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Home , Al Williamson, Angelo Torres, Carol Tyler, Fred Hembeck, I Want a Guy, Joe Jusko

$9.95 in the USA

™ CELEBRATING THE GREATEST ARTIST

OF ALL TIME A TwoMorrows Publication No. 19, Winter 2019

Plus: The Savage Brush of and the Reinvention of TOM GRINDBERG Death Dealer TM & © the Estate of . 5 5 5 3 0 0 8 5 6 2 8 1

Cover painting by Tom Grindberg Winter 2019 • The Frank Frazetta Issue • Number 19 TABLE OF CONTENTS

th WOODY THE BARBARIAN Ye Ed’s Rant: Goodbye to old friends and hello to 2019 (and TwoMorrows’ 25 !)...... 2 CBC mascot by & © J.D. KING CHATTER About Fleener in the Forefront: Mary’s Busy as a Bee. Part two of our jaunty interview Our Cover with the great from her mini-comics work to to Slutburger to her current-day debut, with Billie the Bee, as graphic novelist...... 3 Painting by TOM GRINDBERG Comics in the Library: Rich Arndt selects some of the best available..... 15

$9.95 in the USA Ten Questions: Darrick Patrick finds out about artist Greg “Chevy Man” Land...... 16 ™ CELEBRATING THE GREATEST FANTASY ARTIST OF ALL TIME A TwoMorrows Publication No. 19, Winter 2019 Hembeck’s Dateline: Fred throws light on ’s Shade, the Changing Man.. 21

Plus: The Savage Brush of JOE JUSKO and the Reinvention of TOM GRINDBERG THE MAIN EVENTS Art God: An Interview with Frank Frazetta. In 1984, writer/comics historian Steven C. Ringgenberg visited the great fantasy artist at the then just-opened Frazetta Museum, in , and he came away with an entertaining and informative talk with the most renowned genre painter of all time...... 22

Death Dealer TM & © the Estate of Frank Frazetta. Frazetta Fest. Ringgenberg shares a veritable feast of features on the great artist, including Frazetta’s caricature work, rarely-seen public service strips, and the Cover painting by Tom Grindberg lost E.C. Comics story, “Came the Dawn”… the “one that got away”!...... 38 Longtime comics pro TOM GRINDBERG jumped at the The Savage Brush of Joe Jusko. A career-spanning and enormously enlightening chance to depict the savage conversation with Frazetta disciple Joe Jusko, one of the finest fantasy and super- Frank Frazetta-created character Death Dealer when we asked hero painters working today. Included in the chat are a look at his hard-scrabble and we could not be more upbringing in the mean streets of Manhattan, stint as Big Apple cop, and break- impressed with the results! The artist has alluded to a possible through with his Marvel Masterpieces set, plus much more...... 48 project with Frank Frazetta, Jr., involving the axe-wielding brute, The Reinvention of Thomas Christian Grindberg. He started off as a to which we heartily hope will clone, morphed into a busy comics pro absorbing the work of , come to pass. Our special thanks and completely reinvented himself to join the ranks of great fantasy illustrators to Frank, Jr., for giving Creator permission to use such as Frazetta, , and , Grindberg shares about his Death Dealer on our cover. Visit love of , work on , and future with ...... 74 www.frazettamuseum.com for information and to peruse the BACK MATTER many Death Dealer… umm…

Death Dealer TM & © the estate of Frank Frazetta. Painting © Tom Grindberg. Death Dealer TM & © the estate of Frank Frazetta. Painting Tom deals and other items! Creators at the Con: Photographer Kendall Whitehouse captures the living spirits...... 94 Don’t STEAL our Creator’s Creators: We look at the career of guest-editor Steven C. Ringgenberg ...... 95 Digital Editions! Coming Attractions: The “Not Your Average Joes” special is coming in CBC #20...... 95 C’mon citizen, DO THE RIGHT THING! A Mom A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words: knows !...... 96 & Pop publisher like us needs every sale just to Right: A detail of Frank Frazetta’s cover painting used on the Flashing Swords #1 hardcover edition [1973]. survive! DON’T DOWNLOAD OR READ ILLEGAL COPIES ONLINE! Vol. 1 & 2 are available Buy affordable, legal downloads only at www.twomorrows.com as digital downloads from twomorrows.com! or through our Apple and Google Apps!

Comic Book Creator ™ is published quarterly by TwoMorrows Publishing, 10407 Bedfordtown Dr., & DON’T SHARE THEM WITH FRIENDS OR POST THEM ONLINE. Help us keep Raleigh, NC 27614 USA. Phone: (919) 449-0344. Jon B. Cooke, editor. John Morrow, publisher. Comic Book producing great publications like this one! Creator editorial offices: P.O. Box 204, West Kingston, RI 02892 USA. E-mail: [email protected] subscription funds to TwoMorrows, NOT to the editorial offices. Four-issue subscriptions: $43 US, $66

COMIC BOOK CREATOR International, $20 Digital. All characters are © their respective copyright owners. All material © their is a proud joint production of creators unless otherwise noted. All editorial matter ©2019 Jon B. Cooke/TwoMorrows. Comic Book Jon B. Cooke/TwoMorrows Creator is a TM of Jon B. Cooke/TwoMorrows. ISSN 2330-2437. Printed in China. FIRST PRINTING. © The estate of FRank Frazetta. This issue is dedicated to the memories of , , , , and MICHAEL CHANDLEY

™

JON B. COOKE Welcoming 2019 Editor & Designer Farewell to old friends and hello to a very busy new year! What a cascade of tragic Expo Center, New Jersey, which will JOHN MORROW passings in the last few months, host many Weirdo contributors — Publisher & Consulting Editor losing so many legendary comics , , Kaz, Mark creators in such a short period Newgarden, and , so far — STEVEN C. RINGGENBERG of time, including my dear friends plus my good chum Drew Friedman, Russ Heath and Marie Severin, The Book of Weirdo cover artist! For Guest Co-Editor as well as pal Gary Friedrich details, visit the website of pal Cliff and Stan “The Man” Lee, who Galbraith’s great annual Secaucus MICHAEL AUSHENKER was generous with yours truly. show at eastcoastcomicon.com. Godspeed, my friends. I am also helming a special cel- Associate Editor Also mentioned atop this ebration of TwoMorrows Publishing page is the fine Providence- — The World of TwoMorrows — a TOM GRINDBERG based bookseller Mike Chandley, book marking the 25th anniversary of Cover Painter whose sudden death stunned John and Pam Morrow’s company. the book-loving community. His It goes without saying that yours Cellar Stories and Books store truly owes much of his career to the was the stuff of legend and he publisher and I’m pleased as a pickle RICHARD J. ARNDT long supported Ye Ed’s various to share that appreciation by editing a projects. From my mother and detailed history of the Raleigh-based TOM ZIUKO myself: rest well, Mike. Memo- outfit’s many accomplishments. Contributing Editors ries of you will be treasured. Details are still being worked out, but I write these words just be- suffice to say, it will debut at the 2019 STEVEN THOMPSON fore we close the books on 2018, Comic-Con International: San Diego, eagerly awaiting the coming where — ye ghads! — I have been STEVEN TICE new year. To keep readers in invited as a guest of the convention! BRIAN K. MORRIS the loop, Ye Ed will be extremely In addition to moonlighting as an editor at It’s Alive! Press (where Transcribers active in 2019, with the release of his 12-years-in-the-making publisher Drew Ford is reprinting tome, The Book of Weirdo, being some fascinating items of yore, J.D. KING released by publisher importantly a collection of the great come May. This will likely be anti-war war series, “The Lonely War CBC Cartoonist of Willy Schultz,” by Will Franz and

my magnum opus, an insanely Frank Frazetta portrait ©2019 Ronn Sutton. The Book of Weirdo © Jon B. Cooke. Cover art Drew Friedman. exhaustive history of Robert Frank Frazetta by Ronn Sutton ), I am co-authoring TOM ZIUKO Crumb’s legendary 1980s humor : America’s Two-Fisted CBC comics anthology, a retrospective to which over 130 Talent. Co-writer Greg Biga hosted my visit to Colorado Weirdo contributors participated, including Mr. Crumb in June when we visited the home of the great comic RONN SUTTON himself, who said book artist’s daughter, Michelina, and we scanned an my efforts made amazing array of Severin artwork. This TwoMorrows CBC Illustrator for a “great book is tentatively shceduled for late fall/early winter. book,” adding, As if that isn’t enough to do, I have written a four- ROB SMENTEK “So, from a, you act play with longtime creative partner and li’l brother know, historical Andrew, for which we’re currently conducting table CBC Proofreader perspective, readings with -based actors. The first act you performed a read-through of The Golden Age — a poignant comedy- great service.” drama based in the studio of fictional outfit Wonder Comics and set during the birth of the form — went CBC Contributing Photographer Choke! The 288- page retrospec- spectacularly and the Brothers Cooke are tremendous- tive will be offi- ly excited at the prospect of an actual stage production. KENDALL WHITEHOUSE cially released Great White Way, here we come! CBC Convention Photographer at the East Coast Alas, we couldn’t fit in the latest portion of Michael ComiCon, May Aushenker’s mammoth Rich Buckler interview this ish, 17–19, at the but will strive to include next time. We do our best… MICHAEL AUSHENKER Meadowlands Gotta go… I’m off to tackle the layout and design of FRED HEMBECK Roger Hill’s Mac Raboy: Master of the Comics! See all of you fine people in 2019! GEORGE KHOURY — Y e Crusading Editor TOM ZIUKO cbc contributors CBC Columnists Kyle Baker Drew Friedman Darrick Patrick Wayno To contact CBC, please email Comicartfans.com Tom Grindberg Stacey Kitchen Rob Smentek Kendall Whitehouse [email protected] Mary Fleener Fred Hembeck Dimitri Mais Kevin Sollenberger Glen Whitmore or snail-mail CBC, P.O. Box 204, Brent Frankenhoff Heritage Mineshaft magazine J. David Spurlock Rob Yeremian West Kingston, RI 02892 Frank Frazetta, Jr. Joe Jusko Ronn Sutton Tom Ziuko

2 #19 • Winter 2019 • COMIC BOOK CREATOR AN INTERVIEW WITH FRANK FRAZETTA

Conducted by Steven C. RinGgenBERG The following interview was conducted in 1984 within the first Frazetta Museum that was situated on the top floor of an office block Frank Frazetta pur- chased to give sons Frank Jr. and Billy store fronts for their businesses. It was winter and the room was cold that day. After an hour or so, we relocated to the Frazetta home to finish the rest of the interview in Frank’s studio, where the unfinished Wild Ride sat on the easel. Frank had been my hero since about TM & © Cona the age of 13, and it was a thrill finally getting to talk to the master in person. (I had done a brief phone interview with him in 1983, but this was the first time we’d met.) Over the course of several hours, we discussed Frank’s career, his approach to his work, and Fire and Ice, the animated film he’d just worked on with , one based on his characters and concepts. In person, Frazetta was what you might expect from viewing his work: brash, funny, opinionated, and supremely confident. I can say without reservation that he was the coolest man I have ever met. Frazetta passed away in 2010. — SCR.

22 #19 • Winter 2019 • COMIC BOOK CREATOR Steven C. Ringgenberg: When did you start working on the museum? Frank Frazetta: I have to say it’s at least… right after I came back from California, so that would be, maybe, oh early ’83, I suppose. We bought the building and it even may have been an afterthought, quite frankly. SCR: You bought the building first and then… ? Frank: Yeah, I think that’s the way it worked, and I think we bought the building because it was here and we needed storage for our poster business; we were running out of room back home, this kind of thing, and T-shirts, etc., and the rest of that commercial stuff. And then it grew. I said, “My Gosh, we’ve got a storefront. My boys can go into business for themselves,” and then this… Oh yeah, the museum idea. It was basically all [Frank’s wife] Ellie’s idea. I’m not business oriented… SCR: You said that opening the museum was kind of an afterthought. What made you open it at all? Frank: I think it was due to the popularity of the work. You know, the fans were constantly asking if they could come to see the originals and so on and so forth, and the best we did through the years was have some exhibits at different conventions and that was kind of inconvenient, to haul the paintings around, and that kind of thing, and worry about security. And we’re simply doing it for all the people that have had fun with my work. No other reason. It’s not for profit, because… you know, the money’s here. I could’ve sold the paintings and gotten rich, probably, and they’re here for the world. You can’t take them with you, you know. And I think my joy is in showing the work. SCR: So that’s basically the primary purpose of the museum. Frank: Absolutely. No other reason that I can imagine. SCR: Will there ever be any other artists displayed here? Frank: We have considered it, but that would be in the adjoining room, the gallery room, and we have been considering that and talking with other artists, and they’re interested, but we’ll have to wait and see because we suddenly found that I have an awful lot of drawings that, like you men- tioned; little doodles and watercolors and so on that simply don’t fit in in this room, and we may have to utilize our addition for that purpose. As long as people want to see them. SCR: Would you ever like to display some of Roy [Krenkel]’s paintings? Frank: I don’t have any… You mean Roy’s? I don’t have any of Roy’s paintings. art, and that was pretty standard, I think, for most publishers at that point SCR: I thought maybe if you could assemble a show or something. His and one of the reasons being that most artists didn’t care. I mean they stuff is probably pretty scattered by now. painted it and got paid and forgot about it. They really didn’t take much Frank: Well, since he died, I know that some of his work is being handled interest in their original art, and they kind of thought I was strange for by the estate, you know, [Al] Williamson and some of those people, and I wanting to retain the original. And that is primarily the reason I think some don’t know anything about it or what they’re doing with it, and so on. I really of that art is inferior because I saw no reason to work much harder than don’t know. was necessary. The price wasn’t especially wonderful and I knew the art SCR: When you were working for Ace back in the early ’60s, did [editor] was just gone forever. So, I just approached the question very casually. Don Wolheim keep a lot of your paintings or did you get your work back? And too many people, fans included, consider that, like, part of my growth. Frank: Ace kept them. I don’t know… I wouldn’t say Don kept them, but They look at it and they see what they consider an improvement, you know, Ace, that was their, that was the way they operated. They kept the original and it’s really not so because the work I did later, like for Lancer, is really no better than what I was capable of in the ’60s, not to mention the ’50s. So, it’s just that that’s the way I feel about my work. I have to feel that the effort is just worth something. If the art is awfully good, I just can’t see it just being shipped around and lost and being put into some stockroom or something like that, and I was obviously right, since the world is awfully happy that, I do have, certainly, most of that. SCR: How many originals of yours do you still have, Frank, as far as paintings? Frank: I don’t know. I really haven’t counted… I’ve got… This is only a fraction [gestures to the 60 or so paintings on the museum walls]. SCR: Have you ever had your originals cataloged? You know, gone through everything to know exactly what you’ve got? Frank: No, not really. The posters were cataloged at some point. You know, I’ve got closets and big cabinets filled with them, you know, that sort of thing, pen and inks or… SCR: Do you just have little doodles that you draw and go, “Oh that’s nice,” and then put away? Frank: Yeah, I’ll tell you. I used to give them away, and you know… No longer. Previous page: Frank Frazetta’s cover painting for the Lancer paperback edition of Conan the Adventurer, first of the celebrated series.Left: The artist’s preliminary

Portrait of Frank Frazetta © Drew Friedman. Conan TM & Properties International, Inc. sketch (showing quite a different title placement) and printed version. PORTRAIT by DREW FRIEDMAN This portrait originally appeared in Drew Friedman’s Heroes of the Comics [, 2014]. COMIC BOOK CREATOR • Winter 2019 • #19 23 about. The art was inconsistent at in quotes, and that’s difficult. You best, but it had some moments and know, you can’t render in light and I don’t know how you feel about shadow, it’s got to be done with a the action — I was happy with the line. Yes, you rotoscope, but, my action because I directed it. god you’d be shocked if you saw SCR: Isn’t it true that at a couple how we buried that. We just could of points you had to come in and not actually trace a figure. It had draw the wolves and the giant to look like a Frazetta figure, no lizard because the artists they had matter how wonderful they looked couldn’t do it? in person, something about the lack Frank: Oh, yeah. They couldn’t of dimension, you know, when you’d do it. No, I did quite a few drawings. suddenly draw the outline of one of At that time I’d done a tracing paper the hero actors who felt fat, so you’d set-up that they had and overlays and have to exaggerate like mad, at least so on, and I literally did a whole series another almost another 50% at times. of drawings of the wolf running and the Crazy! I could not believe it, and the girl was mouth opening and snarling, and that sort of a perfectly delightful young girl with a wonder- thing, which involves, god, a number of individual ful figure, [and] fell flat, again. In fact, it was quite a drawings and movements. learning process for me. I didn’t realize how voluminous SCR: Would you do the key illustrations and somebody my women are. I found out when we had what was a Frazetta else would do the in-betweens? girl playing the part and then we proceeded to just trace her figure Frank: I would work… Well, that’s what I would do basi- from a photograph and there’s this little tracing — Good grief! There’s cally is work with a girl, it was a girl, Debbie Tucker, who did nothing there. You know what I mean? It’s that our eyes see… [or] make the keys, and I would check out all her keys and go over them more of it, I guess or at least, let’s say light shadow and including all that and go over them. At first it was difficult, but she got better enhances it, but when you’re just doing an outline, it’s gone. So, in as we went along and better and better and better and order for it to come off, you either shoot the outline in flat color to better, and there was less work required at my end at least come close to looking like some of my overblown char- because she was really picking it up pretty well. acters, you had to exaggerate. Unfortunately, there SCR: Did Bakshi have a pretty good crew were some areas that were grossly exaggerated, assembled? but those kind of slipped by me. I just didn’t see Frank: Well, you know, it was… What every drawing. But, I was there every day for can you say? You’re not going to find the when I was needed after the shooting and that top-notch illustrators getting involved in sort of thing. that kind of thing. You’re going to get people SCR: How long were you actually working on who draw reasonably well who don’t mind sit- the film, for the whole year-and-a-half? ting in there in that little cubbyhole painting cels. Frank: We actually shot the film live, for maybe a to- It’s very boring, but trying work, but it was reasonable. It tal of eight weeks, something like that. I could be way wasn’t great. But at the Disney studios, I don’t know that off on that, but I remember two weeks at a stretch they could handle it. and then a gap and then maybe another two weeks, SCR: Their newest film, The Black Cauldron, is pretty and then a gap and maybe two weeks, and let’s say disappointing by all accounts. This page: Frank Frazetta’s fame skyrocketed when his Frank: Is it? I mean drawing rubbery little creatures work appeared as album cover art, particularly those of is one thing. Bakshi’s crew could do beautiful work the Southern rock band Molly Hatchet. At left is the on that, I mean totally animate a little charac- “Phantom Warrior” statue, based on FF’s Death

Artwork, Death Dealer TM & © the estate of Frank Frazetta. ter, but we’re shooting for realism, you know; Dealer, stands watch at Fort Hood, Texas.

COMIC BOOK CREATOR • Winter 2019 • #19 25 Frank: There’ve been a few teasers, people talking about Frank: Yeah, always has. I don’t know why. what we may do in the future, but nothing really solid. There SCR: I thought he was closer to Conan than were a bunch before Fire and Ice; it’s really incredible to Schwarzenegger. me. Frank: He’s a sweetheart. He’s far from SCR: Animated films? a bad guy, that’s the art of it. He’s a good Frank: No. Live actions, everything, but not as a producer. actor, he’s very convincing. Why would they think of Frank Frazetta as a movie produc- SCR: He was very good in that movie er? I’m an artist. They can’t imagine that I can sit there and Red Dawn, where he played the Russian direct and actually show the stunt men how to move, and colonel. leap and twist and turn and bash heads and that kind of Frank: He came out for the part. I thing. They can’t conceive of that. They think that I just sit considered him for Darkwolf… and he around and paint and wonderful things happen. But when I came out and what happened was he was there, I had the stuntmen learn some things from me. got offended when Ralph asked him to SCR: Yeah, I remember, I think it was in the interview you run through the park and show his stuff, did with Steranko, you were saying that if you did do anoth- and I know what he can do, and I said, er film that you wanted to do a live action film… ‘No, you don’t have to do that.’ And he Frank: Well, Ralph, understandably, didn’t think it was got offended and took off in his Trans Am. possible, to do a Frazetta-like film live you know, and I can But I love him. He was a fun guy. understand why he felt that. It would be difficult to envision, SCR: Well, Frank, if it did materialize, what I think. It would probably be pretty incredible, let’s face it. kind of film do you think you’d like to make? How are you going to get people who look like that? Frank: I could certainly do any horror film and SCR: Where are you going to find someone who looks like do it well. I may not be Hitchcock you know, but I your Conan? think I could probably produce a horror film that would Frank: I’ll find him. scare the living crap out of you, I mean really do it… Above: In his conversation SCR: It might take a little looking. SCR: Heart attacks at the premiere, that sort of thing? with Steve Ringgenberg, Frank Frank: I’ll find him. I grew up with guys like that. Believe Frank: Yeah. I think I could have them really frightened, Frazetta discusses movie char- me, people are looking in the wrong places. They look in the but I think it would be probably a little old-fashioned. I don’t acter actor William Smith, who gym. I don’t look in the gym. I’d find the right neighborhood think I’d be as obvious as… gory as… you know: disgust- appeared as Conan’s father in with guys that look like that just because of what they eat, ing. Mine would fit more over the category of the classics, Schwarzenegger’s first film. and there are guys like that, the scars, the works. Nasty. more like the great Frankensteins, the old ones that had a Bottom inset: Frazetta express- SCR: You grew up in a pretty tough neighborhood. flavor that they’ve never matched. And they tend to over- es that his favorite movie is The Frank: Yeah, well in , you know. play and they really don’t know… Night of the Hunter, Charles SCR: Parts of Brooklyn are still pretty bad. SCR: They’re going overboard with the gore. Laughton’s 1955 film noir thriller Frank: You’re goddamn right, in a different way, but I knew Frank: They’re going overboard. I don’t think it’s neces- starring Robert Mitchum as the guys like that if you saw them just come after you, boy, sary. I’d like to get the suspense element, you know? And villainous drifter Harry Powell. you’d just cut across the street. Bruisers, everything, prize somehow, make it exquisitely, beautifully, horrible… Yeah, Below: Conan sketch by FF. fighters. Some big heavyweight who’s been around, could you just sit there and you’re titillated, you’re really loving be closer to Conan than some of the actors that have played it, not being repelled by it. You know, sometimes I want to him. I mean weight lifters are cute and all that, but that’s throw it up… I’m unfamiliar with the names, but I’ve stuff and nonsense. I want a guy who can knock down an seen some of them and you can’t sit there… it’s dis- oak tree with one swing of an ax. And there are guys like gusting. It’s not frightening, it’s disgusting. Here’s the that, incredible strength, brutes, animals. difference: if you have to frighten people by making SCR: What did you think of Schwarzenegger as Conan? them disgusted, that’s no way to do it, and there have Frank: He’s a nice guy and a Frazetta fan and all that, but been some wonderful… he’s not a bruiser, he’s not a killer, right? Let’s face it. One of my favorite all-time films is Night of the Hunt- SCR: You know who I thought might have been closer to er… Brilliant, brilliant film, you know, I mean that’s the your Conan was the guy who ended up playing Conan’s kind of thing I would love to do. I think that’s really… . father, William Smith with the craggy face… I would have to be aware of just how sophisticat- Frank: William Smith came out for my movie, by the way. I ed they are today or how unsophisticated, got to meet him… He’s a great guy and a terrific actor, and whatever. I mean that was a film that was a great body… ahead of its time apparently because it SCR: He always plays bad guys, though. didn’t go anywhere. But anybody with half an ounce of brains realizes its worth. It’s an artistic gem. Every shot. At home I have it on tape and I marvel at it. A true genius and then what’s happened to it? It wasn’t fast enough or horrible enough or obvious enough… brilliant movie… [Mitchum] was brilliant. Everybody was brilliant. Laughton, whoever de- served the credit for it really ought to get it… That’s what I consider a marvelous film, and I can see, you know, and the old is still great. It’ll never die. SCR: Speaking of Kong, when they did the remake, you did a painting of Kong that was on the paperback cover. Frank: Oh, let’s see, I did one for Ace. Did I do both for Ace…? One represented the movie and… [producer] Dino [DeLaurentis] came out to my house. He flew into the little airport out there… and he was dickering about me doing maybe four paintings of King Kong.

Conan TM & © Properties International, Inc. Art the estate of Frank Frazetta. Four paintings! Good grief. That’s a bit of overkill,

COMIC BOOK CREATOR • Winter 2019 • #19 27 Above: Frank Frazetta magnif- part of the pen, anything. And, so who cares? That’s not all. get in some of the paintings, that’s why they’ve really lost it. icent canvas, The Sea Witch, That’s just some kind of strange little skill that you might A lot of them have so many subtleties that are immediately was cropped to use as cover art develop. It has nothing to do with the statement, you know. overlooked by the average layman or fan. They just look for #7 [Jan. 1967]. And everything that can be done has been done. What and say, “Oh, great figure!” Or great this, or great that, and does Frazetta do possibly different? But this is where I’m overlook all the little subtleties that are… building you up to Below: In his interview, at: always different, a different look, a fresh look. That’s this point. As you go back, you go back to find it, you’ll find Frazetta mentions that he often the reason my stuff is still really alive and well, because more and you’ll find more, and the more there is, the longer throws in elements within his really, most of these concepts are so different. They’re all it lasts. It’s as simple as that, providing everything is well paintings if simply to try some- the same now because they’re all Frazettas, been around thought out, perfectly balanced, and the shapes are pleas- thing different. He cites the for all these years, but they’re different. Each and every ing. Why do we like pleasing shapes? I don’t know. But, we random fluorescent green color one had a look about it that you never tired of, and I worked do. Buttocks, very exciting. inserted into his 1966 painting very hard at getting in this kind of lasting quality, whatever SCR: Nice and round. he titled Spider Man. that is. Perhaps it’s a certain flow, like good music. I mean, Frank: A silly, simple shape like that and we’re intrigued, why else are some pieces because it’s perfect. Why? I don’t know. Ask him [points at of music classics? They last photographer]. forever, you never tire of SCR: Is that one of the things you got from your classical them. Others catch you for art training, with your teacher back when you were a kid? a moment and they’re gone Frank: No, no. Not at all. That was instinctive since I forever. Do you know what was three years old. I’ve always had that feeling and I love I mean? pears. Certain images and the way they move, and that’s SCR: Yeah, sure. another thing. I guess we left out the, probably the most Frank: How do you explain important word of all. I suppose you can learn to draw, you that? I mean, why is that? can learn to paint. You may even do very well at design, you I mean you’re using notes; know, whatever the ingredients that make a nice piece of one note following another work, the last but far from least is taste. I don’t pretend to note, following another have the most perfect taste, but, I think that’s what sepa- note, so why is it that this rates the men from the boys: taste. Knowing what to leave Paintings © the estate of Frank Frazetta. particular piece died in a out. And when you do put it in there, it’s just the right thing, week and this one goes on and it’s in just the right place, and it’s done with taste so that for 50 years? It’s hard to you’re not offended. It could be sensuous as hell, the taste say. It’s hard to measure makes it even more sensuous, and not a bit offensive. the quality and the balance SCR: Well, the sexuality in your paintings, it’s always and the beauty, whatever it there; that sensuousness, it’s always present. But it never is. And this is what I try to bubbles out and gives you too much.

32 #19 • Winter 2019 • COMIC BOOK CREATOR TM & © Red Sonja, LLC. Photo portrait © Kendall Washington. COMIC BOOK CREATOR •Winter 2019 •#19 CBC: and thesaber-tooth head? Joe: Metal remember yourfirstHeavy me atthetime.Ivividly a strongimpressionon how manyofthemmade covers andI’msurprised through yourearliest CBC: that age. able forsomebodyat ed, whichwasinvalu- take ajobforgrant- work —tonever do lessthanmybest It taughtmetonever my careerwasover! all people!Ithought was killedbyStan,of third coverIeverdid for Marvel,andthe I waspaintingcovers was 18yearsoldand things forgranted.I artist aboutnottaking story. Ittaughtayoung funny, andeducational But it’s ultimatelya reassigned toEarlNorem. he absolutelyhateditand was killedbyStanbecause only coverIeverhadkilled would giveapprovalonit.The he through hisofficefirstand covers andallthearthadtogo ing day-to-dayactivities.Allthe at Marvelandprettymuchoversee- back in1978,whenStanwasstillup page yesterdayaboutaneventway I postedastory, actually, onmyFacebook had interactedwithhimwereverypositive. a greatfriendshiporanything,butthetimesI few timesovertheyears.Ican’t saythatwehad Joe Jusko:IknewStancasually. We hadmeta Comic BookCreator:DidyouknowStan? before, thetelephoneinterviewbeginswithtalkabout“TheMan”andJusko’s workatMarvelComics… “big cats”projectinhisPennsylvania-basedstudio.AscomicbookiconStanLeehaddiedonlytheday still abusyworkingprofessionalandfrequentguestatcomiccons,onewhodreamsoftacklinghis painters incomicbooksandtheworldoffantasy, openingupentirelynewopportunities.Today heis non-sports cardcrazeofthe1990s.Italsofirmlyestablishedman’s statureasoneoftheforemost card set—a“hellacious”efforttoproduce104paintingsinalmostasmanydays!thatlaunchedthe Blame itonJusko,Ireckon!ItwashisphenomenaleffortcreatingtheMarvelMasterpiecestrading Oh, the one with the girl Oh, theonewith the girl cover. Right! I waslooking

Joe: never painted before, and I had won something called never paintedbefore,andIhadwonsomethingcalled I painted that the summer I graduated high school. I had I paintedthatthesummergraduatedhighschool.had the “DCComicsAward forExcellence”backwhen I wasinNewYork City’s HighSchoolofArt and Design, which was essentially the only and Design,whichwasessentiallytheonly vocational public high school of its kind vocational publichighschoolofitskind in thecountry, withaprettyadvanced art curriculumtaughtbytopcommer cial illustrators and comic artists. cial illustratorsandcomicartists. Legendary E.C. Comics artist Legendary E.C.Comicsartist but at 17, you just think you can but at17,youjust thinkyoucan Bernie Krigstein was one of my Bernie Krigsteinwasoneofmy really naïve thought to have had, really naïvethought tohavehad, teachers. This was when, upon teachers. Thiswaswhen,upon there!” Looking back, it was a there!” Lookingback, itwasa graduation, DC Comics would graduation, DCComicswould image and move on from image andmove on from give out an award every year give outanawardeveryyear can put everything into one can puteverythingintoone to the person they thought to thepersontheythought thought, “Hey, ifIpaint, I had the most promise, and had themostpromise,and 20 pages a month. But I 20 pagesamonth.ButI I won that award that I wonthataward ever be able to pump out ever beabletopumpout year (whichwasessen- in the world I would in theworldIwould tially a gift certificate to tially agiftcertificateto and there was no way and therewasnoway an art supply store and an artsupplystoreand getting stuff correct, getting stuffcorrect, a letterfromDCPresi- really has to work at really hastoworkat dent SolHarrison). but I’m a guy who but I’maguywho natural draftsmen, natural draftsmen, realization whenI guys who are just guys whoarejust You know, thereare was graduatingthat do a regular book. do aregularbook. to befastenough ist, Iwasnevergoing sequential comicart- ways wantedtobea as muchIhadal- I had come to the I hadcometothe 49 - Were the lay teachers perceptive? Joe: They always pulled me out of class to design the bulletin boards and holiday signs in school, so I guess I was okay. I mean, they sent me up to the High School of Art and Design. I made it into the school. So obviously they saw something in me that was there. At A&D there were a few teachers when I first broke in, when I first got into the school, who really took me under their wing. I was one of their favorite students, because in hindsight I think I was probably a little more advanced than a lot of the other kids. But I was also really hungry, and it was very much a passion of mine. I put one hundred percent effort into every project they gave me. And I believe they appreciated that. And I had decided early on, when I was eight-, nine-, ten-years-old, that comics were what I wanted to do for a living, and it somehow never occurred to me that I wouldn’t do it. I was just obsessed with doing that for a living, with getting better at what I did. I was obsessed with drawing, and learning how to draw, and I don’t think I ever consid- ered that it wouldn’t work out. Like I said, that could just be the naiveté of youth. It wasn’t really ego. It was just, I was just kind of tunnel-visioned, goal-oriented and determined, I guess is the best way to put it. CBC: Did your mom believe in you? Joe: Oh, yes, she really did. She was always very proud of what I did. She was proud of me at the school, proud that I did as well as I did, proud when I graduated and won that award. She always encouraged me. We didn’t have a whole lot of money, but she made sure I had pencils and paper. If she had friends of hers who worked in offices, I would get reams of typing paper to draw on and stuff like that from her friends. And the money I did make on my own, I would spend on comic books or markers from the stationery store. I remember they sold sheets of oaktag, and I would buy sheets from the stationery store, as well as pencils and markers, and I would draw my own comics and pin-ups. And I learned somewhere along the line about India ink, and I bought some and a couple of brushes and pen nibs. I don’t remember exactly where I learned about India ink… probably from one of the art books I had gotten. Wal- ter T. Foster had a whole series of art books out at the time. we get these?” And she bought them for me. You know, Previous page: Back during his They were, I believe, a dollar apiece, and they had books I would have Playboy centerfolds, because there was a high school days, Joe Jusko on figure drawing, cartooning, animals and art supplies, as second-hand bookstore near us where I would buy old created his own take on a well as a hundred other topics. I think I learned about some comics, and I bought a couple of Playboys, and I would certain Cimmerian, the bearded of the art supplies from those books, and I went to the art have both centerfolds hanging in my bedroom and I was Centurius the Barbarian, with an store and bought some of those supplies and would try to teaching myself to draw from them, and it never seemed to art style that exhibits the young teach myself how to use them in the living room. There was, bother her. It really didn’t, because she believed that I was artist’s devotion to Marvel artist we had a big armchair that had flat arms on it, and I re- using them to learn how to draw, and the sad part is, I really John Buscema’s work. Below: member I would put the bottles of ink and stuff on there that was! [laughter] I mean, they were cool to look at, but I was Big John’s depiction of Conan would eventually spill, and I ruined that armchair… Yeah, also teaching myself how to draw from the old Playboys and the Barbarian in over 200 stories new slip covers were on that armchair constantly because stuff. It was really funny. was a seminal influence. I always spilled ink all over it. But they never got pissed CBC: Did you ever find out whether you had cousins or off at me. In hindsight, it’s just amazing that they were as other family members who were creative? supportive as they were. Joe: My mother was a seamstress. She made a lot of her CBC: Do you remember, in the art store, they would have own clothes. She was a brilliant seamstress, actually. She these booklets, these saddle-stitched booklets with card- worked in the Garment District when she was younger, board covers, full-color covers with black-&-white interiors, and she made coats for my sister-in-law, she made me which taught you how to cartoon… Do you remember clothes when I was a kid. She used to make clothes for my those? Are those what you’re talking about? G.I. Joes! I remember she designed an entire clear plastic Joe: I do not remember those, which is odd because I raincoat for my G.I. Joe when I was, maybe 10-years-old, collect old art instruction books. They’re still publishing and she stitched it on the sewing machine and everything. those Walter T. Foster books. If you go into [craft supply She was brilliant, she really was. store] Michaels, you can still find the Walter T. Foster CBC: These were the big G.I. Joes, right? books. There aren’t anywhere near as many as there used Joe: The 12" G.I. Joes, yeah. She was great. My mom’s to be. I mean, there were a couple hundred of them at one brother, Joe (whom I’m named after, actually), who died point that were out and they were a buck apiece. They before I was born, he was a violinist and played the piano. were large, oversized, 11" x 14" books, and the first two of So the talent really comes from my mother’s side of the them my mother ever bought me, I was maybe 12, and I family. There’s nobody on my father’s side, I think, who had didn’t know who he was at the time, were by this guy Fritz any particular talents. Willis, whom I later discovered was a big pin-up artist back CBC: What was her maiden name? in the ’50s and ’60s. One was called The Model and one Joe: Jablonski. The Nude, and they taught drawing the female figure. And CBC: Cool. So did you have a newspaper coming in to the

Centurius TM & © Joe Jusko. Artwork Conan Properties International, Inc. my mother bought those for me. I was 12 years old! “Can

COMIC BOOK CREATOR • Winter 2019 • #19 55 Tarzan, John Carter TM & © Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc. something that was going to really keep my attention for the something thatwasgoing toreallykeepmy attentionforthe Tomb Raiderbook.IfIwasgoing todoabook,ithadbe Matt Hawkins,about thepossibilityofdoingafully-painted and Ihadtalkedto theguysatTop Cow, MarcSilvestriand the character’s visuals, thewholeconceptofcharacter, So whenTomb Raidercameout,Iwasreallyattractedto reality-based charactersIfeelhave moreofaknackfor. one doeswhatAlexbetterthan Alex.Butthemore totally differentastohowwehandle thosecharacters.No when theylooktoorealistic.Soour approachesare,Ithink, way. Itkindoftakesthechildhoodmagicawayfrom me mentally visualizethemasrealpeople.Idon’t seethemthat is oneofthethingsIadmireaboutAlexRoss.can anything morethanpaintedcomicbookdrawings.Which crowd. Icandoatonofthat,butneverseethemas bit moregroundedinrealityratherthanthecape-&-tights ,orConan relate tomore,andthat’s reallymoreadventurestufflike I alwaysfeelmorecomfortablewithcharactersthatcan super-hero stuffoverthecourseofmycareer, andstilldo. reality-based characters,eventhoughI’vedoneatonof Joe: work? CBC: guy theycalled. that point.So,iftherewasalikenesstobedone,Ithe anything inthefilm.Buttheycouldn’t doanythingaboutitat the guysatmoviestudiobecauseitwasn’t indicativeof comic-book get-up,whichIhadheardlateronpissedoff only placeyou’lleverseeanyofthemwearingtheactual costumes inthemoviewouldlooklike.Sothatcoveris because therewasnothingreleasedyettoshowwhattheir Paquin. TheyareintheactualMarvelComicscostumes, Patrick Stewart,FamkeJanssen,HalleBerry, andAnna for thefirstmovie,withfourofcharacters.It’s got age rightsissuethingbyonlyshowingaportionofhisface. So thatcover, wegotaroundthewholeTobey Maguireim- exactly whoitisjustbyseeingasmallportionofhisface. But thelikenessisgoodenoughwhereyoucanactuallytell so allyoucanseearehisnose,andmouth,chin. so thewaywegotaroundthatwasIloweredmaskonit cover. We couldn’t showTobey Maguire’s faceonthecover, see Tobey Maguire’s entireface,andhisagentnixedthe originally wehadhimpullingthemaskoff,andyoucould him asSpider-Man, whichisaninterestingcover, because Tobey MaguireasSpider-Man whentheywereannouncing X-Men moviefirstcameout.TherewasapaintingIdidof that theycalled.SoIdidalotoftheX-Men had moviepropertiesthattheywerecovering,Iwastheguy likenesses, alwayshadaknackforthem,soanytimethey I wasdoingatonofcoversforWizard.I’mreallygoodat Joe: CBC: It’s mostlyallstuffthatinspiresme. My wholehouseiscoveredinart,andverylittleofit’s mine. the thingsthatdidn’t workoutthewayyouwantedthemto. have atendencytoseearethethingsyoudidn’t getright,or of myownworkathome,becauseonceyouhangit,all everything Ido.That’s oneofthereasonsIhangverylittle wanted themto.Iseeissueswiththem,butin that foughtwithmeanddidn’t comeoutquitethewayI Obviously, Ihavealittlebitlessofanaffinityfortheones life, youhaveonesthatcameoutthewayIwantedthemto. from theBurroughscard.Theonesthat,likeanythingin Marvel Masterpiececards.Thereweresomefavorites Joe: CBC: ported myselfoffthecards.Thatwasn’t aproblematall. on thatsetbackin’93,’94.Thecameout’95.Isup- and livingnotfarfromtheFBGofficeswhenIwasworking piece cards.And,bythatpoint,IhadmovedtoPittsburgh income onthosewasalotgreaterthantheMarvelMaster COMIC BOOK CREATOR •Winter 2019 •#19 There was the very first X-Men cover I did for them, There wastheveryfirstX-MencoverIdidforthem, Right. I’ve always been more attracted to the more Right. I’vealwaysbeenmoreattractedtothe Yes. BackIguessaround2000,late’90s,early’00s, Yeah, therearesome.Ihavesomefavoritesinthe So aroundthattimeyoustarteddoingTomb Raider Did youdoalotofworkforWizardmagazine? Did youhavefavoritesofwhatdid? Tarzan, somethingthat’s alittle covers when the covers whenthe - another painted bookagain. really proudof,but Ithinkitkilledanydesirehad to everdo And, likeIsaid,the finishedproductissomething I’m really, I gotobsessedwith justpaintingthatthingthebest Icould. life ofamonth,andnoone’s evergoingtoseeitagain.But putting toomuchworkintothisthing becauseit’s gotashelf ful.” AndalsoCharlesVess. Theybothwarnedmeabout I wasworkingonit,andhesaid,“You know, justbe care- were meanttoseeitneverevenknew itcameout. comic, becauseitcameandwenthalfthepeoplethat it alsoconvincedmethatIwouldneverdoanotherpainted nacle ofwhatIcandoasfarpaintedcomics.Although submitted itoneyear. Andit’s just,forme,Ithinkit’s thepin- Merit fromtheSocietyofIllustratorsinNewYork CityafterI I basicallypaintedmyownmovie,anditwonaCertificateof ridiculously detailed.Iphoto-referencedallthecharacters. so ittookafewyearstogetthatthingpainted,butit’s so I wasworkingonitinbetweenotherjobsthatdoing, Joe: was it? CBC: there’s anythingIwouldchangeaboutit. proud of,pageforpage,andpoundpound.Idon’t think to do.To thisday, thatbookisprobablythethingI’mmost book wasjustsomethingthatIreally, really, reallywanted time itwasgoingtotakepaintit.AndtheTomb Raider I remember talking to at one point when I remembertalkingtoMichaelKaluta atonepointwhen It was 38 pages. It took a long time. A loooong time. It was38pages.tookalongtime.Aloooong How long did you work on it, and how many pages How longdidyouworkonit,andhowmanypages

Carter, warriorofBarsoom. Tarzan, andbelowisJohn most renownedcharacter, Above featuresthewriter’s various ERBadventurestories. set of60paintingsdepicting Burroughs tradingcardset,a der the1995ArtofEdgarRice FPG recruitedJoeJuskotoren- Marvel Masterpiecessuccess, This page: As a follow-up to his As afollow-uptohis

69 ENTION OF

ˆTarzan TM & © Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc.

COMIC BOOK CREATOR • Winter 2019 • #19 75 One need look no farther than this issue’s magnificent Frazetta-inspired cover to find evidence of Tom Grindberg’s artistry, imbued with a kinetic energy and lyrical style. Recently, the long-time comic book artist finished a stint drawing the Sunday Tarzan newspaper strip (written by !) and today he is toiling as artist on The Darkness for ’s . The following conversation took place via telephone in two sessions.

Comic Book Creator: You’re from the beltway, Tom? CBC: Are any of your siblings and parents creative? Tom Grindberg: Yeah, I’m from inside the beltway. Chevy Chase, to Tom: Well, my dad, he’s a musician. He plays drums. Beyond that, nobody be exact. It was a nice area, a very, very pretty area. On our street, Chevy else really had any aspirations or any artistic abilities like I have. Chase Lake Drive, there was huge woods that you couldn’t build on, so it CBC: What kind of music does your dad play? was an idyllic location to live on. I called it my “Tarzan woods.” We had Tom: Jazz, swing, contemporary. He worked dance jobs in Washington, ropes to swing on, we had treehouses… you name it. Bike paths ran D.C., so they’d be playing the top pop hits at these clubs that he’d go to. But through there. There was a nice creek with triple waterfalls. It was just so primarily his background is jazz and swing music from the 1940s. cool, in the midst of all those homes back then. Chevy Chase was really CBC: Was he a professional musician? quite a nice area. Very, very fun. Tom: Yes, a professional. He couldn’t read music, though, because a while CBC: So you had a gang of kids that you hung out with? back my dad said he should have taken it a little more seriously and he Tom: Not a big gang. It was a close-knit little group of guys, but a few of might have had an actual career in music. But, for the most part, he was them were into comics. One of my friends actually, I migrated to just taking on small, little gigs with a small group of guys. where he was located, and I hung out up there for about three years. But, CBC: And he could make a living from it? for the most part, it was like, New Wavers, punk rockers, and people like Tom: No. If he had, he would have had to have been on the road quite ex- that… [laughs] mostly into music, but a few were into the arts. I was a loner tensively, and would never see his family, like most professional musicians. type. I stuck to myself. I did my art. That was just one of those things. My It’s a grueling life, I can imagine. teachers couldn’t really reach me. They didn’t know what to do with me, so CBC: So what did he do? What was his day job? to speak. They just said, “You know, when this guy gets out of school, put Tom: Good question! He bounced around from one gig to another job, him in an art school. Just get him out of school. Literally. Just take him. Go. but primarily he was doing clerical type work, I believe. He did work with He’s too beyond what we’re even doing here.” It would have been nice, the FBI early on, but then he left that job and went into the private sector. I but I never did receive formal art training. I learned all just from looking at mean, it’s Washington D.C., where so many governmental jobs are available books and whatnot, picking up on what was available. and whatnot. CBC: Do you have siblings? CBC: Was your mom working, did she work? Tom: One brother passed away about two years ago, though. I had two Tom: Oh, yes. My mom worked in the House of Representatives office Dead Men Tell No Tales © Tom Grindberg. brothers and one sister. building. She worked for congressmen primarily from the state of Texas — I CBC: Where are you in the line-up? don’t know why, but for some reason. Oddly enough, to this day, she lives in Tom: I’m in the middle. I didn’t get spoiled and I didn’t get neglected… Texas — Dallas… [laughs] But that was a little bit more glamorous. There [laughs] I was not forgotten, mind you, I just, I was the middle kid. I think it’s were a lot of interesting people, especially the fact that she worked for the same way with a lot of middle kids who grow up in the center like that. congressmen that were heading up the Air and Space Administration. So I got to meet the entire crew of the Apollo-Soyuz mission. I’ve met Michael This page: Tom Grindberg channels his inner in this pirate-themed oil Collins and Buzz Aldrin, from the Apollo 11 moon mission. I mean, I got painting entitled “Dead Men Tell No Tales.” Next page: At top is the artist himself autographs from these guys. working on his Tarzan assignment. At center inset is a Tarzan promotional drawing. CBC: Wow!

76 #19 • Winter 2019 • COMIC BOOK CREATOR lived close enough, in New Jersey, I’d go into the city about once a month just to pop my head in and say hi and occasionally pick up an assignment. CBC: Did you become pals with anybody in the offices? Tom: Not really, no. I mean, these are editors and they like to keep their social life private. Everything was purely business. Sometimes we’d go out to lunch togeth- er, have a few yuks about IF YOU ENJOYED THIS PREVIEW, whatever, but nothing more CLICK THE LINK TO ORDER THIS beyond that, actually. We ISSUE IN PRINT OR DIGITAL FORMAT! never had any outside social interaction with anybody in the comic book industry, to be truthful. CBC: You’ve mentioned going over to ’s house…? Tom: That was later on, actually, towards around the late ’90s. I hooked up with a couple of friends who used to go to this Ramapo convention up in New York, and there I met pretty much anybody that was left from E.C. Comics. Marie Severin, Savage Sword of Conan, and there was an ad in there for COMICAbove BOOK: It’s CREATORhard to pinpoint #19 Celebrating the greatest fantasy artist of all time, FRANK , Al Williamson were there… Through Al, posters, as I said, with an address of Marshalls Creek,FRAZETTA! From exactlyTHUN’DA when and EC TomCOMICS Grindberg to CREEPY, EERIE, I met , for example. Mark was impressed Pennsylvania. I saw more N.C. Wyeth, more Pyle, moreand of began, STEVE RINGGENBERGto transform and from CBC’s the editor present an historical retrospective, including insights by current with my work. He loved the stuff. Al Williamson was fairly the great art and illustrators, more John Buscema, creatorsbefore and I associates,Neal and Adams- memories and of theJohn man Busce himself.- PLUS: impressed. Actually, he said he wanted to ink me. Then he saw Frazetta. I saw more of anybody’s work than Frank’s.Frazetta-inspired He artistsma-inspired JOE JUSKO, super-hero and TOM GRINDBERG, artist of looked at my work again and goes, “Wait a minute. You’re just wasn’t readily available in my realm, as I wasn’twho really contributes ourthe Death 1980s Dealer and cover ’90s painting! into a more a brush guy, aren’t you?” I’m like, “Yeah, pretty much.” He buying paperback books. By the time I was actually buying(100-page classically FULL-COLOR attuned magazine) adherent $9.95 of (Digital Edition) $5.95 goes, “Aww, rats. I’m a pen guy.” [laughs] We never collab- his stuff, he had been done with doing his Creepy and Eerie the work of Howard Pyle and orated again, but he certainly had an interest in my work. covers, so there really wasn’t any place that I saw his work, Frankbit.ly/ComicBookCreator19 Frazetta (among others), From there a friend of mine and I drove together to Gray to be honest. but whatever the precise turn- Morrow’s, and we went up to go see Gray and his wife, Po- CBC: So Frazetta starting to make an on you, right? ing point, the change is nothing cho, in their house out in the sticks of Pennsylvania. That’s Tom: Oh, immediately. My god! Like I said before, Boris less than breathtaking, as if where I met a lot of other people, as well. I reunited with Sal was doing the covers for Savage Sword and I saw these the artist was totally reborn. Amendola… Steranko came out there… Angelo Torres was prints, and I’m going, “Wow! Why isn’t he doing the covers? This cover detail by Grindberg up there. You name it. It was amazing. Ernie Cólon, he was Let’s get this guy! He looks good! Who’s this Frazetta? He’s appeared as cover for the there. It was just so cool to see all these people congregat- great!” [laughter] I’d already known ’s Modiphius role playing game, ing at Gray’s place. stuff, and he shined above all of them, every one of them, Conan the Pirate [2018]. Below: CBC: So it was a party that you went to? including Neal Adams. This Grindberg colored sketch Tom: Exactly. I went there a couple years in a row. I had CBC: Would you say that Adams and Frazetta are the looks to be a preliminary piece a great time. Gray was a very cool guy. He really loved my biggest two influences on your work? for the above cover. stuff, as well. We actually exchanged artwork. He took one Tom: Well, certainly of my pieces. In exchange he gave me a Tarzan Sunday, Neal is a huge influence with the color separations that he had done, hand-colored. on me, because of the So I thought that was pretty cool. realism, the dynamism, CBC: Did you ever meet Frank Frazetta? the emotions that he put Tom: You know what? That’s one thing I really regret. in the work. Without a It’s just weird, because I’ve gone a number of times to… doubt. I don’t think most Actually, I went to their first museum, in East Stroudsburg, anybody in the business but, of course, Frank wasn’t there. He was at the house. I of my generation could met Ellie, of course, all the time. She was the front man, his not say or deny the fact protector, I guess. And I went out to his current museum, that Neal had no impact where the house is at, on the estate. There was a friend whatsoever. If a Frank of mine up there and we hung out for a little while. I asked Miller, for example, said Ellie if Frank had a few moments. She said, “No. Frank’s that, you would say sleepy now.” She just felt that I think Frank just wasn’t up to [sarcastically], “Pfft, meeting anybody, or something like that. So there were just yeah, right, Frank! You a lot of missed opportunities, I guess, but I never met the worked with the guy, for guy. Never once. god sakes!” Klaus Jan- CBC: Do you remember when you first encountered his son, who inked Frank work? Miller, was another guy

Conan TM & © Properties International, Inc. Tom: I never even knew his stuff until I was reading who worked with Neal.

COMIC BOOK CREATOR • Winter 2019 • #19 85