Broken Frontier

Twomorrow’s Modern Masters series of showcase books is, in a way, the nightmare of every rival interviewer. The subjects are prodded and poked at, revealing every minutiae of their oeuvre, leaving only the barest of scraps and most obscure anecdotes for other interviewers to find. Mark Schultz, the subject of volume 15 of the Modern Masters series, runs the whole nine yards. From his youth on, his early influences and his first bricks on his path in the comics garden to his writing, action figure work and painting. Fred Perry and Eric Nolen-Weathington undress Schultz very thoroughly and methodically. The added value of these creator interviews is that the interviewers always make sure to place it solidly in a cultural context, making comics part of a larger world.

Fascinated by the world of fantasy at a young age, it seems fitting that Mark Schultz found his way to comics. Burrough’s Tarzan of the Apes, dinosaurs, King Kong the movie and a lifelong fascination with the writing of Robert E Howard - especially his Conan of Cimmeria novels - fermented the ideas of  what would become Xenozoic Tales, his most famous creation and provide Schultz with a template for his writing and drawing.

It delivers a chronological overview of his career, pointing out the highs and lows (I would love to get my hands on a Cadillacs & Dinosaurs candy bar). It showcases all the major projects that Schultz was involved in, from his childhood creation, the Dimetrodon, to The Flashnovel, the interviewers do a terrific job tying everything together into one smooth and organic dialogue.It would be interesting to see if there’s a cross-reference of themes that keep recurring in his writing since the source material all lies solidly in an action-adventure pulp world. Whether he writes for fantasy-oriented material (Xenozoic Tales ), sci-fi (Star Wars ) or for superhero-oriented work (like his three year stint on Superman), the interviewers don’t touch these deeper lying issues though and thereby do leave some ground untouched for other interviewers.

During the dialogue, Schultz comes across as a creator who walks his own path, even when working on company-owned material; he seems more interested in setting a mood and playing with themes and characters than living up to any sort of iconic status his characters might have. It got me curious in his Superman-run and his Flash novel and especially his creator owned Dark Horse series SubHuman. And that means that at least one of the objectives of this volume is a success.

Throughout the magazine, the art of Mark Schultz is showcased with big illustrations and a color section at the end. The wide spacing of the text leaves enough breathing room to let Schultz’s linework do its talking. His elegance with the brush, his textures and his expert posing and placement of figures all come across in a grand manor. The magazine shows pinups, panel layouts, finished pages, paintings... you name it, it’s in there. I found myself immensely drawn to all these expertly done pencil drawings. Schultz makes for a wonderful coupling of the old classic illustrators with a modern sensibility and cinematic storytelling.

The Modern Masters Vol 15: Mark Schultz  provides a detailed look into one of comicdom’s great illustrators, the heir of Wallace Wood and Alex Raymond. As much at home as a writer as a penciller, Modern Masters showcases both talents in the best way possible: show and tell. It delivers an inexpensive compendium of the works of Schultz and whets the appetite for more information on its subject; thereby accomplishing the primary goal of this series: showing the world a modern master.