A reader of this site, Karl Williams, sent me a whole bunch of questions for this "ASK me" feature. They're good questions but not the kind I'd build a whole long post around so I've decided to answer them in bulk here. The next voice you hear will be that of Mr. Williams…
You used to host wonderful Golden Age Panels at Comic-Con. I understand why you can't do them anymore because so few people are still alive who did comics in the forties and most of them won't make the trip. But if you could assemble one last Golden Age Panel with ghosts, who would you have on it?
Jerry Siegel, Jerry Robinson, Bill Finger, Joe Simon, Jack Kirby and Will Eisner.
Is there any Golden Age writer or artist who's alive who you never got to interview and you'd still want to?
Yes. Jules Feiffer.
Leaving aside Jack Kirby, who do you think was the most talented artist to ever work in comic books?
Oh, I can't answer that. It's especially hard because I have as much respect for the artists who drew funny animal comics as I have for the ones who drew adventures and super-heroes and how do you compare what Wallace Wood and Neal Adams did to what Carl Barks and Harvey Eisenberg did? (A pet peeve of mine is when someone makes up one of those lists like "The 50 Greatest Comic Book Artists of All Time" and you can tell the listmaker knows most of the hundreds and hundreds of super-hero artists and about three of the ones who did funny comics.
Since I'm evading your question, I'll make up for it with a story that I may have told here before. This was at some Comic-Con in the eighties, I think. I had lunch with a wonderful artist and a bit later, I was walking through the main hall and I came upon a gathering of about eight of the "hottest" artists then working in comics — the kind of guys who'd make most Ten Best lists. Felling impish or maybe just curious as to what their reaction would be, I said, "Well, I just had lunch with the best artist at this convention."
They all glared at me with defiant looks and challenged me to tell that person's name. I fearlessly said "Mort Drucker" and there was dead silence for about four seconds as they thought it over…then they all agreed.
Who to you is "the" Superman artist?
There's something about the work of Joe Shuster and his many ghosts/assistants that I find unequaled by those who followed. It isn't that they drew a great Superman so much as that they drew him in a world where I found it easiest to accept that Superman existed.
That was in the forties, of course. In the fifties and sixties, I loved the work of Curt Swan and Wayne Boring. I know a lot of people — especially those who came to Superman after Boring was gone — don't like his version but I have to admit that most of my favorite Superman stories of those decades were drawn by Boring and he handled drama better. Then again, I thought Swan drew better pin-ups and covers of the character. And later on, I really liked what Ross Andru did, especially when not being inked by Mike Esposito. There were a few others.
Favorite Jack Kirby inker?
IMHO: By far, the best artist who ever inked Jack Kirby was Jack Kirby…though if I was his editor, I think I'd rather have him pencil two or three comics a month instead of penciling and inking one or two. I also think Neal Adams was the best inker for Neal Adams, John Buscema was the best inker for John Buscema, etc. There are a few exceptions to that but not many. But if Jack didn't ink Jack, my five favorites were — in alphabetical order — Bill Everett, Frank Giacoia, Mike Royer, Joe Simon and Joe Sinnott.
Karl sent me a lot more of these questions and I'll get to them at some future time. In the meantime, here's this little box…
