Broken Frontier

Bill Mantlo’s mind-bending writing for Marvel Comics has haunted me for over twenty five years, from the day I picked up "Micronauts" #3 from a 7-11 spinner rack to this very morning, when I delved back into Mantlo’s classic Hulk run while writing "World War Hulk Aftersmash: Warbound" #3.

So two months ago, I was thrilled to learn that Jason Leivian, the owner of Floating World Comics in Portland, Oregon, was asking artists to contribute original drawings of Rom, one of Mantlo’s classic characters, to be displayed during a non-profit fundraiser for Mantlo, who suffered traumatic brain injury in a hit-and-run accident in the early 1990s.

On December 6, Floating World Comics presents "Spacenight: A Tribute to Bill Mantlo" from 6-10 pm at 20 NW 5th Avenue #101, featuring over a hundred new drawings of Rom from artists all around the world. One hundred percent of the proceeds from the Floating World fundraiser will be donated towards Mantlo’s care.

Shift your eyes to the right to gawk at my own contribution to the fundraiser, gorgeously colored by the brilliant Christina Strain. And read on for an interview with the awesome Jason Leivian about Rom, Mantlo, and the "Spacenight" benefit.

Also please note the Rom images in this article were created by the following artists, in this order:  Fiona Staples, Renee French, Jeffrey Brown, Max Fiumara, and Jared Greenleaf.

Greg Pak: In twenty five words or less, what makes Rom so awesome?

Jason Leivian: He looks cool.  Shiny armor and glowing red eyes. First comic I ever bought, the sci fi / horror elements were very appealing.  

GP: In twenty five words or less, what makes Bill Mantlo so awesome?

JL: He wrote every issue of ROM. He's responsible for me discovering comic books.

GP: I saw a couple of storied names from Marvel's past among the list of contributors to the "Spacenight" benefit project, including at least one of Mantlo's one-time collaborators. How did these folks find out about you, what's been their reaction to the project, and what kind of art have they contributed?

JL: One of the first people I contacted was Bill's brother, Mike Mantlo. He was very happy to hear about the show. He said he would tell Bill about the show and that it would mean a lot to him. I've passed that information along to a lot of the artists and they've let that inspire the artwork. Prayers, sentiment, whatever you want to call it. We're all thinking about Bill and wishing him the best. Of course some physical recovery is the type of miracle you'd like to hear about, but in the meantime we can give Bill our love and financial help for his medical bills.

I've been in contact with Fred Hembeck, Herb Trimpe and Al Milgrom. Al shared lots of inked covers that he worked on, including the unused version of issue #1 that he drew. Herb dedicated an illustration of Hulk and Wolverine to Bill Mantlo. I think I contacted all of them through email.  They've been very supportive of the project. All this nostalgia has been very pleasant for me, surrounding myself with ROM material. I imagine it's been a good trip down memory lane for all parties involved. Lots of artists have expressed their love for ROM or other books that Bill Mantlo worked on. They see this as a way to give something back to him.

GP: Who's the most surprising contributor to the project so far?

JL: In general there was a huge response from the independent comics world. That great piece by Renee French was the first submission I received, with Jeffrey Brown's coming soon after. Renee didn't even write back to say yes she was interested. She just wrote back with "here you go."  Hearing back from Al Milgrom, the original editor of the book, was great. There's going to be lots of surprises in the show if folks are just expecting comics artists.

I contacted graphic designers and illustrators from all over the world. Kevin Hooyman, who did the new !!! album cover. Bold Faces, best known for directing music videos for 'THE KNIFE', they did a "remix" of the cover from issue #1. Also the international response was great. It was very cool to connect with ROM fans all over the world who felt the same way about ROM when they were kids. I haven't done an official count but there's probably at least twenty countries represented in this show.

GP: Tell us about a few of your favorite pieces in the show.

JL: The Renee French piece got the show off to a great start and enabled me to attract more artists. I love the starry background on Jeffrey Brown's cover. I would have bought that when I was a kid. Simon Gane's piece of ROM and Brandy in human form is very powerful and touching. Yildiray Cinar delivered a very powerful piece with great colors. Fiona Staples did a great take on the human/machine dichotomy of ROM's character. Danijel Zezelj's piece is great, and it really shows off his graphic style. I just got an awesome piece from Guy Davis, that I'm going to keep top secret until the show. Jeff Lemire's has some great technique and subtle coloring.

The biggest surprise was Max Fiumara's piece. Very reminiscent of the old Sienkiewicz covers from the series. I've only seen his art in the new Infinity Inc. series by Peter Milligan, which I think is hampered by some ugly coloring. A couple other amazing b&w pieces from Jim Rugg and Chris Samnee. And Hyeondo Park's astral backgrounds - wow. The artists had a lot of fun with those cosmic backgrounds. I really have too many favorites to list them all.

GP: You're based in Portland, which everyone tells me is an incredible town for comics. Tell us a bit about the community there and what makes the city so special.

JL: Portland is a little town that's attracted a lot of great artists from all over the country. They all move here and fall in love with the creative culture and efficient neighborhoods. There's little neighborhoods everywhere that have their own character and everything you need close by - bars, healthy supermarkets, libraries, record stores, movie theaters that serve beer. You can get anywhere in town by bike or public transit.

There's always more than enough to do on any given night. I bet we take it for granted but it's awesome to go to parties and meet smart interesting artists like yourself. It's not like the suburbs where you're so bored the only thing to do is look for trouble. It's a green fertile area that grows and supports life. I feel like the store has become a bit of a hub for the creative community here, it's great to be a part of that. It definitely seems to be the west coast comics capital. That must have started with Dark Horse back in the day, now we've got Oni and Top Shelf and Sparkplug.

GP: Where and when does the event take place? Any special guests or program you'd like to plug?

JL: We have First Thursday art openings here, where all the downtown galleries are free.  My neighbors are the Portland Art Center, Compound Gallery, and Upper Playground so I'm in a lucky position to take advantage of all the festivities. So the event is December 6th from 6-10 pm.  I imagine most of the Portland artists will be here from Pony Club and Periscope Studios. Corey Lewis and Brandon Graham will try to come down from Seattle with their original pieces. I have a silent auction planned for the original artwork that will start at 6pm, bidding will end at 9pm. You have to come to the show for the auction.  Sign up when you get here and receive a bidding number, which you can write down next to the original art you'd like to bid on.

For the digital prints I came up with a unique incentive for collectors. There's a limited edition, only 6 copies of each print. So each one of the Renee French prints, for example, will have a different price.  he first one is $5, the second one is $10, the third is $15 and so on, the last copy will be $30. So if the Renee French prints sell out that night, they will have raised $105. It's also a sliding scale.  Maybe someone will want to pay what they can, and buy the $30 one first.

Collectors are also encouraged to contribute more money if they can, since it's all for charity. 100% of the proceeds go to the medical care of Bill Mantlo. Any leftovers will be made available to the rest of the world the day after the show. We may go through Ebay for auctions, or sell them through my website.

GP: How can folks who can't make the show see the art?  And how can they contribute to the Bill Mantlo fund?

JL: I've been showing off lots of stuff on my myspace pages, trying to upload one SPACEKNIGHT a day. But I've also intentionally kept some secret until the show.  So check out the myspace for previews. A tribute book is planned for next year that will collect the artwork from the show, plus more submissions that I want to curate especially for the book.   want to try and reach even more creators that were originally connected to the series like Frank Miller, Bill Sienkiewicz, P Craig Russell, and Steve Ditko.  Plus lots of other artists who just missed the first deadline.

I've also set up a DONATE button on my website and the myspace page. You can donate directly to the BILL MANTLO FUND with paypal. All contributors will be thanked in the SPACENIGHT TRIBUTE BOOK.

GP: If you could launch a brand new Rom comic book tomorrow, who would you hire to write and draw it and what would the first story arc involve?

JL: Uh oh, this is where I would have to get a little selfish. ROM is the only comic I've ever been interested in writing. I would somehow ask Steve Ditko to draw it. My friend Karn Piana and I have already thrown some ideas around for some ROM fan fiction we might like to do. He said he's already drawn a dozen or so pages just for fun.  Another artist I plan on working with in the future is Jared Greenleaf, an old friend  of mine who live in Hawaii now. His ROM submission really knocked it out of the park. I picked his image for the promo poster.  

There's a couple ways to handle a new ROM comic. It would either be a faithful redo, like the Ultimate universe, or an existential Vertigo style take. We would definitely keep the 'Body Snatchers' horror elements. I'm a huge Grant Morrison and Alan Moore fan, so I would really do something interesting with the Wraiths as these misguided mystics. They would represent spirituality taken too far. They had glimpsed heaven too soon, and were now trying to spread it through space in a sort of fascist way. While ROM and Galador would represent a utopian society that had taken technology too far. I'm equally interested in occult spirituality and DNA and quantum physics, so I would work those studies into the book.

I wouldn't want to make the struggle between right and wrong too ambiguous, Ditko would hate that. But there would be some intentionally confusing elements depending on which character's point of view you're looking at. The Wraiths are all about hive mind, like Phase IV. I'm sure they try to be very convincing, "you'll like it better over here, no more confusion, no more separation." But the argument against that is "No! There must a be a reason for our individuality and diversity. There is no final answer. Just this path of us moving through space and time."

The ambiguity of ROM's mission, is that he has been seriously disconnected from his home by space and time. He has lost contact with the source, he somehow has to move forward on his mission with faith. He received his instructions long ago, but can't radio back to verify it or anything. I think just rereading the original series would inspire all sorts of cool ideas for an Ultimate style remake. Even with all the new ideas it would still have to be a fun book with action for all ages.

Many thanks to Leivian for the interview and for organizing this awesome benefit! And Mantlo fans take note -- David Yurkovich’s benefit book "Mantlo: A Life in Comics" makes a great holiday gift -- and all proceeds are being donated towards Mantlo’s care.

Thanks for reading -- we’ll be back next week with more. Please click here to submit your questions for our Reader Q&A section and see ya next time!

© 2007 Greg Pak. All rights reserved. For more about Greg Pak’s comics and films, visit www.pakbuzz.com