 |
|  |
| HOME | News | Art Gallery | Bibliography | Biography | Interviews | Links | Buy Stuff |
Artist's ProfileBorn August 6, 1964 in Lynn, MA (Neighbors on nearby Salem). Spent most of an impressionable childhood learning the hard lessons of life at the movie theatre - - Everett's Park Theatre (Which maintained 75-cents double features all the way thru 1980!), The Revere Drive-In (Now a multiplex), Medford's Meadow Glen Drive-In (Three big screens! It's a bank and parking lot today), and Chelsea's Parkway Plaza (A shopping center theatre. It closed, reopened as a porno theatre, then closed again. It's still standing there, all boarded up and looking haunted - - Probably by the ghost of Tom Laughlin or Veronica Hart).Began reading comic books in the late 1960s (About ’67) - - PEANUTS paperbacks, Harvey and Archie comics, then SPIDERMAN (Prime era Romita!). Dan DeCarlo’s and John Romita’s pretty girl art made a lifelong impression. But for storytelling - - The real nuts & bolts of visual storytelling - - It was always Jack Kirby (Still is, really). The 1970s was an artistically explosive period for (mainstream) comics writing, so other than great artists like Mike Ploog and Craig Russell, inspiration came from gifted writers Steve Gerber, Don McGreggor and Steve Englehart (Gerard Jones & Will Jacobs joined those hallowed ranks of inspiration a decade or so later). Japanese artists Osamu Tezuka and especially Go Nagai were major influences in the late ‘70s - early ‘80s (I’m still in total naked awe of Nagai’s dynamic power, comparable to Kirby in a fashion - - MAZINGER-Z was a masterpiece). My initial impression of Los Bros Hernandez in the ‘80s was the Locas story “Love And The Rocket”, which I hated! But Jaime’s “100 Rooms” and Gilbert’s first “Heartbreak Soup” showed me I was way wrong - - These guys were/are the absolute best. Other big favorites I’ve left out: Morris Weiss (40s-50s era Marvel teen comic artist - - MARGIE, TESSIE THE TYPIST, PATSY WALKER, etc), Ken Bald (Ditto - - Best known for MILLIE THE MODEL, CINDY SMITH & JUNIOR MISS), Bob Oksner (Practically the entire Silver Age DC humor line), John K Snyder (FASHION IN ACTION!!), Tim Truman (SCOUT), Kurt Schaffenberger (LOIS LANE!!), and Matt Wagner (GRENDEL). We now return to our story, already in progress… A short run at Mass College of Art ('82-'83) came to an end when my mother died. I next wound up managing three failed comics shops (All for the price of a subway pass), before monetary realities dictated I get a real job. That took the form of Clerical Office Temp work (Seven long years of data entry drudgery - - Truly monkey work). I was at Lotus Development, Mass Higher Education, Bank Of Boston and Fleet. I'd been drawing comics in the amateur press at about that time (Many with Mike Kanterovich, who was a longtime SONIC writer). A shortage of travel funds for the San Diego Comicon (Only place to see Los Bros Hernandez, so like hell I wasn't going!) caused me to publish & advertise a minicomic (CHERRY BLOSSOM), which did unexpectedly well, getting national distribution and selling as well as a minicomic can sell. I stuck with it for three years, doing nine issues of that series plus other related minicomics. The strength of the minicomics led to work at Antarctic Press - - Originally a serial for their MANGAZINE title (The Pro-Wres soap opera, FIGHT! MIORI YAMADA, done w/ Mike Kanterovich), then the adult series CHEETA POP. Fantagraphics had also made an offer for CHEETA, but I was naively convinced to stick w/ AP (Live and learn) for a 5-issue run. After the AP series, Cheeta and I did take our dog and pony show to Fantagraphics for three more issues. Following that was a two year 8-issue run of DEE DEE plus various one-shot projects, most of which (ANNA MALLE'S SPICY TALES excluded) never reached publication (Those being SHANE'S WORLD, WENDY WHOPPERS, and now the MUSCLE TONE graphic novel). At the same time as the earliest AP work, James Fry and Kurt Busiek had me submit scripts to Claypool Comics for their ELVIRA title. They bought one and asked for more, which has become a very long run for me (#14-102!). Initially, I figured I’d be good for about six or seven stories, tops. Shows what I know. With CHEETA and ELVIRA demanding my time, I quit the day job and devoted myself to almost making a living in the world of funnybooks. I was a writer at Marvel briefly, wrote & drew SONIC THE HEDGEHOG at Archie, and currently write various Warners/Cartoon Network titles for DC. |
| HOME | News | Art Gallery | Bibliography | Biography | Interviews | Links | Buy Stuff |