WAID, DEZAGO & KESEL ON THE 'RINGO TRIBUTE IN SPIDER-MAN FAMILY #7

[MattBrady]

by Benjamin Ong Pang Kean

In early June, I had asked Mike Wieringo if he had wanted to talk about Tellos Colossal, the oversized hardcover edition of co-creators Todd Dezago and Wieringo’s award-winning epic fantasy.

“The hardcover’s still coming… but it’s running late,” he said in his email reply to me on June 6. “It's at the printer now, but it's (I believe) a printer in Korea... so it's going to take about another month to get printed and shipped here to the States.

“And I'd be more than happy... thrilled, in fact... to do any kind of interview you'd like.”

A few weeks later, there was still no sight of the Tellos HC in comic book stores and I’d asked him again and this was his reply on June 28: “Sorry, Ben... this must have gotten lost in my pile of emails.

“We actually don’t have a confirmed date for when the Tellos HC will be in stores. It's running quite a bit late. It's actually been printed, and the signed and numbered tip-in plates are being added at this point. But it's got to be shipped to the States from Korea... so it might take another month to get here by boat, I'm guessing.

“Maybe we could do the first part of the interview on Tellos closer to the time it's actually going to get here...?

“And by then, I'll be able to discuss what my next gig is at Marvel. Right now, they don't really want me to talk about it.”

By that time, I’d sent him a list of questions. “That all sounds great... except for the part about talking about what I'm working on,” he replied on August 3. “I don't know if I can do that right now or not. I'll have to check with the folks at Marvel about that.

“But we can certainly get started on the other stuff....

“And I think that the HC is supposed to be in shops the middle of the month.”

And that was the last time I had heard from him.

On August 12, Mike Wieringo passed away.

Tellos Colossal hit stores on the week of August 22.

His friends, editors, fellow creators and fans from around the world mourned his passing.

He was not forgotten from the minds of everyone who knew him and/or loved his work. There was a special gathering of the comic book community in New York City in September.

Baltimore Comic-Con celebrated the life of Mike Wieringo.

There was also The Hero Initiative and the ASPCA charity event. “I know it’s been said before but losing 'Ringo at such an early age and without even an inkling that something like this could happen to such a healthy guy, has been a huge shock to me and everyone here at Marvel as well as the comics’ community. As an artist, Mike’s work was the kind that I would look at and marvel because of the economy of line and the beauty of the simplicity of it. He was just outstanding. You couldn’t help but smile when you read a book drawn by Mike,” said Marvel’s Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada.

People still remember him, including fellow professional and Puerto Rican transplant Tom Beland, who’s best known for his autobiographical series True Story Swear to God. In an interview from October where he talked about his Fantastic Four: Isla de Muerta one-shot, which is currently scheduled to hit stores on December 26, Beland said that he had “just finished issue #9 [of TSSTG] which was an emotional story to get out. It involved seeing someone die right in front of me and while I was working on that storyline, Mike Wieringo died. Ummmm... yeah, it was tough to do this story and deal with what was going on at the time. It's not like Mike and I hung out together or anything, but he'd always respond to an email I sent and, man... such a nice guy. I was devastated by the news and Lily really noticed the change in me. It went on for about a week and I just wasn't myself. Then I had to write this story about death and it was very tough. Very tough. Toughest issue to complete to date.”

February’s Spider-Man Family #7 will mark another special event. This special issue is brought to readers by the guys who had worked with Wieringo the most and who also happened to be his closest friends. They are Mark Waid, Todd Dezago and Karl Kesel, who will take you on an adventure that spans their buddy’s favorite places in the Marvel Universe.

Newsarama pays tribute to Mike Wieringo again as we celebrate his life with Waid, Dezago and Kesel.

Newsarama: So, guys, it's been more than three months since the passing of your dear friend and collaborator Mike Wieringo. While the three of you had had your thoughts posted about Mike days after his death, what brought about this special tribute project in February's Spider-Man Family #7?

Todd Dezago: From my understanding of it, it was Nate (Cosby, Editor Extraordinaire and Keeper of Spider-Man Family). Having worked with Mike several times himself, Nate felt that Spider-Man Family would be the perfect place for a tribute type of story that, rather than a sad and mournful tale, would, like Mike himself, be more fun and upbeat; a light-hearted kinda yarn. Not knowing me (at the time... we've met since then), Nate sicced these two monkeys on me.

NRAMA: Will it contain stories that you guys and Mike had talked about, pitched to Marvel before, what? After all, Mark and Mike had earlier pitched an Aquaman project which was turned down by DC, right?

TD: Well, sadly Aquaman will not be in it. But it will be crammed with guest stars and cameos from all over the Marvel Universe! This story actually is something that Mike and I had hoped to do, at some point, as a miniseries, when we would reminisce about our days on Sensational Spider-Man. Both of us were fairly nostalgic jerks and Mike longed to draw all of those colorful characters again. When the idea for this project came up, Karl, Mark and I thought that it would be a great way to revisit the characters that Mike loved to draw in Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four in a wild romp led by one of Mike's favorite characters--The Looter!

NRAMA: Taking a trip down memory lane and reminiscence about works that you'd each done with Mike, shall we? Mike first gained prominence working with Mark on DC's The Flash (Vol. 2) and even co-created Bart Allen aka Impulse with you in The Flash (Vol. 2) #91. Looking back, what struck you the most about his work back then?

Mark Waid: It’s exuberance. It’s joy. The fact that Mike could flat-out tell a story without cheating the reader or resorting to pin-ups and clumsy dialogue to convey what was going on. Mike redefined the way comics showed characters like the Flash.

NRAMA: This was before Kingdom Come with Alex Ross, Empire with Barry Kitson, Superman: Birthright with Leinil Yu, Legion of Super-Heroes again with Barry, and 52 with various other artists. Did working with Mike change the way you write as a storyteller? Obviously the two of you clicked well enough for you and him to do Fantastic Four years later…

MW: ...and I wouldn't have touched that book with a ten-foot pole if not for him. The magic of working with Mike--and I'm sure I speak for all of us--was in his fearlessness, in the delight he took in drawing things he'd never drawn before. Teaming with Mike always meant that I could swing for the fences as a writer, month in and month out, with complete confidence that he'd raise the level of the game.

NRAMA: Speaking of FF, what brought about this partnership again after all those years?

MW: Editor Tom Brevoort. I wasn't really interested in the assignment--too intimidated, too distant from the characters--until Tom said that he's signed Mike. I'd have worked with Mike on anything.

NRAMA: Did you learn anything from him this time around?

MW: Among other things, that he made the characters human. That they were expressive and vibrant in a way they hadn't been in a long time.

NRAMA: Todd, as mentioned, you and Mike teamed up on Sensational Spider-Man in the mid-90s. What did you find so engaging about working with him back then to eventually move on to co-create your and Mike's fantasy epic, Tellos?

TD: From our first phone conversation back in '95 over what we were going to do in Sensational Spider-Man, Mike and I just clicked. We had similar upbringings, similar lives. We had many of the same interests, aspirations, and sensibilities about what we wanted to do with our stories, the kinds of stories we wanted to tell, the fun and fantasy we wanted to bring back to comics.

NRAMA: Karl, both you and Mike first worked together on Spider-Boy, part of the first wave of Marvel/DC crossover event called Amalgam. According to Marvel’s Executive Editor Tom Brevoort, Mike wasn't the first choice for the project as it would have gone to Humberto Ramos if he had not turned down the assignment. For you, what was it about Mike that made you want to write for him and ink over his work?

Karl Kesel: To start with: this is the first I’ve ever heard Humberto’s name mentioned in relationship with Spider-Boy. I love Humberto’s work (one of his first jobs with [me was] on a Superboy fill-in that I wrote), and I’m sure he would have done an amazing job, but I never knew that he had been offered the job before Mike was. I’m sure he was offered the job, I’m just saying that no one ever told me!

To my mind, Mike was the obvious choice for Spider-Boy because of the energy and optimism in his work. Of course I’d seen (and fallen in love with) his work on Flash, but actually working with him was a revelation. That story was crammed with characters and in-jokes, panel after crowded panel, and Mike hit it out of the park every single time. That book was actually a big turning point for me. I had so damn much fun on that book that it made me determined to have that much fun on all my assignments. It really crystalize for me what kind of comics I wanted to do. And Mike’s work on that book was a huge part of that epiphany.

NRAMA: As you developed your own sense of storytelling and pacing, you once said that no one influenced you more than Mike. And you've inked his work more than any others in the business. How much have you learnt from him?

KK: I can’t begin to count the ways. Probably the most obvious is how I lay out panels on a page— the way I overlap them or not is something I learned/stole directly from Mike. His storytelling is always so clear and understandable— something that’s a dying art in this business, sadly-- and at the same time very dynamic and visually interesting. Plus, his characters are constantly engaging and alive-- people you want to spend time with! I try to incorporate all of that into my own work. Not as well as Mike did, of course, but I’m hoping after inking hundreds and hundreds of his pages, something rubbed off.

NRAMA: What was it about him and his work that made Fantastic Four such a fan favorite and critically-praised title at that time?

KK: In my opinion, one of the reasons FF was such a stellar title at the time was that Mark, Mike and I all constantly impose impossibly high standards on ourselves. Mark and Mike aim high and always deliver, and I just tried to keep pace and not drop the ball. (Is that enough mixed metaphors for you?)

As for Mike’s contribution to FF, in particular: he was amazingly good at capturing a sense of wonder in his work, of being able to present things so that the characters (and by extension, the readers) saw things-- if not for the first time, as if they were seeing it for the first time. That sense of wonder is core to the FF, and it gets lost or forgotten far too often.

NRAMA: In your eulogy, you said that your last conversation with Mike touched on the topic about Mike's style, which was ""The Look" that all editors wanted to give their characters, but somehow, suddenly, that had changed." Nevertheless, you gave it a thought after that and had decided to tell Mike the next time the both of you talked that his art was about "hope, not hopelessness." How are you portraying this "hope" through your art in the story that you, Todd and Mark are telling in SMF #7?

KK: All I can say is that I think Mike and I enjoyed working together because we had some very similar, basic views of what good comics are, and at the core of that is the belief that no matter how dark the journey, there needs to be a light at the end of the tunnel. Comics should be something that make you want to jump out of bed every morning filled with the sense of life’s possibilities, not something that makes you want to pull the covers over your head in despair and dread. All of which is a long-winded way of saying that while I’m not trying to copy Mike’s style in any conscious way, I believe our common outlook gives our mutual styles a certain kind of connection. And I’d like to think a sense of hope is a big part of that connection.

NRAMA: Wrapping things up, guys, what can fans and readers look forward to in Spider-Man Family #7? Do you think Mike would have been proud if he were able to read it?

MW: I sure hope so. I'll say this--he certainly would have appreciated and been touched by how much love has gone into this story, and what I've given to it can't hold a candle to the talent that Todd and Karl have infused in every page. I'm lucky to have worked with Mike, but I'm just as lucky to be allowed to stand in the company of his friends.

KK: I think Mike would have been very proud of his friends for putting this comic together, but even more, I think, he would have been insanely jealous because he would have wanted to draw it! It’s the sort of fast-moving, fun story that he loved. And when he got to draw stories like this you could see his joy in every line in every panel.

TD: I think Mike would laugh and laugh. And he woulda been very happy that this was a fun, funny, and just plain old-school entertaining kind of story—a wild ride of a comic book that you get on for awhile and then share with your friends. That's what comics should be...!

[1genxer]

There is no question about, I am so picking this up.

[God-Man]

Originally Posted by 1genxer

There is no question about, I am so picking this up.

Same here.

[Amoebas]

I saw Kesel's name attached in Previews and knew I wanted to see this book. I can't remember the last time I saw him do 'all' the art. I didn't even bother to read the book's description, I was already in. Now knowing - even more so.

Originally Posted by MattBrady

NRAMA: This was before Kingdom Come with Alex Ross, Empire with Barry Kitson, Superman: Birthright with Leinil Yu, Legion of Super-Heroes again with Barry, and 52 with various other artists. Did working with Mike change the way you write as a storyteller? Obviously the two of you clicked well enough for you and him to do Fantastic Four years later…

MW: ...and I wouldn't have touched that book with a ten-foot pole if not for him. The magic of working with Mike--and I'm sure I speak for all of us--was in his fearlessness, in the delight he took in drawing things he'd never drawn before. Teaming with Mike always meant that I could swing for the fences as a writer, month in and month out, with complete confidence that he'd raise the level of the game.

NRAMA: Speaking of FF, what brought about this partnership again after all those years?

MW: Editor Tom Brevoort. I wasn't really interested in the assignment--too intimidated, too distant from the characters--until Tom said that he's signed Mike. I'd have worked with Mike on anything.

If I hadn't JUST read the quote below earlier this morning, I wouldn't have posted this part but...

RO: How did you get Fantastic Four?
MW: Tom Brevoort called and offered--simple as that.

Anyways- simple or not, their run on the FF was the very best since Byrne's.

[Shinlyle]

This is going to be bought. Everyone should buy it. If it doesn't sell-out, then it's a DAMN SHAME!

Sorry....just miss Mike....that guy was an awesome artist, and, it has to be said again, a hell of a nice guy.

[newfoundma]

Didn't know him, but 'Ringo sounds like an amazing guy, and I have been a fan of his work since I got into comics. With these great guys doing a fun tribute (instead of a mopey, agonizing 5-stages-of-death tale), I am so there.

[Switch625]

I really wish DC would do something like this, or at the very least, just mention his passing. I don't recall any mention by DC at all. Maybe I just missed it.

[The Guvnor]

Originally Posted by 1genxer

There is no question about, I am so picking this up.

I'm totally with you on this, picking up this book up will be a no brainer.

Originally Posted by Amoebas

Anyways- simple or not, their run on the FF was the very best since Byrne's.

Indeed, if anyone has not read it they are available in 3 Hardcovers (I think). It is well worth tracking it down.

[chrishaley]

Switch625 - There was a 2 page memorial spread written by Mark Waid and Bryan Augustyn (sp?) featuring Mike's art in the back of the latest issue of The Flash.

I'm really looking forward to picking this up, even if it'll probably make me sad to read it.

[I am MODOK]

Sold. There is no doubt I'll get this.

[AbacusComics]

Mike is missed. I'll definitely get this.

[SeanMurphy]

It doesn't mention it but I hope Marvel will be giving at least some of the profits to the ASPCA or Hero Initiative.

[Corrector]

I actually made a donation to my local SPCA. The girl on the phone was so intrigued with Wieringo's name. She said she'd look him up. I really hope she did.

[Switch625]

Originally Posted by chrishaley

Switch625 - There was a 2 page memorial spread written by Mark Waid and Bryan Augustyn (sp?) featuring Mike's art in the back of the latest issue of The Flash.

Ah, good to know. I'm not a regular Flash reader so that explains why I didn't see it. Thanks for the heads up!!

[The Guvnor]

Originally Posted by 1genxer

There is no question about, I am so picking this up.

I'm totally with you on this, picking up this book up will be a no brainer.

Originally Posted by Amoebas

Anyways- simple or not, their run on the FF was the very best since Byrne's.

Indeed, if anyone has not read it they are available in 3 Hardcovers (I think). It is well worth tracking it down.

[CitC]

I'm looking forward to this one.

Anyways- simple or not, their run on the FF was the very best since Byrne's.

It certainly started that way for me. The 9cent issue that kicked it off was one of the best FF books I've read - the best that explored their beginings.

[Ace]

Marvel really ought to run a house ad for this.

It's the sort of thing that will go under way too many people's radar.

It sounds really, really fun.

[beta-ray]

I loved visiting his blog, he was so giving and his sketches were an inspiration.

I'll be getting this issue. It would be nice if some of the profits went somewhere, but I'll get it regardless.

[Uncle Jawa]

I'm definitely looking forward to picking this up.

[-Armando523-]

looks really cool

[Jeffbot]

This looks great...I'll absolutely be picking it up.

Was it ever revealed what 'Ringo's next project would have been? This interview has piqued my interest...

[Erik Larsen]

Originally Posted by Jeffbot

This looks great...I'll absolutely be picking it up.

Was it ever revealed what 'Ringo's next project would have been? This interview has piqued my interest...

Mike had a few things in the hopper--including more Tellos and at least one other creator-owned thing at Image.

BTW--Mike did get a copy of the Tellos hardcover before he passed away and he was quite pleased with how it turned out.