Page Created: 04/25/21. Last Updated: 08/01/21.
WALTER SIMONSON
Meeting Date: July 10, 2021.
Meeting Site: Zoom Video Conference.
Attendance: 37.
Meeting Program: Talk / Q & A with Comic Book - Graphic Novel Artist / Author.
Online:
FaceBook: https://www.facebook.com/waltsimonson/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/waltersimonson
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walt_Simonson
Notes:
Walter Simonson was a last minute replacement for his friend, artist / writer Dennis Calero, who had to cancel earlier that day.
Comic book writer / artist Joe Bogdanove and his wife, Judy, arrived during Walter's video conference. Judy joined Louise Simonson off stage and Joe became part of the Q & A.
From Joe Bogdanove: Superman is a protector, not a warrior. (Regarding reboots): Every generation tells the same stories in a new way. Wrote a Holocaust story set in World War 2. Created a model spaceship for him to use as reference material from the Fortnite Skyrim Storm King Video Game.
Club members Philip De Parto, David Fischer, Christian Langworthy, Debra Matofsky, John Upton, Leigh Ann Wagor, and Moshe Yuda attended the Virtual Diner Run, as did regular Louis Kessler. The group chatted about the online Shore-Leave Convention currently streaming, the television series ALMIGHTY JOHNSONS and RAGNAROK, the CRUELLA movie, time travel, and other topics.
Newsletter Account:
The following account is reprinted with permission from THE STARSHIP EXPRESS Copyright 2021 Philip J De Parto:
Comic book writer / graphic novel writer and artist Walter Simonson was a last minute fill-in for his friend, artist / writer Dennis Calero, at the Zoom Video Conference General Meeting of the Science Fiction Association of Bergen County on Saturday, July 10, 2021. We wound up with a bonus speaker as artist / writer Joe Bogdanova arrived for a pre-arranged visit with the Simonsons and participated in the latter part of the event.
Walter Simonson grew up with a love of Norse Mythology. He didn't know what to do with his life, so he went to college, got a degree in paleontology, and figured he would get drafted and sent to Vietnam. Poor eyesight spared him that fate. He decided to knuckle down and attended the Rhode Island School of Design for three years, put together an art portfolio, and went knocking on the doors of editors at DC Comics.
(Note: It is no longer possible to break into the business in this manner. Editors today are not allowed to look at the work of outsiders because of the potential of copyright lawsuits. All new writers and artists must be vetted by the corporate New Talent Coordinator. Walter told the story of a fan writer who contacted one of the major comic book publications for their assistance with a lawsuit Marvel Comics. He claimed that they had ripped off his character, Hyperion. The journal informed the author that the character ;had been created and published over 20 years earlier. Matters are not always this cut-and-dry, however. Either Walter or Joe commented that there are times when certain types of stories just seem to be in the air. That an editor might receive multiple completely independent pitches about carnivorous pizzas, for example.)
None of the editors Walter met that day liked his work. He stopped at the break room (which had the world's worst coffee) on his way out. He saw four young guys sitting around a table (Walter mentioned three of the four, but the only one I remember was Howard Chaykin). Our speaker had a nodding acquaintance with one of the quartet. They asked to see his work and liked it. They called over to an older guy sitting by himself at the next table. The old hand looked at the portfolio, liked what he saw, and told Walter to stay put. He then walked the portfolio over to DC Head Editor Carmine Infantino. Carmine also liked the work. They hit it off. Carmine sent for a group of his editors (including at least one who had been disinterested) and told them to give Walter some work.
Our speaker has worked for almost every significant comic book company over the years. He is perhaps best known for his wok on the Thor comic. He was offered carte blanche on the assignment by his friend, editor Mark Greundwald. The title was struggling and Walter was in a sweet spot. If the book tanked, no one would blame him. If it rebounded, he would be hailed as a genius. Marvel's THOR movies owe much to his stint on the title. He created Maleketh and the Dark Elves, the foe in the second THOR movie. He wrote the scene where Skurge the Executioner holds off the enemy so that the others could escape (though the movie changed some particulars) in the third movie, He even got to be an extra in the first film.
Not everyone in the audience is a comic book junkie, so Phil had our speaker go through some of the basics. Walter brought out a page of an X-Factor comic and described the process of creating a page of a comic: the script (the traditional DC method is to do a panel-by-panel breakdown; the traditional Marvel method is for the writer to provide a plot synopsis with the artist breaking things down into panels and the writer creating the dialogue and narration after the art is done), the pencil sketch, the inking, the coloring, and the lettering. Mr Simonson is a traditionalist who draws and inks by hand. Most younger artist utilize the computer.
Another Marvel title our gust had a long stint on was The Fantastic Four. He is a fan of the work of Roger Zelazny in general, and of the novel CREATURES OF LIGHT AND DARKNESS in particular. He spoke of doing a time travel story with a battle inspired by the book's temporal fugue sequences. Walter created a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure text storyline set in the margins with the art appearing in the middle. He wrote the story, cut it up with scissors, threw the papers in the air, and then numbered and tied everything together. Additional information appears at the club website on the 2021 - 07/2021 Meeting page.
Additional Notes:
Fan of The Dirty Dozen Movie. Showed how cover of Ragnarok # 1 was influenced by Dirty Dozen Movie Poster
Ragnarok indie graphic novel series. The Norse Gods lost and their enemies won because Thor had been imprisoned and was not on the field for the great battle. Now he's loose and trying to fix things.
Hated penciling the X-Men / Teen Titans one-shot crossover because there were so many characters to draw.
Worked on Marvel's Battlestar Galactica with future wife Louise, the title's editor. Marvel's Archie Goodwin liked his work enough to offer Walter the writing chores of Raiders of the Lost Ark when Goodwin was too busy to do it himself.
Side note: Joe Bogdanove was astonished to learn that the older gentleman had worked on the first issue of Superman (I'm not sure if this was Action Comics # 1 or Superman # 1) and that he was the person (colorist?) who devised a color classification system still in use today.
Walter likes to sketch out the layout of any room which is a regular setting so he can shoot the scene from any angle with consistency. This led to Joe talking about downloading parts of a spaceship from a video game for him to rearrange as a model for his own design reference.
After Walter has done a long run on a work like Thor or The Fantastic Four, he never looks in to see what his successors do. He hear's Thor's voice in his head, but other creators hear the voices of a different version of Thor.