Rest in Peace Russ Heath

Russ Heath died three days ago, 91 years of age. He was one of the last few remaining artists who worked on Atlas Comics in the 1950s and Atlas, as my blog archives will bear out, is a passion of mine.

Heath's earliest art is barely recognizable with his eventual style but he did find his footing extremely quickly. From the 1950s to the 2010s, he had an immensely well-honed style with very clean lines but plenty of detail. As an artist who worked for the major comic book publishers, his style of realism wasn't a terrific fit for the kind of super hero comics which overwhelmed the industry from the 1960s onwards but the few times he did delve into super heroes he made it work.

Heath is going to be best-remembered for his war comics work (particulary DC's Sgt. Rock) but I enjoyed his Atlas horror comics the most. His art had a way of appearing light and almost humorous about ghastly subject matter, but when the time came to convey something horrific on the panel, he always came through. The above from "On with the Dance" (Menace #2, 1953) was the first of his horror stories I read and remains a personal favourite; from then on, I always paid close attention to any story bearing his signature.

I've only made one trip to San Diego Comic-Con (and I probably won't ever go back) and was present at the 2009 SDCC ceremony where Heath was presented with the Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame award; it was easily the highlight of the entire Eisner ceremony. After his name was announced, Heath took a very long time to shuffle up to the podium, accept the honour, and with little more than a terse 'thank you' departed. I visited his booth the following day to congratulate him on the honour and to purchase one of his prints, which he autographed for me.

With 60+ years of comic book art credits to his name, Heath has left behind an enormous legacy. Among that legacy are several pages of original comic art which is now in possession of my employers, the University of Calgary Archives & Special Collections. Heath is going to be remembered.

Peter Briggs

On the exhibit floor of San Diego Comic Con 2009 there were many (too many) booths set up to promote movies, television programs and video games, often interfering with the traffic around the comic book booths. You know, comic books. The thing one would expect to find at Comic Con.

So, I wasn't really at San Diego to be saddled up with promo cards or glimpse celebrities. I had my list of people to see and products to locate and I didn't make space for the Hollywood side of the business.

But...it's not as though I was against wandering the floors. I only ever passed the video/movie/tv booths on my way to a comic booth, but I spent a fair amount of time walking through the comic book areas, looking around aimlessly.

That's how Peter Briggs caught my eye. He grabbed me with a question: "Did you like Hellboy?" referring to the 2004 motion picture. In fact, I did like that movie a lot. "Well, I wrote it." was his response. So I moved in and started talking to him, telling him how I appreciated the movie, especially as I hadn't read any Hellboy comics prior to the film.

Briggs was there to promote his upcoming film Mortis Rex and had a numbered supply of promotional posters to hand out. He autographed it as he passed it to me; he did the same for everyone who stopped for a poster. But, here's the thing: he stopped to talk with me first and asked questions about me, rather than making a hard sell for his picture. I was especially floored when he asked "Michael, have you ever thought about writing for the movies?"

A lot of talent at conventions find the daily grind overwhelming; some keep to themselves and have to be drawn out by their visitors. Many squeeze in work during their convention time, especially the artists. Some have so many priorities that they don't have time to chat, they need to move on. I appreciate that (I've worked the other side of the table after all), but the convention encounters I recall most fondly are those from lively, animated guests. By engaging me as a person, Briggs ensured that I would remember the encounter; by learning about me and personalizing his autograph, he made his promotional poster into an item I treasure. I enjoyed my brief time with Briggs so much that I returned the following day with my cousin so that he could collect a poster.

I found that Briggs actually has an interesting resume, made up of screenplays with natural appeal to the "geek" crowd. Unfortunately, with the exception of Hellboy his scripts (Aliens vs. Predator, Judge Dredd, Highlander: The Source) were not the final drafts; some of them were jettisoned entirely. If Hellboy is typical of his strengths as a writer, then it's certainly a pity.

It's also good to know that Mortis Rex is on its way. What's it about? Well, if I tell you it's about Roman soldiers fighting giant monsters you should know if it's up your alley or not. Check out the website.

Meeting Jim Steranko

Paraphrased from an actual event.

6:45 PM, Saturday day night of the San Diego Comic Con. The exhibit hall was getting ready to shut down and I was wandering aimlessly, trying to figure out my evening plans. Wandering through the booths I saw a table with four men seated behind it and no one standing opposite. A sign on the table read "STERANKO."

I paused. Jim Steranko? I hadn't planned on meeting him. Was he really there? Why wasn't there a line-up? What was this table? What on Earth could I ask him to sign? I moved closer to the table and examined their products, hoping to find something to buy. It was the table of Vanguard publications and as I made my selection (a print of the Shadow slightly larger than a postcard; has there ever been a better Shadow artist than Steranko?), another fan stepped up to have Steranko autograph his Nick Furys.

As I watched Steranko sign the books I saw that he used a black Sharpie and that it was his only autograph pen. The Shadow card had heavy black areas on it. I pulled out my silver Sharpie from my bag, the same Sharpie I'd used to autograph handbooks at my occasional signings.

I should mention that I try not to bring up my status as a Marvel handbook writer when I meet creators. Often, I don't see why they should care unless we've had prior communication. Unless I see an opening to mention it in conversation, it doesn't come up.

When my turn came I offered the silver Sharpie to Steranko. He took it up happily and as he wrote he remarked "it works great." I replied that it was my autograph pen - that I wrote for the Marvel handbooks. I also complimented him on his Nick Fury work.

As Steranko finished up the signature he didn't let the mention of Marvel pass him by. He had a story to tell. By now, another fan had appeared to seek an autograph. He asked the new arrival, "Do you mind hearing a very sad story?" The fan replied, "No, I would love to hear it." A pause. "That came out wrong."

Steranko told me about a conversation he had with Marvel Licensing. He had called them up to see if they would be interested in helping the Jack Kirby Estate. The response? "Who's Jack Kirby?" Then Steranko remembered, "First I told them who I was and they didn't know me. But then they didn't know Kirby either. Now, I'm a minor architect in Marvel's history, but Kirby? They didn't know him."

It was indeed a sad story, but I feared that by identifying myself as a Marvel employee, I may have given him the wrong impression. "Well, that's Marvel Licensing," I replied, "I have nothing to do with the office - I'm just a freelancer."

Steranko began another story. By now, more fans had begun to gather, each hanging on his every word. He pointed out the recent return of Captain America, a character he had drawn in the past in one of the all-time best-regarded Captain America stories. "But no one asked me to be involved."

Steranko wanted to be involved? I wished the editors had known this. "Yes, they had a few past Captain America creators involved - Roger Stern, Mark Waid, Joe Simon --"

"...Yeah, and Joe's a friend of mine. But no one asked me."

All I could voice was an observation: "They must not have realized you wanted to be involved."

He went on. "I have a painting of Captain America which no one has ever seen. It's not finished yet, but it is the most perfect portrait of Captain America. Now, much of my work has been homaged..."

"Delicately put." I interjected.

"...Or, shall I say, ripped off." he continued. "And once this painting gets out, it will be ripped off by everyone because it captures the character perfectly. Now, Michael," he pressed his finger into my chest. "This painting would make you cry. Because it is that beautiful."

I couldn't mouth much more than "I believe you." and expressed a desire to see the painting.

I won't forget this conversation soon. And I certainly do look for the day when the painting is completed and released.

My hero, Ron Lim

Ron Lim has been one of my favorite artists for a very long time. I've followed his work on books including Psi-Force, Silver Surfer, Captain America, Spider-Man Unlimited, Infinity Gauntlet, Infinity War, Infinity Crusade, J2, Wild Thing, Avengers Next, Fantastic Five, Cable/Deadpool and Skaar: Son of Hulk. It was a definite pleasure to have Lim's art grace the cover of the Marvel Legacy: the 1990s Handbook our crew put together a while back and when we wound up with extra money in the budget for last year's All-New Iron Manual, I was thrilled when my editor suggested Ron Lim for additional character art.

San Diego International Comic Con 2009 means many things to me; one of them is that I finally met Lim in person. I introduced myself as the head writer of the Iron Manual book and he said he was glad to meet a collaborator. Do you know what that means to me?

Well, my good friend and co-writer on the handbooks Mike Fichera certainly doesn't. Somehow, the allure of Lim's work has evaded him. In fact, he often lashes out against Lim's art. Mike is a brilliant engineer, fine writer and a decent artist in his own right, but his one failing as a human being is his hard-hearted assessment of Lim's ability.

I chatted up Lim about his past work. He mentioned how pleased he was to draw the Silver Surfer again recently in the pages of Skaar and I opined he drew him as brilliantly as in the 90s. I brought up the Infinity Gauntlet and Infinity War and Lim beat me to the punch by recalling how little he cared for the third installment Infinity Crusade; he said it wasn't his best art and didn't pretend to understand what the story was about; that spared me from having to bring it up. I brought a copy of X-Men 2099#1 for him to sign and he was visibly delighted to see it. When I brought up Nightwatch he laughed at the memories it drudged up, telling me how painful it was; I asked him about the alteration to the character's costume on Nightwatch#1's cover and wondered if it had to do with Todd McFarlane's lawyers, but Lim didn't recall the circumstances.

Speaking of McFarlane, I told Lim how back in the day when McFarlane, Liefeld and Lee were considered the greatest talents of the industry, he was the greatest in my eyes. He laughed at that, but it was true - as a teenager, I considered him a superstar easily the equal (or better) of the Image founders.

Lim offered me a free sketch; who could I choose but Captain America, the hero whose book was my first regular exposure to Lim's art. When I came to pick up the art I reminded Lim that he had made his debut on the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Deluxe Edition back in the 80s; I mentioned it as a bridge to my own work and he thought that was neat. Although I only meant to visit SDCC once in my lifetime, Lim did his best to persuade me to return; I think he could tell I was having a great time.

Lim's next project will be a Hercules mini-series alongside Bob Layton. I will be there. Mike Fichera will be out drowning kittens.

My San Diego Comic Con experience

I'll have a few other things to blog about the con, but as my first time to see SDCC, I was awfully happy; from the Thursday to the Saturday, each day seemed to be better than the previous. My personal highlights were:

Thursday

• Collected some autographs from Brent Anderson and Bill Sienkiewicz!
• I met Ron Lim; more about that in a later post.
• I bought a copy of Stan Freberg's autobiography, It Only Hurts When I Laugh. I had tried to buy it off amazon.ca last month but Amazon cancelled the order after two weeks after deciding it wasn't in stock after all. Thank goodness it worked out this way because it meant I could get it autographed by Freberg himself!
• I had Scott Kolins & Aaron Lopresti autograph the Marvel handbooks they'd done covers for.
• I attended the Marvel: X-Men panel which was okay.
• I attended the Gold & Silver Age Creator panel which was very interesting but the guests had to be constantly reminded to speak into the microphones; when I could hear them, I heard some interesting tales. Jerry Robinson carried himself nicely.
• I attended a panel on Graphic Novels in Libraries which turned out to be different than what was on the label. It was a panel about using graphic novels in library programming which was a little interesting but not relevant to my own work.

Friday

• Visited Steve Lieber to collect an ashcan of Underground#1; luckily Jeff Parker had blogged about it.
• I met two posters I knew from the comicboards.com message boards: Rad Chipmunk & Evil G:DR.
• I also met Chad Anderson, one of my co-writers from the handbooks. It turns out that he's a terrific being in person and we had a great time visiting.
• The That 70's Panel was one of the best panels of the weekend; I knew I wouldn't be able to attend Doug Moench's own panel the following day so it meant a lot to me to see him in person and witness how quick-witted he was; he and Marv Wolfman dominated a fair bit of the panel with their lively recollections and at one point Moench brought down the house with two words: "Jim Shooter." Gene Colan was late arriving but it was nice to see the enthusiastic response he elicited from the crowd.
• I attended the Cup o' Joe panel which had that neat Marvelman news, though no one seems sure how big the news really is.
• I wanted to attend the Rifftrax panel but the line was ridiculous; disheartened, I walked into another hall just to sit down and found myself attending a Peter Jackson/James Cameron panel. How does that figure?
• The Eisner Awards were not exactly the Academy Awards in terms of spectacle, but I was pleased to see several of my picks win and Jeff Smith & Terry Moore were great presenters. The highlight of the evening was easily Russ Heath accepting his induction to the Eisner Hall of Fame by saying (paraphrased): "I'm glad to be alive to accept this." With just those words he got off the stage to a thunderous standing ovation.

Saturday

• I went to Russ Heath to congratulate him on his award; he was perplexed at the response to his "speech" the previous evening but recalled one person telling him it was memorable because it was short and funny. I bought a print from him.
• I went to the Marvel: Dark Reign panel and met up with Rad, G:DR, Chad and another handbook writer, Anthony Flamini. This worked out brilliantly and allowed Anthony, Chad and I to dish on the handbook experience with each other over lunch later. The panel itself was overshadowed by a single young fan, Christian, who won our hearts and minds by flooring Quesada with statements like as "Norman Osborn, you're not the man--Obama is!"
• I went to the Ray Bradbury panel and ducked in on the last minutes of the Green Lantern panel to ensure I had a seat. Geoff Johns closed the Green Lantern panel by leading the audience in the Green Lantern oath. It turns out, I know it by heart. This may not sound like a big deal coming from a huge comic book fan, but as someone with maybe two Green Lantern comics in my possession, it did surprise me.
• Ray Bradbury was simply wonderful; he didn't say much (his agent did most of the talking), but I hung on each of his words. His passion for life and art amazed me.
• Bradbury was followed immediately by the Human Target panel which included a preview of the show's pilot. It's not bad, but Jackie Earle Haley is too interesting to be a minor character and it can't be good that so many people like him more than the star. The same room held the special Watchmen: Director's Cut about 2 hours later. About the only way I could have seen it would have been to stay in the room but I forfeited it so that I could catch up with people on the exhibit floor. And so...
• With only minutes left in the day I met Jim Steranko. More on this later.

Overall, I had considered SDCC to be something I should do once in my life but the experience had me pondering a return visit. There was no doubt in Ron Lim's mind: "You'll be back." he said repeatedly. Time will tell.