Daniel Best talks to prolific comics veteran Alan Kupperberg about his Marvel work on The Avengers and What If?.
An interesting tidbit from Kupperberg about his Avengers run that followed fan favorites like John Byrne, Barry Windsor Smith, Don Newton and George Perez: “Again, I just don’t think I’m going to be anybody’s favourite. There may be two guys. Just by the law of averages. And I’m their favourite artist. That’s fine. But by not being the fans’ favourite, you’re not going to make a large portion of the vocal readership happy. Not people who care about this stuff. A reader of comic books, just a reader, not a fan, collector or connoisseur, shouldn’t be bothered by my stuff.
“But the fans. What did the business become in that decade, the ‘80s, but merely a haven for fans. I don’t have any fans. But if comics were still a mass media, that wouldn’t make a difference. But by catering to the fans and the fan market, the comic book shops, that has helped take a mass medium and turned it into an over-priced, over-produced, niche market. Comic books are now nothing but another Hollywood farm system.”
June 1st, 2007 at 11:33 am
You accidentally list “Paul Kupperberg” under the art by Alan Kupperberg.
Which brings to mind a question? Are they related? I’ve read offhand references stating they are brothers or cousins, but I’ve never read anything from either of them confirming or denying.
June 1st, 2007 at 11:40 am
Hey Jeff,
Thanks for the catch on the image. And, to answer your very astute question, according to wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Kupperberg), Alan and Paul are brothers…
Wayne
June 1st, 2007 at 12:37 pm
Thanks! Didn’t even think of checking there.
June 1st, 2007 at 1:39 pm
I agree with Mr. Kupperberg’s assessments both of his art and of industry trends.
Though workmanlike, his artwork was always competent. The same cannot be said of far too many pencillers currently getting work.
June 1st, 2007 at 4:46 pm
RE, Mr. Kupperberg’s quote:
“Comic books are now nothing but another Hollywood farm system.”
He’s not wrong.
June 2nd, 2007 at 8:46 am
A sobering and realistic look at the current state of the industry that I completely agree with.
June 3rd, 2007 at 7:02 pm
Thanks for the links. I need to point out that the guy who writes ‘The Escapist’ isn’t me - we have the same name but are different people. Odd isn’t it? Still I can’t help but wonder if he gets asked about Alan Kupperberg a lot…heh
June 4th, 2007 at 11:13 am
Hey Daniel,
Couldn’t imagine there would be two of you with the same name Down Under who loved American comics and knew so much about them…
Thanks for having a good sense of humor about it all…
Wayne
June 4th, 2007 at 6:06 pm
Not a problem at all. I’ll have to find my name-sake one day and have a cup of coffee and a few good chuckles. Still, it’s all good!