Zine the fourth has arrived! The 'Reboot' issue!

2 years later, and we've finally released our fourth zine -- but it was worth the wait:

A front cover by Jeff Lemire! A back cover by Michel Fiffe! An interview with Jeff Lemire! An interview with DC editor Mike Gold! We pestered writers Tony Isabella and Dan Mishkin for information! Articles about the Hawkman/Hawkworld reboot, the Aquaman reboot, Wild Dog and The Question! Our favorite Secret Origins issues! The winning entry from our '8k Twitter followers' contest! Pin-ups by Christian St. Pierre and Raymond Lowell!

We're calling it 'the Reboot issue' even though Mike Gold hates that word. ;)

If you're an American resident, for $5 USD (shipping is extra), we will send you a 24-page black and white 'zine.

If you're a Canadian resident, for [whatever the current currency exchange rate for USD to CAD is] (shipping is extra), we will send you a 24-page black and white 'zine.

If you're an International resident, e-mail us directly and we'll figure something out.

To order, send us an e-mail at dcinthe80s@gmail.com.

Yes, this is our FOURTH 'zine. You can scope out our first, second and third zines by clicking on the links. We may have a few left in stock...

Artist Victor Santos talked to us about The Question, Kamandi and his latest work

Occasionally DC in the 80s likes to do an interview with a current artist that we find to be really exceptional. We have known about Victor Santos and his incredible work for years now, but recently discovered that he is a huge admirer of the classic 1980s DC version of The Question. Mark Belkin would be quick to identify Dennis O’Neil and Denys Cowan's run on The Question as one of the top 3 books of the 80s, and considers Victor Santos as one of the best artists working today -- so he thought it would be a perfect opportunity to find out a bit more about Victor, and expose fans to some of the work that Victor is currently working on.

Ladies and gentlemen... introducing Victor Santos

Mark Belkin (MB): I know the first DC Comic you may have read was Kamandi #32. Could you speak about your experience with that issue. How did it make you feel and what was it like reading it for the first time?

Victor Santos (VS): My youngest uncle was a comics fan and I usually infiltrated in his room silently (laughs). He had a lot of European books (Tintin, Moebius, Asterix, Valerian...), Spanish editions of Marvel stuff, superheroes and black and white Conan magazines. DC was not published in Spain, yet, I think we are talking about 1984... I was 7 years old. But he had Mexican editions of DC: Batman, Legion of Superheroes and Kamandi. Digest size editions with awful simplified translations. Kirby was a visual impact, I called him "the guy who draws exploding fists"; his art blew me away. All was different in that issue: his ships, those massive gorillas and tigermen, crude energy blasts -- this was the first time I realized art does not have to be realistic, but can work in its own way.

Kamandi #32 (1975). So much Jack Kirby goodness.

MB: What DC comics followed that?

VS: I really didn't read many DC titles out of the stuff my uncle bought. I read American stuff recommended by friends in school, but not superheroes. The only DC exceptions were Norm Breyfogle's Batman and Mike Grell's Green Arrow, my father bought me some of them and I loved it. But I occasionally [read] things like Tim Truman's Scout by Eclipse and First comics stuff like Elric and Hawkmoon... and some Marvel books like Secret Wars (I had the toys). And later books derivative of animation like Masters of the Universe, Ninja Turtles or Transformers.

You have to consider I belong to the first generation influenced by the first manga wave. Dragonball, Fist of the North Star, Saint Seiya... When manga arrived I only read manga. It was more accessible to me because I didn't understand the superheroes books with all these references to other titles.

MB: But you did read Dark Knight when you were very young and I've read you weren't into it. Have you changed your opinion over the years?

VS: Of course! (laughs). I didn't read it when I was nine because I never gave it a chance. I saw that mythical cover of volume 2 and said: "What crap! Batman is fat and old and he´s injured! Batman can´t be injured!" (laughs). When I attended the Fine Arts College I was influenced by friends who recommended a lot of classic and essential American stuff. Then I read the DKR and a lot of Miller's stuff like Daredevil and Ronin -- those titles changed my life.

MB: We share a mutual love and admiration for the 1980's version of The Question, the Dennis O' Neil and Denys Cowan masterpiece. How did you get into The Question? Did you start off with #1?

VS: Thanks to a friend from college, he lent me his DC and Vertigo complete collections: Things like The Question, Sandman, and Grant Morrison's Animal Man. I enjoyed all that stuff but The Question was my favorite ever.

The Question by Victor Santos. I made this my background image the moment I saw it. This NEEDS to be a story, I’m writing a pitch this very minute.

MB: How amazing was Denys Cowan's art? Have you ever had a chance to speak with him? If not, what would you ask him artist to artist?

VS: Mainly you can see and enjoy how is increasing and improving his art. When I read it I was growing as artist too, searching for my own style, studying Drawing, Anatomy and Art History, searching for my voice. You can see this in the art and how every issue is better than the previous one. And the story is the same, how Vic Sage grows as a human being and accepts his own human condition, both his mistakes and victories. I’ve never meet Cowan and I don´t know what I would ask him, I would simply thank him for inspiring me.

MB: Do any stories stick out to you? Any great memories of pages or panels?

VS: Richard Dragon and Lady Shiva parts of the story, I love them... well, all the cast of characters was incredible, like the reverend Jeremiah Hatch or that story of the kidnapped bus... The relationship with Myra... My biggest impression was the art and story of the final issues. How The Question was abandoning Hub City. That sense of failure and how you must accept that life is life, you cannot win forever. Sometimes the only exit is protecting a new generation and trust the hope they will bring.

Big Barda & Mister Miracle art by Victor Santos

MB: Were there any cross overs that you enjoyed? Any particular storylines from DC comics in the 1980s that still speak to you today?

VS: I never was a fan of crossovers. I read Crisis on Multiple Earths in a commemorative edition and never connected with them. I always preferred the closed stories and, if it's possible, the same creative team. For this reason I always loved manga, you never had that problem with it.

MB: How did you get into being an artist? What inspired you? I know Will Eisner's Spirit was huge for you. Was that the awakening of your love for noir?

VS: No, really my love for noir came from movies and Dashiell Hammet novels. Will Eisner inspired me in how I can play with the storytelling and how ambitious can be a story told with panels. I love animation and cinema, and since I was a child I drew comics because I wanted to draw motion pictures. When I was a teenager I drew manga exploits, rip-offs of Dragonball or Saint Siya (laughs).

I studied animation in College, I wanted to make animation. Batman TAS was a success then, that was my goal. But then I read Eisner, Frank Miller, Matt Wagner, people who twist the storytelling... They showed me the true potential of the medium. Then I understood comics are comics, and I chose that path.

DKR Batman by Victor Santos. Inspired by Frank Miller

MB: Who were some of the artists that you were most inspired by? Who do you like today?

VS: The people I mentioned you and a lot of artists more like Mike Mignola, Jim Steranko, Mike Oeming, Kazuo Koike & Goseki Kojima, Osamu Tezuka, Hugo Pratt, Jose Muñoz, Mark Buckingham, Akira Toriyama, Alex Toth, Jordi Bernet, Edurado Risso, Walter Simonson, Tim Sale, Gendy Tartakovsky…

MB: Would you say that your soul is noir? That something inside of you is inspired by that Hollywood criminal dark past. The scars, the eye patches, the violence. Is that anything like your regular life?

VS: No, I live in a very safe place (laughs). I love the iconography and pulp flavor of these things; patches and scars... It comes from my love for Spaghetti western movies too, where the characters are defined by little visual elements or rituals. I'm obsessed by the "Pulp and cheap" inspiration, you know, things like the John Carpenter movies. I also I'm a fan of American culture and its Modern History. The culture or the gun is something, as European, I can´t understand and maybe even hate it, but at the same time it holds a fascination for me.

MB: Your work just blows us away at DC in the 80s. Could you talk about a few of your works? Did you draw any inspiration from the past for your art and writing?

VS: Thank you! I began in the Spanish and French market, writing and drawing my own books, first as self-publisher and with indie publishers, and later with other big publishers. I created Los Reyes Elfos (the Elf Kings), a black and white comic-books saga that was popular there, inspired by Nordic mythology and won some prizes. I made six series' compiled as GNs, three anthologies and even two spin-offs. Made some noir GNs like Pulp Heroes, Faeric gangs, Protector, Black Kaiser, Lone in Heaven and a lot more, and wrote GNs for other artists like Silhouette, Ezequiel Himes: Zombie Hunter or The Blood of the Valkyries. I tried in the US market with two collaborations with an american good friend, writer Miles Gunter, Zombee for Image comics and Demon Cleaner for Antarctic... but they didn't work out really well.

In France I created a young readers series titled Young Ronins, very 'Bruce Timm style'. Just when I was doing Young Ronins came Filthy Rich.

MB: Could you tell us more about Filthy Rich for Vertigo?

VS: It was a great chance mainly thanks to Brian (we meet at a Spanish con), but I must say I think it was a lost opportunity because I was really conservative. The chance scared me a little and the little size format didn't let me do some storytelling things that I felt would be cool. He wrote an AWESOME story and the book looks cool, but I think in the next collaboration with him (we're chatting about), I have a lot of ideas to fix a lot of things. I'm awful selling the book (laughs) but the good part is the book opened me a lot of doors, although not to DC (laughs).

page from Filthy Rich (Vertigo). If this isn't noir, I don't know what is.

MB: Maybe that will change some day. How about your long run on Mice Templar?

VS: This was a great chance too, Miles Gunter was close friend of Mike Oeming and he offered me the chance to continue the book. Above all it was a great human experience and an incredible schooling. Bryan Glass and Mike gave me all the freedom and during the 39 issues I drew, I tested all kind of storytellings and designs. Sadly, at the end of the series, the sales dropped down and the final stages were a little dying -- it was hard to hang on until the end -- but I don´t regret it, I´m proud of being part of that Mice Templar family.

Mice Templar by Victor Santos

MB: How was the experience of Godzilla: Kingdom of Monsters?

VS: I always say this was my first contact with a popular character and how that world is. People of IDW were really cool and they let me do whatever I wanted -- but some reviews and criticisms were terrible. It was hard working day by day knowing the opposition of some hardcore fans (and this was before the twitter rising, luckily) but I had fun drawing my beloved fat lizard.

Godzilla by Victor Santos. Looks great to me!

MB: Furious

VS: Bryan and me collaborating together again! A really easy job, my editor was Jim Gibbons, who was the editor of Polar and the relationship was great. We had budget limitations so they let me color the book, this was important to me (and I had good colorists). I think the series deserved a continuation. Bryan is going to continue it with another publisher and artist but I´m going to be involved, too, with covers and designs.

MB: I really enjoyed reading Polar online. How was publishing a webcomic and collecting it? Did you feel a connection to your audience that maybe you don't see when putting out a monthly book or collection?

VS: Well, when I began with the web comic it was more something made for myself than for the audience. I need to recover the joy of drawing before a lot of franchise stuff had affected it. The reason I transformed it into a web comic was “Hey, if I'm going to do it for free maybe some editor will see it and give me a job”. I never expected Dark Horse would publish it, they were FIRST on my list because they published Hellboy and Sin City. Then I had a GNs series, options for a movie and the book sold to a lot of countries... and this began because I wanted to do something I could enjoy. It sounds like a cheesy story but sometimes doing something with the heart works.

Polar page by Victor Santos. Hotness.

MB: And now you've just put out Violent Love as a GN. How did that come about?

VS: Frank and I met because Boom Studios! needed an artist for a miniseries. I had refused other series' from them, but then I needed the money (laughs) and the plot looked fun to draw. Frank was a nice guy and really easy to work with, and we'd chat about noir and a lot of common likes, like the Powers series. He has writing a successful series for Image [comics], Five Ghosts, and I wanted to return to Image with a new creator-owned series because all the cool people were at Image now! (laughs) So we chatted about we wanted to do and the result of these conversations was Violent Love, a crime story that was also epic and a romance.

Violent Love from Image Comics. I bought it, You should, too.

MB: Anything else we missed you'd like to mention?

VS: Right now, at the same time as the Violent Love series, I'm drawing a graphic novel for Gallery 13, the GNs line of Simon & Schuster publishing. It's a great noir book written by Alex de Campi about the heist of a Cuban casino in the 50s. It will be published next year and I think if you like books like Darwyn Cooke's Parker this is your book.

This October Dark Horse will publish Rashomon: A Commissioner Heigo Kobayashi case. It's a 160 page original graphic novel written, drawn and colored by me and published originally in Spain. It's a free adaptation of the Ryonosuke Akutagawa tale which inspired Akira Kurosawa in his classic movie but with a touch of noir. Think of James Ellroy's L.A. Confidential placed in the Feudal Japan. I think this is one of my best scripts, solid and complex, so if you've read Polar and think "hey, that guy draws OK but his scripts are simple" then read Rashomon.

MB: What inspires you to draw today? What process do you go through at home?

VS: Well, I try to get inspiration for everything: books, movies and TV shows, art, music. I´m a disciplined guy and this is the reason I produce so many books, but working on a lot of things at the same time make this job so much fun. If my schedule lets me, I used to work on a different project in the morning and another in the evening. I try to do the boring things at the beginning and at the end of the day, so I´m focused on the important things in my most productive time. Try to do some exercise like jogging and I use this time for "mind work" like scripts and storyboarding. And I never work at night because I want to take care of my sight.

Above all I try to enjoy what I do with every work, I don't want to be an embittered artist in the future. If some day I see that I hate drawing, I think simply I´ll quit.

MB: You have so much work that we want to see. Where is the best place to pick up your work?

VS: If you go to my sites www.victorsantoscomics.com and www.polarcomic.com you can find a section with links to all my books (and a lot of links to my social network and tons of images and comics).

MB: Thanks so much for talking to us!

Victor Santos sketch cards

The photo-realistic digital art of Raymund Lee

Raymund Lee is a digital comic book colorist by trade. Equipped with a Bachelor of Fine Arts and a Major in Advertising, he's been coloring comics for more than 15 years. He's worked on Avalon Studios' Stone and The Wicked, as well as various Marvel Comics projects (Wolverine, The Uncanny X-Men, Peter Parker: Spider-Man Annual, Iron Man Annual).  

Lee's work is ALL digital - he taught himself to use Adobe Photoshop to secure his first coloring job. 

How long does it take Lee to complete a piece? That varies. He explains that usually he's a 'quick draw', but to get the details and the whole image to pop out, it takes longer - maybe, 2-3 days. He also works on other stuff in-between pieces. He creates textures to make it look more organic.

How does Lee decide which characters to paint? He explains that the inspiration just 'strikes him' sometimes. He does layouts and sketches first (and then finalizes the process digitally). He also uses his friends and family as references (taking photos of them posing in their best hero impersonations).

When asked about Lee's tendency towards portraits, he replied: "I feel I could put in as much of a story as I can in a portrait. I like my work to tell a story. It's up to the viewers what that story is."

On the topic of him being a big fan of Infinity Inc. and All-Star Squadron, Lee explains "I was a fan of everyone who's a who's who in comics! Yes, I grew up with these characters. The Squadron wouldn't be without Roy Thomas. Ultra-Humanite...As a kid I always drew superheroes. Always. I didn't really care what comic book company a character is from. I'd do crossovers and color them with markers or crayons."

Lee's favorite DC comics from the 80s? "Legion of Superheroes, All-Star Squadron, Batman, Justice League of America, Batman & The Outsiders, Teen Titans, and Superman are some of the titles I remember reading. I still read Batman, Justice League, Teen Titans and The Flash. The best characters and the best artists that inspired me were from the 80's. That's probably the time I realized that I wanted to be a comic book artist."

"My first comic book was given to me by my dad. It was The Flash versus Mirror Master doubled with Dr. Fate at the back. I can't remember what issue it was exactly. Art was by the great Carmine Infantino. It's all torn up now and the cover is missing from me reading and re-reading it. Dr. Fate amazed me because he cast spells. He wore an enchanted helmet, he was able to get to where The Flash was going and he was Justice League."

"Phantom Stranger, The Spectre, Deadman, Etrigan and the others had their own flavors and it was unique. I was so happy when the mystical characters held their own in Crisis on Infinite Earths. Vertigo is where you'll find some of the best comic book stories to date."

Check out the rest of Lee's work on his deviantart online gallery. You can e-mail Raymund Lee for commission work or to buy one of his prints.



Raymund Lee's re-imagining of the cover to Infinity Inc. v1  #36 (1987):

...and a parting shot of the Silver Age Doom Patrol (just because I love this team):

DC in the 80s interviews Michel Fiffe. Round 3

For those of you who don't know, Michel Fiffe is the creator, writer & illustrator of the smash indie comic book series COPRA. Not only is Michel Fiffe the one-man creative force behind COPRA, but he's also an avid and well-read fan of 80s comics (the concept behind COPRA was heavily inspired by John Ostrander's Suicide Squad [1987 - 1992]). Fiffe was one of the first followers of the DCinthe80s tumblr blog back in 2013, before we realized who he was we simply knew him as a connoisseur of 80s and 90s comics. Despite his frantic schedule of writing and drawing EVERY issue of COPRA on a monthly basis, Fiffe was generous enough to sit down with us and chat about DC comics from the 1980s.

When we last left off in the second part of our interview, Fiffe was telling us about his personal goal of reading every John Ostrander comic out there...

DCinthe80s: This brings us straight into Suicide Squad territory (and, by association, COPRA). COPRA started as you needing to take a break from your then-current comic project, Zegas, in order to get your Suicide Squad 'fix' out of your system, and it turned into Deathzone. One of the biggest things I've noticed (and like) about you is that you are really big on attribution. For instance, the opening sequence of Deathzone has a roll call of all the characters as well as the original creators and other creators that helped 'define' them. Until I reviewed this, I totally forgot that Steve Ditko was responsible for the creation of a good majority of those characters. I know you're a big fan of Ditko's - which Ditko creations would you appropriate if you had the chance?

Fiffe: You mean one that I haven't already? I can't come up with another one. The Odd Man maybe? I would just be forcing it at this point. Actually, the Question is a character I've always wanted to tackle. I got it out of my system with the earliest version of Zegas, actually -- painful stuff to look at. I would still like to make some Vic Sage comics.

Sketches of Vic Sage/The Question by Michel Fiffe:

DCinthe80s: On that note, I'm going to boldy state that you're not the biggest Vertigo-era Shade, the Changing Man [1990 - 1996] fan based on this quote:

"And they had Shade as a member! Not the milquetoast poet that’s currently being dredged up… I’m talking about the real deal SHADE! C’mon, any team that would have Ditko’s Shade the Changing Man as a member is OK in my book." [You Look Different Now, 2011]

Have you ever read Peter Milligan's Shade, the Changing Man in it's entirety? If so, what would you have done differently?

Fiffe: Milligan's Shade is a fun read, at least the first twenty-some odd issues are. That's all I've read. I generally like that specific era in DC comics, those pre-Vertigo books. Things like Animal Man and Hellblazer. They all took their cues from Alan Moore's Swamp Thing, which is one of the greatest serialized comics from any period. I love those Swamp Thing comics to death. Anyway, Shade was fine tuned to that time and there's nothing anyone can do to improve it. It's its own thing. I personally have an affinity for the Ditko version, which was more of a straight-ahead sci-fi adventure with little to no introspection.

DCinthe80s: I'm also understanding that you were pen-pals with Steve Ditko. That's huge! The fact that you were able to have a mentoring relationship with a legend like Ditko is an article on it's own. What was the big take away from your correspondence with Ditko?

Fiffe: He's the closest thing to mentor that I've had and even that is stretching it. After all this time, I can't pick out a specific lesson because I feel like it's all a lesson. Ditko leads by example, and as the man has said, all we have to do is read the work, it's all in there.



DCinthe80s: In the same vein, I'm going to ask which Kirby creations you enjoy the most and would like to take a stab at writing. I know that you've expressed interest in his fourth world material and even contributed to the more recent Captain Victory and the Galactic Rangers series - Captain Victory essentially being the continuing adventures of Orion (of Kirby's Fourth World Universe). Were you a fan of Kirby's Fourth World revival from the 80s?


Fiffe: I enjoyed them from a distance, in that they looked nice, particularly the Paris Cullins stuff, but I never dug deep into the revival. I liked them in their cameos, y'know, whenever Darkseid would pop into Superman or when Lightray and Orion joined Justice League America. I've always associated Mister Miracle and Oberon with the Justice League International, since that's where I first met them. It wasn't until Walt Simonson's Orion series in the late 90s that I got into the non-Kirby material.


DCinthe80s: So, back to COPRA. You've received some gushing endorsements - Chris Sims (of Comics Alliance) is a big fan, Oliver Sava of the A.V. Club is another big fan. For the last few years you are always on the BEST COMIC SERIES list(s). Sequart even wrote a review of your series. (I always felt that you've "made it" after Sequart gave a favorable review of anything you've done.) COPRA is very much modeled after Suicide Squad. You kind of mash all of the best of that era into a comic book series, but give it your own personal spin. I've only read rounds 1 & 2, but I understand that everything after issue #13 delves more into the characters (solo stories). Most of them can easily be matched with their Suicide Squad counterpart, but here are a few I'm not 100% sure on: Wir = Shrapnel or Calculator, Sniper & Brawler = Punch and Jewelee, Dy Dy = Marvel's MODOK, I have no clue who Vitas is based on, Castillo = Marvel's Punisher, and Xenia = Marvel's Clea or DC's Enchantress.

COPRA group shot

You've given a lot of attention to Rax/Shade the Changing Man, Gracie/Vixen and Guthie/Duchess. Is it kind of your way of saying that you felt their tenure with the Squad was too short (both had very short runs in Ostrander's Suicide Squad) and felt they should've been explored more? Waller, Deadshot, Boomerang, Bronze Tiger and Count Vertigo are kind of the backbone of the team - and you do use them sufficiently (Sonia/Amanda Waller you use exceptionally well). Are there any plans to add more Ditko homages to the team? [I'd personally love to see the Creeper or Hawk & Dove]. Also, if Sniper & Brawler are who I think they are, that means you don't think much of Punch and Jewelee....

Fiffe: DY DY is actually inspired by SUDE with a touch of Krang. WIR is inspired by Haywire. Spot on otherwise. Good call on Sniper & Brawler. I do like Punch & Jewelee, but I just didn't have the urge to put my spin on them. I ended up fleshing out Sniper & Brawler in issue 25, though; I was real happy with that. Vitas was originally based on Dumas, [Mark Shaw] Manhunter's nemesis, but he quickly turned into his own thing more than anyone else. As for focusing on specific COPRA team members, it's based on what the story demands, not as an exercise in wish fulfillment. Ostrander fleshed out the characters awesomely, especially for such a packed team book. So yeah, I wish Shade stuck around longer, but that's the beauty of those Squad books -- the creative team having to constantly be on their toes, at the mercy of the ever moving goalpost. I have the extreme privilege of having no editorial overseer.

 The Vitas/Dumas connection:

DCinthe80s: You've given a lot of fantastic interviews on your thoughts about Suicide Squad, so I'm not going to ask you the same old questions. Instead, I will tell you that I enjoy COPRA's DIY aesthetics and the fact that it's self-published. This really speaks to me (as someone who is a fan of DIY culture). Your success with self-publishing COPRA has been compared to Dave Sim's success with Cerebus. Do you think you'll be taking limos to comic conventions anytime soon? Since we're in an 80s mindset, I'm actually seeing more parallels between your success with COPRA and the success of Eastman & Laird's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles craze back in 1984 (when back issues of TMNT were super-rare and selling for a small fortune). Why it's different in your situation is because your print run is low because your printing model was dependent on you selling out the previous issues:

"If I could've changed anything, though, it would've been to up the print run considerably. I did not see the tide of interest coming. I was making comics for the few folks already familiar with my work. Selling out of issues sucked; it's not as romantic the headlines make it out to be. I wanted to get books in people's hands!" [Michel Fiffe's COPRA: the One-Man Written, Drawn, Self-Published Villain Epic, 2014]

Fife: Kevin Eastman & Peter Laird's success is a story that's tied to the '80s direct market structure and mania. They were totally an inspiration point back when I was trying to figure out self-publishing, and before then as a fan of their comics. It was just a couple of dudes who put out a comic that got some traction and forced them to expand beyond what they were used to. The parallel ends there because there's no COPRA Saturday Morning Cartoon (yet). So no limos to conventions.

DCinthe80s: COPRA on comixology could be a major turning point for awareness and readership. I'm guessing that you've withdrawn from your ideal that comics/graphic novels need to be held in your hands in order to be appreciated? [Michel Fiffe’s Copra: The Most Well-Known Secret in Comics, 2015]

Fiffe: I do agree that a physical single issue is the perfect vehicle for many of these stories, especially mine. Some comics work better online or as graphic novels or comic strips... it's really a case-by-case basis. I wanted COPRA to have a wider platform, I wanted it to reach that portion of readers who are exclusively digital comics consumers. It became less about what my idealized version was -- which I achieved by simply publishing it -- and more about not omitting anyone from the experience.

DCinthe80s: I read your interview with Comics & Cola. You've got some interesting comic storage management techniques. For starters, you bind your favorite work, which I think is brilliant.

"Having these comics bound in such direct, no frills hardcovers made reading & storage so much more enjoyable & practical, but I also loved the idea of a curated collection of essentials. For this specific set of books, I got the idea to hit up a few of the related artists to put their own touch on the inside covers." [Cloak & Dagger Bound & Obsession Unknown: Suicide Squad Bound]

Another curious storage habit of yours is to buy bulk lots of comics and just throw them in the dumpster afterward: "I like to buy old stacks of comics, read them, then get rid of them. Not even for trade or anything, they just gotta go." I admire that about you. I still have tons of stuff I'm convinced is worth something to somebody and I'm not willing to give away yet. I think that's the 90s Comic Book Collector Bubble mentality that ingrained itself into my brain. My favorite quote from the C&C article was this gem:

"I once bought hundreds of Legion of Superhero issues in order to force myself to understand what their appeal was."

That was laugh-out-loud funny. It's mostly funny because I can totally relate. I'm one of those DC fans who never 'got into' LoSH the first time and had a hard time getting into it. Reader opinions on the LoSH are pretty polarizing - you either love them or you were indifferent to them. I very rarely hear of anyone who 'casually' collects LoSH comics - and it's for all of the reasons you mention in your article detailing your struggles with appreciating the Legion. Your article is so perfect and similar to my experience, that I plan on providing anyone who asks about my feelings on the Legion a link to your article and just saying "this".

Fiffe: I feel bad because that write up is a little petulant, in that it's basically "I didn't like this: WAHH." At least I tried to examine why I didn't like it. I tried being constructive. It's a testament to those 5YL comics that I eventually came around and ate crow and now I find them irresistible. Even the stuff from before 5YL... the time Giffen got back on the book and did his Maguire riff. I can certainly see the appeal of the Legion now, whereas before it was a blind spot for me.  

DCinthe80s: Just to drive the point home about how much of a 'child of the 80s' you are, I'm going to also add that you were a Atari/Ninetndo/Sega kid, grew up loving horror films, really dug those Masters of the Universe mini-comics packaged with the action figures, and... 

I'm not too clear on this... but were you also a GI Joe fan?


Fiffe: Not really. I had a couple of the comics and they were okay. I traded the COBRA-LA 3-pack for some Garbage Pail Kids. Zero interest. Same with Transformers. Give me Masters of the Universe or Blackstar any day. I only drew those GI Joe sample pages because it was the only title IDW was putting out at the time that I saw myself being able to draw. But no, I have to nostalgic connection to that franchise.

Michel Fiffe: child of the 80s

DCinthe80s: You also custom-painted some Vans slip-ons, which is arguably the most 80s shoe you can purchase on the market right now. I realize you can't talk about it [or can you?], so I'm just going to post a photo of them for all to admire:

Fiffe: Wow, that was so long ago. I considered painting on shoes as a side gig back then, but I never pursued it seriously. I only did it for friends. It was really fun and something I'd like to still do. I would just have to find the time to do it.


DCinthe80s: I saw you created a poster for a Thurston Moore (of Sonic Youth) show. Did you get to meet/chat with him afterwards? Did any other cult status 80s/90s bands pass your way?

Fiffe: Tons of them, but a highlight was seeing Mike Patton twice. That alone made my stint there worthwhile. Oh, and Fishbone, who lived up to the hype of being the greatest live band ever. Also, Robin Guthrie from the Cocteau Twins played a solo show and even though I was unfortunately stuck working the door, what I heard was unbelievable.



DCinthe80s: Final question, now that you've seen the trailer to the new Suicide Squad film (montage of movie clips set to the tune of Queen's Bohemian's Rhapsody) is this something you're going to want to stand in line and see? Are you watching any of the other DC comic book TV shows (Supergirl, Arrow, Flash, Legends of Tomorrow, Gotham)?

Fiffe: I tried to get into Arrow back when Deathstroke was introduced and it just didn't click with me. I'm not going out of my way to avoid these shows or anything. I catch them when I can, but I am the SO the wrong audience. Maybe I'm not, but I sometimes feel like the worst fan because I don't feel that twinge of excitement that fans must feel when their beloved characters are embraced on a larger scale. Last time I sort of felt that was for the Brave & the Bold cartoon, which was recommended, I didn't seek it out. It was great! Batman vs Superman, though, comes out this weekend and I cannot even pretend to care. I'll go see Suicide Squad out of a sense of... loyalty's the wrong word? Look, I just want John Ostrander to get gobs of money. He's the one who made that concept worth a damn. Without John Ostrander, there is no Suicide Squad. Without Suicide Squad, there is no point to life.


...and this concludes our interview with Michel Fiffe. Thanks again to Fiffe for taking the time to answer these interview questions. I strongly encourage you to check out his COPRA ongoing series, which lives up to it's reputation of being everything a fan of the Suicide Squad from the 80s would want to see in a book. Another one to watch for is Michel Fiffe's Zegas, which has more of an 'alternative' feel and has been picking up stellar reviews all around. You can also check out Fiffe's blog here. Late to the party? Read the first interview with Fiffe here.