE to do, need to be shared with the folks that enjoy the medium. 

I have seen that you have said that you would never work with Marvel (and comics in general) as long as the people in charge (I'm assuming Editors-In-Chiefs) are in power.  As one of your, easily, loyalist fans, I plead, beg and down right GROVEL for you to return to comics!!! 

I'm sure that you get e-mails like this on a daily basis, but you haven't gotten one from me!  Warren Ellis recently took Tony Stark to the next level in creating an armor that comes out of Tony Starks skin.  That just sounds like something that you could RUN WITH!!  Do the right thing and love the fans like me that NEED YOU to at least write IRON MAN again!!

Brian McPhee

Brian,

On the whole, I genuinely believe that there are a lot of good comics still being produced. Unfortunately, "what’s good out there?" is not the kind of question that readers usually ask me. 

Mostly--it 's about Iron Man, which is a very wayward title at the current time. Generally, I'm asked what my opinion is of what's going on behind the scenes. A lot of that is not good news, but then again, I'm only reporting on it--and only for my limited perspective. 

It’s not that I don’t love comics. Far from it. 

My argument has always been with 'the operators--not the tools'.

Very few people want what I have to offer as a creator, Brian.

It's not that I don't want to work in comics--it's that nothing really good is ever offered to me. And, since I've 'paid my due' in the biz, I'm not content with simply laying down some lines for a paycheck. I want to tell stories--good ones. And, let's face it--one look at my checklist and you'll see that I've done just about everything there is to do in comics (other than stapling the damned things together! )

Why do you think Giordano and I create Colony on this website every month? 

No one is paying us.  We do it purely for the love of the medium.

People use to think I didn’t work at Marvel because Quesada hated me.  Joe and I have recently made nice and are on a friendly basis once more, but I still haven't asked for an assignment from them or sent in a proposal to one of the editors.

It's not any one person that is keeping me out of Marvel.

It is my distrust for the 'operators' in general. They are the ones who prevent me from practicing my craft in a manner that I can live with. It was the inane editorial screw jobs I got on 'Dr. Tomorrow', 'Iron Man: Bad Blood', 'The L.A.W', 'Iron Man :The End' and on and on and on that convinced me that I needed to put that bullshit behind me just to keep my sanity.

And, due to my resume', I have a few other things in the mix to contend with that most guys don't have to deal with.

Unlike most freelancers, I still have to deal with some of the younger guys seeing me as the ex-Editor-In-Chief of two, concurrent companies (Valiant and Future Comics).

That can be a little intimidating to some. No editor wants to feel like he's not the smartest guy in the room, after all.

And, unfortunately--somewhere down the line, I've probably pissed-off somebody or pissed-off someone's friend of that guy while I was an editor. It's always a problem once you've become an authority figure in the comic industry. Either way--I'm probably the last guy that younger editors will consider using on a comic.

I've heard the same complaint from Dick Giordano--the former head of DC Comics.
And--it's not like I haven't tried.

I did the monthly grind for a while back around 2000-2001 at Marvel (inking two monthly books, Captain America and the Avengers) and the experience put me in the hospital. (quite literally) I began having massive anxiety attacks because, deep in my subconscious, I knew that I had no passion for the stuff I was doing and that I was merely working for a paycheck.  I was killing me to have my name attached to stuff I didn't believe in and my health began to suffer as a consequence.

It was literally killing me.

Brian—if you think I’m kidding, consider the fact that I walked away from my Senior Vice President position at Valiant, giving back over a million dollars of my shares from the sale of the company, because I couldn’t stomach what Acclaim was doing to my characters, employees and the company.

In the years since closing Future Comics, I've been a happier guy doing commissions for my loyal and thoughtful fans.  They genuinely appreciate what I try to do for them--and it's all done on a much, more personal level.  And--the money is good and the only 'operator' is me.

Regardless of the type of job, be it commissions or comics, the craft has always come first for me. That probably makes me hopelessly neurotic—but it's my choice to make, isn't it?

But, this ought to make you happy, Brian.

In the last month,  I have been seriously reconsidering my moratorium on the industry and have contemplated a jump back into the murky, mainstream waters--just to see if things might be any different these days.  I've actually spoken to a couple of editors at DC--testing those waters, so to speak, and looking for the right project.

Also,  I recently exchanged a few e-mails with Scott Allie at Dark Horse about doing a Conan story--a character that I've always wanted to do-- but never had the opportunity when I was at Marvel.  I'll be happy with just a single Conan story--just to say that I've done it.

I'll let you know how that works out.

Hi Bob,
You are right about not expecting to hear your phones ringing soon asking for assistance on the new Iron Man movie <last month’s letter column>.  I found the following quotes from Favreau himself at this website where someone asked him specifically about your two most famous storylines (click this link for the whole interview):
http://www.superherohype.com/news/featuresnews.php?id=4568
Basically, he's more concerned about how Iron Man looks than anything else.

SHHH: Do you have a favorite "Iron Man" run?

Favreau: "Visually. the good news about "Iron Man" is that there's no run that is sacred in literary terms. He's had his ups and downs. The quality on the book has been spotty over the last forty years."

SHHH: A lot of people like the Michelinie, Romita Jr., and Bob Layton run...

Favreau: "He sort of had that, but I feel like the fans are more concerned about the character and about the look, which is really freeing as a director. People ask about "Demon in a Bottle" or they ask about the "Armor Wars" but really what they're most concerned about is "What Tony Stark are you dealing with?" and "What suit are you dealing with?" Cinematically, I was very much drawn to the Adi Granov stuff, and he actually met me through the MySpace page."

Hope you found this informative,
Sandy Lee

Sandy,

I think Jon Favreau's body of work is "so money!" 

It's too bad it seems that the feelings aren't mutual, eh?

But, hey--as I stated on my editorial page, I was recently approached by his people in Hollywood to participate in an interview for the upcoming Iron Man films'  DVD release. At first, I didn't want to do it, but the fellow I spoke with on the phone turned out to be a truly decent guy and a huge, classic Iron Man fan.

Who knows...maybe I'll get a chance to speak with Mr. Favreau at some point and ask him why.

I'm kinda curious myself.

Thanks for the update, Sandy.

Hello Mr. Layton,
After reading your e-mail response, I went home, anxious for the next few days of waiting for the package to arrive. But in fact, I came home to find the parcel (with the complete set of Future Comics ordered online) already there!
Needless to say, I enjoyed the contents immensely. The cover drawing (the original sketch to the cover of Freemind #7) has been framed and has earned a nice spot on my original art wall. The  Future Comics tee-shirt was a bit too large for me (American sizes! - Whew!) but will find a suitable wearer in my circle of comics friends, I'm sure! 

And the comics - I've already read through Freemind in one sitting and can't for the life of me understand why it is not being published anymore. But I don't have to tell you that; the industry sucks at the moment when publishers like Future (or CrossGen or Claypool or...) can't find a niche' in that already over-saturated market.
Many thanks for the many hours of enjoyment already received and yet to come!
Best regards,

Ramon Schenk

The Netherlands

Ramon,

I can't tell you how terrific it is to have my comics being enjoyed someone as far away as in the Netherlands.  The fact that you paid more in postage than you did for the books themselves was enough to warm my heart. That's why I sent along the extra Future Comics goodies, like the tee-shirt and cover sketch.  It was just my way of showing my appreciation for the effort you made to get your hands on those comics.

Please write me back and let me know what you thought of the various titles.

And for my American readers, the entire line of Future Comics are available by mail order with a lot less effort that Ramon had to endure.  You can find a synopsis of each individual issue by clicking on the Future Comics store icon on the features page.

This month, my questions focus on comic book shop talk.

As we all know, Alan Moore wrote the V FOR VENDETTA mini-series. He also scribed WATCHMEN. I learned from wikipedia.org that Dick Giordano – now of COLONY fame -- had a hand in somewhat shaping the characters; an interesting tidbit for WATCHMEN, Dick Giordano, and Charlton fans...”In developing WATCHMEN, during its embryonic stage, Alan Moore and
Dave Gibbons originally conceived of a story that would take familiar old-fashioned superheroes into a completely new realm. Dick Giordano, who had worked for Charlton Comics, suggested using a cast of old Charlton characters that had recently been acquired by DC, but since Moore and Gibbons wanted to do a serious storyline in which some of the newly-acquired characters would die, this was not feasible. Giordano then suggested that Moore and Gibbons simply start from scratch and create their own characters.
So while certain characters in WATCHMEN are loosely based upon the Charlton characters (such as Dr. Manhattan who was inspired by Captain Atom and Rorschach who was loosely based upon the Question), Moore decided to create characters that ultimately would scarcely resemble their Charlton counterparts.”
Since I mentioned Dick Giordano, I¹d be remiss not to point out that your X-O Manowar lithograph masterfully colored by Ian Sokoliwski --also a prime COLONY contributor -- can be advanced ordered via valiantcomics.com.
Go to the online order form here: http://www.valiantcomics.com/xolitho/xoreserve.html.
Meanwhile, Ian¹s coloring of your Iron Man Iron-X armor is superb! His overall contributions to your work, Bob, are, to say the least, breathtaking.

1. I was watching the V FOR VENDETTA special features DVD, wherein your good friend and former comics writer Paul Levitz, now the president and publisher of DC Comics, was interviewed. You, artist Joe Staton, and Levitz created The Huntress back in 1977 for DC¹s ALL-STAR COMICS. Three questions... Do you receive royalties from novelties based upon The Huntress (action figures, trading cards, etc.)? Did Levitz ever approach you with an offer from DC to work for them on a regular basis? Did you ever approach Levitz with perhaps marketing one of your Future Comics titles through DC?

1. Mike: To answer your questions in the order that you asked—yes, no and no.

2. Would you please note the distinctions between art ‘layouts’ and ‘breakdowns’? Everyone knows what ‘pencils’ and ‘inks’ are, but formal definitions of the two above-mentioned items have been elusive.

2. Breakdowns are generally pencil storytelling without extensive rendering.  In other words—the black areas are only indicated and textures are minimal.  Here is an excellent example of Dick Giordano’s breakdowns on our web comic—Colony.      Layouts are simply the storytelling—without a whole lot of actual draftsmanship involved. A layout is more akin to a preliminary sketch of a page.  Of course, the level of detail varies depending on the artist.

Below is a good example of the layouts that I did for Barry Windsor-Smith for the finished art on Iron Man #243.

3. During your two IRON MAN runs and the BAD BLOOD mini-series you¹ve
worked under a number of Marvel editors, some of whom became high profile in the comics industry, while others are barely remembered. Would you briefly comment on each editor in the following list?

From your first IM run:

Jim Salicrup
Roger Stern
From your second IM run:
Mark Gruenwald
Howard Mackie
From IM: BAD BLOOD:
Bobbie Chase.

  Mark Gruenwald

Bobbie Chase

3. Jim Salicrup was very professional and a very funny guy.  He was a real pleasure to work with.

Roger Stern and I kind of ‘grew-up together’ in fandom, working as editorial partners on the now-classic CPL fanzines.  So Roger and I had no problems seeing eye-to-eye (although the job did make him a little high-strung at times).

Mark Gruenwald was my friend. ‘Nuff said!

Howard Mackie was not a good editor and one of my main reasons for leaving Marvel for Valiant. If Iron Man fans were upset about me leaving the series back then—the blame rests firmly on Mackie’s shoulders.

Bobbie Chase: Bad Blood was one of the main reasons for my leaving mainstream comics altogether. The only bright spot in that whole sorted affair was Ms. Chase. It seems to me that her brave stand for artistic integrity resulted in her eventually losing her job at Marvel. That was a huge mistake on Marvel’s part to let her go, in my opinion.  I respect and admire her very much.

4. As an editor and editor-in-chief yourself, what were your greatest rewards in those capacities, as well as pet peeves, on a daily basis?

4. Obviously—the greatest reward was mentoring new talent.  During my career, I’ve had the honor of passing on some bit of my knowledge to the likes of Sean Chen, Paul Ryan, Brett Breeding, Don Hudson, Phyllis Novin, Bernard Chang, Tom Ryder, David Lapham and a host of others. Without a doubt, that has been one of the most satisfying aspects of my tenure as an editor.

The worst was dealing with crappy coloring! There are too many shitty color technicians posing as artists in the comics business.

If I haven’t made it painfully obvious in past columns, I’m a real stickler about including color as part of the storytelling process.  As you may know, Valiant was the first company to acknowledge that colorists deserve the same financial rewards as the other people involved in the creative process. I pushed to have colorists included in the royalty pools and to acknowledge their sizable contributions to the storytelling process.

However, the foremost problem with the coloring in comics, as I see it, is that too many of the folks “manning the mouse” are technicians and not artists.

Basic concepts, such as value, contrast, negative space and texturing tend to eluded them.

In the past, in order to avoid confusion, I laid down seven simple “do’s and don’ts” to aid colorists in the decision-making process when telling a story with color. I'm going to share them this month with your audience, Mike. 

Keep in mind that all rules can be broken, at the appropriate moment, by an innovative artist. These were only meant as general rules of thumb and not to be taken literally in every situation--only  to aid them in making certain creative decisions:

1. Knockouts are designed to draw the eye to the essential action. Flat color, over the key storytelling action, is bad storytelling.

2. White is a color.  There are two elements that will assure that the reader’s eye is drawn to the focal point—positive and negative space (Black or White).  Colorists should leave some white space on every page.  I discourage the filling of every crevasse and nook with color—as if you were being paid by the square inch instead of per page.  Additionally, it is preferable that reflective surfaces (like metal or armor) include some white highlights.

3. Attention to detail.  The thing that isn’t appreciated by most artists is when the colorist embellishes the existing art…elevating it by the use of SFX, texturing, holds and other ingenious methods while moving the art in a direction than what the artist intended.  However, a discreet judgment concerning the proper use of these techniques is encouraged, as well.  The industry, as a whole, overworks those tools or utilizes them to hide bad art. Communicate with your fellow storyteller before making decisions that will change the focus of the drawing.

4. CONTRAST!!!!! Please do NOT put red characters against a red background and a red sky with people off-camera throwing red Jello at them!  We know this is a moronically-simple request but you’d be surprised at how many “alleged colorists” violate this basic rule of good storytelling.  The suggested rule of thumb is neutral background colors for characters with primary colors.  The reverse--for the opposite.

5. Stick to the established color schemes.  Established icons are marketed to other mediums such as TV, movies, toys, video games and novels.  It is essential that you don’t make the mistake that other companies have made and wind-up having three or four differing versions of the same character. To that end, if you are coloring a new comic series, creating a color guide on your series would be extremely helpful for other colorists who might have the opportunity to color those characters in other titles.

6. Be true to the light sources.  The best rule of thumb is to look at the glyph that represents the nose on a drawn figure.  The point of the nose will almost always act as a sundial—with the shadow pointing in the direction opposite of the light source.  So, if a panel confuses you, check out the point of the nose.

7. READ THE FRIGGIN’ STORY!  You’d be surprised how many coloring questions can be answered by skimming the plot before hand. 

5. When John Byrne was assigned to the Armor Wars II storyline after you left Marvel to help co-found Valiant, did you ever speak with Byrne as to the direction your story was to take? If not, did you have ANY contact with Byrne concerning AW II? I just remembered this: To my knowledge, John Byrne was the fellow who introduced computer-generated lettering to mainstream comics with a font of his own creation, which debuted during his NAMOR run and later used throughout AW II. I believe Mike Saenz was actually THE first guy to use a computer-generated font along with computer-generated art in his landmark series SHATTER for First Comics back in 1985. Saenz would later create the IRON MAN: CRASH graphic novel.
What are your thoughts on computer-generated typefaces in comics? To me, many of them are just plain annoying, as they compete with the artwork for the reader¹s attention; lettering is, in my opinion, a function of storytelling, plain and simple, and should not disrupt the flow of the narrative.
Future Comics offerings had non-intrusive lettering. It appears that the sample panel from METALLIX #3 was done by hand, by Albert DeGuzman. Man, I miss METALLIX! Oh: Did anyone catch a glimpse of the Metallix poster – the cover image from METALLIX #5 -- on Myles Mason¹s wall on page 7, panel 2, of ZOOM SUIT #2? I guess John Taddeo misses METALLIX, as well.

5. John and I had no contact whatsoever after I left Marvel for Valiant. In fact-- I‘ve never even read his version of ARMOR WARS II.

As far as lettering goes—I’m definitely “old school’.  Although I use a computer font to letter Colony, that’s strictly a time-saving and cost-cutting measure.  I don’t get paid for doing Colony, so I have to cut expenditures where possible.  But to me—there were some great letterers who style of calligraphy enhanced the books they were working on at the time.  John Workman, Janice Chaing and Tom Orzechowski come to mind immediately as letterers whose work was easily distinguishable from the average. If I had the budget, I’d be using former Future Comics letterer Albert DeGuzman today.  Albert was one of the most competent and reliable calligraphers that I’ve ever worked with.  And—a real sweetheart of a guy.

Thanks, Bob.
Mike Kalibabky

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