My days under the Malibu Sun!

Way back in the early '90s I was writing for, well, virtually every comicbook magazine under the sun. As if that wasn't enough, I was also penning articles directly for several of the major comicbook companies as well, including Marvel (Marvel Age, Marvel Year in Review), Dark Horse, Image (Extreme), Valiant/Acclaim, DC, and of course, Malibu. (I was also writing for JC Comics, a non sports card magazine, a phone card mag, as well as a couple of computer gamming publications.) Recently, while going through some old files, I came across a copy of The Malibu Sun #30 (Oct. '93) — a newsletter/'zine dedicated to Malibu projects — where I got to interview Barry Windsor-Smith. This is the interview that was printed.

Rune in the Ultraverse: An Enlightening Conversation with Barry Windsor-Smith

 

After leaving Valiant, Barry Windsor-Smith signed up to join the crew over at Malibu’s Ultraverse, co-creating (along with Editor-In-Chief Chris Ulm) Rune, an other-worldly vampire living on Earth.

 

Robert J. Sodaro: How or why did you end up at Malibu?

Barry Windsor-Smith: I don’t mean to be flippant, but why not? They’re a good company; they’ve got a lot of good stuff going for them. I like all the people that I’ve met there so far. The Ultraverse sounds like a good idea. I got talking with them. I’ve been talking with everybody since I quit Valiant. I’ve been talking with Dark Horse’s Mike Richardson; I’ve been talking with Jim Lee at Image. In the case of Malibu, it was just one of the groups that I was talking to, and Chris Ulm had a concept in mind...I can’t remember the original title. We discussed it, and we changed the title to Fuzion. It was about a group of kids who were experimented on without their knowledge, back in the ‘60s or ‘70s. These four disparate kids were an attempt to make super soldiers, that sort of a thing, by scientific means they were given the power of cold fusion. The power only works when all four of them are in the same spot at the same time. It’s actually a lot more interesting than that. I’m not describing it very well.

 

RJS: When you say “…in the same spot.” How close do they have to be to each other?

BWS: When they touch; I think it’s all down to physical contact. If they are separated, there is no power. This was all done in secrecy, when they were kids, and they don’t know what happened to them. Their past lives have been eradicated. They’ve been put into different lifestyles and kept separate until the power can be harnessed by the bad guys. That was the original concept. That concept still stands, but we added a great deal to it because I picked up on the fact that one of the bad guys was named Rune and that he was a 10,000-year-old vampire, floating around in the background. I said, “Heck, why do we have a 10,000-year-old vampire floating around in the background? Let’s bring him up front here. He’s interesting.” So, from that initial talk with Chris, we developed an entire plot and storyline based around this character called Rune. A bizarre, evil-looking guy, who sucks blood and all that sort of stuff, as vampires have a tendency to do. There is more to it than that. Rune is a dying creature. He’s not earthly, for one. I don’t think we’ve sorted out where we want him to come from— outer space, or another dimension — we’re certain he isn’t human. He is in the process of dying from some alien form of cancer. It’s explained in the first storyline for Rune. He is in search of power that will sustain his life. This is how he comes in contact with the kids, who are not adults, these four characters from this clandestine thing called The Fusion Project. That’s basically where the interaction comes from.

 

RJS: What is the title of title book going to be?

BWS: It was Fusion, but now it’s going to be called Rune. We’re calling the three-page format introductory series, which appears in each October Ultraverse issue, Rune. We’ve got a plot, we’ve got character drawings, we’ve got personalities worked out, and all this other stuff, but as I’m working on it, which is always the case with me, I change things as I go along. I’m directing the story, and I see something about this character that didn’t occur to me before, that I could add to, or take away from, or get rid of entirely. When I’m working on a project, it’s very much in a state of flux. Something I can tell you on Thursday, might be old news by Saturday, because I’ve already thrown it out, or I’ve added something by Sunday morning that changes the whole direction of the damn thing. This is basically the way I work, the way I’ve always worked. There is nothing written in stone at this moment. As I stage the stories, who knows what is going to happen.

 

RJS: So, it’s starting in October as a back-up feature?

BWS: Yes.

 

RJS: ln all of the Ultraverse books?

BWS: In all of the Ultraverse books, yes. It’s 11in all. So, the Rune story will be coming out as a back-up in each of those books, and it will run for 11 issues, in different titles all the way through until we’re done w:tth the story.

RJS: It’s part of the Ultraverse?

BWS: Yes, this is definitely Ultraverse stuff.

 

RJS: You will be writing and drawing on Rune?

BWS: In the case of Rune, I’m plotting the story, but Chris Ulm is doing the scripting at the moment. That’s to say that things can change at any given time, but that’s the layout right now. I’ve done three stories so far. I’ve done an awful lot of ad material for it too. It’s a pretty intriguing character. Very much a Barry Windsor­Smith character.

RJS: What makes him a Barry Windsor-Smith character?

BWS: Well, he’s sort of on the dark side, rather than the heroic stuff that I’ve been known for. This guy is very unusual looking. He’s got lumps all over him. Not quite like the Thing, or anything like that, but as I say, this guy has some sort of alien form of cancer, and he’s got a pretty distorted body. Even with the distortion, I’m drawing him technically well. You have to look at him twice to realize he’s got bulges and bumps where he really shouldn’t have.

RJS: He’s going to be the central character of this series?

BWS: He will certainly be the central villain, without a doubt. A central character? Not quite sure. The installments, starting in October, are all about Rune. When we blend Rune into the Fusion storyline, it will be an ensemble cast. The way I like to do things is to see which characters come to the fore. Who does the most talking? Who is going to have the most action on stage, as it were. Rune will be a major character, like Dr. Doom is the major villain for the FF, or something like that.

 

RJS: Don’t you think it’s unusual to name the book after the villain?

BWS: What isn’t unusual? I don’t know that the one should follow any form of previously planned...

RJS: it’s easy to get your readers .to identify with the hero, it’s not so easy to identify with an anti-hero, to make the villain a sympathetic character, is like making a movie about Hitler, and showing him as a sympathetic character.

BWS: This answer isn’t right on the money, but, if you went to see a movie about Hitler, you would know what the outcome was, and know about the character before you went there. Let’s say, the Terminator — the first Terminator — the Terminator was the villain. I think that’s a reasonable effort at explaining my decision there.

RJS: The analogy works very well, so you’re making him quite the  unhandsome character...

BWS: He’s actually very ugly indeed. It’s a test of my own story-telling skills. If you look at Wolverine, he’s not exactly Patrick Swayze.

 

RJS: What about naming the series after the villain?

BWS: I think it’s acceptable that the series is named after the villain. The villain isn’t attractive, but he’s dynamic, vicious, and evil beyond description. Being inhuman, he has no scruples whatsoever. The weight humans carry around, even the bad guys, simply comes from an entirely different perspective. Again, not unlike the Terminator, now that his name has come up. He has arms and legs, but as I say, he’s vastly distorted.

 

RJS: How is it that he came to Earth?

BWS: I haven’t the foggiest. I know it’s going to dawn on me or Chris at some point. Then it’s, “Of course! That’s what we were trying to think of!” So, we’re leaving that go until the right idea pops into one of our heads.

 

RJS: Getting back to you coming ever to Malibu, why was it that you left Valiant?

BWS: Obviously I’ve been asked this question a thousand times. There was a whole period there, when my lawyer advised that I shouldn’t speak about it. I did temper myself very well. It’s a long story. I wasn’t happy at Valiant. That you can certainly quote me on.

 

RJS: Let me ask you this: Did it have anything to do with Jim (Shooter, founder of Defiant) leaving? Did things get worse after Jim left?

BWS: It had nothing whatsoever to do with Jim leaving. The company changed radically when Jim left, or was forced to leave, rather. The intention was to change it for the better. I was there as an executive for about a year. I guess I just felt like a fifth wheel there, to be honest. I was their best writer, and their best artist. That made me feel out of place.

 

RJS: Going from the creative to the business end of it. Was that upsetting to you? Would you rather be...

BWS: Obviously, I would rather be a creator. If I was an executive type, I would have been an executive a long time ago. It’s just not my cup of tea. Being of the aesthetic nature, and also being an executive, I would have liked to have had more control of the quality of the work. I spent a year there, basically, teaching the younger members of the team how to do what they do, trying to teach the colorists the theory of color.

 

RJS: ls this the only project you’re working on for Malibu at the moment?

BWS: It’s a big enough project it should be the only. One I’m working on. Yes, it’s the only one I’m working on. I’m working on the first 30-odd pages in the first three installments, and then the first three or four books of Rune I’ll be producing. We’ll take it from there. That’s where the contract takes me, so we’ll see as we go along. I’m certainly having a good time with the people at Malibu. They’re very nice folks indeed. I’m enjoying their company.

 

# # #

Non “Funny” Funnybooks on the Rise

We’ve been reading comics since around 1961. It is — as we’ve often said — our preferred form of entertainment. In fact, the guy we’ve been buying comics from for most of the past 20 years once told us that something that made us unique among his customers, was that I loved comics. I loved them 50 years ago, 40, 30, 20, and 10 years ago. He wasn’t wrong. I love comics. It has been the one constant over the course of my life.

When I was first introduced to comics, they were comics targeted for kids (Disney, Harvey, others). To be sure, I also read just about every other kind of comicbook I could get my hands on, westerns, war stories, horror, romance, it didn’t matter, so long as they were comics. As a youth, one of my favorite comic titles was Treasure Chest, a series that was published by the Roman Catholic Church and told stories of the saints, as well as other types of stories as well.  (And yes, I also read syndicated comics and editorial cartoons as well.)

Eventually I discovered and wholly embraced superhero comics, however, I never forgot that there were other kinds of comics out there. In fact whenever I’ve discovered non superhero, nontraditional, comics, I’ve attempted to acquire them, which is precisely what I did last year while attending a comicbook con in New Jersey. It was there that I spotted a special Spider-Man Far From Home comic that was issued by (and probably available with) Kellogg’s cereal. After expressing interest in the comics, the table owner showed me three other comics that were issued by the Philadelphia Electric Company issued in 1980, explaining how electricity works.

While as full-on aficionado of Marvel Comics since 1962 I was obviously eager to acquire the Spider-Man comic, but as a lover of the medium itself I also totally wanted the three Philadelphia Electric Company comics as well. Truth to tell, part of the reason that I was so excited to acquire the three comics on electricity, is because my father was an electrical engineer and while I was quite young, spent time explaining to me how electricity worked, in pretty much the same way one of the Philadelphia Electric comics did.

So, to talk about the four comics, first up is the Spidey comic. Issued by Kellogg’s in conjunction with the Far From Home movie, the eight-page comic was written by Sean Ryan and illustrated by J.L. Giles tells a quick tail that is actually totally unconnected from the film itself about how Spidey, while on patrol, comes across an unnamed villain using a hi-tech clove to rob a bank. Unfortunately for the crook, he was mostly unfamiliar with the way the glove worked. Fortunately, as Peter is a science and engineering student in addition to being a superhero, he managed to acquire the glove, disabled it, and turned it over to the cops, who had already arrested the perp. The back cover to the comic was a superhero word search.

Next up are the three Philadelphia Electric comics, all of which are printed on newsprint (the Marvel comic was on high glossy paper), and two of the comics were clearly targeted towards younger readers (featuring anthropomorphic characters), while the third is aimed at more of a young adult audience. Electric Safety from A to Zap! Is a 16 -page comic featuring a cat and a mouse who keep getting shocked by electricity as they kept running afoul of various power chords and outlets. Soon they start talking about energy and how it is generated and transferred. After learning about how electric power makes things work, they eventually learn how not to be zapped by electricity and how to be safe around it.

Learning to use Energy Wisely!  Is also a 16-page, newsprint comic with both human and anthropomorphic characters. The comic starts out with a boy turning on numerous electrical appliances, and then asking his father to read him a story. The story the father read was entitled Pigopolis. It was a story about how a community of pigs learned how to read and build a large city at the edge of a dense forest.

As the pig population grew, they sought to expand their city by extending their city limits by cutting down more and more trees in the forest, and using the cut trees to power steam engines, run their factories, amusement parks, power plants, and heat their homes. Unfortunately, as the pigs expanded their city, they deforested the woods, and displaced the creatures who lived there.

The Pigs continued to grow their city at an accelerated pace while reducing the size of the forest, irrespective of the creatures living there. One day, a young pig wandered through the forest to the far side of it to discover a monstrous creature called a Grok who loved to eat pigs. The young pig then hurriedly returned to the city to tell the others that they needed to preserve the forest to keep it as a barrier between them and the Grok. Learning their lesson the pigs curtailed their unchecked deforestation, and better cared for the environment around themselves.

The third comic from the Philadelphia Electric Company, The Story of Electricity, is once again a 16-page, newsprint comic. As stated, this one is targeted more for an older, young adult audience (think middle or high school). This story starts out where a group of kids are home during a thunderstorm when a tree falls across some power lines and a power crew show up to repair it. The kids approach the repair crew, and one of the crew begins to explain about the power grid, how it works, and more. Eventually the kids are invited to come out to the power plant to learn more about how the power grid works.

The rest of the comic tells some of the background about how electricity was discovered, developed, and put to use. Quite a bit of background it offered up to give a very thorough background and history of the development of electricity and its application and uses in today’s modern-day world. All of this background includes the use of turbines, computers, microchips, and how the grid itself works, turning this comic into a very thorough background on electricity.

Again, we love these types of comics because they expand the base of what comics are and are perceived as, plus they can help make complex information more accessible (and entertaining) to people who could better benefit from that information.