Steve Bissette's Taboo!

Back in 1988, I went to a comic convention in New Hampshire. There I met Steve Bissette. Steve had recently announced that he was launching a horror anthology entitled Taboo. As I was regularly contributing to Amazing Heroes (AH) at the time, I asked if I could interview him, and secured his contact info. After the con, I contacted my editor, Kim Thompson, at AH to pitch the article.

I was given the go-ahead and then reached out to Steve. Only, Steve told me that he wasn't quite ready to launch the series. So I got back to Kim, who told me to continue to pursue Steve, and when Steve was ready, and I got the interview, to let Kim know, and he would schedule the article.

Well, I wound up calling Steve once a month for a year, while he gathered material for the book in preparation for the launch. Well, when he was finally ready, I got to chat with him. Steve, if you didn’t already know, was a extraordinarily talented horror artist and writer. When I began the interview I confessed to him that I really wasn’t a big fan of horror.

We then spent the next four hours talking about all kinds of horror, from comics, to books, to TV to film, and of course about Taboo itself. As it turns out I — quite literally — knew of every horror reference he made. Which really surprised me as (as I told Steve)  I really didn’t like horror, mostly as it truly scared the living crap out of me.

Needless to say, I got the interview, wrote the article and had it published in issue #153 of AH.

Then, for some 10 years after it’s publication, whenever I would run into Steve at a con, he would be very nice to me, saying hello, introducing me to others around him, and chatting with me. I never really understood why Steve was always so nice. Then one time he said to the folks with him. “Bob was the first person who wrote about Taboo.”

It was then that it suddenly occurred to me that what to me was simply me chasing a story (calling him once a month for a year), was to him the tenacity of a reporter intent on promoting something that was something of a life passion for him.

I have since caught up with and frended Steve on Facebook as well as reviewed his book Teen Angels & New Mutants, which details Rick Veitch’s groundbreaking work on the series Brat Pack. Anyway, today I happened to come across AH #153, and thought I’d post the interview in its entirety here.

I honestly think that it is one of the best articles I’ve ever written,

Occupy Marvel

Jack Kirby either created or co-created much of Marvel, there is no doubt about this. There is also no doubt that his art set the house style for decades. Marvel has gotten filthy rich off the back of Jack and other artists and  writers over the years. It is time that they acknowledge this debt.

There are some calling for a boycott of Marvel of this summer’s Avengers movie. Writer/artist, and educator Steve Bissette feels that we should petition Marvel to give credit and royalties to Jack Kirby and his family. Others suggest that you don’t necessarily boycott Marvel films, but give a buck to the Jack Kirby Museum whenever you go see a film with Kirby characters in it.

We feel that whatever option you choose, you stand up to the corporate slugs at Marvel and demand that they give proper honor and respect to one of the men that not only helped found this entire industry, but who gave so much of his life to the company itself.

Steve Bissette writes about Rick Veitch

I first met Steve Bissette probably 30something years ago at at comicbook show in New Hampshire that was being hosted by a very good friend of mine named Mark Ernst. Shortly after this Steve announced that he was releasing Taboo, and trading on the fact that I had met him (and had the foresight to have gotten his number) I pitched a story about it to Amazing Heroes. Well AH was interested, but, as Steve had the reputation to not be anything close to the fastest artist in the world, he was no wheres near ready to publish.

In fact, it took him a full year to get to the point where he was ready to publish. Well, my editor, Kim Thompson, was understanding, and told me to keep after Steve, and whenever Steve was ready to publish,, he would run the story. So I would regularly call Steve every month or two until he was ready. Then I wrote the story, which eventually wound up as a cover story in AH.

For several years afterwards whenever I would meet Steve, he would be extraordinarily friendly to me, introducing me to all of his friends and being quite nice to me. I never really understood why, until some 10 years after the publication of the article, Steve said to someone, “Bob was the first one to write about Taboo.” Suddenly the light went on in my head (hey, I never said I was very bright).

Flash forward another 20 years and I again reconnected with Steve (who has long since left comics and is now teaching in Vermont), on the Internet. Well, as it turns out, Steve wrote a book (he’s apparently written a few, actually) about Rick Veitch’s decades-old comic/Graphic Novel, Brat Pack. Well, Steve sent it to me and I recently read it and posted my review of it over at Examiner.com (where I write about comics and movies).

Well, the book is an amazing look at not only Brat Pack, and what went into influencing Veitch to create that marvelously subversive tome, but Bissette’s book Teen Angels & New Mutants, is an enlightening expose of the entirety of the pop culture landscape that surrounded his and Veitch’s growing up and becoming part of the comicbook community. Steve’s book is currently available (as are updated graphic volumes of Brat Pack), and we strongly urge you all to check out both of them.