NERDERY

While I was at Houston's Comicpalooza last week, I did an interview with the Nerdery podcast.  The sound's a little wonky, but if you crank it up, you should be able to hear it all.  Enjoy!

(And, while you're at it, you might enjoy this interview I did with Tinker, Tailor, Comics, Writer.  You can read it right here.)

SIGNING FOR SPIDEY

My two year run on Spectacular Spider-Man, with the brilliant Sal Buscema, is one of my all-time favorite projects.  My creative chemistry with Sal was there from the first page, first panel, and I think we brought out the best in each other—and in Peter Parker.  

The Spec run has never been collected in its entirety, but an enterprising fan has started a petition in an attempt to make it so.  If you're so inclined, you can sign it here.

JOURNEYS TO PODLANDIA

I've done a wave of podcast interviews the past couple of months and this is the most recent:  an interesting (well, I hope it's interesting) conversation with The Non Breaking Space Show.  The interview is embedded below.  Enjoy!

COASTING

Had a wonderful weekend at the East Coast Comicon, spending time with old friends (everyone from Bob Budiansky to Marv Wolfman, Ann Nocenti to Danny Fingeroth), meeting many wonderful fans and generally having a fine time.  

The highlights of the weekend were the two anniversary panels celebrating the 30th of both Kraven's Last Hunt and Justice League International.  For Kraven, we had just about the entire creative team together for the first time ever and for JLI—well, I never get tired of spending time with Giffen and Maguire.   

There'll be more JLI and Kraven anniversary fun in August at Terrificon and I'm looking forward to continuing the celebrations.

With my fellow Stooges, "Moe" Giffen and "Curly" Maguire

These guys looked so familiar, but I couldn't quite place them.

The Kraven Crew: Bob McLeod, JMD, Mike Zeck, Rick Parker and Jim Salicrup

Kraven conversations

My dear pal, and longtime Spider-editor, Danny Fingeroth.  (Maguire looks askance in the background)

STORYCRAFT

Had a really wonderful conversation with Kraig Rasmussen of the Storycraft Podcast: one of the most interesting interviews I've ever done—covering the art of writing, and of life, from a variety of illuminating angles.  Click here if you'd like to give it a listen.

PALOOZATALK

A lengthy interview, which was conducted at Houston's Comicpalooza convention back in 2015, just made its way online.  I'd forgotten all about it, so it was like having a piece of the past magically reappear.  You can listen to it right here.

I'll be back at Comicpalooza in May.  It's a great convention and I'm looking forward to it.

HEART AND SOUL

There’s been a lot of talk about diversity in comics lately. My feeling is, the more diversity the better. How best to do that is the question. An excellent example is the Berlanti/DCTV universe, which has done a superb job of bringing a broader cultural lens to these characters.

I think the key is remaining true to the essence of the the characters. Spider-Man could be black, white, Asian, Latino, as long as he's that same working class kid from Queens we’ve come to know and love. (As current Spider-writer Dan Slott once observed: "There's nothing inherently white about Peter Parker.") Superman could be any race (I mean, the guy’s an alien. Why can’t Kryptonians be black?) as long as he embodies the spirit—that magical balance of otherworldy power and simple human decency—that Kal-El has come to stand for.

In the end, it’s the heart and soul of the characters that matters. And heart and soul belong to all people, of all races. So, yes: The more diversity, the better.

©copyright 2017 J.M. DeMatteis