Wednesday, August 19, 2015


An interview with mel skidmore-1972 transcribed from a cassette tape found in the old offices of the skidmore fan club. unfortunately the first 15 mins. of the tape was recorded over with the first side of an Emerson Lake and Palmer record (and it wasn't even that good!)We pick up the conversation in mid conversation with Mel Skidmore speaking.....

well it wasn't always like this,,, these days the fortune cookie presses are running most of the time. if not them were  printing up cereal boxes, we run the comics at night now. where they wont offend our more sensitive employees. when we had the plant over the bowling alley in the old days it was the comics! comics! comics!..... none of this damn inteulectual egghead stuff like today either. good old mystery men......ghosts, goblins, demons and the undead! ya know comics that kids could really sink their teeth into.....something to inspire em to give there kid brother a good whap inna head, or inspire a kid to give out a  good old fashoned indian sun burn or swirlee!......sure we gave em that month after month. and you know what? it sure toughened em up!.....you could always tell a comic reading kid from the dopes who always had their  nose in some schoolbook! they just seemed to carry themselves different or something........

q; i understand that back in the day you used to write a few abraxis tales yourself.


a; write em? hell i invented em! we used to sell almost a million copies of the old equonox quarterly's at a clip! but ya gotta remember that things was different then, this was before the war and then it was just like printing money. they were sold before they even went to press. today..... i dunno, i can't even understand what the hell is going on with the goddamn zeta beams and cosmic rays and whatnot. i let melmon figgure it out. he speeks the kids language. what the hell do i know anymore?

q; and you drew a bit in early days too didn't you? i've tracked down some examples that have been puzzeling historians for years.......(shows him full page splash from sub zero #4 )

a; jeeze .....yea it looks like mine. probably had to be done at the last minuite cuz of some old hack slackin' off........now this spot illo. i remember doin' over the bowlin'alley when we used to have bill tso over here......musta been around 43? 44?.......i dunno comics was different then. not as science-y as today. our only real competition was sha-zoom that forcett was putting out. and i sued the hell out em! then sha-zoom went to sha-zit!.... for a time there cease and desist orders were flying out the door more often than the amazing avian! don't remember that one? well yea....it was a long time ago. before the new decsion books even.
an we finaly bought out the sha-zoom character when the forcett brothers quit the comics buisness alltogether.


q; I wanted you ask you about the new decision books.....you were.....

a; oh the new decision titles were just a product of their times. as much as all thoes old horror books are loved to this day.......it was the damn true science books that nearly did us in. I blame in on influence of the college crowd, who were getting into comics at the time, some these long hairs and over educated shit heads had some mighty wild ideas about what kids wanted to see, of course the crime comics were doing extreemly well then, but they were meant for an older crowd......some thing for a boy about 15 or 17 .......something they could enjoy after a night of knocking off the corner liquor store or mabey while they was in prison or juvie....... boy you wouldnt believe the subscriptions to prisons alone on thoes books! they did have a certain appeal......no denying that!

q; but the science books...... they were really scapegoated.....they....

a; oh the goddamn science books....i'll never hear the end of it! thing is today they seem almost reviered. who can tell whats going to be popular.....or when. i can remember a time we were hedging our bets toward, true tales of hobo's! addiction, alcholism.....insanity....whores......general madness .....stuff like that. we had this writer once named henry chinaski.......swore up and down that these kinds of stories would click...... where is he now? writing for one of thoes underground newspapers in l.a. last i heard.......probably still drunk......i doubt he'll ever amount to anything.......but at least there was no damn science in it...... and he was kinda good in his way......damn shame.


q; the horror books went on to achieve  financial and critical sucess, how do you think that came to be?

a; well i can tell you a couple of things that the horror comics got that most other comics don't......and thats death.....and lots of it! gore! bloodshead......decapitations! the general fear of the unknown.....even the mystery men comics had that,,,,,we just expanded on that idea. the one that really put us over with that one was- "a corpse is a corpse, of course, of course!" we published in an issue of screaming bloody murder comics. they even made a tv pilot out of that one......but by the end of it.... it turned into a comedy about a guy and a horse...... i shit you not.

q; many renound artist worked on "screaming" along with the romance title 'revoltin' developments' ........ i was wondering if you wouldn't mind commenting on some of the finer talent that came thru the doors .....

a; sure,,,,what about em?


q; well..... horace woodly for one,,,,,,

a; woodly,,,,,, sheesh! yea he was a real talent......but allathe time with the space stuff,,,,, he was real a nut about it, with all of the knobs and dials,,,dynamc lighting,,,,the whole schmere.......thing about it though he never quite understood that leather spacesuits would just disentigrate in space....... made for a helluva pichter though....... and could he draw a female ass! hips.....boobs, they was right there where they were supposed to be......thats what probably sold all thoes tru-science comics.......not the skeematics and wireing and nuts and bolts and whatever the hell else was in there.......good ol' tits and ass......who who would imagine it would sell.....crazy goddamn world!


q; steven dio, did some time at skidmore......i understand he has recently returned to revamp doctor dreadnaught.......

a; yea! dio's back! and skidmore has him! steve is really like the last of the old school comic artist, very professional very philosophic,,,,, you can put anything down in front of steve and he'll bat it out of the park...... no matter what the subject matter is! lets see they just brought the new dreadnaught comic down yesterday.......oh yea....i got it here......."a real turned on swinger for the super seventies.......take a trip with.........doc dreadnaught!".........well...ummmm.....                       i guess.........ummmmm.....i guess i haven't seen this one in a while........ what the hell?..... i think i'll be having a confrere with steven dio soon....... very soon.


Q; you were one of the prime motovaters for the creators code a few years back.....could you expand on the workings of that movement?

a; well the creators code came about because we were saddled with these damn corner boxes that you see on all of the comics.....it never occured to us that you simply don't need them......you could really get rid of them if you wanted to...... but.....yea, i know ......hindsight!.......well for some time we were kind of between a rock and a hard place with the original comics code being investigated for rackettering and un-american activities in general. they was giving the industry a black eye. so's we got this big blank box up inna corner of all our comics, ya see......it just wasn't very appealing. we tried puttin the price in there.....tried putting a close up of mysterio diablo in there at one point......but nothing seemed to work quite right. we were confounded! only that official looking stamp of imaginary government approval seemed to look right.....and they (the code) were being raked across the coals in kangeroo court,,,,,,the poor bastards.....but they brought it on themselves, especially dolt comics. with their mcginnty mouse in dolt whizney's comics and stories!
so like i said it was the talk of the industry,,,,,, what the hell are we going to do with these damn empty boxes on the covers? nobody could figgure it out, well ledgend has it that one night while drawing a cover for nationalistic's iron sam comic, jake klineberg slyly inserted the name of the then unknown creators code up there in that stupid little box that we are so used to on our comics. after that was published .....then...... the meetings were held.....unions organised and the general quality of comics went up a notch again....... it was more than just a pledge to quality and craftsmanship....... it was a promise to the parents of america that their childrens reading material would never be watered down again!...... and so far it's worked! not to mention it solved the problem of filling up thoes little boxes...... but thats what good comicbook artists do......fill boxes! same could be said true of undertakers.....i guess.



and on that note our visit with mel skidmore would end. by the end of the year he would be dead at the age of 72. the family soldiered on for 10 more hectic years under the leadership of son skip skidmore but after going to an all classic reprint series for the last 8 months, one could see the writing on the wall......the age of skidmore was more than in decline, it was as dead as doctor dreadnaught! over the years there have been many a court battle over ownership of the skidmore properties due to skip's many licensing deals, even the spidora character was made into a saturday morning cartoon for girls and foolishly bartered off in a toy/made for tv movie deal in 1978. currently there are 27 active lawsuits against skip skidmore and an investigation is pending due to an unexpected fire at the old skidmore wherehouse. where it is reported that hundreds of thousands of pages of original art have gone up in flames

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