Isaiah's latest book review:
Paul Kupperberg's DIRECT CONVERSTIONS: TALKS WITH FELLOW DC COMICS BRONZE AGE CREATORS
I like comic books, to this day. I like reading about comic books, like Stan's "SHAZAM! FURY OF THE GODS" which talked about his love for the comic book series.
I lived, as a kid, for MAD MAGAZINE, POWERMAN AND IRON FIST, MS. MARVEL (read Marcia's "Female superheroes"),
WORLD'S FINEST COMIC BOOKS, X-MEN, LEGION OF SUPERHEROES, THE
DEFENDERS, THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN, WHAT IF?, THE SILVER SUFER, THE TEEN
TITANS, THE AVENGERS, SHE-HULK, SPIDER-WOMAN, DAREDEVIL, FANTASTIC FOUR .
. .
So I was interested in Paul Kupperberg's
DIRECT CONVERSTIONS: TALKS WITH FELLOW DC COMICS BRONZE AGE CREATORS.
Kupperberg started working for DC in 1975. He speaks with others who
did as well: Howard Chaykin, Jack C. Harris, Tony Isabella, Paul Levitz,
Steve Mitchell, Bob Rozakis, Joe Staton, Anthony Tollin, Bob Toomey,
and Michael Uslan.
This is from the conversation with Jack C. Harris:
It
all clicked for me when I was soring my comics, which I kept in a big
washing machine box in the attic. I was sorting them into piles by
titles I liked best, and that got me wondering what it was about those
books that made them my favorites, other than the fact that they were
all DCs. Then I checked out [each book's] indicia, the small print at
the bottom of the first page, and found they all had something in
common: the name Julius Schwartz was listed as the editor. I had no
idea what an editor did, but whatever it was, this Schwartz guy was
doing it better than everybody else. After that, I'd check all the
books I was buying for the "Julius Schwartz" credit. [. . .] They also
took priority in reading order. I wouldn't even wait to get home to
start reading.
It's a good thing
Kupperberg worked in comics because he could never host a talk show.
The "[. . .]" indicates where he cut off Harris.
Who
is this volume for? It's not for comic book lovers. It appears to
exist to document that Kupperberg worked for DC -- and no other reason.
The
interviews are uniformly dull. When someone does break through with
something interesting -- mainly Harris -- it's just ignored or cut
short.
I don't really care about the time you
saw a cover of a Superboy comic where the pants were colored red and the
briefs and boots blue but, thank God!, you managed to stop it before it
went to print.
And I don't care about all your
bitchy office gossip -- he insisted on going to his coffee break every
day at ten! He insisted, that since he go to work 15 minutes early, he
leave 15 minutes early!
I care about the comic books. Would have been great if that could have been front and center.
Talk about an issue you wrote that you liked, talk about an issue you drew or colored.
Instead, it's just garbage.
Here's a typical passage with Anthony Tollin speaking:
One
day Denny wandered in, shaking his head in despair. He was launching a
new title based on an old pulp character, the SHADOW, but he'd decided
the book was cursed. Alex Toth was initially assinged to it but didn't
like the script he'd received, so he had Richard Kyle write a new one
and billed DC for it. Kyle Steranko was going to draw the book, but he
fell through, and Denny had just found out he wouldn't be able to use
Wrightson, who really wanted the assignment and had already drawn a
house ad for the title but was deemed too valuable on SWAMP THING. If
he couldn't have Bernie, Denny didn't know what he was going to do,
which is when Michael Kaluta, one of the freelancers hanging out, asked,
"Can I draw it?" So, Denny ran down to Carmine's office and returned a
few minutes later with the boss's okay to give Kaluta the job.
Well
that really changes the way I see the time when they gave Lois Lane
bionic powers! I do like that story but the quote above is not about
any Lois Lane story. In fact, ultimately, it's about nothing. Useless
gossip that conveys nothing.
I do not recommend this book one bit.
Here's C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"