I had a chance to visit the Wizard World Tulsa Comic Con and interview one of my heroes. Jim Shooter was the Editor in Chief of Marvel Comics during the 1970s and 1980s. He also wrote Secret Wars and helped usher in a great era of comics. He also shares a fun Steve Ditko story.
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Podcast # 393-Spider-History October 1999
Podcast #392-October 2015 Friday Night Human Fly Fight
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Great interview. The Spider-Man focus really helped get into territory that Shooter hasn’t been asked about even in much longer interviews than this.
I’ve read interviews with Shooter before but never heard him speak. Thanks for this! Really great hearing how Secret Wars and the Spider-Marriage came about. Definitely my favorite editor at Marvel during their greatest time period.
Also, Jim Shooter came off as much less “I was the unappreciated white knight”, and much more “I’m happy to share the credit.”
Based on Sean Howe’s book, I think that Shooter was indeed imperious during his tenure, but the Marvel Bullpen was also dominated at the time by an exceptionally high number of rebels, divas, and men with serious drug problems (according to Howe, it appears that the only drug-clean guy during that era was Steve Gerber!). And Marvel’s upper management were rats who treated their employees shabbily, and Shooter (and Lee before him) were forced by the nature of their jobs to side with that management.
Great interview, loved listening to it on the way to work today. Its so interesting to hear how Star Wars really helped Marvel in the late 70s and how Stern and DeFalco came into the business. Or the true origins of the Spider Marriage. I love how he has said that crossovers these days have no substance and how he also agrees that things like making a deal with the devil or throwing out years of work so its “easier” on the writer are just garbage. I loved his Steve Ditko story. Great interview.
REALLY enjoyed this, Brad. Thank you. Shooter’s ideas for what he’d do to Marvel storytelling in 2015 really make me wistful.