Thursday, June 24, 2010

Don McGregor: Good Things from Bad


As we prepare for tomorrow's funeral, I had a wonderful, warm chat with Don McGregor this evening, who called when he heard the news. Don and I have never met but I've been aware of his work forever. His excellant plots on some of my favorite comicbook runs can only be described as breakthough, and he was even more fun to speak with over the phone.

One of Don's stories described a script that he'd given Gene Colan to pencil many years ago--a script which included a tragic scene with a child.

"It must have been around midnight," Don recalled. "Gene called me and said, 'Don, I just can't do it. It's just too tragic--too upsetting.' Try as he might, he said he just couldn't draw something like that; that I'd just have to change the plot. And the book was due the next day. I broke into a cold sweat. I argued with him for maybe 15 minutes and then I finally threw my hands up. 'I just don't know what to do!' I said. And that's when Gene started to laugh. 'I drew it exactly the way you wanted it,' he said. 'I was just teasing.'"

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