Hello Paul, Just wanted to drop you a line and tell you that I thoroughly enjoyed your Champion of the Graphic Novel book. I was Will’s assistant in White Plains for about 4 years and was also in that great class in SVA along with Mike Carlin, Drew Friedman, Brian Postman and Gwen Sueling. You’ve done a great job! -Robert Pizzo www.robertpizzo.com
9. January 2016
Thanks, Robert. I especially appreciate reactions from folks like you who knew Will. His teaching years were one of the least documented parts of his life, and so many of his students were great to share their memories.
Hi Paul. Among all your writing and teaching efforts, have you put out a book on writing for comics or other genres?
6. January 2016
Nope. Done some single lecture/seminars on aspects of comics writing, and many years ago we did a long program at DC for some prospective new comics writers that I spoke at every week (and yielded the talented Mindy Newell and longtime Dark Horse editorial wizard Randy Stradley), but never any writing on the subject.
Hello Mr Levitz. Longtime fan interested in pretty much all aspects of DC history so I was wondering about the following: Given how quickly the DC Implosion shift to 17 pages seemed to happen in ’78, I was wondering if any story art was edited out on books that would have been 25 page single stories, but that ended up being printed as 22-23 pages (thinking of some DC Comics Presents, JLA, Julie’s last issue of Flash, etc). Did the changes happen before things got to the art, or are there some unprinted pages floating around out there? Live the website!
4. November 2015
Most of the good stuff from the Implosion was eventually published, and I think there were very few instances when single (or double or triple) pages were cut out. The tendency was to cut 25 page stories into two issues, and fill in the back with 8 pagers that either existed or were commissioned for the purpose, as I recall.
Over the years there were a few single pagers cut for one reason or another…I recall a Legion page from the Grell era which we eventually printed in an AMAZING WORLD OF DC issue…but it was pretty rare.
Hi Paul. Your old friend Eli Friedman here, wishing you great good luck with the website. It looks pretty cool. My question is: How directly did your work as a fanzine editor/publisher contribute to your career path. I feel like a lot of kids coming up feel like they should get hired by the majors without ever honing their skills at the amateur level. Any thoughts?
22. October 2015
Hi, Eli! Great to hear from a survivor of the basement headquarters of TCR. Thanks for all the trips round the collating table.
Everything kind of adds up in life, I guess. The fanzine days certainly opened the door to my professional life by introducing me to the people who made comics, and letting them get to know me. I’ve had the rare life experience of never really ‘applying’ for a job as a result.
But maybe more to your point, some of the tasks I did as a fanzine publisher directly prepared me for things I was able to do as a comics professional. I told the story of DC’s annual production schedule a day or two ago, and thinking over it in terms of this question, recalled how I used to type up complicated (needlessly complicated, I must point out in retrospect) annual schedules for TCR and its sister publications.
Everything you do can help you learn. (Maybe those unless walks around the collating table made us all learn some patience?)
DC is doing a good job in bringing back in trade paperbacks some good materials from the last decades. As a fan, what would you like to see republished to a broader audience? Greetings from Brazil!
20. October 2015
Most of what I wanted as a fan that’s plausible to reprint already has been. Sadly, the other goodies (like Shelly Mayer’s SUGAR & SPIKE or some of the more interesting art that appeared in DC’s war titles) feels unlikely to ever be commercially viable. Of course, I’d love DC to finish off runs of all the Golden Age super hero material that I never collected, but having read most of those stories, even I can’t claim the world’s missing out on much by not having the pile of GREEN ARROW short stories under new covers.
Interested in being a guest at the 2016 Gem City Comic Con April 2 & 3 2016, in Dayton Ohio?
17. October 2015
I’m not working on my spring travel schedule yet, and my only con commitment for 2016 so far is San Diego, which is a unique joy for me because of the number of friends I can see in one swoop. Try me again a bit closer to Christmas?
What would it take to get a “Complete Scribbly and the Red Tornado” collection published by DC or licensed for publication by another publisher?
17. October 2015
Much as I love Shelly Mayer’s work, I could never figure out an economic model that could make this work for DC. Maybe someday.
Do you have any input in getting your awesome Legion runs reproduced into hardcovers. I thought DC did a great job with the James Robinson Starman run in terms of its hardcover format. Omnibuses (Omnibi?) are just took big.
17. October 2015
Not really. Best off writing them directly, or better still, getting more folks to buy copies of the existing ones and then asking for more.
