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Mephisto:
Thanks about the WFT interview. Talk about unloading. A part of that interview was unclear, I think. The part about the fill in artists. What I meant to get across was that before I was given the job as the fill in guy, it was given to three other artists without Grant's approval. When he came to NY with Quitely to get the deal moving, he was told that a certain penciller would be doing the two issues that Frank couldn't do per year (that's a funny thing, now, I know) and Grant was angry, because he was told he'd have complete control over the creative team of NXM. So that guy quit before even starting. And then Marvel found another one. And Grant was pissed. And that guy quit before even starting and then again, another penciller. And then HE quit. The point being that I was now the FOURTH fill in penciller, but I was given an exclusive contract, which sort of made ME official. This was all going on behind my back, so I was happily plugging along, drawing #117, and there was a cyclone going on out of my view. The X-editor who was in place at the time had to deal with Joe Quesada's insistance upon me being the artist, Grant Morrison's fury, and then myself, who didn't know what the hell was going on.
The editor's solution, instead of dealing with me directly, was to invite me out to lunch, talk about how I must be so thrilled to be drawing X-Men (I stared at him blankly, I recall) and then talk to me about Grant and how Cyclops was Grant's favorite character.
"Grant has big plans for him, and it all makes sense! You should come read his email about it!"
I said something like, "No, I don't really care. I'll wait and find out."
But they insisted. So we walked back to the office, sat me in a chair in front of a computer, and worked leaning over me to call up the particular email, which was something of a struggle. I was thinking, "What the hell? I couldn't care less about this...Why is this guy so desperately involved in showing me this email of Grant's?"
It was finally located, and there was indeed about 8 sentences about Scott Summers, his asshole-ishness that will develop into nonasshole-ishness over the course of Grant's run. And then....
....a huge essay screaming at Marvel and this editor over the mistreatment of his trust in putting yet another inconsequential and largely untalented artist on this book, which should be Marvel's flagship title, and thus reserved for Bryan Hitch or the top caliber of artist, etc. It went on, and on, and I just sat there like I'd be electrocuted, reading this, while the editor and his assistant paced behind me.
"Well, that's it. I'm no good then. Thanks for that." And I stumbled out of the office, with them sort of chasing me saying things like "we're sorry, we didn't know what to do" and so on.
I just remember also that we were taking our first family vacation that weekend, and we stopped in to the office at their request on the way to Virgina Beach. It sort of ruined my family weekend. And when I got home, having had time to think and decide what to do, I wrote Grant an email explaining who I was and what happened, and how I didn't mean to be in his way, etc. I wish I still had his email. It was vintage Morrison, warm, kind, and telling me, "Scotsmen are very forthright at times, but he'd stop being such a cunt and just create great comics" with me.
So that's what happened there.
As for the fill in artists that followed, my contract stated that I was to do two issues a year, for FQ's ten. It became very very obvious soon that he couldn't do close to ten, so I suddenly became the guy who would do four, and then eight. I couldn't handle that either, so we brought in speedy Kordey. And then people complained about him, so JP Leon came on, etc. Anyhow, I was hoping that I could do two NXM and then a four issue miniseries of my own, but that got wiped out by the schedule. And there you have it.
And yes, I would work with Grant Morrison again, but not for a long time. Grant is great. |
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