Dogmatika has a lengthy Q&A with artist Brendan McCarthy about his return to comics with Solo #12, why he left comics some 15 years ago, and, um, Dr. Manhattan’s penis:
“Mark Chiarello saw a copy of Swimini Purpose when DC expressed an interest in publishing it last year. He tracked me down via Scott Dunbier at Wildstorm, a longtime advocate of my work. Mark asked if I would be interested in doing an issue of Solo. I had reservations, mainly because I hadn’t done any comics for nearly 15 years, and felt my ‘art robot’ mojo may be somewhat rusty… And also, with the Solo deal, DC Comics take all the rights of ownership… so I would have to be careful in what I created for them, other than in revamping their ‘established brand’ heroes. I held back a lot of new original stuff and that’s why there’s a bit more about DC characters in it than I would have naturally have produced. Frankly, I have very little interest in mainstream superheroes. Except Paradax! of course.
“My initial pitch was for a humourous story on Dr. Manhattan’s massive blue penis and balls from The Watchmen… I liked that when he became a giant, his privates also grew enormously huge. I wondered if it would now be OK to view The Martian Manhunter’s green J’onn Thomas, for example… But this was a case of only highbrow ‘arthouse’ nudity being allowed (“Glenda Jackson’s tits syndrome”) and it was rejected straight away. So I was getting an education in getting to know the boundaries of what is permissible in a DC Comic these days…”
McCarthy also addresses his teen-age obsession with Saturn Girl, life in Hollywood, and his creative influences. It’s a fun read.
