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Scott Fulop
Interview
Conducted by Paul Castiglia and Bradley Cobb
Regarding the original public
service announcements in the late 1980s:
I'm drawing somewhat of a blank on this stuff now. Everything was
originally created for and printed in Archie Digest Magazines. The first
thing created was a two page spread commissioned by Victor and
illustrated by Dick Ayers. It contained most, if not all of the MLJ
heroes. The concept was just the heroes saying there names and a line
like "Look for me in upcoming adventures!", just so Archie could
maintain the copyrights.
The next one I commissioned from a local artist whose name escapes me
and had done just a bit of very independent work. It was inked by Rich
Rankin, who did develop a bit of a name in the industry. It was a one
pager drawn horizontally. All the heroes were in a group shot, huddled
together. I had the penciler redesign their costumes based on some of my
own designs, but the costumes really had nothing to do with any upcoming
stories. Same here - just for Archie to maintain their copyrights.
On the proposed Spectrum line that
was being developed in the late 1980s/early 1990s:
The concept was to redesign all of the heroes, keeping just their
names and concepts, but "throwing the rest out the window".
The Hangman was written by Len Wein, penciler Kelly Jones, inker John
Beatty, letterer Pat Brosseau, and scheduled to be colored by Barry
Grossman. The poster, which was also to be the cover of the first issue
was painted by Dave Dorman. Dave was also slated to paint the covers of
the rest of the 4 issue mini-series. The Hangman was in reality
supposedly deceased policeman Craig Harden. The man responsible for his
death, and the arch villain of the mini-series was Dr. Creighton
Cadaver. Cadaver's henchmen include "Giggler", a red haired, freckled
psycho (no, not Archie), and "Beef", as in " a side of...", a giant of
a man, all muscle.
The Fly was written by Steve Englehart, penciled by Mike Bair
(Hernandez), scheduled to be inked by Bob Downs and Mike Bair, lettered
by Jim Massara, and scheduled to be colored by Barry Grossman. I was
still deciding on who would finally do the paintings for all 4 covers
and the poster for this 4 -issue mini-series.
On public service announcements
that appeared in the early 1990s:
I commissioned a series of 1-pagers for most of the top characters.
The were designed as public service announcements. I remember Shield,
BlackJack, and more. Amanda Conner did some and Chris Allan did the
artwork for at least two (I remember him adding some extra copy that
made fun of the Shield ?- The Shield saves the day and prevents a kid
from causing a fire, reprimands then kid, and the kid has a thought
balloon that read something like a sarcastic, "Yeah, Right". Whatever it
was, it was funny, but we had to delete it!) |