Steve Englehart Breaks His Silence

Steve Englehart speaks to us about The Point Man (just reissued from TOR)...


Meth: Anyone reading The Point Man can see the Marvel references, the pop culture and soap influences...but why a d.j.?

Englehart: Why not? But I suppose the answer is, d.j.'s in those days were hands-on performers, kings of their markets, running their own shows--thus, a guy primed to be an action hero coming out of the normal, non-action world.

Meth: Why reissue The Point Man... and why now?

Englehart: It's the jumping-off point for the Max August series. I wrote The Long Man to work without a reissue, because I didn't know if there'd be one, but Tor wanted it, so it adds a lot to the picture... As to why now, I'd have preferred it a year ago.

Meth: You had time to revamp the book but only adjusted the protagonist's age. What were some of the other elements that you considered playing with?

Englehart: None. I stand by what I wrote then, with no need to fix anything--and it does insure that the 1980's are completely authentic. The Point Man captures pretty well what life was like then, and that's important in the overall scheme of the series.

Meth: If memory serves, you wrote this around the same time that you were contributing to Byron Preiss' Weird Heroes anthology. That was an excellant series--and you were in impressive company. Other than Aardwolf Publishing, I don't see anyone doing illustrated fiction anymore. Do you have any thoughts on that?

Englehart: It's a shame. Weird Heroes was fun.

Meth: I grew up on your Avengers and Captain America work. Did you prefer writing any titles?

Englehart: I liked pretty much every series I wrote, because I was in a position to make them likeable, for me and hopefully for you.

Meth: Why did you leave Marvel?

Englehart: Editorial interference.

Meth: If you were assembling a bullpen from any writers, editors, pencillors and inkers either living or dead, who would you select?

Englehart: Sorry, I'm not into comics any more. I'm all about novels.

Meth on Steve Englehart

Steve Englehart was a very terrific writer of comics at a time when I was reading nothing but. I'm conducting a brief interview with him regarding his Max August series for this blog. Should be ready by tomorrow.

Englehart began his pro comics career assisting art legend Neal Adams on Vampirella #10 (Warren Publishing, 1971) and later became a writer at Marvel under Roy Thomas, where his plots and dialogue were, more sophisticated--and far more fun--than most of what his contemporaries were doing. To this day, my favorite Captain America run was his, especially that forever memorable resolution of the 1950's Cap/Bucky conundrum with a plotline that also hit on the racial issues of that period (issues #152-156).

Englehart and Frank Brunner (who illustrated the cover of my own Wearing The Horns for Aardwolf Publishing), created a multi-issue storyline for Dr. Strange (Marvel Premiere #14) in which a sorcerer named Sise-Neg (Genesis backwards) travels back through history, collects magical energies, then finally reaches the beginning of the universe only to become omnipotent and re-create it, leaving Dr. Strange to ponder whether this was, paradoxically, the original creation. Story has it that Stan Lee (then EiC of Marvel) ordered the pair to print a retraction to avoid problems with religious leaders, saying this was not "God" but a god... and that Englehart and Brunner penned a fake letter from a fictitious minister praising the story, then mailed it to Marvel from Texas. Marvel unwittingly printed the letter and dropped the retraction order.

Steve Englehart - Max August Lives Again

Received the following letter from SF and comics writer Steve Englehart. I will soon be interviewing Steve, whose work I've admired since boyhood, for this blog and others. Stay tuned:

The Point Man, the first book in the Max August series, will be on sale March 2, and The Long Man, the second book, will be out on March 16, two weeks later. The Point Man is a reissue of a book that came out in 1981.... I've made very slight changes to it, all based around one simple fact: the first time around, Max was 33 years old in 1980, when the story takes place. When I got the idea to make Max timeless and watch him live through time, starting in 1980, I thought it would be easier to do keep track of his life if he were to do it in round numbers. So for the new edition, I made him 30 in 1980. He was, then, 35 in 1985, when he became immortal--and he's been 35 ever since, as we shall see. Everything else about the book has stayed the same. It still takes place between Christmas and New Year's 1980--a point I must make so you don't wander in blind and wonder why Max is the king of AM radio, or what AM radio is. It still involves a normal guy who stumbles into a world he, like most people, has no idea exists. Many books, when republished, are "brought up to date," but that's exactly what I didn't want to do--couldn't do--with The Point Man. Each book in the series, including that one, is a snapshot of its time. Max doesn't change, physically, but the world around him does, and quite a bit. Welcome to the life of an immortal man. Well, it turns out that immortality is more complex than it might appear. The Long Man is set at Halloween 2007, and Max, as noted, stopped aging in 1985, but his life has gotten more and more bizarre in the two decades since then. One obvious thing is that most--but not all--of the people he knew in 1980 are either much older than he is or gone altogether. His familiarity with the hidden world has changed a lot, thanks to what he learned in The Point Man and nearly thirty years of first-hand experience. And the faces of evil have changed as well. I'm not going to say any more than that right now, since--if you haven't read The Point Man, or read it lately--I don't want to give stuff away. Then will come The Plain Man, set at Midsummer 2009...but that's literally a story for another time.

Gene Colan Returns Home

Gene Colan, who turns 83 in a few weeks, came home early in the evening yesterday. There’s still medical issues that need to be addressed regularly but Gene sounded nothing short of chipper on the phone this morning and continues to blow kisses and send everyone his love and gratitude for their prayers and support.

Gene and I hope to wrap up interviews for THE INVINCIBLE GENE COLAN this week. To clarify (for those who have been asking or not paying attention), this is largely an art book--a gorgeous art book with lots of previously unpublished art--that will contain a narrative based on my interviews with Gene and many of his peers, including Stan Lee, John Romita Sr., Tom Palmer, Walter Simonson, Marv Wolfman, David Lloyd and Steve Englehart. Tom Spurgeon, the finest journalist covering the comics medium also contributes. The book is designed by Richard Sheinaus, who has done masterful work for Aardwolf Publishing and IDW.

Published by Marvel, all proceeds from the book’s sale will directly benefit Gene.