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Friday, September 3, 2010
Mantlo: A Life In Comics
David Yurkovich and his "tribute"
Mantlo: A Life In Comics
An Interview with publisher David Yurkovich
Appreciating where we come from should be engrained in every school kid before they enter the “real world”.
I’ve never had the honor of meeting Bill Mantlo. However, I’m very aware of Bill’s contributions to my inner and outer fanboy. Bill is like one of those character actors who you see and say to yourself “gee, I know that face from a bunch of other movies”. Bill is the creator and writer of some of the best remembered and, in my case, most formative stories and characters. I, for one, will always stop for a Cloak & Dagger story. I remember the 1st time I ever got ripped off by a retailer on a trade was when I HAD to have the Jack of Hearts mini series, what a cool character.
Bill’s in a place, right now, that most of us can’t even imagine being. So, uber-Mantlo fan David Yurkovich took on the task of putting together a book that helps only one person: Bill Mantlo.
That said, I’m going to let David fill you in on what he’s done and how you can be a part of a drive to help one the industries heroes.
Comic World News (CWN): For those unfamiliar please give some background on Bill Mantlo yesterday and today.
David Yurkovich (DY): Bill was one of Marvel’s most productive writers throughout the 1970s and 1980s and a successful public defender in the late 80s and early 90s. He wrote hundreds of stories for Marvel, and is well known for his work on licensed titles such as MICRONAUTS and ROM: SPACEKNIGHT. He also wrote THE INCREDIBLE HULK for many consecutive years. Bill created CLOAK AND DAGGER, JACK OF HEARTS, THE WHITE TIGER, and various other characters. He and Jackson Guice cocreated one of Marvel’s early Epic series, SWORDS OF THE SWASHBUCKLERS. One of his first collaborators was George Pérez, (they worked on Marvel’s DEADLY HANDS OF KUNG FU magazine in the mid-70s).
Today Bill resides in a nursing home. In 1992 while roller-blading, he was hit by a car. The injury caused serious brain damage and Bill was comatose for a while. Because of the severity of his injuries, Bill never fully recovered. He remains a shadow of his former self, unable to function independently and in need of constant care. It’s a sad fate for anyone, especially a man who gave so much to others and to his fans.
CWN: Mantlo: A Life in Comics is not a tribute book in the traditional sense… it is something more. Give our readers as much information on this graphic novel as you can.
DY: I wanted to make this a project worthy of Bill’s contributions to the comics industry. My vision for MANTLO: A LIFE IN COMICS has always been to provide readers with a retrospective of Bill’s career coupled with commentary from his collaborators. Many of Bill’s colleagues (such as Mike Mignola, George Pérez, Marv Wolfman, Tony Isabella, and Jackson Guice) provided valuable insight on Bill’s career. Jackson provided an original MICRONAUTS plot written by Bill, so fans will get a glimpse into Bill’s writing process. As the project grew in scope and scale, I sought to include previously unpublished Mantlo material. Bill wrote many prose stories, and I’m fortunate to be including several them in the project. I’ve adapted one of these stories into comic book format, so the book will feature the first new Bill Mantlo comic story in over a decade. Initially 64 pages, the project has grown to 72 pages including 8 color pages. It’s being produced as a magazine-sized release, the same trim size as COMIC BOOK ARTIST.
MANTLO: A LIFE IN COMICS is being done as a not-for-profit benefit book. The folks at Hero Initiative have added it to their site, and I’m donating all proceeds to Bill’s caregiver (his brother Mike) so that the money raised on this project will go directly toward providing for Bill’s care.
CWN: What is Bill’s direct involvement in the production of this book?
DY: Unfortunately, because of the extent of Bill’s injuries, he’s unable to contribute to the book directly. I’ve relied on a lot of source material (old interviews, comments from lettercols, etc.) so that Bill’s thoughts and comments are represented in harmony with the creators who I’ve newly interviewed.
CWN: To what extent is Bill’s family involved with the book?
DY: Bill’s brother Mike has been very helpful; he’s possibly Bill’s biggest fan. Mike provided me with contacts, photos, and background material as well as details regarding Bill’s injury. He penned the book’s introduction. Mike recently took flyers with him to Big Apple Con to raise awareness of this project. One of Bill’s old classmates, Hector Perez, provided an abundance of source material.
Mike and I have been working to raise funds to print the book. We’re soliciting donations to offset the printing expenses so there will be a larger profit to donate once the book is in stores. We’ve gotten contributions from companies like Mile High Comics and from comics industry personnel including Brian Vaughn, Kurt Busiek, and Sean McKeever.
Bill’s daughter Corinna has also shared her thoughts and recollections about Bill and has been spreading the word about the project on MySpace. She self-publishes her own comics (through her website) and does charity work in the New York area. I’ve just recently gotten in touch with Bill’s son Adam.
CWN: What has been the usual response from other creators when asked to be a part of this book?
DY: Response has been overwhelmingly positive. A few creators didn’t respond, but honestly I didn’t expect a response rate of one-hundred percent. Most of Bill’s colleagues were very forthcoming about their working relationship with Bill. There were some folks who I simply couldn’t reach—Mike Golden and Pat Broderick, for example. I also interviewed Ky Michaelson. You probably never heard of Ky, but he is a well-known stuntman and rocket designer. Ky built the rocket cycle used by the daredevil stuntman The Human Fly (the story was dramatized in an issue of Bill’s HUMAN FLY comic). Ky’s insights were
fascinating and more than a bit surprising.
CWN: Is the book still in production? In other words: is there still opportunity for others to add to the book?
DY: The book is largely finished. I’m keeping a page open in case any of Bill’s collaborators who I haven’t yet been in touch with should want to contribute. As I’ve been thinking about this recently, I realize that this is just my own homage to Bill. Bill was a huge influence on me during my developmental years, and he’s largely the reason I got into comics. This is my personal tribute to Bill, and I’m fortunate to have been able to make it much more than just “one guy’s opinion.” It’s gotten a terrific boost in content from Bill’s family and friends, so there’s a lot more to the project than just me droning on and on about my favorite Mantlo comics.
It’s challenging to summarize Bill’s career in a single, 72-page tome. How can it be done? It can’t. The best I can do, and what I’m aiming to do, is to provide a sense of Bill’s life, from childhood to adulthood, from comic book fan to professional writer, from law student to lawyer, and to pepper it with new Mantlo material that the public has never seen. I hit upon the major points and upon the well-known (and lesser known) Mantlo projects from his Marvel years. Did I hit upon everything? Probably not. There will be critics who might focus on this fact, but you know, that’s what critics do. If this volume is a success, I’d like to do a follow-up and delve a bit deeper. But that will largely depend on the success of this first book.
CWN: Do you consider Bill to be one of the first to make licensed properties great in comic book form?
DY: There were plenty of licensed properties appearing in comic book form prior to Bill’s licensed Marvel work. Gold Key did some great licensed titles in the 60s (such as Rod Serling’s TWILIGHT ZONE and STAR TREK). Charlton did a variety of licensed properties in the early-to-mid 70s (eg, SPACE: 1999, EMERGENCY! , and THE SIX-MILLION DOLLAR MAN). Marvel got heavy into licensing with MAN FROM ATLANTIS, STAR WARS, MICRONAUTS, GODZILLA, ROM: SPACEKNIGHT, and GI JOE, among others (though prior to this they did licensed stuff like PLANET OF THE APES). Bill’s ROM and MICRONAUTS series did quite well and remain among the more underrated comics of the late 70s/early 80s. Mantlo took ROM, which arguably is one of the lamest toys ever created, and developed it into a successful monthly series that ran for 75 months. No small feat.
CWN: Do you feel that this is another case of the industry forgetting their history? Or is Bill’s situation unique?
DY: I think the industry tends to remember artists or the writer/artists. It pays less attention to the writers. Perhaps this isn’t quite the case with contemporary comics where successful novelists and television and film writers are being tapped to write monthly series. But certainly the comic book writers of yesteryear are less remembered and acknowledged than their illustrator counterparts.
CWN: How are you promoting this book in and out of the “industry”?
DY: I’m releasing numerous press releases to the comics industry and the mainstream and alternative media and doing interviews like this one. Diamond Comics
will be distributing the Mantlo benefit book. I’m going to solicit for distribution in bookstores and Amazon. I’ve created a dedicated portal on my website Sleeping Giant Creations
and it’s been getting decent traffic. Mike is working on innovative ways to garner attention—ads on Craigslist, distributing flyers at cons, etc. A bunch of industry folks are plugging the project on their sites, and for that I’m very grateful. If these combined efforts continue, I feel confident that this project will succeed in its mission—to raise funds to help maintain the quality of life of Bill Mantlo, one of comic’s most prolific writers.
Thanks David… not only for the interview but mostly for taking on this “job”.
All of us here at CWN send our best wishes to Bill Mantlo, his family and those close to him.
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April 22, 2008:
February 4, 2008:
November 20, 2006:
A Comic-Con without the Captain
