Friday, June 11, 2004

Excellent collections: The Pulse talks with Evan Dorkin about the old Marvel/Star Bill & Ted comics, which are being collected by Slave Labor Graphics:

"I'm not trying to sound facetious, but I had no interest in Bill and Ted as characters. I was new to the industry and trying to maintain a foothold after doing some small press work and a Predator series for Dark Horse. Bill and Ted allowed me to start doing comics full-time. I was motivated by the paycheck and the fact that I could do a humor/adventure series in my own style with little editorial interference. It was pretty obvious that nobody at Marvel cared about the Star kid's line or the related licensed books, Bill and Ted, Kid and Play, Leopold and Loeb, et al. I'm not saying Fabian and assistant editors Evan Skolnick and Carlos Lopez didn't care about the actual material, but we weren't working on the X-Men or Avengers, so Marvel -- and 99% of retailers and readers -- didn't care about what we did as long as it was done on time. Fabian let me run with the book and do whatever I wanted and really trusted me, with the only interference coming from the then - B&T copyright holders (no religious jokes, watch the language, and watch the hip-hop slang, which the uptight clueless imbeciles called 'gang talk'). I could crack wise about the music industry, comics, science fiction cliches, death, romance, plug my favorite punk and ska bands, and make it all up as I went along for the most part. It was a lot more enticing than aching over a continuity-choked superhero book that people actually were paying attention to. I could create my own limited continuity and my own supporting cast, and in effect, make it my own book. And get paid for it. A truly excellent deal."