™ $9.95 in the USA A TwoMorrows Publication No. 21, Fall 2019 R.R. CrumbCrumb InterviewInterview SteveSteve MannionMannion DianeDiane NoominNoomin JohnJohn RomitaRomita Sr.Sr. RickRick TremblesTrembles && JackJack TremblayTremblay RyanRyan NorthNorth All characters TM & © Mark Schultz. The Goon TM & ©2019 Eric Powell. 0 9 8 3 ERICERIC POWELL:POWELL: 0 0 8 5 2020 YEARSYEARS OFOF 6 2 8 THE GOON! 1 THE GOON! Cover art by Eric Powell Fall 2019 • 20 Years of Eric Powell’s The Goon • Number 21 TABLE OF CONTENTS DEPRESSION ERA WOODY Ye Ed’s Rant: Goodbye, MAD magazine, and Ye Ed’s plans for autumn and winter ....... 2 CBC mascot by J.D. KING COMICS CHATTER About R. Crumb on Weirdo: A chat with the greatest cartoonist of all about his anthology .... 3 Our Cover Incoming: Letters on the “All Joes” ish and about CBC’s reason for existence ........... 16 Art and Colors by ERIC POWELL Weirdos All Around Us: It’s been the Summer of Weirdo for Mr. Ye Ed and the Missus after they embarked on their epic San Diego Comic-Con adventure .......... 18 John Romita Sr. on Milton Caniff: The great artist discusses Terry and the Pirates, the death of Gwen Stacy, and his two finest issues of Amazing Spider-Man ......... 22 Bearing Witness: Diane Noomin discusses her #MeToo comics anthology, Drawing Power: Women’s Stories of Sexual Violence, Harassment, and Survival ................ 28 Darrick Patrick’s 10 Questions for Ryan North: Q’s for the writer of Squirrel Girl 30 Trembles on Tremblay: New wave/punk cartoonist Rick Trembles shares about his dad, Jack Tremblay, Golden Age “Canadian Whites” comic book artist ........... 32 The Goon TM & ©2019 Eric Powell. Above: The Goon gets the job Hembeck’s Dateline: Our Man Fred imagines some super-hero mirror opposites ..... 40 done in this cover drawn and colored by ERIC POWELL. Comics in the Library: Rich Arndt talks of finding comics in the strangest places ..... 41 Please Note THE MAIN EVENTS Due to international trade The POW! of Eric Powell: A conversation with the creator of The Goon on his issues (hopefully resolved background and career development, just as his publishing outfit celebrates soon), to stay economically th feasible, we faced the the 20 anniversary of the character and ambitiously expands its line of titles ..... 44 necessity to either raise the price of CBC or cut the page Man, Oh Mannion!: The terrifically talented and terribly overlooked artist count and keep the same Steve Mannion gives a biographical sketch of life before his creation of Fearless cover price. We chose the latter and thus had to postpone Dawn and his great work today for Eric Powell’s Albatross comic book line .......... 66 items intended for this issue, including part two of the Craig BACK MATTER Yoe interview and our brunch with Joe Sinnott feature. Creators at the Con: Kendall Whitehouse lenses the 2019 Eisner Award winners! ..... 76 Look for those next time! Coming Attractions: The Lyrical Art of P. Craig Russell ................................................. 78 Don’t STEAL our Digital Editions! A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words: Aquaman by Ramona Fradon in color! ....... 80 C’mon citizen, DO THE RIGHT Right: At right is a detail featuring The Goon and Franky along with some evil dead fellers from a promotional THING! A Mom & Pop publisher poster by Eric Powell. like us needs every sale just to survive! DON’T DOWNLOAD Comic Book Artist Vol. 1 & 2 are available OR READ ILLEGAL COPIES ONLINE! as digital downloads from twomorrows.com! Buy affordable, legal downloads only at www.twomorrows.com or through our Apple and Google Apps! Comic Book Creator ™ is published quarterly by TwoMorrows Publishing, 10407 Bedfordtown Dr., Raleigh, NC 27614 USA. Phone: (919) 449-0344. Jon B. Cooke, editor. John Morrow, publisher. Comic Book & DON’T SHARE THEM WITH FRIENDS OR POST THEM ONLINE. Help us keep Creator editorial offices: P.O. Box 204, West Kingston, RI 02892 USA. E-mail: [email protected] producing great publications like this one! subscription funds to TwoMorrows, NOT to the editorial offices. Four-issue subscriptions: $45 US, $67 COMIC BOOK CREATOR International, $18 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. up front R. Crumb on Weirdo A rare chat with the great cartoonist on creating and editing the comix anthology Conducted by JON B. COOKE and more answers. [Jon laughs] And I thought I’d just… Jesus. That’s why I put off sometimes answering you [The legendary Robert Crumb was very helpful when I was for that reason. I thought the more I cooperate, the putting together The Book of Weirdo, a retrospective about more sucked into the project I’ll become. Because the humor comix anthology he created in 1981, and (despite you just can’t help yourself. You’re so… utterly and what he says below) I sensed his assist was because he completely like… thorough! [Jon chuckles] You could had an enduring affection for his creation, which had ended have devoted that dedication to thorough research in 1993, after 28 issues. What really clinched it for me was to some great worthy project like discovering the that the usually reticent cartoonist readily helped with the corruption in bio-medical science or something. book’s promotion, whether posing with a copy alongside the [laughter] Instead of dedicating it to Weirdo author last March, or agreeing to participate in an upcom- magazine! But, no. It’s sort of flattering on the ing panel talk, in New York City, to be moderated by yours one hand and then on the other hand, do I truly. Plus he agreed to the following interview, which was really wanna get sucked into this, y’know? originally made for the inaugural episode of my ongoing [laughs] podcast devoted to underground and alternative comics, CBC: But you did let yourself get sucked Subterranean Dispatch (which can be found at www. into it! subterrdispatch.libsyn.com or from most podcast provid- Crumb: To some degree, but, like I said, ers). The chat took place via Skype on March 28, and it was sometimes I just would put off answering you transcribed by Steven “Flash” Thompson. — JBC] and sometimes I wouldn’t answer you at all Comic Book Creator: I’ve been in contact with you, and you would kinda let it drop and then you’d as you know, very erratically for the past 12 years. And re-contact me a few months later or a year later you don’t seem to suffer nonsense too easily. You can be a or whatever. ’Cause, you know, it did go on for a little… well, you know… you can be impatient with fools. long time. [laughs] CBC: I sense that there’s something about R. Crumb: Or just like stuff that I’m not interested in or I Weirdo magazine that you’re proud of. Did you want don’t think is worth bothering with, you know. a book like this done? Did you want a CBC: But this seems to be different—me working on The history of the magazine? Book of Weirdo. You were extremely helpful to me and you Crumb: No. I had no idea or desire or interest to were enthusiastic about this project. Why? ever have a review of Weirdo done like that. It never Crumb: Yeah. Uh… why? I guess because you were so occurred to me. It just never even occurred to me. dedicated to it. I wasn’t enthusiastic about it and a lot of CBC: And now that it’s done, what do you think? times I felt if I… the more I cooperate with this guy, the Crumb: [Chuckles] Well, as I’ve often told you, I more he’s gonna ask me. The more he’s gonna want from sit down and I always find something new in there. I me. That’s the impression I got over the years, you know, never actually read it from cover to cover when you that every time I answered a bunch of questions in writing sent me those galley copies. I’d just pick up and flip — like, spent hours and hours writing these long letters through and find something of interest. It’s answering stuff — I would just end up with more questions so vast! There’s so many people that give testimonials in there. I just… To me, after spending a few hours looking at it one day, I said, this is an unbelievable monument to Weirdo, the crazy f*cking magazine that I did, and Aline and Peter Bagge did for ten years. Above: Self-caricature of R. It’s an incredible, amazing document! [laughter] And, like I Crumb hawking ZAP and Weir- think I told you before, to me it’s like it’s not just a monument do. Inset left: Logo of Ye Ed’s to Weirdo, but to that decade, the 1980s. It really kinda says Subterranean Dispatch pod- cast. Below: Drew Friedman’s © Jon B. Cooke. a lot about that time period. It’s a strong statement of that time period. As strong as anything I’ve seen! Don’t know cover of The Book of Weirdo. how much attention it will get or how much people will look at it and recognize it. I don’t know. [laughs] Probably not because it’s so obscure.