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What brought you to Spectrum
Comics?
I believe the editor of the line was Scott Fulop. He kept
calling the studio for my then studio mate, Rob Liefeld, whom, as
I recall, he wanted to do The Shield. Rob, as I remember, wasn't
all that interested, but we hood-winked Scott into taking a look
at a proposal from me.
Were you asked to take on
the Fox, or did you decide that's what you wanted?
No, he was the character I wanted. He was one with the least
amount of exposure.
Were you supposed to write
or draw it? (or both)
Never got that far, but I would have preferred to do both.
What was the Fox going to
look like in this form?
Like he always did. Like the Black Panther--completely black
costume, maybe with red eyes, I don't recall.
What was the story on the
Fox that you were going to do(characterization, origin?)
I don't recall. I do know that I used my notes on the Fox when
I created ShadowHawk, so you could say that this was one of
ShadowHawk's origins.
Do you know of any other
titles or creators that were involved--or planned involvement--in
the Spectrum Comics world?
I recall Len Wein and Kelly Jones were going to do the Hangman
and that there was one more title lined up, but I don't recall
what it was.
Why did the line get
cancelled?
I'm not sure. I do know that Scott told us that the publishers
saw some of Kelly's pages and freaked. They had no idea what they
were getting into and put a quick halt to it when they found out.
I don't know if that's true, but that's what we were told.
Did you have any stories
drawn (if you were indeed the artist)? And how many were
written?
No, it never got that far. I had some notes--and the
beginnings of a series synopses, but that's it.
What was your first
introduction to the MLJ (now ArchieCo) heroes?
The Mighty Comics line of the mid-1960's. They were a train
wreck of a company--they were trying to immitate Marvel, without
really understanding what Stan Lee was doing. They were trying to
emmulate the BatMan TV show, without understanding the satire
behind camp. The artwork was just dreadful--stiff, awkward,
uninspired. It was like a B Movie, so bad it was entertaining on
a very peverse level.
What kind of research did
you have to do on the Fox before getting your basic ideas down?
Research? The characater was a poor man's Bat Man. All you had
to do was take whatever elements you didn't like about Bat Man
and work with them--it just wasn't all that deep.
Thanks for your help
Don't know if this works into your article or not, but I was
involved just a couple of years ago in another aborted attempt to
revive these characters.
Another attempt? Can you
elaborate?
Here's the scoop...I was doing some work on the Sonic titles
(Specials, Knuckles, etc...) and had done the Sonic/Image
cross-ver (Sonic Super-Special #7) when conversations started
between myself, Sonic editor, F. Justin Gabrie and Paul Castiglia
about reviving the Mighty Crusaders. The idea was to start the
series from scratch, using a BatMan animation style. Paul would
write, I would pencil and co-plot (or something along those
lines) The team would have included The Fly, Steel Sterling (now
a Hulk sized farm boy), a new female Comet (the daughter of the
original), Blackjack (whom I thought was lame, but Paul insisted
on), the Shield, and the Jaguar (the later two being the
senior members of the team).
The publishers didn't want to do it, having been bitten every
time they entered the super-hero area. I spoke with Justin about
the possibility of doing the book therough Image, but he didn't
feel they'd go for it as they were still smarming from the Impact
line with DC. So, th whole thing was dropped shortly after I
became the publisher of Image. The only thing to come of it was a
bunch of one-page Origins that appeared in various Sonic comics
(I did the Shield's). So, yet another stillborn revival.
Was this just in a proposal
that was worked up? Or had the legalaties been done
before-hand? (reason for asking is Joe Simon's co-ownership of
the Fly, and his having to be involved with any and every project
that has the Fly in it--according to Paul Castiglia)
That's right! The Fly was NOT included for that reason (told
you memory was a bit dim). There was NO written proposal. Again,
it had not gone that far. There was a group shot I did in the
"animation style"--Paul and I were talking--mostly via
e-mail--none of which I'm sorry to say was saved on this end.
Like Spectrum before it, this was aborted before it got too far.
By the way, BlackJack has
been the character that has had the biggest role in their
appearances in Archie's Weird Mysteries (#3 and 14), so Paul must
have a soft-spot for him.
Yeah, he does--HE can't even say why :-)
Do you happen to know, off
the top of your head, how many, and which of the one-page origins
were done/appeared? No one I've talked to seems to know for
sure, not even Paul himself!
No, no clue. I'm sure of the Shield and Blackack (I think he
got a two-pager!)--I dimly recall the Comet (the original), but
I'm not sure--you'd have to check the Sonic books circa 1999, I
believe.
Did you have any story plans
set up for this new Crusaders lineup? Or was it just in the
planning stages, and nothing really made out of it for a
proposal?
I remember roughing out two scenes--the first was when the
Comet plunged into our dimension on Steel's farm (it seems his
farm was next to some kind of Nexus--and that would have ecome a
story point somewhere down the line) and the other was in the
city (NY?) with a giant mechanical spider the group had to bring
down.These were just scribled notations in one of my notebooks,
nothing really formal. It really had not gotten to the plot
stage.
So, did this aborted try for
the Crusaders involve any of their actual comic book
history? Or was it where the characters would be the same,
but act as if none of the other stuff ever happened, and
completely re-introduce them? (ala Impact, but with the regualr
names/costumes/powers)
It was a mixed bag. The Shield was the original 1940's guy,
the Comet the original's daughter, Steel Sterling was new. It
really didn't get far enough where we were considering how to
reconcile anything per se as much as introduce. I do know that
both Paul and I agreed that Red Circle went wrong with being too
continuity conscience and that Impact failed by not having a
connection. So we would have probably walked a line between the
two. Again, though, you're talking here aboiut conversations from
three or four years ago--not much was written down and nothing
was finalized.
Jim Valentino frequents the message boards over at Image
Comics.com
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