“The
upshot is that it was mismanaged or not even managed at all, you know,
cookie cutter, same old--same old. Shit.”
“I
don’t wanna talk about that guy anymore. At the time I chose
Dark Horse I detested Marvel more than words can say, after all that
they’ve done to the creators, friends of mine, with their inept
management. It goes beyond inept, it’s so destructive. The
only thing that I worry about is the people, the artists, the creators,
just diddled senseless by Marvel Comics.”
This
I understand, and it is true. I have friends who thought they’d
grow old with Marvel, get some sort of retirement plan. “Yeah,
it’s sad, there are people whose whole lives were drawing for
Marvel Comics and they don’t know what they’re going
to do with themselves.”
Windsor-Smith
looks angry. “People who just . . . It’s a deep
disgrace, you know?” The waitress chooses
that moment of passion to bring over a fine looking assortment of
luncheon dishes.“Um, this is pretty. Don’t look
at my food! Why don’t you look somewhere else?”
“I
haven’t
got mine yet!”
“That’s
catfish and that’s . . .”
“Orange.”
“It’s
a special thing.”
“It’s
orange.”
“Oh, that’s
an orange”. |
|
“It’s
orange.”
“No,
it’s a carrot mousse, you’re the one with the orange
. . .” He
looks at Bialy’s plate. I
suspect that any moment he is going to start tasting everyone else’s
lunch. The food looks so good, we may be forced to defend our plates
from each other. “Oh, you’ve got the same as me.” He
sits back, satisfied.
I’m
still unsure about the orange I so heartily defended the honor of “This
looks like sweet potato.”
“Bon appetite.
What was I rattling on about? Marvel? Fuck Marvel.”
Later we talk in the charming
yellow building that is Windsor-Smith Studio. I wonder why he hasn’t
marketed his prints and other fine art work to the mainstream print
market.
“In the latter
days of Gorblimey Press, we were mainstream. Mostly in California.
I was real big in California. We sold quite a lot of stuff
to galleries, print shops and stuff like that. A couple in New York City,
some in the midwest, but mostly the west coast. Far as I know from the
publishers of The Drawing Collection, they were bought as
portfolios then individually framed and sold. I think OPUS will
probably turn it around, put the work out there again. Because I haven’t
put anything out in the art world for a very long time. Either I’m
a comic artist or I’m
not. I’ve got to be committed. But OPUS will resurrect
all that stuff, all the pictures that have never been seen . . . all
these drawings,
twenty years worth of drawings. So that should probably get the ball
rolling again.” |