by Mike Favila (Guest Writer / ComicsOnline.com Senior Editor)

My neighbor (and Editor-In-Chief) Mike Rhode is taking his daughter off to college for the first time, so I'm taking a second away from my duties at ComicsOnline.com to interview writer Greg Pak for ComicsDC.

If you're not familiar with Greg Pak's work,chances are you probably just haven't been reading the credits that tightly.  I've mostly recently read his stuff for the relaunch of Eternal Warrior through Valiant Comics, but he's the man responsible for the awesomely out there World War Hulk storyline.  I didn't know this until I read his Wiki, but he also created Amadeus Cho.  Not too shabby.

Thanks for taking the time to chat.  Here's a few questions to start with:

What was the genesis for Kingsway West?  Obviously there's been different pieces of fiction relating to the Chinese people in a Western setting, but the fantasy elements are way more pronounced than anything I've read before.  

I first started thinking about about telling a story with a Chinese gunslinger in the Old West over twenty years ago. I grew up in Texas and loved Westerns, and when I learned about the real history of Chinese immigrants in the Old West, I just couldn't stop thinking about it. So this was my dream project when I started film school in the '90s. And after I started writing comics, I worked on different comic book versions of the story, doing a couple of short stories for the OUTLAW TERRITORY anthology with artists Ian Kim and Sean Chen. But I always wanted to do a longer version of the story, and eventually started talking with editor Jim Gibbons at Dark Horse. Jim loved the characters and story I pitched, but asked if there was something more I could bring to the story to push it over the top. And I thought about it for a while, and found myself thinking about fantasy and magic. I'd loved Lord of the Rings and Dungeons and Dragons when I was growing up for some of the same reasons I'd loved Westerns -- that kind of big, epic, outdoor adventure is part of both genres. And the more I worked on it, the more it made sense to merge those genres in a story about a Chinese gunslinger searching for his wife in an Old West overrun with magic.

How did you get together with Mirko Colak?

Mirko and I worked together on Marvel's RED SKULL INCARNATE and Dynamite's TUROK, both books that involved realistic, historically based material. I knew he'd absolutely kill on a Western. He's been tremendous. And I should add that colorist Wil Quintana and letterer Simon Bowland are doing amazing work on the book as well. I'm so lucky and happy!

How did you end up publishing at Dark Horse?

If I'm remembering correctly, I think Mirko had met Jim somehow and made the introduction. As soon as I started talking with Jim, I knew I wanted to do the book there. Jim asked all the right questions to push me to make the book better. Jim since left the company to work for Stela, but Spencer Cushing has taken over as editor and Spencer's been fantastic -- just a tremendous sounding board and advocate and hustler to keep the book on time and make it as good as it can be.

How much of the arc do you have planned out?

I've written all four issues of the miniseries. I've got my fingers mightily crossed -- if the numbers are good enough, we may be able to do a second volume. So if anyone reading is interested, please do ask your local comics shop to order the books for you, or go to KingswayWest.com and pre-order there!

I loved the relaunch of Eternal Warrior, and was impressed with your take on it.  Were you a fan of original Valiant comics?  How did you get involved?

Thanks so much for the kind words! I actually didn't read many of the original Valiant comics -- they came out during a window in time when I wasn't buying a ton of monthlies. But I always loved the concepts. I got pulled on board ETERNAL WARRIOR by editor Warren Simons, with whom I'd done MAGNETO TESTAMENT over at Marvel. I loved working with Warren and was thrilled to have a shot at working with him again. And the Eternal Warrior character was up my alley -- again, as a fan of outdoor adventure and fantasy. I'm particularly proud of the second arc we did on that series, drawn by Robert Gill, in which we jumped a couple of thousand years into the future. Had a huge amount of fun with the worldbuilding there, and I loved the emotional story between Gilad and his granddaughter.

Did you have to coordinate with the other titles launching for Valiant, or did Warren provide a lot of the parameters?

I definitely read the other issues that had referenced Gilad before I started. And Warren definitely kept it on track continuity-wise. He had a great eye on the big picture all the time -- he's just done a tremendous job herding all those books.

As a Filipino, I've always been drawn to the names of the Asian creators (like Whilce Portacio or Frank Cho) that have been on the credits of the comics I read growing up.  It seems like seeing realistic Asian characters portrayed on the page(such as the Amadeus Cho Hulk) is the natural next step.  Do you feel that this is just a reflection of society today, or did that require a concerted effort on the part of comic companies/creators?

I've been writing comics for over twelve years now, and from the beginning, my editors have always supported my working diverse characters into the casts of my books. My very first published comic was the WARLOCK mini in 2004, which starred an Asian American woman named Janie Chin. And artist Takeshi Miyazawa and I created Amadeus Cho eleven years ago, and I was able to write him as a supporting character in the Hulk books and eventually as the co-star of the INCREDIBLE HERCULES series, co-written with Fred Van Lente, for over four years. And over the years I also created S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent Jake Oh and used Suzie Endo in the SILVER SURFER book and created a half-Japanese alternative-world Namor in X-TREME X-MEN and used Sharon (played by Grace Park in the television series) as the central character in the second half of my BATTLESTAR GALACTICA series and wrote a bunch of book starring other people of color. So in my experience, working with the awesome editors I've had over the years, the door has always been open -- I just had to walk through it.

But I also think we're living at a time when more and more people are aware that audiences want more diverse casts and more and more creators of different backgrounds are breaking in and blowing up in all kinds of great ways, which is great. Fifteen years ago, when I was speaking at film festivals with my films, I used to say that in fifteen years the changing demographics of the country would make it a no-brainer to make media with diverse casts. We're in the middle of businesses waking up to that right now, and it's very exciting.

Less related, but also curious: How are you involved with Fresh Off The Boat?  I saw something on your Wiki, but I had no clue that you had a hand in the show.

Oh, I love the show, but I'm not at all involved in its creation or production. I was a lucky participant on a panel discussion about it when it premiered. I'm thrilled it's done so well -- it's time, huh?

It’s easy to forget how close Baltimore really is, but it is less than an hour away and has one of America’s few comics museums. Geppi’s Entertainment Museum (aka GEM), housed in a former railroad station right outside the Camden Yards ballpark, is a magical place for comics fans. Steve Geppi is the owner of Diamond Distributors, the largest comic book distributor in the country, and his museum is a showcase for his collections. The main hallway is filled with large posters (including one for the original King Kong movie), original comics artwork, advertising signs, and a letter from Walt Disney to Mrs. George ‘Krazy Kat’ Herriman expressing condolences on her husband’s death.

The exhibit galleries tell the story of popular culture via characters, beginning in the 19^th century with Palmer Cox’s Brownies (although there’s a nod to earlier history in the first one – you can see Ben Franklin’s original newspaper cartoon in it). They jump decade by decade, hitting highlights such as The Yellow Kid, Superman, Disney’s characters, Little Orphan Annie, Popeye and the like before ending with Star Wars in the 1970s. Each room is packed with toys and merchandising.

The galleries begin with one devoted to the history of the comic book which begins with early collections of comic strips from the 1900s through the ‘20s, then moves into pulps and a whole wall of Big Little Books, before showcasing Geppi’s collection of key comic books. Atlas At Last! the current temporary exhibit began in this room. Atlas was a company that barely existed from 1974-1975. It was created by Martin Goodman, the former owner of Marvel Comics (which had used the name Atlas in the 1950s), for his son Chip to run, in an attempt to outstrip his former company. As Diamond’s Scoop site notes, “By paying top rates, the company attracted creators such as Russ Heath, John Severin, Alex Toth, Walter Simonson, Ernie Colon, Neal Adams, Pat Broderick, Mike Ploog, Rich Buckler, Frank Thorne, Tony Isabella, Jeff Jones, Boris Valejo and others. One series, The Destructor, featured longtime Warren, Marvel and DC editor Archie Goodwin as its writer, Spider-Man and Doctor Strange co-creator Steve Ditko on pencils, EC veteran and T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents creator Wally Wood on inks, with Marvel veteran Larry Lieber (one of the Atlas editors and Marvel impresario Stan Lee’s brother) providing the cover.” It’s worth noting that talents did not move between the major companies at the time, and one could be blackballed for doing work for a competitor.


Mark Huesman, JC Vaughn, Mike Wilbur, Philip Zolli & Mark Wheatley

The exhibit features most, if not all, of the comics, that Atlas published and some striking original art down for the books. These are drawn from the collection of Philip Zolli, the enthusiast behind The Atlas Archives website (which he started in 2003). Zolli bought the comics he could fine when they appeared originally, and has continued completing and filling out his collection over the intervening thirty-five years. Mike Wilbur (employee of Diamond International Galleries) was one of the show’s curators and provided some of the comic books on display. The other of exhibit’s two curators, J.C. Vaughn (of Gemstone Publishing), invited me to the opening of the show. Of Atlas’ enduring appeal, he told me, “I’ve worked in comics for sixteen years next month, and I freelanced for a year before that, so I’m not a novice, I’m not your average fanboy, but I was totally a geeked-out kid. I got two of the comics in a trade when I was a kid, like 1976, a year after they died, and I got so into them -- that’s the seed of the exhibit being here now.”

The Atlas line has just been relaunched by Ardden Entertainment and grandson Jason Goodman, and Vaughn says, “I think there’s a better understanding of the company now … we’re talking 72, 73 publications in 1975, and the fact that we’re still talking about them in any sense is amazing, and the fact that anyone’s bringing them back is even more amazing.”

Phil Zolli was attempting to collect his comics before there were comic book stores. “I remember there several stationary stores had the spinner racks, and they were there, and Atlas in my area got good coverage, so I was able to buy them right off the newsstand. They just struck a chord with me because all I knew at the time was Marvel and DC, and I got to be at the ground floor of a brand-new company. It was very exciting. A year later, they disappeared.” He didn’t buy all of the line at the time – Archie knock-off Binky, Gothic Romances and other magazines waited for later, as did buying original art. “Once I started the site, and I had searches out because I wanted to accumulate as much information as I could, E-bay was a great source of information and artwork that popped up. I thought, ‘This is great and relatively inexpensive. I’m going to buy it.’ Zolli’s original artwork is interspersed with other artwork, both in the main comic book exhibit room and the museum’s main hall, a weakness in the show’s design that lessens the impact of the art. Very little of the original art exists. Vaughn noted, “When people went up to the Atlas offices, after they ceased publication, there was one secretary that denied that they were ever in comics, Simonson had a whole story missing… some have cast glances at some of the last editorial employees and others have just heard that it got thrown out.” Maryland comic artist Mark Wheatley, who noted that he published the first or second story done by Howard Chaykin, said “During that period, it’s quite likely it just got tossed.” Zolli is continuing to collect the new versions of the comics, and has been buying original art from those series as well.

The second Atlas failed for a couple of reasons. Vaughn points out, “They hired Jeff Rovin from Warren [a black and white comics magazine publisher] and put him in charge of color comics; they brought in Larry Lieber who worked at the core of silver age Marvel, and put him in charge of black and white magazines…” Wheatley said of Atlas, “They looked like Marvel deliberately, and then the distributors forced them to change and not look like Marvel” while Vaughn says that “a lot of the changes were capricious like the Movie Monsters [magazine on display] originally had differently colored lettering that didn’t get lost in the background orange, but the Goodman’s came by and made them change it.” Discussing how much the comics industry has changed, Zolli says “Larry Hama was doing the second issue of Wulf, and his mother was dying, and Martin Goodman refused to push the deadline back. The guy quit right after that. A lot of people were bitter.” Distribution was a problem for the company, as other companies such as Skywald and Charlton were still fighting for space on the racks. Wilbur remembers, “The place I was buying my new comics in the ‘70s was a bookstore / newsstand place. I went in there often enough that they would let me put out the new comics when they came in. They had no say in what they got – they would just get these bundles of comics strapped together and it was just totally random. Maybe this month you might get ten copies of this title, next month you’d get two copies and the next month you’d get twenty of them.”



The failure of this newsstand distribution system is what led Geppi to begin Diamond, his distribution company – so he could get his own comic books to read. If you’re curious about a little company that didn’t matter much, or are interested in cartooning history, the museum is located at 301 W. Camden Street, Baltimore, MD 21201, 410-625-7060, sliding scale entry fee begins at $10 for adults.

[Corrected June 1, 2011 for the misspelling of Mr. Zolli's name as Zullo. I regret the error].

From their March newsletter...

Fantom Comics would like to invite you to our first Comic Book Happy Hour, to be held from 6-8pm at The Laughing Man Tavern (just off Metro Center) on the 2nd Tuesday of every month.

April 13th will be our first event, featuring a panel of three policy wonks and a Marvel Comics editor discussing "Politics in Comics". Come for the 20 minute discussion and Q&A, stay for the fun of meeting other comic book nerds in the area! More details will be posted on the website in a couple of weeks, but remember to save that date: Tuesday, April 13th!

Zadzooks Secret Wars Comic Packs, Turbo Tank and Halo Wars Aerial Ambush
Joseph Szadkowski, Washington Times November 12, 2009

Rob Weiner, author of Marvel Graphic Novels and Related Publications: An Annotated Guide to Comics, Prose Novels, Children's Books, Articles, Criticism and Reference Works, 1965-2005, answered some questions about his 400-page book and his future projects.

How about some background? You're a librarian?

I have a BA in history and an MA in History from Texas Tech with a focus in American History and American Popular culture. While I was working on my MA in history, I was always in the library. People started asking me where things were as though I worked there. I thought I should probably get paid for doing that so I applied for a job and worked as a paraprofessional for a few years. Then I went and received my MS in Library Science at University of North Texas. I worked in a public library for 12 years and most recently took a position at Texas Tech as Humanities Librarian. I worked in the local music industry for about 10 years in Lubbock while going to college. I’ve always appreciated the “artsy” side of life so my position now is a real good fit.

Bibliography is kinda in my blood. I co-authored a bibliography on the Grateful Dead, I’ve published a filmographic essay on Johnny Cash, the Marvel Guide, and in my forthcoming book on Captain America, I co-authored Filmographic and Scholarly Bibliographic pieces. I don’t do just lists however; I have to read, or watch the piece and then annotate or critically judge it.

Why comic books?

Well, when I a little boy growing up in Michigan I remember certain images... I remember the image from Silver Surfer 1 and Tales of Suspense 39 (with the gray Iron Man)! I was mesmerized by those images. They stick with me today. I can’t say where I first saw them or how I started to read comics, but I remember those two covers specifically. I also remember I had a Batman bow tie that I was very proud to wear around at events. By the time I was around 10 or so I started actually collecting and reading comics. I was fascinated by characters like the Human Fly (I wish Marvel would do an Essential collection), 3-D Man (one of my ALL TIME favorites and one of the coolest characters Roy Thomas ever created), The Beast fascinated me (just his look), Nova the Human Rocket, Moon Knight, the Black Panther. It was these “secondary” characters that caught my eye more than the Big Guns (like Spidey / Thor / even Cap) at first. I was also fascinated by the Legion of Superheroes and those early adventures of Superboy. You know how a lot of people remember the "Death of Gwen Stacy" (which was a BIG BIG deal when it came out), for me it was the death of Chemical Boy. I cried and cried over that. (I loved Bouncing Boy also,) I have not read those 1970s Legion stories SINCE I was a kid. I would love to re-read them. I also went through a period of rediscovery when the first Tim Burton Batman movie came out and started collecting again, but then life / school / marriage got me busy again and I got out of the comic world for awhile.

It was in the late 1990s while working at the public library that I started to rekindle my love for comics through reading Graphic Novels. It occurred to me that perhaps we should try ordering some Spider-Man, Batman, and Superman books for the Public Library. I asked my library director about this and she said sure, let’s give it try. Well, that inspired ten years of collecting graphic novels for the Lubbock Public Library System. I helped build one of the best graphic novels collections in the country. There was some resistance to this as some people (on staff) did not want that sh**t in the library, but the director was always like “Do they circulate?” If they do, then let’s get more. Adults, kids, teens, all loved these books so we just kept buying more and more and built a great collection of over 4,000 items. At first, I tried reading EVERYTHING that I ordered or came in. This proved to be too daunting after awhile. There is a TON of stuff and more all the time being produced, so one has to pick their favorites and stick with them, occasionally reading something new and critically acclaimed of course.

Why Marvel?

I’ve always loved the Marvel characters. After reading Alex Ross’s Marvels I just became inspired. I realized that one could tell a story with Spider-Man that was equal to Shakespeare / Tolstoy etc. Although I had previously read The Watchmen, Dark Knight Returns, and the Crow, it just did not “hit” me until I read Marvels. The combination between the awesome art and the great storytelling just changed me (I was also highly impressed with DeFalco’s Spider-Girl). I thought wow, I should try to do something like the Grateful Dead bibliography with Marvel Graphic Novels and document and annotate them. Although some critics have pointed out that much of the info in my book is online, my book as “value added” material in that the annotations are fun to read and they provide at times a critical perspective to certain works. Frankly, I do document material that is not documented in quite the same way elsewhere, including online. Although Marvel Graphic Novels is a reference work, it is a fun book that anyone including fans, scholars, historians, librarians, should get something out of that they cannot get out of websites. For example did you know Marvel published a guide to the Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame, or about all those weird children’s books they published in the 1980s? None of that is documented in all one place. Are there things I missed? Of course. Is the book perfect? No, of course not. I find mistakes all the time, but I hope that it provides a great service to the sequential art community as a whole.

It took me six years to read and annotate all this material which is why it stops at 2005. Working full time, teaching, and trying to have a life is very difficult, but McFarland never gave up on me. I also have a second book, an edited collection on Captain America (my all time favorite character), coming out soon and that is in the can. Two more books are forthcoming as well. One is an edited collection looking at how Graphic Novels have affected libraries and archives and another documents Marvel on Film/Video.

Do you anticipate updating your Marvel book? Perhaps online for collectors of Marvel?

At this point no, I have no plans for that. I suppose in a few years I could do a sequel and update the book with all the items that have been published since then and perhaps have an annotated list of Marvel-related websites as well. There are some things I missed too that I could add. I wish someone actually associated with Marvel would see and appreciate this. That would be great. I know some reviews have lamented the fact that I stop at 2004-2005, and it just got published in 2008, but I just could not read and annotate everything. Much of the recent material is online (such as the Trade Paperback website and so forth), but again not all of it. Keep in mind too that it is also available as an e-book which you can download to your device. So I think this shows that reference books are not just dry and boring, but can provide something useful for the fan, scholar, professional, artist etc.

Can you talk more about the new books you've mentioned?

I have an edited collection on Captain America coming out soon. It is called Captain America and the Struggle of the Superhero: Critical Essays which should be out soon. Cap is my favorite character and after they killed Steve Rogers, I wanted to do something to honor Cap. Since similar collections like Batman and Philosophy , Man from Krypton, and Unauthorized X-Men are all edited collections, I wanted to do the same for Cap. The difference is that scholarship in my book is all over the map, from fields as diverse as Geography, History, Cultural Studies, Psychology, etc. The scholarship is a little more intense in my book than in most books I’ve seen about particular characters. The book also has some well-known scholars in the field of comic book/sequential art studies including Jason Dimitter, Cord Scott, Mark McDermott, John Moser and Mike Dubose among others. They all have a previous publishing track record, but there are those getting published for the first time in the book as well. I hope that it won’t be so deep that regular Cap fans will be put off by the book and there is a wide variety of ideas (not all of which I agree with). But I hope it will provide a good solid example of the various ways in which one can produce sequential art scholarship. I have no idea how the critics are going to view the book. The only thing missing is a detailed look at the late forties Cap comics when he got rid of Bucky and had a girl sidekick and the “commie smasher” version. Apparently those three comics published in the 1950s are nowhere to be found. I hope they turn up someday as Marvel really needs to reprint those as Atlas Era Captain America Masterworks (along with that single issue of Captain America Weird Tales which did not have a Cap story. For historical and cultural value those books are priceless.

As a librarian and someone who help build a big collection of Graphic Novels when I worked at the public library, I want to give something back to the profession. So I am also in the coming year going to be working on a book of collected essays that shows with how libraries and archives have dealt with Graphic Novels in their collections. I think this would be a very good book for professionals in the library and archival fields to have and use. I even talk about Digital Comics and the changing of the industry as well. I mean it really has been only in the last 10 years that libraries have taken note of graphic novels as a way to get folks to read and not poo-pooed it. There have been libraries that have collected comics (such as Michigan State and Randall Scott for years), but they are the exception. I went through some growing pains with my library as well, with folks skeptical about having them in the collection. I think there is less and less of that because, just like the Internet, patrons demand graphic novels in their libraries. I mean graphic storytelling is as old as humanity! Nothing to be ashamed of in that. BTW your comics’ web bibliography is an amazing resource, as is your comic to film adaptations book! Speaking of which, I am also going to do a project documenting Marvel on Film and video etc., all in one place which will be pretty cool. And I am trying to finish and editing volume on Exploitation/Horror/Grindhouse/Arthouse cinema. I am working on with a PhD student at University of Texas and I have my regular job duties at the University, so I have my hands full for at least the next few years and beyond.

[9/26/08, 5:21 pm - copy edited after initial posting - MR]

Dirk Deppey over at Journalista had linked to what he said was a Washington Post story, which made me wonder how I missed it. Actually, it's a wire story on the Post's site - "Marvel Entertainment: Super Hero Stock?" Anne Kates Smith, Senior Associate Editor, Kiplinger.com, Thursday, May 15, 2008. We'll note it here for posterity.

Also this story was in the paper today, although I can't decide if it's comics or not: "Kid e-Land: Disney's DGamer Enters the Crowded Virtual World," By Mike Musgrove, Washington Post Staff Writer, Friday, May 16, 2008; D01.