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| << January07, 2006 - [ComicBooknet E-Mag] CBEM 557.05 |
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***** Creative Talent SR BISSETTE Stephen R. Bissette has been someone who has a collection of work that I have followed, mostly because of I was of the opinion that he was someone who was talented, but also, filled with informed opinions about the comic book industry. His artwork had a quality about that is odd, it can be beautiful, but it can also be uglier than anything you could imagine. It is kind of like life, his work has a great diversity about it that mirrors the mood involved in the setting he depicts. I wrote him to join the October Halloween group horror interview, and as a result our communications back and forth I became convinced that he needed greater presence in the comic book industry. This interview is about him, his work and the comic book industry. Alex Ness: What are you? Writer Artist Creative Talent? How do you define yourself via career and talents? SRB: I gave up defining myself as or by what I DO long ago -- a necessary part, really, of the process of stepping away from comics. So, I'm a man and a parent and a husband, who happens to write, read, draw, paint, and teach, among many other things. It all adds up to a life, and sometimes a living, and that's good enough for me. Alex Ness: What creative people would serve as the influences to your work? SRB: Other than many of my friends, I'd have to name Ray Harryhausen, Joe Kubert, Sam Glanzman, Mario Bava, Sergio Leone, Greg Irons, Nicolas Roeg -- artistic mentors all, and in the case of Joe, a real-life mentor - and many more than I can name here. There were, of course, so many storytellers whose work shaped me and my work, from Edgar Allan Poe, Jules Verne, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Jack London and H.G. Wells (read at a tender age) to Ray Bradbury, H. P. Lovecraft and Richard Matheson and others. The comics influences are plentiful, including the touchstones of my generation of comic readers Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko, but for me, personally, it was Kubert, Glanzman and Irons whose own work most directly informed and affected my own. Alex Ness: What life influences have particularly influenced your work? SRB: Well, being raised Catholic, certainly -- though I abandoned the church by my 13th birthday, it inevitably shaped me and my work. Other than that, growing up and living in Vermont, particularly my years in and around Duxbury... there's a lot of those years, which I spent in the woods quite a bit, informed TYRANT and much of my art. Alex Ness: Your influence vis a vis geographic station in the world is an interesting one. Vermont and New Hampshire are relatively isolated from ongoing popular culture yet close enough to New York to be in touch with the popular culture stream. Do you see yourself as being able to swim in that stream while also having an outsider's perspective upon it? SRB: More and more, I draw strength from my native state and prefer to focus locally. It was a stunning turn of events when James Sturm told me he was opening the Center for Cartoon Studies here in Vermont. More and more, New York and all that is peripheral and unimportant. "They" decided I was of no importance long ago; I've made my own way since, and am doing fine in Vermont, thanks very much. Alex Ness: The Kubert School has produced some great artists, but the early classes in particular. How have you all done in terms of carrying out the Kubert legacy through your own work? SRB: Interesting question. I could identify certain keystones, I reckon -- use of inset panels, an orientation toward page rather than panel as the unit of storytelling and design, a certain form of dramaturgy -- but I think those are more characteristic of our generation rather than "the Kubert legacy" per se. It's a difficult case to mount, really, as you're talking about my immediate classmates (like Rick Veitch, Tom Yeates, Ron Zalme, Rick Taylor, the late Cara Sherman-Tereno, etc.) as well as those who came afterwards (including John Totleben, Tim Truman, Jan Duursema, Tom Mandrake, Craig Boldman, Marc Vargas, Todd Smith, ad infinitum) - a pretty diverse group of creative individuals, and hardly classifiable as a 'movement' with definable characteristics. I guess I'll leave this one for the historians to sort out, eh? Alex Ness: The comic book medium was your first choice of medium? SRB: No, actually, film was my first love. But in the mid-1960s, with only silent 8mm or silent Super8 as alternatives, I couldn't find a satisfactory inroad creatively there, so comics became my primary focus and, eventually, my preference as a storyteller and artist. Had I had in reach what film and video students do today, though, amid this digital media revolution, it most likely would have played out quite differently for me. I shot a lot of 8mm film, including some crude animation experiments, but it added up to very little, and required so much time, money, and mobilization of others (actors, etc.) that comics were infinitely more accessible. I needed time, focus, pen and paper; the rest was hard work and the acquisition of the necessary skills. Alex Ness: Where did you begin your career in comics? Who published your first work? SRB: I had early work -- illustrations, primarily -- in a few odd zines: Japanese Fantasy Film Journal, the Johnson State College newspaper The Basement Medicine, etc. My first coherent published work was a one-shot underground anthology entitled ABYSS, published in 1976 at Johnson State College by Johnson Press, the on-campus printing facility. My friend Tim Viereck ponied up the financing -- $200 bought 200 copies -- and other friends, including Steve Perry, Mark 'Sparky' Whitcomb, Jack Venooker and more, contributed work and much moral support along the way. That published zine-format b&w comic was the centerpiece of my portfolio to enter the Joe Kubert School, and it all went from there. At Kubert School, I submitted work everywhere I could, jumped on every opportunity. We had a couple of Kubert School zines -- Manticore and Parade of Gore -- but thanks to Rick Veitch, I landed in Cliff Neal's Dr. Wirtham's Comix & Stories, and my old Johnson College amigo Jack Venooker published some of my stuff in the one-shot The Journal of Popular Culture while he was living out in Santa Fe, NM. Before my first year was out, I had work appearing in Larry Shell's 50s Funnies, Rocket Blast Comics Collector, and eventually in pro venues like Heavy Metal and (thanks to Joe) Sgt. Rock, Sojourn, and Scholastic Magazines' Bananas and Weird Worlds. Alex Ness: How much of Swamp Thing's success was collaboratively achieved and how did you all end up working together? SRB: It was ALL collaboratively achieved; no one of us could have done it, or would have done it as we did. Part of that collaborative team was also Rick Veitch and our editors, Len Wein and then Karen Berger (who started with SAGA OF THE SWAMP THING #25). John Totleben and I ended up working together thanks to our Kubert School classmate and good friend Tom Yeates, who was the first artist on the SAGA OF THE SWAMP THING series. John worked off and on with Tom since the second issue; I'd done a little for Tom (layouts and such) on a couple issues, too, beginning with #8. Tom had no passion for doing a horror or monster comic, really -- high adventure is his forte, and his occasional Tarzan work and stint on the ZORRO comic strip is closer to Tom's first loves in comics. So, he let John and I know when he was planning to leave SWAMP THING, and urged us to prepare and submit samples to editor Len Wein. Tim Truman had a Dungeons & Dragons gig in New Jersey that allowed John and me to work together in the same hotel room on our sample pages, which we prepared in two ways: pencils by me and inks by John, and vice-versa, along with full- page character studies and proposed monster characters. Len looked 'em over, liked what he saw, and went for my penciling and John inking, which was indeed the best choice. I had pretty strong storytelling and page design chops by then, John could ink circles around all of us as soon as he turned up at the Kubert School at age 19. John and I began penciling from Marty Pasko's scripts. Marty was working more and more in television and animation, so it was Len who eventually brought Alan Moore into the fold. John and I and Rick Veitch had been reading Alan's work since WARRIOR #1 surfaced stateside, and we couldn't have been happier. John and I had, in fact, fantasized a bit about "someone like Alan Moore" taking over the book -- lo and behold, Len brought in the real McCoy, and we quickly established (via voluminous letters back- and-forth) a tight rapport and real chemistry with Alan. Rick Veitch was part of this from the beginning, too. It was Rick and John, a couple of years earlier, who'd brainstormed the hallucinogenic tubers during a late-night party at Tim and Beth Truman's apartment in Hopatcong, NJ, and I rang up Rick immediately upon receiving the script for SOTST #21, "The Anatomy Lesson." Rick rushed over and pitched in on the pencils; I needed the help and we were both so high on Alan's script. We'd never, ever seen anything like it. We knew somehow we were finally engaged with the kind of comics we'd always dreamed of doing, but hadn't arrived at ourselves. Alex Ness: Tyrant was a rather new book, being done with a mind to telling stories, but through sequential illustration solely. What did you hope to achieve there, is there a collected version of it and will there ever be more? SRB: TYRANT was my baby, my real baby, in comics. It was the best I could be or do. I do hope to get a collected edition out sometime in the future, but whether or not I ever reengage with TYRANT, I can't say. It will depend in part upon how a collected edition does... is there still interest? A lot has happened since TYRANT -- including state-of-the-art CGI television series like WALKING WITH DINOSAURS, etc. -- that might render TYRANT obsolete. Time will tell. Alex Ness: If a TYRANT collection would succeed, and you chose to approach the work again, what would you do keeping in mind the changes in technology and mediums you mentioned? SRB: Good question -- I'm still thinking that through, as a matter of fact. "I don't know" is a good and honest answer, so for now, I'll leave it at that. Alex Ness: You are said to have retired from comics, but recently on your blog you've pretty well expressed a voice about the workings of the industry. Are you now comic media? SRB: Uh, ask that again. I'm not sure what you're asking -- "Are you now comic media?" Nope, just Steve Bissette! I obviously have strong opinions, drawn from hard experience good and bad, about the industry. But don't ever confuse the industry with the medium of comics -- they are different beasts entirely. I still love the medium of comics -- I have nothing but wary disdain for the industry. Alex Ness: The 1980s saw a wonderful growth and variety and diversity of the comic book industry, the 1990s saw a decline in both number and sort of comic book publishers. What does the future hold for comic book publishing? SRB: Well, I can't agree: I think the 1990s brought a remarkable diversity of highly accomplished creators and creations to the fore. It's amazing what emerged, what was and is available, and from all sorts of venues: it's all comics, but the parameters of what's possible, what's been accomplished now, is so much wider since the 1980s: there's such stunning breadth, depth, and experimentation going on, it's almost impossible to keep track of. Mainstream comics slipped into its familiar patterns in "new" permutations, but what emerged from outside the mainstream was truly astounding. I think the future holds infinite potential -- especially if one recognizes the so-called "mainstream" comics publishers have only further marginalized themselves, at all levels. Alex Ness: Ok I misstated my question. It seems to me that the readership shrunk and the major publishers in comics focused themselves upon the super hero men in tights genre more than anything else. I am not saying that the mainstream is the only valid voice for comic book expression; they certainly do not make up the majority of what I buy and or read. But is there not something to worry about when the major or more successful publishers seem to focus upon a single, largely unpopular outside of the medium, genre or cliche product? SRB: Oh, I agree. My fondest hope is that they narrow themselves completely out of existence, or at least out further marginalize themselves in the process of catering to a narrowing market. Look at their track record: the major mainstream publishers said 'no' to many key (or at least popular) crossover comics creations of the past three decades, from ELFQUEST and TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES to THE CROW and manga. The mainstream publishers are, by and large, out of touch, even with their own characters and properties. They occasionally curry or luck into a conjunction of creator and character they understand -- say, Frank Miller with DAREDEVIL at Marvel or Frank and Batman at DC -- but they usually squander that, too, in time. Look what Marvel did to/with Elektra. All of this is unimportant in terms of the medium. The mainstream publishers inevitably driving Frank away time to time led to his doing his best work -- 300, SIN CITY, etc. -- elsewhere, and retaining ownership. Driving Peter Laird and Kevin Eastman away led to their establishing their autonomy, Tundra (which did much good amid the chaos), Kevin salvaging HEAVY METAL (such as it is), and Peter founding the Xeric Foundation (which has done, and continues to do, far more good for the medium and comics). The mainstream majors' ability to continue to horde and hamstring the medium is increasingly marginalized and trivialized; at last, the medium is bleeding into venues and outlets beyond their corruptive and controlling reach. This is a good thing for comics, and for generations to come. Alex Ness: House of Boogers... Explain yourself. SRB: I can't. Alex Ness: How do you work? At night, early morning? Cigarettes and coffee? Loud music? SRB: None of the above. I am trying to maintain an eight-hour-a- day rhythm, working while my wife Marj is at work. It isn't always possible -- I often spill into the time we're both home -- but that should settle down now that I've finally got a dedicated work area (the first since 1997!). I used to be a late-night, dusk-to-dawn, play-weird-music-and-smoke-pot kinda guy, but that ended when the kids were born (especially after the SWAMP THING grind). I simply can't do 48-hour stretches any longer - I had to a month or so ago for CCS, and it damn near wiped me out for a full week. The flesh is weak! (BTW, I never drank coffee, never smoked cigarettes, and never did loud music.) Alex Ness: What comics do you read at present that you find to be top of the line? SRB: I can't really answer that, as my teaching at CCS has me reading and rereading so much from the past -- including 19th Century comics and early 20th Century comic strips -- and so much outside of reach of your readers (like the comics being created by this first-ever class at CCS) that my view of what's current is completely skewed at present. Put it this way: come 'Christmas Wish List' time, when my wife asked what I wanted, I asked for Charles Burns' BLACK HOLE collected hardcover from Fantagraphics; when Rick Veitch asked the same, I asked for Joe Kubert's new graphic novel, A JEWISH GANGSTER. I went into a comic shop two weeks ago and all I bought were books ABOUT comics. Brian Wood just sent me a care package of his work, and it's all fantastic - - I loved DEMO, which I bought as I could find it, but reading the complete Wood has been revelatory. I'm rereading all of Eddie Campbell's work and loving it. I'm rereading Jim Lawson's PALEO and loving that. I've just read the first GASOLINE ALLEY collection from Drawn & Quarterly and loved that. It's all manna from heaven to me. Alex Ness: If you were a bazillionaire and decided to start your own comic book publishing company, what would your corporate focus be, who would you be certain to pursue for their prowess in comics and what would you be certain to try to achieve? SRB: Ah, you haven't been listening to me for the past ten years, have you? I WOULDN'T PUBLISH. I would get back to work on TYRANT and self-publish; I would get my complete body of work that I own and/or co-own back into print in collected form, if only to make it easier for my now-adult kids to handle later in their lives. But I WOULD NOT publish. I would instead contribute money to the CCS to further establish that institution -- CCS requires constant funding, and anyone out there reading this with money is urged to help! -- and I would work with Peter Laird to pour more funding into the Xeric Foundation grants for comics. Peter did it right; he established something that is good for the medium, good for creators, good for comics, without repeating the mistakes of the past. HE DID NOT PUBLISH -- he established a means to subsidize those who wish to self-publish. It was brilliant, and there's a great lesson in comparing what Kevin tried to do with Tundra with all Peter has accomplished with Xeric. For me, publishing, being a publisher, didn't work. Period. Supporting self-supporting creators, via springboard vehicles like CCS and Xeric -- that's for me. So, other than my own work, and to set up my children, that's where I'd put my support -- Xeric, and the CCS. Alex Ness: In your informed view, what mistakes have harmed the market as it stands today? What trends bode well? SRB: The consolidation of distribution into a single powerful firm -- Diamond -- and the consolidation of the corporate publishing base has been incredibly harmful. It's not just in comics, mind you: I worked as a retail manager/buyer in the video industry part-time from 1991-1998, and from 2003-March of 2005; full-time from 1998-2003. The same thing happened there: the major studios tried to force the market into consolidation of distribution (preferably one distributor, though that didn't happen) via exclusivity contracts and control of their product. It's their right, of course, as it's their product, but the result was constrictive and near-catastrophic. It was not nearly as catastrophic as it was in the comics industry, where the powers-that-be did effectively funnel everything into a single primary distribution outlet. The differences were many - enough of the independent video retailers formed coalitions and fought this; corporate conflicts prevented the tighter consolidation the comics market suffered; etc. -- but there were numerous 'deja vu' similarities. While working in video, I found myself in closed- door meetings as a representative of an indy retailer buying group with studio suits and reps, who were saying almost word- for-word the same shit I'd heard in the final days of Capital City and Diamond's trade shows in the mid-'90s! At a key juncture, it behooved me to explain to Universal Studios reps how consolidation of distribution had killed the direct-sales comics market; it fell on deaf ears as far as the studio was concerned, but the indy video retailers heard me and understood and strategized their battles accordingly. If only the comics retail community had been capable of such a stand, but they were smaller, weaker, in a less visible market, and incapable of forming the sort of independent retail coalitions that would have made a difference. So, the consolidation of distribution was a huge blow. The poisonous infiltration of contract terms locking ancillary media rights down while pretending to be 'creator friendly' is a toxic turn of events I'd love to see fully debated and articulated, in hopes of overturning those practices. I mean, look, DC and Vertigo don't look at their relationship with creators as 'buying an option' to a creative property the way DC and Vertigo look at Hollywood 'buying an option' on their respective properties. Why not? If the option lapses on the new Superman movie, do you think DC has to reimburse all the funds that were poured into the project during the option period - which is PRECISELY what DC/Vertigo contractually require creators to do when DC/Vertigo 'options' a property and doesn't publish it! I think creators and their representatives have to aggressively assert long-standing book publishing terms in the comics industry - in which publishers purchase options to publish, and if they allow the window to publish to pass for whatever reason, all rights revert to the creator(s). What works for DC/Vertigo when they option a property to Hollywood should go when a creator options a property to DC/Vertigo: when the contractual option expires, that's it, unless they renegotiate terms and pay up. The creator(s) should not have to repay a single nickel. Period. Positive trends? Manga and anime market expansion has been a remarkable development, and most recently announced as entering the comic strip market here in the US; it will be interesting to see where that goes. Mainstream publishers entering the graphic novel field, with the contractual terms usually extended to book authors now extended to comics creators who fit their parameters: that's a healthy new trend. The sooner we see century-old book publishing terms eclipsing the kinds of contracts Vertigo and DC cling to, the better. I'm not a fan of comics-based movies: though it's fun and sort of gratifying, if only as a barometer for the American cultural shift accepting comics as being a "valid" art form at last (with money, box-office and popularity equated with validity, a value system I don't subscribe to), I can't see where it's been anything but an occasional boon to some individual creators, a career-destroying experience to others, and done little or nothing for comics as a medium. Still, some insist this is "a good thing" -- we'll see. Comics are comics, not movies. I prefer my comics straight, no chaser, thanks. Alex Ness: What do you think about Manga first as art style and then as format? SRB: First of all, manga is a geographically and culturally- defined form: it's Japanese comics, not a style, genre, or format. Within manga, there are many genres, many styles, and an abundance of formats. I love all comics, and I sure love manga, in every genre, style, and format I've yet encountered! Having now been an academic pompous ass, I'll add that I know what you mean to ask. It's been fascinating to see and experience the growing accessibility and influence of manga (and anime -- after all, I remember seeing ASTRO BOY on NBC Saturday mornings when it was first on US TV, and early feature anime like THE ADVENTURES OF SINBAD THE SAILOR on TV, too). I've never been drawn to manga as an artist -- I've no desire to emulate its many styles, and those elements of my art some might align with manga actually have other wellsprings (for instance, the blurring of motion I sometimes indulge comes from cinema, photography, and Gene Colan's pencils, not manga). As a reader, though, I love manga, and am particularly enamored with Junji Ito's work of late (UZUMAKI is his masterpiece, though it was fun to read the TOMIE collections and GYOS was effective). Alex Ness: When a talent, such as you, is associated mostly with a huge work like Swamp Thing, and it is viewed as a great achievement, is there a sort of stigma attached. Not a stigma in terms of a negative view, but a view towards the fact that people view and judge your future work upon the benchmark they might have been a singular work in comics, let alone a creator's portfolio. SRB: Well, it's also a box you're placed within. For many, I am a "failure" until I return to SWAMP THING and allow them to rekindle that event of two decades ago. That's nonsense. It's at times debilitating, in that some folks can't get past that wish- fulfillment fantasy -- ah, well, their loss, not mine. What's more troubling at times is the associative link of a creator's work with a single collaborative venture: look, SWAMP THING by Alan Moore, Steve Bissette, John Totleben and Rick Veitch was a cumulative effort. No one of us could have done it alone (though Rick sure came close on his solo run, didn't he?), and the end result was almost by a "fifth person," the cumulative "person" of the four of us in synch (five, counting editor Karen Berger's hand). None of us are going to be there, do that again. Get past it. We have. Still, I'm addressing this as you've framed it, Alex. I'm proud of my accomplishments -- on SWAMP THING, on TABOO, on TYRANT. I don't mind be associated with any of those. But I'm not DEFINED by it: I am not what I do, no more than I am what I DID. Alex Ness: Does the comic book industry eat its older creative people? If yes, does it do so more than other creative mediums? Why? SRB: Western culture, and America in particular, eats its elderly. And it's young. There is no safety, no security. No one 'owes' us a living, either. That said, just like the fortunes of entering the comics field, there are many determinative factors in how the industry 'treats' its older creative participants and/or one-time participants. Some of us make our own bed, and have to lie in 'em. For others, it's the luck of the draw. For others, there is no 'fair' route: Herb Trimpe gave his best to Marvel, and came away feeling used and abused. Those in power suffer less, and/or differently, than those who freelance, as the fortunes of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby demonstrates in spades. In short, it's all individual case histories, Alex, and I won't get into making broad, meaningless generalizations. Some older creative people, like Will Eisner, Joe Kubert, and others, do some of their finest work after surviving long fallow stretches in or from the comics industry, such as it is. Others work to their dying day. Some never make it. Some waste away or die hoping to get back in the door. Round and round it goes. Alex Ness: Well then, despite your comment to the contrary, -- what comic based movie is your favorite and why? SRB: My two faves this week are KILLER CONDOM and DANGER: DIABOLIK. Next week, who knows. I could go into why, but I'm tired and won't. Look, everyone forgets about comics-based movies outside the contemporary mainstream; I'm a fan of the older adaptations and such, from the Fleischer Brothers' POPEYE cartoons to the two LITTLE ABNER films, from the 1940s BLONDIE movie series to the European BABA YAGA and beyond. I thought Mario Bava caught the truest transposition of the comics medium to cinema in his direction of DANGER: DIABOLIK, and KILLER CONDOM is a pretty f---ing funny adaptation of an obscure German graphic novel that was pretty f---ing funny in and of itself. I'm also a big fan of ROAD TO PERDITION, A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE, and SIN CITY, which is a trinity to reckon with, but you can't top AMERICAN SPLENDOR's audacious life-to-comics-to-film feat. And how about those films based on comics without citing their sources? Everyone ignores those, but they count. SNATCH was the truest transmutation of Chester Gould's DICK TRACY universe to film in film and comics history; though no one recognized it as such (I reckon Frank and Robert Rodriguez have finally topped that with SIN CITY). THE MATRIX (the first, only; the sequels were 'the suck') was a great adaptation and consolidation of themes from SLOW DEATH (specifically Richard Corben's "How Howie Made It in the Real World" and Charles Dallas's "The Book of Zee"). Last year's OPEN WATER copped its entire narrative situation and some particulars from Bruce Jones's and Richard Corben's excellent Warren-published story "In Deep" (which, BTW, went a lot further than OPEN WATER, playing out its scenario to the bitter end). I could go on, but I won't. Alex Ness: Taboo, however financially successful, was an artistic success. Collecting the works of many different talents in a format that was more permanent than the monthly pamphlet, fans were able to follow serialized stories as well as done in one. Ultimately what was your goal with the title? What regrets do you have at this point? What is the aspect of the book that you are most proud of? SRB: My goal from the beginning was to change horror comics for the better: shatter the old formulaic molds, knock down the false barriers, open up the parameters of what was possible, and demonstrate the validity, vitality, and importance of the genre. I have no real regrets: I lost a fortune, Dave Sim and Kevin Eastman invested a bundle (Dave refused repayment, Kevin accepted), but TABOO accomplished what it was designed to be and do, so "mission accomplished!" By the time TABOO 4 came together, I believed TABOO had at last realized its potential and manifesto; the rest was gravy. Well, OK, one regret: I wish when novelist and screenwriter Michael McDowell placed his and Tim Burton's "The Oyster Boy" in our hands, I'd fought harder to push Tim Burton into letting us publish it as it was, in rough form. Burton wanted to "finish" the art, according to Michael, and that was that. It slipped out of reach; at least it saw print years later in the book THE OYSTER BOY AND OTHERS STORIES, credited to Tim Burton alone. I wish that had seen print in TABOO. We were close, sooooo close. I am proudest of TABOO and all that came out of it. It's not a paternal pride so much as a midwife's pride: none of what I'm about to name is MY work; I've no claim to it. I just gave them initial venues, and got out of the way. But their legacy demonstrates TABOO's legacy, and that's a source of pride. Without TABOO, would there have been FROM HELL, THROUGH THE HABITRAILS, THROAT SPROCKETS, LOST GIRLS, or those works that grew out of one-shot stories TABOO published: Charles Burns's BLACK HOLE, Rolf Stark's RAIN, Wendy Snow-Lang's NIGHT'S CHILDREN, and so on? When Vertigo surfaced from DC and Karen Berger told me over lunch, "We want to sort of do what you did with TABOO," that was evidence that TABOO had changed the landscape as intended. Having fulfilled its manifesto and outlived its usefulness, TABOO ended. It's all good. Alex Ness: Do you do fan commissions? If yes how might that be handled? SRB: No, I don't. I accepted commission orders back in 1998, and I'm still working through completion and delivery of the last few -- and that's unfair to those who've waited so long, but there it is. As a result, I recognized my inability to engage with this process, and since 1999 have refused just about every request. After I've completed the overdue commissions, I'm done. If you luck into me at a venue where I'm doing sketches, jump on the opportunity. If not, sorry, and my apologies. Alex Ness: I am so cold. SRB: I JUST got the heat installed in my studio. My toes are warm at last. Thanks for subscribing to the Comic Book Network Electronic Magazine (CBEM) --------------------------->Disclaimer<--------------------------- This is an ANNOUNCE only mailing list, only the Editor can send messages to the list. 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