CCC exclusive interview: Gerry Conway (part 1)

EDITOR’S NOTE: This was originally posted June 25, 2009 in my now-defunct Norwalk Reflector blog. And since I wanted to share this with my readers, I thought I’d re-post it here.

Gerry Conway is one of my favorite comic book writers. I always knew when I picked up an issue with his writing credits, I was in for a good story. Judging from his imdb credits, the man is more prolific than my wildest dreams.

Having interviewed him extensively Monday by telephone, my respect for him increased even more so. He was nonplussed at the mess of questions I threw at him. As I told my best friend (whom I can credit or blame for giving me an even itchier comics book than I had by sixth grade), talking to Gerry is like hearing from a wise fan who has vast experience on the way the comic book industry really works. And isn’t afraid to tell you, but he’s rather a-matter-of-fact about it.

Without further ado, here’s what I couldn’t fit into my June newspaper column version of “Cary’s Comics Craze” (“Gerry Conway: ‘Gwen Stacy only became interesting after she died’”) — or even one blog installment:

csa4batman: What comics writers and novelists do you consider mentors or inspirations and why?

GERRY CONWAY: Stan Lee: “He brought a level of emotion to comics that wasn’t there before.”
• Gardner Fox: “I enjoyed his plotting and overall storytelling”
• Roy Thomas: “I like his use of language.”

Conway shared how he started working at DC Comics, but had met Thomas socially and professionally a few times. When Thomas started looking for a regular Marvel writer, his choice was between Conway, Len Wein and Mike Friederich.

“Of the three of us, I had the most availability,” Conway said, remembering Thomas as more of a “guide” than an editor.

Conway would get his writing assignment, would submit a general outline and ran it by Thomas. More often than not, he said, Thomas’ editing of the final work was minimal.

Auditioning, working for Stan Lee, Roy Thomas
csa4batman: Stan Lee wasn’t impressed with your “writing test.” Why? What did that encompass?

CONWAY: Thomas come up the writing test as a way to see if people could write dialogue for Marvel Comics, he said. It was five pages from a previous issue with space left for the dialogue. Conway remembered that Thomas, who in fact was more of the editor-in-chief than Lee, used it more than Lee.

“Stan didn’t think much of me,” he said. “I think his comment, according to Roy … was ‘he was OK.’ Roy said, ‘I think he’s great for a 16-year-old.’ Stan said, ‘Why can’t we have someone who writes like a 21-year-old?’”

On his collaborators
csa4batman: You have worked with a lot of people in the comic book industry. But if you could collaborate with anyone in the industry— past or present — who would that be and why?

CONWAY: He said he couldn’t come up with “any one person” on his wish list, but gladly talked about some of the artists with whom he worked:

• “I really enjoyed working with Gene Colan on DAREDEVIL and BATMAN. He had a very cinematic style. … It felt like a real world environment.”

• Ross Andru: “He was a consumate storytelller,” Conway said, but wasn’t realistic as Colan. Conway noted Andru had a “great sense of layout and design.”

• George Perez “had both of those skills.”

On the late Don Newton (who definitely is in this blogger’s top-five artists of all time):
csa4batman: I have, or used to have, several issues of your DETECTIVE COMICS run. The artist in those issues is one of my favorites, the late Don Newton, who seems to have been overlooked and underappreciated. Why is that?

CONWAY: “He wasn’t a splashy artist.”

He praised Newton’s “good sense of mood” and “realistic approach.” While he didn’t say so specifically (that I remember), Conway inferred Newton was a great artist who did a fine job with every character he drew.

Many artists are strongly associated with one or two characters “that they make their own,” Conway said, like Neal Adams did with Batman or Green Arrow. (For Conway dishing on Adams tendency to be, well, let’s say, “tardy”, keep checking the Reflector for my story about comic book shipping delays.)

“Don was not associated with any character he created,” Conway said, which led to him discussing he and Colan co-creating …

Killer Croc
CONWAY: “It’s a big surprise to me,” he said about Croc becoming more prominent in Batman’s Rogues Gallery of Villains since his first appearance in DETECTIVE COMICS No. 523 (dated Feb. 1983). “It was a surprise to everybody.”

Conway considers Croc “a good foil for Batman,” because Batman is intelligent while “Killer Croc is brutality and straightforward violence.”

“A lot of Batman’s Rogues Gallery is clever. He’s not clever,” he said. “It gave them (the “Batman: The Animated Series” creative team) a neat way to get into the underground.”

Check back here for more from the chatty Conway. Some of the topics are the two “Fantastic Four” films, the differences between writing for DC and Marvel, Spider-Man, why comic book stores are “self-limiting” — and MORE! It’s good stuff; I promise!