Tall Guys, by Joe James – Twenty Tomorrows #2 | @MDWorld

June 1, 2015 Victor El-Khouri 7 Comments

I first met Jim Shooter when I brought samples of my pencilling work to Valiant Comics sometime in the early 90’s. 

The person reviewing my work was former Marvel DEFENDERS and GHOST RIDER artist Don Perlin and as he was speaking a very tall man popped by his desk and made some kind of quick and enthusiastic comment. I recognized him from photos throughout the years. After all I was practically raised in a comic book shop, so Jim Shooter was well known to me as the Editor-in- Chief of Marvel comics, writer of the original Secret Wars.

I’d heard he was tall but that didn’t prepare you for how tall he actually is. Somehow, I can’t remember what he said, but I do remember this –– his enthusiasm and general good cheer left me with a feeling of encouragement. Which was good, because Valiant didn’t hire your poor narrator, but after seeing him, I’d felt more hopeful about my prospects of being a part of an industry that I was coming more and more to understand was inhabited by people who want to do some good.

Some years later I was working as a creative associate for Milestone Media, the publishing company and formed by Dwayne McDuffie, Denys Cowan, Michael Davis and Derek T. Dingle and distributed by DC comics. They created such characters as HARDWARE, ICON, STATIC and the BLOOD SYNDICATE. This was before Hardware#1 had been printed—In fact nothing had been printed and we were still in start up mode.

Now those were interesting times at Milestone, and not a day passed by when we weren’t getting some interesting visitors, there was inker (at the time) Jimmy Palmiotti, Director Reggie Hudlin, the always interesting writer of STATIC Robert Washington, STATIC artist John Paul Leon, Director John Singleton, the incredibly mysterious illustrator Trevor Von Eden, Artist Walt Simonson, ICON artist Mark Bright, all under the editorial direction of another tall dude, Dwayne McDuffie.

Dwayne had many fine qualities that have been stated over and over again and rightly so. He was a genius. When you’re just starting out in comic books as I was, and you’re boss is Dwayne McDuffie you just count yourself lucky and listen. Which I did. With Intent.

Some of the most important times at Milestone for me were lunching with associate editor Matt Wayne and Dwayne and listening to them work out an idea or just riff on stuff—like I said, it was funny, informative, and an educational insight into the craft of comic book writing. I was lucky.

Now, how I had come to Milestone is a different story altogether, and it involves Kung Fu Master and artist Denys Cowan and a place called Studio X, where I worked as a background artist on such titles as DEATH LOCK, FOOL KILLER and GREEN ARROW.  But that’s another tale for another time. Suffice it to say that although I was a background penciller, I was certainly not a production artist, which is what I was hired to do at Milestone, and had to learn a great deal of things on the job: daily, sometimes hourly.

For example, I had no idea what a mechanical was, or how to put one together, or how to creating color call outs for interior editorial pages of the comic books—but Dwayne did. And he taught me, step by step, day by day, so that I had a great deal of interaction with him, especially as we ramped up production on the four initial titles. Of course today this is all done digitally but then it was mostly done by hand. And when I had some ideas for logos, or cover designs, he…listened. Patiently.

I expressed my ideas and would suddenly burst into sound effects, which I did often, and was not really aware that I did so. I told you that I’d been raised in a comic book shop so inserting sound effects was just a normal part of conversation.

So normally when I was expressing an idea about how a color would work, or how cool the letters pages iconography might play behind the words, or coming up with logo concepts for the titles I would emphasize a detail of an idea, something tangential,  with a “KERRRRR”  or a “ WHISSSSSHHHHHAMMM”  or a “ TRAAA—KAW!”

Evidently I did this all the time.

At first Dwayne was surprised and incredulous. I didn’t figured out for some time that he was having fun with me when he would ask me to repeat myself, but only the sound effects parts, which I did, quite seriously, then he’d ask again, until…duh.

I remember being a little embarrassed when I realized I was talking to my boss in whoops and swishes, more so that I didn’t really realize it. But Dwayne found it amusing, and soon he would relay some point or instruction to me in chirps and beeps.

We understood one another perfectly.

Dwayne had that quality that left one feeling encouraged. He wanted to hear your ideas, he wanted you to bring your A game, he wanted you to bring your concept to the table—sometimes he’d say: “Nah—“ but sometimes he’d nod his head approvingly and say:  “Okay, alright. Lets do it.”  This reaction always made me feel as if we were exploring something together, looking for some greater version of an idea. It’s like playing in a band when surrounded by musicians who are willing to follow your lead—when it works, it elevates the song and opens the door to different sonic plateaus.

But more importantly, it creates a daring kind of trust.

And other times—and this is where a boss becomes a leader—Dwayne would look at you, and you could see that there was doubt in his eyes, he’d pause, and say: “Alright, alright, lets try it. Lets do it.” He was trusting you. He wanted to see where you’d take it.

This was a great man. This was a tall man.

One day another tall man came to visit Milestone. Dwayne had asked Jim Shooter and colorist  JayJay Jackson to come to Milestone and consult regarding how Milestone books were going to be colored. This was before comics were being colored digitally, and Valiant had distinguished itself by pioneering a system by which comic books could be watercolored by hand. The results were quite beautiful and altogether different from the average comic books of the day. Dwayne wanted that kind of unique process for the Milestone books and he asked Jim and JayJay to come in and consult.

Two tall guys and a red head talking all this high-falutin color jargon. I understood some of it, and it made sense. I knew it was going to work. But the impression I had was this –– here were two men, whose mutual respect and INATE kindness were apparent.

Two very smart and very kind men and what was the residue in their wake? Encouragement. Encouragement was a bi product of their belief in the medium of comic books and the methods of storytelling that we all enjoy so much.

Then, later on, there was the invaluable mentorship role that JayJay played in my life as I worked for another publishing company called DEFIANT. But that’s a different story.

Going back to that meeting I had at VALIANT, I remember now what Jim said to Don Perlin.

Jim said: “Can we harness his power for good?”

Now of course I didn’t get hired by Don that day, but that’s okay. I wasn’t ready. Besides, Jim would one day hire me to draw a book for a different company and to be an editor as well. But I liked the idea of working for people who’s main objective was harnessing power for good. Isn’t that just delightful? By that standard, we’ve all got a chance.

Tall vision from two tall guys. And I got to work for both of them.

Told ya’ I was a lucky guy.

Joe James is a creative concept developer with over 25 years experience in the entertainment industry. He honed his skills as an editor and artist at DC Comics, Milestone Media, Defiant Comics and Broadway Comics. Now he specializes in illustration and design as well as doing storyboards for some of the top directors in the world. He’s worked on many award winning commercials as well as an Academy Award winning short film.