JOE CASEY-A-RAMA: DAVID MICHELINIE

[MattBrady]

“Business is a tough world these days. It makes a man hard.”

-- Tony Stark, Iron Man #123

Does dialogue get any better than that? David Michelinie was my first “favorite writer”. In fact, he was my favorite writer before I was old enough to know I had a favorite writer! His work on Iron Man and especially The Avengers were seminal, early influences on my own work. His stint on Amazing Spider-Man with artists Todd McFarlane and Erik Larsen was one of Marvel’s top sellers for years. His body of work includes Swamp Thing, Captain Fear, Web Of Spider-Man, The Bozz Chronicles, Star Wars, H.A.R.D. Corps and Action Comics.

More than being a great writer, David is truly a class act, and words can’t really express how honored I am to have been able to interview him about his career and his craft. This is what it’s all about, folks…

Click here for the interview

[Aaron]

David rocks. One of the best classic comic writers ever. I miss his stuff and wish he did more. I even liked his Action Comics stint, although I can understand why that would be a challenge.

Aaron

[Von Raven]

Agreed!

I even enjoyed his Future Comics work.

[sketchykg]

But I guess from the lack of a mention, there is no chance of Future making a comeback.

[Von Raven]

Originally posted by sketchykg
But I guess from the lack of a mention, there is no chance of Future making a comeback.

Last time I checked their site, there was an apologetic message basically saying that it was all over for them, that they were done.

[BriGuy]

I would have liked to have seen Joe Casey do a Future Comics project. Ah well. Guess I'll have to settle for Infantry at Devil's Due.

[Johnny Triangles]

The main thing I remember about Michilinie was this weird habit he had of stretching a sentence across two panels.

1st panel: "I'm going to have to hit him-----"

2nd panel: "--now!"

Other than that, he was cool. Great work ethic, good consistency, never late.

[BriGuy]

Originally posted by sketchykg
But I guess from the lack of a mention, there is no chance of Future making a comeback.

Yeah I was looking for a Future mention as well. According to his website, Bob Layton retained all the rights to the characters and is, apparently, still pushing them in other media. www.boblayton.com

[MindTricked]

Good interview, Joe. I came into the game late with regards to Michelinie's work (read just about all of his Spider-Man stuff at least a decade after it had been produced), and I loved it. As the Spidey writer at the time (under the two artists mentioned), I think he was definitely underrated as a story man. It's always a surprise to me when people leave him off their list(s) of definitive Spidey writers.

[Garth Rockett]

David Michelinie and Bob Layton's first run on Iron Man is one of the main reasons I'm a comic reader. David's done some great work over the years and deserves some recognition. Great interview.

[CylverSaber]

Talent + Class = David Michelinie.

[double_out]

Out of all of my old comics, the Michelinie/Layton Iron Man stuff outnumbers anything else. Among my favorite comics ever, Armor Wars probably being the high point for me.

It was nice to hear what you are up to, and I look forward to reading your novel.

Thanks for the great interview, Mr. Casey and Mr. Michelinie.

[OMAR]

Hats off to Joe Casey for bringing us this interview.

Of all the many ways Joe Quesada has betrayed the legacy he has been entrusted with, of all the ways he has betrayed those who believed in him, making a concious decision to turn his back on proven talents such as David Michelinie, Roger Stern, and Mike Baron was only slightly less offensive than bragging of it in interviews.

Perhaps Michelinie is not crude enough to write for the house that Stan, Steve and Jack built now. His stories, as I recall, do not involve graphic explorations of the superhero's sex lives.

[Victoronehalf]

Originally posted by OMAR

Perhaps Michelinie is not crude enough to write for the house that Stan, Steve and Jack built now. His stories, as I recall, do not involve graphic explorations of the superhero's sex lives.

Um... Marvel's been steering far away from those ever since Buckley took over.

[Jed Saxon]

I grew up with Michelinie's "Amazing Spider-Man" and he is my favorite Spider-Writer EVER! All those cool and wacky characters he created, this fountain of creativity.
How I miss this these days. This good old school storytelling. More writers should realise what makes superero comic books successful - fun 'n' action and not dark and depressing stuff in nearly every book.

It's sad that Future Comics folded because it was fun, too.

[Bullwinkle]

I must admit that I was also disappointed at the lack of a mention for Future Comics. Whether you regard it as a success or a failure creatively, I still think it rates a mention when talking with David these days .... Perhaps it is why he is less interested in comics in general and why he is now focused on prose?! Either way, I did enjoy the Future stuff I could get my hands on.

The best thing, however, was the mention of The Bozz Chronicles. Man, I loved that series when I was younger! I can understand not wanting to revisit or add to it, as such, but I would really really really love to see a nice collected edition of that emerge from somewhere. Perhaps IDW could produce a handsome volume of this if David owns it?! Either way, I no longer have my old issues and would love to get them back again somehow.

- Chris

P.S. Nicely done work, Joe - I think we grew up on the same comics ....

[Posco]

Michelinie was ahead of his time with some of his classic runs esp. Iron Man. I never particulary cared for Iron Man and Tony Stark. But thanks to Michelinie I still own a surprising number of the series. Sadly most of them done by other writers were not nearly as interesting as his stories.

Of all the many ways Joe Quesada has betrayed the legacy he has been entrusted with, of all the ways he has betrayed those who believed in him, making a concious decision to turn his back on proven talents such as David Michelinie, Roger Stern, and Mike Baron was only slightly less offensive than bragging of it in interviews.

I believe that Quesada had to let go quite a number of Marvel´s writers. Many of the authors of the comic craze during the 90ies were horrible. I´m not going to name names here but I nearly stopped buying Marvel comics at that time because many books read like utter crap. But Quesada went to far and did not bother to check which writers were worth to stay and which were not. You get the impression that too often people were not hired as freelancers any longer just to get someone new in. On average that worked out quite well. The overall writing quality at Marvel is bettter now than during the 90ies craze (which admittingly is not that difficult). The bad thing is that number of good writers - like the three mentioned above (Stern´s Avengers will always be the classic version for me) were suddenly disregarded too. Which is a real shame.

Christian

[OcCaM]

FF and Spidey were my favorite titles from Marvel when I was young, but it was this timeless writer who got me to actually enjoy Iron Man and Avengers. To date, his is the ONLy run of Iron Man I've been able to tolerate. His run of Avengers is possibly my favorite. Although, some of Stern's run is pretty good too. Actually, some of the early issues from when the Vision joined to the Kree-Skrull run are awesome too!

Anyway, when is Marvel going to wise up and do a Iron Man Visionaries with his and Layton's run. There's only Power of Iron Man and two compilation books and Armor Wars out there. It's sad!

They need to a chronilogical order of his run too. Not just that George Perez Visionaries one either. It's criminal that Amazon is showing an advance order Fantastic Four Visionaries: George Perez when those stories at the time George Perez was doing the FF are infinitely less enjoyable than the Avengers. (Although I am a huge FF fan and welcome any new trades of their older stuff!)

Ah well, Marvel would never use this quality of writer now, it doesn't take him 7 pages to show Iron Man suiting up and blasting off like Ellis does.

(It's no wonder I collect everything in trade, after 40% discount it brings the comics to aroudn $1.50. Which is about all most of Marvel's stories are worth, being so little story content and all!)

And why was that Iron Man/Black Lash cover used twice? Was it really that cool or couldn't you have found some more Iron Man covers to use?

[Hannibal King]

Everything that David Michelinie ever did was great and I enjoyed thoroughly. Even the Valiant stuff he did was top notch. It is too bad though that all of these silver-age writers who helped make DC and Marvel what they are today, can hardly get any work. I for one would love to see David writing another book, or Marv Wolfman or Bob Layton or many others. Sadly the list goes on and on.

Great article, hope to see more.

[KingPagla]

I started collecting comics at the same time Mr. Michelinie started his Avengers run so his work was a major influence on what I feel a super-hero comic should be.

I also have fond memories of The Man Who Stole Tomorrow the Avengers novel he did in 79. I have to try and find it to re-read it.

[Gordon Lee]

Thanks for interviewing a great voice from the recent past. I hope DC read his comment about doing the Batman and makes him an offer!

[Von Raven]

Originally posted by Hannibal King
I for one would love to see David writing another book, or Marv Wolfman or Bob Layton or many others. Sadly the list goes on and on.
.

Good news!

Marv Wolfman's writing DEFEX for Devil Due's Aftermath line.

[Burke 0011]

One of this best things I have read on this site. Seriously.
I am so damn happy right now.
Thanks so much Joe for this amazing interview with one of my favorite classic writers. You asked all the right questions and feel so similarly to me about David's work and its impact on comics.

NO ONE has 'gotten' Iron Man and Tony Stark like he does.
And his run on IM is one of my favorite period in comics PERIOD - and makes up a huge chunk of my collection - not to mention that his work on the title made IM one of my favorite characters of all time.

His AMAZING Spidey run was perfect in every way - characters, dialogue, everything.

David needs to make a return to comics - we need more writers like him out there.


David if you are out there reading this, you ROCK, man.
Get yourself to the Orlando MEGACON in February so a dedicated old-school fan can buy you lunch or something....

[funjoe]

Great article. I love when Casey says David was his favorite writer before he even knew he had a favorite writer. I feel exactly the same way. I absolutely loved his runs on Avengers and especially Iron Man when I was a young lad in the 70s. My affection for Iron Man is directly related to my memories of his run.
I'd really like to see Marvel do a Visionaries series of TPBs for David's run on Iron Man.+

[jedifish]

Originally posted by Victoronehalf
Um... Marvel's been steering far away from those ever since Buckley took over.

I guess you haven't read JMS' Amazing Spider-Man


Your Iron Man: The Power of Iron Man story from the 70's is one of those stories I read over and over as a kid and is memorable to this day. I wasn't even a big fan of Iron Man, but you sure made his stories very entertaining to read.

I also really enjoyed your run on Amazing Spider-Man.