M O D E R N M A S T E R S V O L U M E T W E L V E :

Bat

man

TM

& ©

2007

DC

Com

ics.

MICHAELGOLDENMICHAEL

GOLDEN

By Eric Nolen-WeathingtonBy Eric Nolen-Weathington

Table of Contents

Introduction by Kevin Nowlan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Part One: “I Guess I’ll Just Go Draw Comic Books” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Part Two: Small Beginnings at Marvel Comics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Part Three: Savage Worlds of Past and Future . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

Part Four: Editorially Speaking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

Part Five: Comics and Creativity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

Art Gallery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

Modern Masters Volume Twelve:

MICHAEL GOLDEN

MODERN MASTERS: I find it interesting that youdidn’t read comics all that much as a kid. Most comicbook artists of your generation were heavily into comicsgrowing up. Was there anything else you were lookingat that spurred your imagination?

MICHAEL GOLDEN: It’s not a knock on comic books, it’sjust that where I was growing up, they were notreally available. Do youmean anything else as faras comic books?

MM: Comics oranything else—books, television,movies.... Yousaid you readsome ofHergé’s workas a kid.

MICHAEL:My motherbought thisthing calledChildren’s Digest,or somethinglike that. If I remem-ber correctly—and Imight be wrong—itwas a monthly periodical she got asubscription to,and it was basicallya kids’ magazine.It had games in itand puzzlesand children’snews and stufflike that, but italso had a comicssection wherethey ran theTintin series inEnglish. Of

course, back then I didn’t know it was in any other language. [laughter] I remember reading it and alwaysenjoying it. Because it was serialized, it was really theonly thing where I would look forward to the next issueshowing up so I could read the next installment. It wasin black-&-white, and that’s all I really remember aboutit. I remember reading it and enjoying it, but I was alsoreading [Robert] Heinlein and Arthur C. Clarke, andthey weren’t an influence on my artwork, or at least asfar as I know. Maybe some of these things creep in without us really knowing. [laughs]

As I said, because of where I grew up on the plainsout west, I didn’t grow up with exposure to a whole lot of this stuffother than what was in the schoollibraries at any given point in time.

MM: You didn’t draw that much as achild, but did you have an interestin art at all?

MICHAEL:Interested in the

sense that Iseemed tohave a knackfor it, sure. I

did artwork inschool justlike every-body else,back whenthe schools

at leastattemptedto have art

programs,but I don’t

recall givingit any kind ofspecial atten-tion other

then whenevera teacher asked

me to dosomethingapart from

Part 1: “I Guess I’ll Just GoDraw Comic Books”

6

7

the other kids. And that was just one ofthe perks of having a natural talent, Iguess. I didn’t really have any creativefocus when I was a kid. I never thought ofdoing it as a living at the time.

Actually, I enjoyed reading much morethan I enjoyed artwork. I read adventurebooks, Dickens—one of my favorite writersis Dickens. And I guess that’s why, evenwith my art, I look at my job more as astoryteller than anything else.

MM: I brought it up because even thoughyou weren’t very familiar with the languageof comic books, you had little troublecatching on to all the tricks and nuances ofcomic book storytelling. Right out of thegate it appeared like you pretty much knewhow to work in the comic book format.There didn’t seem like you needed muchof a learning curve.

MICHAEL: At the risk of blowing myown horn, I’ve had other professionals saythat, and people who have been thereright from the beginning, like Larry Hama,say that, and I guess I always blow it off asI just had a knack for it. It seemed to comenatural to me.

MM: How did you get involved in doingcommercial art? In a way, you almost fellinto it.

MICHAEL: I got into commercial workjust by climbing the ladder. It wasn’t untilmy mid-teens that I actually started doingartwork with any kind of intent, but thatintent was basically as favors for friends,doing little sketches, little drawings. Thenwhen I was doing my walkabout aroundthe country in my mid-teens—being a hippie, basically [laughter]—I found that Icould trade for a place to sleep or somefood or other sundry favors of the late’60s, early ’70s [laughter] by doing drawings.And that sort of mutated into doing paint-ings on skateboards and surfboards, whicheventually turned into doing vans andmurals. At that point, of course, it becamecommercial art, because by the time I hadmutated to vans and trucks and murals, Istarted to get paid for it, as opposed to justdoing it in trade for services rendered.

During the course of one of those jobs,I bumped into a guy who was a friend of a

friend of a friend who said my artwork wasvery comic-bookish or cartoony looking.He was originally from Manhattan, and hehad a friend of a friend who was workingfor DC or Marvel—I can’t rememberwhich. I believe it was DC. He kept push-ing me to give that person a portfolio. Ikept procrastinating and putting it off,because even though I was interested, Iwasn’t really that interested at the sametime. It was like, “Well, that’s kind of neat.”I was familiar with comic books by then, I’dalways been telling stories as I said, and Iwas familiar with a lot of the undergroundstuff of the early ’70s. In that regard itinterested me, but I didn’t really want tomake the effort to get into the business.

Previous Page: Astrange raccoon fromanother world. Penciledby Terry Austin and inkedby Michael—how’s thatfor a switch! Terry saysthis was done soon afterthe release of 1978’sSuperman: The MotionPicture.Above: Page 6 ofDefenders #53, one ofMichael’s first jobs forMarvel. Inks by TerryAustin.

Defenders ™ and ©2007 MarvelCharacters, Inc.

But he kept pushing me, and we circu-lated in the same social circle. A lot ofpeople in that circle started pushing me togo ahead and pursue this. I finally metwith the friend of a friend of a friend fromNew York City who worked for DC orMarvel. I handed her my portfolio, whichwas basically a bunch of stuff on typingpaper, and she disappeared with it. Shecalled a couple of times and said, “Look,you really need to get up here. People arereally interested in your stuff; they reallylike it, blah, blah, blah.”

I still didn’t give it much thought, thenabout a year later, out of the clear blue, oneof these people from our social circle justhanded me a plane ticket to New York and

said, “Go to New York. Here are some peopleto stay with. Go do this. You need to dothis.” They basically kicked me out thedoor, put me onto the airplane, and mademe go to New York. The day after arriving Iwent to DC and got work. Either that sameday or the day after—sometime within thenext 24 hours—I went down to Marvel andgot work there on that same visit, as well.And the rest is history. [laughter]

After that it was like, “Okay, fine, theyboth gave me work.” I went back to Floridaand went back to my job as an electrician. Ireally did enjoy doing the comic bookwork—or at least, I enjoyed it much morethan being an electrician, let me put it thatway, because that was the only winter that itsnowed in central Florida. I was out wiringchicken feeders and got minor frostbite inmy hands, so I said, “Okay, I guess I’ll just godraw comic books.” So I went back up toNew York for about another month or two.They just started handing me work. It wasmostly anthology stuff—the horror stories—for DC and some fill-in work for Marvel,but the jobs were really, really steady, so atthat point I said, “Fine, this is what I’m goingto do.” And I started my career in comicbooks at that point. And two years later Iwalked back out because it was too much ofa pain in the butt and started doing com-mercial work again. [laughter]

MM: Do you remember exactly what yourfirst job was?

MICHAEL: That’s open to debate. Iworked for DC almost an entire yearbefore I worked for Marvel, but there arethose who say a Marvel job came outbefore any of the stuff from DC, so I don’tknow, to be honest. Some work was com-pleted first and then sat around and waspublished later, so work was not publishedin the order that I actually did it.

MM: Well, I know that it was 1977 whenyour work first started appearing. I’m notsure exactly when you....

MICHAEL: Right, because I was workingfor DC in ’76.

MM: Yeah, exactly. Let’s just start with theMarvel stuff. The first full story, really, is“The Cask of Amontillado” [Marvel Classics

Below: Opening page ofMarvel’s adaptation ofthe Edgar Allen Poe classic, “The Cask ofAmontillado.”Next Page: Page 6 of“To Catch a God” (Houseof Mystery #257), andpage 3 of the TwilightZone-esque “PhantomCity” (Ghosts #88).

Marvel Classics Comics ™ and©2007 Marvel Characters, Inc.Ghosts, House of Mystery ™and ©2007 DC Comics.

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MM: Your first continuing work at Marvel was Micronauts.

MICHAEL: Right.

MM: Did your commercial art background have anyimpact on you getting a licensed book?

MICHAEL: No, I think it was that nobody else wasinterested in doing it because it was a licensedproduct, and, again, I was the new kid on theblock, so they threw it at me, and I said,“Sure,” because I didn’t have any work. [laughs]

MM: Did they send you toys to work from?

MICHAEL: Yeah, they gave me a whole biggiant box of toys—which I then, in turn,passed off to the next artist,who I think was PatBroderick.

MM: Yeah, I think Pat tookover next. Al Milgrom was theeditor of that book. How wasyour working relation-ship with him?

MICHAEL: Great.Al’s a nice guy. Nothingbut good to say about AlMilgrom. I got alongwith him just fine, andhe covered my butt acouple of times, moreoften than not, andhe was put in, y’know,some uncomfortablepositions sometimesthat he handled quitegracefully, in my opinion. I have nothingbut goodto sayaboutworking with Allen, ever, inany context.

MM: Now, as far as the licensing aspect of it goes, didyou have to turn in your art for approval from anybody,or did the license...?

MICHAEL: No, there was no approval process that Iwas aware of. That might need a big qualifier. You mightask Allen about that, I’m not sure. As far as I know, therewas no approval process, and I would probably stick by

that statement seeing as how that bookwas late from the word go.

MM: So, what, it was already behindschedule even before you started workingon it?

MICHAEL: Well, it was my firstexposure to a situation that

occurred to me repeatedly atMarvel, where I was told that

they wouldn’t schedulethe book until theyhad four issues completed, in thedrawer, then, like, acouple weeks later

they’d call me up andtell me I was four months

late. And that’s what hap-pened on the Micronauts is that

I said I’d do this book, and wegot everything together. I waswrapping up my stuff at DC. Ithen moved across four states,and as soon as I got a phonein the new state, I called up

and they said, “Oh, bythe way, you’re fourmonths behind schedule.”And from that point onit was just me crankingout work.

MM: You didn’tdo much elsewhile you

were doingMicronauts, I

Part 2: Small Beginnings at Marvel Comics

17

guess. I don’t thinkthere’s anything youworked on concurrentwith that.

MICHAEL: It wasn’tenough? [laughter] Itwas down to,y’know, I had to turnout a book every twoweeks, and I don’tknow that I ever didget caught up.

MM: Well, youwere able to gettwelve issues out, so you must havebeen doing some-thing right. That’sactually one of yourlongest runs on anybook. What keptyou there for solong? Was there anyparticular...?

MICHAEL: It was amatter of honor.[laughter] I said Iwould do it, and byissue four or five, Idecided I’d doneenough, “Okay, as ofissue twelve, I’m offthe book. I’m leaving.”So they just arrangedeverything, and whatever Mantlo had todo to rewrite, we sat down and replottedthe storyline and wrapped everything up intwelve issues, because I made it clear that Iwasn’t going to go beyond that.

MM: In 1980, after Micronauts was wind-ing down for you, you made a transition tocover artist. You drew tons of covers forMarvel during that time: Doctor Strange,more Micronauts covers, Rom covers, SavageShe-Hulk. Was that just to get a changefrom the monthly grind of having to crankout Micronauts?

MICHAEL: No, I was doing commercialwork then. I got fed up with comic booksand just went off and started doing com-mercial work. But I kept gravitating back

to comic books, not necessarily as a con-scious thing on my part, but because editorswould call me up and ask me to do stuff,and I would be quite blunt about it andsay, “Look, I just don’t have the time.”“Well, can you do a cover?” “Sure, I’ll do acover,” just to keep my fingers in the pie.

It was after Micronauts that I did theMarvel Team-Up story where it eventuallybecame Marvel Fanfare #1, and that sataround for a couple of years before theydecided to put it into a Marvel Fanfare, andthen Allen called me up and said, “Well, doyou want to do the second half of thestory?” Following that I did the AvengersAnnual, and then the G.I. Joe thing, andthen The ’Nam, and so on, and so forth. So,they pulled me back in—Allen and Hama,mostly.

18

Right: Page 17 ofMicronauts #1. Trustytranscriber, Steven Tice,asked Al Gordon aboutthe Micronauts. Here’swhat he had to say:“...Sometimes licensorswere so eager to getMarvel to do books basedon their properties thatthey were lax in over-seeing the material. Theytrusted us to do a goodjob. And in the case ofthe Micronauts, several ofthe cast were created byMarvel, so in those cases,no approval was needed.... Michael was experi-menting with the look ofhis pencils. He was usinga finer line—quite lovelyand illustrative, but lackingin power and impact. Thiswas more evident on theinteriors than on thecovers. ... As I recall, wewere using very crappypaper to print the bookson back then—very thin.The fine lines employedby Golden and faithfullyinked by Joe were all butcovered up by the color. Ispoke to Michael aboutgiving his work a morerobust look—and I’msure I cited Kirby as aguy to look at, not onlyfor the dynamism of hiswork, but also as anexample of how to dealwith poor paper andweak reproduction andcolor. Michael took mysuggestions and ran withthem. He ramped up hisapproach and immediate-ly started turning in muchbolder, more dramaticwork. Next Page: Michael’sclaustrophobic cover toMicronauts #18.

Arcturus Rann, Bug, Marionette™ and ©2007 MarvelCharacters, Inc. Baron Karza,Micronauts ™ and ©2007 MegoCorp.

MM: In the meantime, though, in 1980 you did a Star Wars story.

MICHAEL: Star Wars, oh yeah! I forgot about that one.

MM: Yeah, Archie Goodwin wrote it. But you did the plotting, and you also did the coloring. I don’t know if thatwas your first interior coloring or not, but that might havebeen—at least credited.

MICHAEL: Yeah, possibly, I think it was. Well, the onethat I got credited for, yeah.

MM: So on that work, did you just come up with a plotand pitch it?

MICHAEL: Actually, I think right after the first movieArchie had.... During the first movie, I think Archie waseditor-in-chief, or had just had been or something. But hewas feeding me little eight-page back-up stories at thatpoint. And I just walked in one day, and we were just sit-ting around talking, and I said, “Well, I’ve kind of got ascience fiction story in my head that might work for StarWars,” and I just told it to him. And he said, “Yeah, goahead and do it.”

And so basically I just sat down and I drew this twenty-whatever page the story was, and turned it in. And it sataround for a while—quite a while, actually. I guessthere was some sort of hang-up with the adaptation tothe second movie and they needed something to stickin there real fast. And Archie called me up one day andasked if he could just write the dialogue and get it out.And I said, “Sure, go right ahead.” And he wrote justthis incredible dialogue, just tied the whole thingtogether. It ended up being a real spooky little story.And meanwhile, Terry Austin was inking it, and Iasked Archie for the favor if I could go ahead andcolor it, and he said, “Sure, but we need it really fast.”So, like, in two days I turned the color guides in, andoff it went to the printer. [laughs]

MM: Were you a fan of the movies at all?

MICHAEL: I liked the first one.

MM: Not the second one?

MICHAEL: Well, the second one was okay. The

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Part 3: Savage Worlds of Past and Future

MM: And then we come to “Bucky O’Hare,” which, as you were talking about earlier, you got to do the cartoony style. Was that something you played aroundwith at all? How did you develop that cartoonier style? I mean, because it’s so different from your super-herowork.

MICHAEL: It s actually my natural drawing style.[laughter] I like doing the cartoony stuff, the animationkind of style stuff much more than doing any kind ofrealistic rendering. I’ve never considered myself a com-petent enough draftsman to work my way through anysort of serious, hardcore realistic rendering, although I proba-bly could.... But thereproduction incomic books hasnever really beenconducive to doinganything otherthan very sim-ple line art andflat color stuff,up until justrecently, with theadvent of com-puter separa-tions and finallygetting to workon paper thatisn’t recycledfrom chickenpoop, and stufflike that. Thedrawing style onthat was simply anextension of myregular drawingstyle workingoff of the stuffthat Larry Hama had alreadyput down or conceptualizedfor the characters.

MM: How did you getinvolved with BuckyO’Hare? You had worked

with [Bucky O’Hare creator] Larry [Hama] before.

MICHAEL: Right, Larry was one of my editors over atDC. You’d have to ask him about his thought process asto why he asked me. I’ve had plenty of suppositions onmy part as to why. We were both model makers. Weboth thought of things in terms of three-dimensionalobjects. We got along well at DC. I’ve always gottenalong pretty well with Larry ever since. He’s one of thefew people I’ve known in this business since the time Icame in.

I don’t remember the exact course of events as far ashim asking me to be involved in it, but I did

some presentation work for him when itwas still called Buck Bunny. Over the

next year or so I went towork at Marvel,and about a yearlater so did he asan editor, because

of the DCImplosion.During thatcourse of time,

Neal Adams andContinuity picked

up the propertyand, again, I’mnot particularlyprivy as to howall that hap-

pened, but Iended upworking withContinuityand Larrywhen theyrenamed theproject BuckyO’Hare. Theystarted serial-

izing the story for an anthologycomic book that Neal was doingcalled Echo of Futurepast, whicheventually was turned into the

first graphic novel.

Seven or eight years later, the licensewas picked up by Hasbro, and the thingwas turned into a multi-media event forabout three or four years. And it was quitesuccessful. I’m not trying to blow my ownhorn on that; it was a major player for awhile. And now Vanguard Productions hasjust released a manga version of the work,and Continuity has optioned it for amovie, so it will continue, it appears.

MM: You said both you andLarry were model makers.Was that something youwere thinking about whenyou were designing thecharacters?

MICHAEL: Yeah, it wasan understood prerequisitebetween both Larry and Ithat this would, in fact, bedesigned to be—to quoteLarry—“held in a little kid’s hands.”By the time we actually got goingon it full-bore, I had already hadthe experience with theMicronauts, and I took a lot of the things that I learned aboutinjection molding, about playa-bility, about adaptability andinterchangeability from theMicronauts and used it in the

designs for “Bucky O’Hare.”

MM: When the serialized story wasrepublished as the Bucky O’Hare comic, itwas reformatted. What was behind thereformatting? Why not just print it theway it originally ran in Echo of Future Past?

MICHAEL: What do you mean reformatted?

Previous Page: Jennyshows her true power.From Bucky O’Hare.Left: Opening panel (inthe original printing any-way) of the BuckyO’Hare saga.Below: Sketch of Bucky O’Hare’s lead protagonist, WillyDuWitt.

Bucky O’Hare and the ToadMenace ™ and ©2007Continuity Graphics Associates,Inc.

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MM: Some panels were enlarged orremoved or moved around.

MICHAEL: Oh, well, you’d have to talkto Continuity about that.

MM: Oh, okay. So you didn’t have any-thing to do with it? You didn’t redrawanything?

MICHAEL: No, no. They actu-ally found an artist who couldmimic my art style enough towhere even I wasn’t surewhether I had done it or not,and he went in there andfilled in all the gaps. Like yousaid, they blew up some panels. You’ll have to talk toContinuity about all of that.

MM: Did you do any of the covers for the new reprinting?

MICHAEL: Not officially. There wassome promotional stuff sitting around thatI seem to recall was turned into covers. Idid ink one cover that one of the artistshad done, but—again, I don’t know if officially it was supposed to be a cover, butI think it eventually did become a coverfor the comic book.

MM: Let’s just step back just a minute.

MICHAEL: Well, you’ve got to talk aboutBucky O’Hare. Bucky O’Hare is great! [laugh-ter] The Vanguard book sold out!

MM: Yeah? That’s great!

MICHAEL: It was amazing!It’s like, it’s gone! You can’tget it anymore, kids, it’sgone! Although they havegone back for a secondprinting now, and we did thesigned and numbered editionthrough Image Comics andEva Ink.

MM: Did you like thedigest format?

MICHAEL: Yeah.

MM: Yeah, I mean, it’s obviously playing on the

popularity of the manga books now.

MICHAEL: You know, when they told methey were going to publish it in that format,I was thinking, “Gee, why didn’t anybodythink of this before?” I thought it was a bril-

liant little idea. And I guess itwas! I’ve been validated,

because it’s gone. Itsold out almostimmediately

on that firstprinting, as Imentioned.

32

Above: A “BuckyO’Hare” panel as it origi-nally saw print on page 2of Echo of Futurepast #1(left), and as it saw printon page 5 of BuckyO’Hare #1. Not only wasthe panel moved and thedialogue changed, but thebackground was erasedand Bucky’s eyes wereredrawn. Right: Sketch of the firstmate of the RighteousIndignation, Jenny. Next Page Top: Jennyuses her wily charms onWillie to convince him tojoin the team.Next Page Bottom:Sketch Bucky O’Hare’sDead-Eye Duck.

Bucky O’Hare and the ToadMenace ™ and ©2007Continuity Graphics Associates,Inc.

MM: Oh, really? When did you find out what kind ofsplash it had made? Was it several years later, or was it asyou were still working on the book?

MICHAEL: You know, I have to confess I was really notaware of any splash it had ever made until maybe when Iwas an editor at DC, or probably even later, actually. I don’tthink I really ever understood just how big of an impact thatbook had made. For me it was a job for Marvel with thesame old parameters.

MM: With The ’Nam I think you really settled into a placewhere it was a happy medium between your naturally cartoony style and your more realistic style. You see reallydetailed uniforms and everything, but then the kind of exag-gerated faces and cartoony aspects to it, at times. Which Ithink really helped, since the stories were so serious, havinga little bit of that exaggerated feel to it kind of....

MICHAEL: Well, I felt that the wholeproperty

kind of demanded it.

MM: Yeah, because if it was just photo-realisticwork, I don’t think it would have made thesame impact.

MICHAEL: Well, I agree. The Vietnam Warwasn’t something that can be approached fromsome sort of nostalgic photo-realism. It wasn’tthis great national cause like World War IIwas, where we can all go in and we can do allof these Norman Rockwell moments. It was aconfused, nasty, embarrassing moment forthis country. And almost to the point ofbeing surreal for those of us who livedthrough it, because it was on the nightlynews every night, and you could never tellwhat was real and what wasn’t. It was justthis thing that permeated our entire societyat the time. And so I really felt thatapproaching it as some sort of realistic venture was inappropriate. But I also freelyconfess that the production demands ofthe book really kind of obliged me to take

40

MM: When did you become a DC editor? That was’91, ’92, somewhere in there?

MICHAEL: I believe it was ’90. Yeah, ’cause I was therefor a couple of years.

MM: Okay, yeah, that would explain why you didn’thave a whole lot coming out during those years. One ofthe books you edited was the Sgt. Rock Special. Andyou wrote one of the stories there with someoneelse drawing it. Was it kind of odd seeing some-one else illustrate one of your stories?

MICHAEL: No. And the reason why isbecause I wrote a fullscript and I picked[Ron] Wagner to doit. And he washappy to do it,and he did it theway I told him inthe script. So itwasn’t quite the way Iwould have done it, per se,but that’s just fine, becausethat’s the way he did it. That’sthe way it works, I write thescript and he draws the pictures.I mean, it’s just like whenI’m drawing stuff, Idon’t put thatkind of emotionalinvestment in it.It’s do my job,do my job well,and hope thateverybody else downthe line does the samething. But in this particu-lar case I knew what theart was going to looklike, because I hadseen his art beforeand I asked him to dothe job for me.

MM: Did you writeit specifically with

him in mind?

MICHAEL: Oh, yeah. Well, that’s what I’m saying. We knew what this story was going to be before I sent itto him.

MM: It was a wordless story until thelast couple of pages. Where did the

idea for the story come to youfrom? The idea of the displacedJapanese-American....

MICHAEL: I don’t know, Ijust sort of had an epiphany.I don’t know. That’s aninteresting question. It wasjust a story I just thoughtup. I don’t think it wasprompted by anythingin particular. It juststruck me as one ofthose great ironiesthat this kid is fanta-sizing about beingthis greatAmerican acepilot, and ulti-mately he’s notconsidered anAmerican. Andthat’s what that

story was allabout. It takeseight pages toget to the point,but then when

you get to the endof it, it’s going,

“Wow. That’scrazy stuff.”

And anybodywho has neverexperiencedthat is sudden-

ly hit by thatreality.

MM: Were you more

Part 4: Editorially Speaking

44

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of a special projects editor, ordid you have any regularbooks that you oversaw?

MICHAEL: No, I was inMike Gold’s group, and Iguess that was the specialprojects group, but it wasmore the special projectsgroup that didn’t have any-thing to do with the regularDC Universe. I always hadthe impression, and I don’tknow that I should say thisout loud or not, but I alwayshad the impression it was theeditorial group of all the projects that DC wasn’t thatinvested in—and maybe I’mwrong. I mean, we had theImpact line, which ostensiblywas meant as a super-heroprimer for the kids, and someof the books qualified for thatand some of them didn’t. Wehad the Sgt. Rock book, whichwhen I first stepped in it wasnothing more than a reprintbook that wasn’t given thetime of day. It was whoeverhappened to make the mistake of not looking like he had something to do gotstuck with it. After I took over, I startedgiving it a lot of thought, and by the timeI left DC that book was actually making aprofit. And I also got Joe Kubert to finish aSgt. Rock story that had been sitting therefor, like, 15 years. It ended up being a reallygood comic book as opposed to just athrow-off war book that nobody wanted tosee. I had Shadow Strikes!, which when itwas handed to me was four months late.By the time I finished it, it was two monthsahead of schedule, and it had some prettydarned good stuff going on.

MM: Oh, yeah

MICHAEL: When I came in, I stepped upthe coloring and punched up the produc-tion values on that book. I sat there anddid the production work myself, because itwould never make it through the produc-tion department because they were told to

have other priorities. By the end of thatbook, it was selling well and it was aheadof schedule. And then they informed methat they had already let the license go,and it went off to Dark Horse Comics.And I’d already had it all set up, I wasgoing to turn it into an anthology bookand get separate artists and writers andcreative teams to do individual stories. Ihad it all set up and was ready to go, andthen they tell me, “Oh, sorry, man. Wealready got rid of that license.” And that’swhy I said, because of that whole thing, Ihad the impression that my editorial groupwas where they sent old elephants orsomething, but we tried. I actually reallyenjoyed being an editor, and who knows, Imay do it again someday.

MM: Were there any other projects youremember that stand out for you duringthat time?

Previous Page:Convention sketch ofDC’s leading lady,Wonder Woman, alongwith a captive Howardthe Duck.Above: Rough sketch fora Sinestro trading cardfor the Versus game system.

Sinestro, Wonder Woman ™ and©2007 DC Comics. Howard theDuck ™ and ©2007 MarvelCharacters, Inc.

ent from a lot of your other work, where did the story come from? You’ve got the kid sittingby the TV, then the weirdness happen.

MICHAEL: Well, anybody who’s ever been around me for any amount of time will hear mego on these diatribes against American media, how hypocritical American popular cultureis, how contradictory it is, and I just really wanted to tell a story about it. And I thoughtmirroring it against Doctor Strange realizing who and what he is was the perfect way to dothis, and that’s what the story is all about. That’s why it’s called “Strange Reflections” is thatDoctor Strange is confronting himself as the Sorcerer Supreme, and his history, and whathas made him ultimately what he is today is directly balanced against a little kid beingbombarded by our popular culture with the understanding that this is what defines him,ultimately, in our society. And that’s a scary thought—at least in my mind. Like I said, any-body who’s ever been around me has heard me go off on this. That’s where that story camefrom, because it’s one of my favorite soapboxes.

MM: Did someone approach you about doing a black-&-white story, or was this somethingyou pitched?

MICHAEL: Joe Andreani called me up. He was putting this book together and asked me todo it. And when he asked me, the deadline was open-ended, because in hindsight I think itwasn’t really on the schedule at that point. But when they decided to do it, they suddenlyjust put it onto a production schedule. I know it sounds familiar, but believe me, this hap-pened all the time. And Joe was very apologetic and he was very outgoing trying to put thisthing together. I full-penciled the job and it went off to John Beatty to ink. It didn’t take me

Above: Pencils for pages3 and 4 of “StrangeReflections” from Marvel:Shadows & Light #1.Next Page: Cover artfor Kiss: Psycho Circus #3.

Dr. Strange ™ and ©2007Marvel Characters, Inc. Kiss ™and ©2007 Kiss Catalog, Ltd.

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long to write the story because, like I said, this is one ofmy favorite rants, so I was very prepared how to do it.

MM: You did some interesting covers for the Kiss: The Psycho Circus mini-series. Are you a fan of the bandat all?

MICHAEL: They’ve done some interesting stuff, andwere/are certainly a force. They were groundbreakersfor their time, and ya gotta respectthat. I also like rock-&-roll.

MM: So how did you get that gig,because that was something some-what out of left field?

MICHAEL: From Todd McFarlane,and it just sort of came out of theblue. He just asked me if I wasinterested in doing it. I was doingmore commercial work then, so Icould only commit to doing somecovers, and that’s where that camefrom.

MM: How did you get hookedup with Spartan X and JackieChan? Were they seeking outsomeone, or did you find them?

MICHAEL: I had gone back todoing commercial work, and hadbeen doing it fairly ongoingwhen Renee Witterstaetter—who was an editor that I oftenworked for, and is now myagent—had a project that sheand an associate of hers had puttogether called Spartan X, whichwas not really a Jackie Chanproject as much as it wasinspired by a Jackie Chan char-acter from one of his movies,and a grouping of other HongKong movies and universalthemes. Renee had put thiswhole thing together. She’sbuddies with Jackie Chan; sheknows him personally, and sodoes her associate, RicMeyers, the co-creator ofthis property. Ric Meyers isknown as an authority onHong Kong films and kung-fu films, and Renee justthought Jackie Chan was a

comic book character come to life. And since her idea isthat comics are really movies on paper anyway, she wantedme to take up the task of translating that.

They put this project together and came to me andasked if I was interested in drawing it. The proposal thatthey had put together was fascinating, because it wasn’tsuper-heroes, which immediately got my attention.Something different. I tend more towards a less melo-dramatic and fantastic feel to the stuff that I want to do.

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MM: So you’ve got the comic bug again?

MICHAEL: The whole reason for me diving into itmore than I normally had, is because the whole natureof the industry has changed dramatically since the lasttime I considered this. The reason I kept gravitatingback to comic books instead of just going and doingcommercial work is because I enjoy telling stories, andthe only venue for doing that is the graphic narrativeformat. In America, up until recently, the only venue for

that was Marvel or DC, so you were sort of obliged todo super-heroes whether you wanted to or not. Butnow, within the past, say, five years, from what myunderstanding is, and certainly from what I’ve seengoing to conventions now—which has been the wholepurpose in going to conventions was to acclimate andscope this stuff out—is that this whole predilection inthe American industry toward one genre, or variationsof that one genre, no longer exists in the marketplace.And that’s the important qualifier there: in the market-place. You can sell anything as long as you’ve got agood, solid story, and comprehensible artwork, and thathas sort of put that bug in my side again to sit downand start telling stories, which is what I have always justwanted to do. Being stuck doing covers is—as much asit’s been fun experimenting sometimes, or learningthings sometimes through doing that—it really ultimatelywasn’t satisfying my need to tell graphic narrative, to

get from Point A to Point B to Point C over anextended narrative length of time. So I’ve got all

my own stuff, which we’ve sort of talked aboutand not talked about, but now I’ve been talk-ing to some other writers who haveexpressed an interest in working with me,

so I’m hoping this will all pan out andget all this other stuff going.There’s no “hope” about it, they’re

going to happen, because we’realready talking about these

things. Even though wehaven’t quite defined

what they are, wehave defined

that it’s adone deal,we’re goingto do them.So I’mgoing tofinally getthe chanceto just tellstories,which is

what I’ve always wanted to do.

MM: Excellent.

Part 5: Storytelling andthe Creative Process

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Previous Page andAbove: Deadpool asdone for the Versus trad-ing card game. We startwith Michael’s rough pen-cils, then his tightenedpencils and finished inks. Notice thatthe final inks are spotteda bit differently than indicated in the pencils.Below: A conventionhead sketch of TheCrow.

Deadpool ™ and ©2007 MarvelCharacters, Inc. The Crow ™and ©2007 James O’Barr.

MICHAEL: And the added qualifier to allof this is that, also, anybody who’s everknown me for any length of time has heardme go off down this hallway and say if Icould do it all myself, I would. It wouldsolve all of these problems, I wouldn’t haveto deal with all of these politics, blah-blah-blah-blah-blah. Well, now that technologyexists. I’m sitting right in front of it. And Ican do it literally all myself, so I’m veryexcited about the possibilities, because I canwork with it now from the ground up, andsee an end product of my investment oftime, effort, and experience. And that’llmake it all worthwhile for me, and that’swhat I’m really looking forward to.

MM: How much has the computer becomea part of your creative process?

MICHAEL: The computer can be animportant tool for editing from time to time,and for a special blur effect when I want toachieve that on the computer. However, Ido most of my work without the computer.There are limitations that I impose on thecomputer to keep the integrity of my work,but they’re not limitations because the tech-nology is not capable of covering that base.

MM: Have you ever tried working on aWacom tablet?

MICHAEL: That’s what I use when I dowork on the computer.

MM: Oh, you do have one, okay. Do youdo your penciling straight from that for themost part, now?

MICHAEL: Well, that is one of the limita-tions. I still do the penciling on paper.Periodically, depending on the project, eithercommercially or in comic books, I’ll produceline art on paper. I’m just as capable to pro-duce the line art on the computer, but myagent has this idea that I need originals.[laughter] Many people are now utilizing thecomputer for the lettering or the coloring,and it’s a useful tool. I can still do all of that asa hard copy though, you know, on paper oron canvas or whatever, but when I need it, I’vegot this other tool that lets me contain and/orcontrol that process all the way to the printer,which is something that had never existedbefore. And like I said, I can’t be more over-joyed. But even then, I do the line artbefore ever going to any computer.

MM: Are you using Photoshop orIllustrator?

MICHAEL: I’m almost completelyPhotoshop now. I’ve worked in Illustrator, I’veworked in Painter; I run the whole gamut. I’ve

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done all of the exercises and all of the littleexperiments, and I’ve done everything from fulldigital paintings to just cartoon flatline color.And ultimately, to get to a point where I’m comfortable working in any of these contexts,but also to define what I want to see, to knowwhat it is that I’m putting into work that is goingto be reproduced. And, again, imposing my ownlimitations in those degrees, in that context.

MM: It seems that you have an optimistic view of the comic industry at this point. Is itvery optimistic, or do you still have some reservations about where the comic industry isgoing now?

MICHAEL: Well, as far as personal creativity, I’m very optimistic. I’ve only gone to a handfulof conventions, but the stuff that I’ve seen being produced outside of what is commonlyreferred to as “mainstream comics” is very exciting. It doesn’t matter that everybody mightbe sitting around saying some of it’s stupid, or some of it’s great, or anything like that. Thefact of the matter is that it is totally varied, and that all of it, all of it, has the opportunity tonot only be successful in its own right, but to expand outside in multimedia, which neverexisted for anybody before now. In that context, I’m just, like, totally optimistic. I’m sohappy to see it. And it’s like, I just keep pounding my fist that it’s taken so long to get tothis point, but that’s because I will now pull back and say the reason this hasn’t happened isbecause the deathgrip of a handful of individuals is finally starting to loosen, not becausethey chose to, even though that’s the spin they like to put on it, but because the mediumitself, if not the actual industry, has by sheer impetus moved beyond them. I think a lot ofpeople in those contexts do understand the possibilities here, and may in fact be makingefforts. Who knows? We may start seeing it even more.

Above: Michael’s pencilsalong with Mike Manley’sinks for page 7 of Birds ofPrey #66.Next Page:Whenworking out perspectivefor a complicatedpanel—such as the firstpanel of Birds of Prey #66,page 20, shown here—Michael will often workit out on a separatesheet of paper first.

Birds of Prey ™ and ©2007 DCComics.

Michael Golden

Art Gallery69

The Defenders ™ and ©2007 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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This Page: Convention sketches of Micronautsteam members Marionette and Acroyear.Next Page: Cover art to the licensed comic book,Rom #9.Page 72: Classic Avengers pin-up art.Page 73: Avengers Annual #10, page 35.

Avengers, Giant Man, Hulk, Iron Man, Marionette, Namor, Thor, Wasp™ and ©2007 Marvel Characters, Inc. Acroyear ™ and ©2007 MegoCorp. Rom ™ and ©2007 Parker Brothers.

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Previous Page: Cover for Saga of Crystar, CrystalWarrior #3, featuring Dr. Strange.Left: Dr. Strange convention sketch.Below: Cover art for Doctor Strange #42 (right)and 43 (left).Pages 76 & 77: Pencils from the back-up story,“A Moment’s Peace,” in Doctor Strange #46.Pages 78 & 79: Doctor Strange #55, pages 14 and15. Inks by Terry Austin.

Ambara, Ancient One, Baron Mordo, Clea, Crystar, Dr. Strange,D’Spayre, Wong ™ and ©2007 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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Modern Masters:MichaelGolden

Simply put, Michael Golden is one ofthe most respected and influentialartists working in the comic book indus-try today. From "Bucky O'Hare" andDr. Strange to his groundbreaking workfor The 'Nam, he has shown the abilityto adapt his unique style to any genre,with amazing results. Penciler, inker,colorist, writer—Michael Golden is thecomplete artist, and during his careerhas served as Art Director for MarvelComics and Editor for DC Comics. Now,this first-ever look at the artist's life andcareer presents a cornucopia of rare andunseen art from Golden's files, as well as a career-spanning interview, and a deluxecolor gallery of some of his finest work. It's the essential look at a true modern mas-ter—Michael Golden.

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