Spider-Man Crawl Space Interview:Howard Mackie

Spider-Man Crawl Space: Can you give us fans some insight into the decision making process concerning Aunt May's return and Baby May's demise?
Howard Mackie: Editorial decisions. Made on a higher level then the writer. THEY (them, the powers that be, the scary guys) felt that the death of Aunt May was great story, but a misstep. Felt it closed a door which should have been left open. Aunt May is a constant reminder of Peter's first and greatest failure ... the death of Uncle Ben. It was believed that removing her from the book, having him be married and then a FATHER ... aged the character too much. We ARE dealing with a character who has been around for almost forty years and the POWERS THAT BE would love to see him around for another forty. But there is some disagreement as to who the audience IS. And, MORE importantly, who it SHOULD be. Should we be writing every story to the Neverlanders? Fans who have been reading the books since their youth and want the characters to stay the same? Should be writing the stories for those readers who feel the characters should age with tem? Or, like Disney, should we write for and never ending, hopefully replenishing, youth market? If it WORKED the last is the most profitable. But it doesn't work that way and the Powers That be don't ever seem to be able to agree as to how to make it work.

Spider-Man Crawl Space: An area most fans don't know about is the editorial aspect of comics. What is the relationship between a writer and a comic editor? Do they come up with mandates......such as "Peter has to be single" and you as a writer has to write it? Please explain the relationship if you could.
Howard Mackie: Things change. But my experience has been that the Editor is God! Editor in Chief is God plus. The decisions are made above the creative level. These characters are going to be around for a long time. It is foolish to let a writer do whatever they want for brief blip in sales.

Spider-Man Crawl Space: Moving on away from those topics.. Do you have a large back issue collection of comics? What are some of your prized possessions?
Howard Mackie: I have worked for Marvel for 18 years. During that period that time I have received, gratis, every Marvel Comic published. I have most of those. But I am NOT a collector. I am comic book reader. There are some( Both of Frank Miller's runs on Daredevil, DAREDEVIL: BORN AGAIN, DeMatteis's death of Kraven the Hunter storyline, Simonson's run on THOR, some X-Men and FF stuff, Batman: Year One, Dark Knight Returns, the first twelve issues of Amazing Spider-Man, the Watchmen, etc...) which I revisit to reread over and over again, but most serious collectors will cringe when I say that I have my comics simply stacked in boxes in my attic. Sorry.

Spider-Man Crawl Space: If you've checked out my web site, you'll know that I have a section called "the weird marvel collectibles". Do you have any strange items in your collection?
Howard Mackie: I have a Spidey-phone, some original art and all the Ghost Rider toys. That's about it. Never been much of a collector.

Spider-Man Crawl Space: What's the strangest or funny comic book convention experience you've ever had and why?
Howard Mackie: Early in my career, back when I was just starting to write, and was still an editor. I was attending the Mid-Ohio Con. A women came up to me with a stack of 10 comics for me to sign. I did so and moved on to the next person in line. Half an hour later the women reappeared with another 10 comics. Half an hour later another 10. Finally I asked her how many she had. She replied that she had every single book I had worked on. That included everything I had edited or had acted as an assistant editor on. It freaked me out a little that ANYONE would have so much of my work in one place, but I signed them all. Either that or the time I was riding on an elevator with another comic book pro and he started bad mouthing one of the Image guys... until he realized that we were on the elevator with a relative of the guy.

Spider-Man Crawl Space: Is there any truth to you being the writer of the Brotherhood title? If so, what was the decision process behind crediting the writer as "X"?
Howard Mackie: I've heard some of the rumors. I find them very interesting and certainly laughable.

Spider-Man Crawl Space: What's your biggest regret about Spider-Man and greatest fulfillment about writing the web-head?
Howard Mackie: No regrets... for a big chunk of my life I got to WRITE SPIDER-MAN!!!! Okay... I wish we could have seen the Clone story line the way the writers had proposed it.

Spider-Man Crawl Space: Finally, you've just come off a very long run on Spider-Man and Mutant X. What are your plans now?
Howard Mackie: Got a number of projects in development both in and out of comics. Having some fun. Relaxing. Enjoying the fruits of many years of labor. Enjoying being out the Spider-Man firing line.

Spider-Man Crawl Space Final Thoughts: I would like to personally thank Howard Mackie. This interview is a year in the making. Howard and I have been e-mailing since early 2001, and he is a true gentleman. He didn't have to do this interview, but was a good sport and nice enough to answer some pretty tough questions. I thank him for many years of Spider-Man stories and look forward to more of his work.
I'd also like to thank the Spider-Man Gallery for providing some of these classic Spider-Man covers. Eric Gillette hosts one heck of a website and I highly recommend it to any Spider-Fan. Also thanks to Wizard Magazine for providing the pictures of Mackie. If you'd like discuss any items in the interview, please post them on the Spider-Man Crawl Space Message Board.

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