Starting in the 1980s

 

WELCOME TO

'THE ALL PURPOSE GENERIC LETTERS PAGE!'

(see the ABOUT Page for more details)

The aim of this resource is to provide a record of the community of fans, found in the pages of comic-books, that have a Japanese Anime (animation\cartoons) or Japanese Manga (comic-books) connection.

This maybe a tempary site to containe these records, but until that time... enjoy!

Starting in the 1980s you did need a number of comic-book issues to be published and sell well enough, before the Editor could allocate space for the 'Letters Page', taking the space of 'Advertising', or storytelling, and in keeping with the even page numbering that could be divided by four.

So, when I do encounter comic-books that either have a short run, or never published a 'Letters Page', I will treat any 'Editorial' as an open letter to Fans, and also those 'Interviews' that tie-in to the exchange of Japanese culture (Pop, & Historical).

It is my hope that at the end of each year covered by this project that I will dedicate space for a summery, and highlight points of interest.

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“The only thing we should be selling is the story. “ 

What follows is the full text of the printed Interview with Frank Miller; Miller's now best known for his comic-books; 'The DARK KNIGHT', and 'SIN CITY', this is about his then up and coming 1983 comic-book RONIN, and his thought processes and research behind it, as well as the for-shadowing of Miller's involvement in getting MANGA to an English audience.

DAVID ANTHONY KRAFT's COMICS INTERVIEW©

Issue #2,  1983.

RONIN TM DC Comics, Inc. Art © 1983 Frank Miller, Inc.©

"If you intend to die, you can do anything."

FRANK MILLER'S RONIN

VITAL STATISTICS

Name: Frank Miller 

Occupation: Cartoonist 

Residence: Manhattan 

Born: January 1957, Montpelier, Vermont.

Credits: Gold Key horror jobs, DAREDEVIL, WOLVERINE 

Favorite Comic: KOZURE OKAMI by Kazvo Koikei, writer, and Goseke Kojima, artist. 

Pet Peeve: Filling out questionaires.

Early one winter evening, Jim Salicrup and I sauntered over from the Marvel Bullpen to nearby Up-start Associates, the westside Manhattan studio where Miller sometimes works. Taking time out from a frantic schedule, long-and-lanky Frank plunked himself down in a battered old armchair for a long talk about his sensational new series, the one everyone's been waiting for since his departure from DAREDEVIL. While Jim and I flipped through penciled pages from the first two issues, Frank answered our questions about his intriguing new character, RONIN.

JIM SALICRUP: Why don't we just start at the beginning how did you come up with RONIN?

FRANK MILLER: I had pieces of the idea floating around in my head while I was working on DAREDEVIL. The pieces started coming together six or eight months before I left DAREDEVIL. RONIN was built very slowly, very deliberately.  Given the format, and the importance of the story to me, it had to be.

DAK: But you first had the idea while you were working in DAREDEVIL? 

FRANK: Right, Dave. I came up with the concept and characters as a result of research I did for DAREDEVIL. 

JIM: How would you describe RONIN? 

FRANK: I guess I'd call it a science fiction/sword-and-sorcery/urban nightmare/samurai drama.

DAK: How did you present it to DC? 

FRANK: Jenette Kahn invited me over to her office to discuss my doing some work for them, and I more or less laid out to her the idea behind RONIN and the jumbled notes I'd put together for the plot. She went for it in a big way. We talked energetically for four hours about format, business, history, philosophy - you name it.  And I decided I'd found a publisher for RONIN.

"Ronin is the masterless samurai, the fallen warrior. We modern men are ronin."

JIM: What kind of research were you doing that started with DAREDEVIL and ended up as RONIN?

FRANK: It started back way-back when Denny O'Neil first took over editing DAREDEVIL. He encouraged me to develop a believable fighting style for Daredevil.  To do that, I started studying Kung Fu movies and various forms of the martial arts.  That led to further study of some of the more cerebral and spiritual aspects of the martial arts.  Eventually, I started focusing on Japanese material more than on Chinese, primarily on the samurai.  

As I got deeper into it, I found certain things in the ethic of the samurai that related to life the modern world. I discovered connections, and worked toward creating a character that could illustrate those connections.  An example of how applicable samurai thinking is to the modern world is that THE BOOK OF FIVE RINGS, which is considered the final word on the samurai, written by the greatest samurai, Musashi, is used by Japanese businessmen to develop business tactics.  Musashi's thought transends simple physical combat.

DAK: I received a review copy of that, and to this day I don't know why, but it just showed up about two years ago. It's pretty well traveled - it's gotten in some strange circles.

FRANK: Yeah. (Laughter.) Even comics. 

JIM: What is the samurai ethic? 

FRANK: You got a week? (Laughter.) What we were talking about is Bushido - the way of the warrior.   It's a life style, a philosophy that enabled feudal Japan to produce a nearly perfect warrior. Of course, they had lots of time - hundreds hundreds and hundreds of years of war - to get that act together. And I think that the cultural and geographic distances between us and Japan allows us to enjoy how nifty they looked, without concerning the fact that it was a militarist, fascist order as corrupt as any other. 

The aspect of the samurai that intrigues me most is the ronin, the masterless samurai, the fallen warrior. Ronin, translated, means "wave man," a man tossed about by fate, unaffiliated, dishonored,  disenfranchised.  This entire project comes from my feelings that we, modern men, are ronin. We're kind of cut loose, I don't get the feeling from the people I know, the people I see on the street, that they have something greater than themselves to believe in.  Patriotism, they've all lost their religion, whatever meaning for us.  That's the heart of the series, and the connection I draw between feudal Japan and twentieth-century America.

JIM: What time period is RONIN set in, Frank?

FRANK: About forty or fifty years from now, and ten years into an unspeakably horrible depression. It takes place in Manhattan, but it's a Manhattan with no business left, a Manhattan that has become a barbarian society. That's where RONIN spends the first part of the series. 

DAK: After that, it changes? 

FRANK: Yes.

JIM: How much background and research material was used for the stories? 

Do you personally believe in the samurai ethic?

FRANK: I believe that the samurai were amazing warriors.  I can't say that I actually adhere to any of their codes.  I don't think it's life oriented or happiness oriented. (Laughter.)  But they were amazing fighters.  

The slogan for the series "if you intend to die, you can do anything" - is more or less my distillation of what I think the basic attitude was.   Musashi preached that the warrior must regard himself as a corpse, so he would not be afraid of dying.  So that he wouldn't hesitate in battle, but attack intelligently and fiercely. 

It is significant that Kendo consists of very few defense moves that when attacked, the samurai would seek to strike out in time with the opponent and dismember or kill him rather than back off.  This fatalism is particularly Eastern.  I think that the Eastern attitude toward life and death has enabled them to generally be able to produce finer warriors, warriors more ready to kill without doubt or regret.

 There's no commandment that Thou Shalt Not Kill, which the West is saddled with. The Eastern religions are much more flexible in nature, much more complex. There isn't any guilt attached to killing at the right place and the right time. The RONIN - the hero of the series - is the product of that culture, and those philosophies.  So he isn't quite in tune with modern New York.

JIM: In structuring a story, how faithful to the philosophy are you, or do you liberties for the sake of the story? 

FRANK: I take many liberties with any research material, Jim. I really don't want it to tell me what to do. As far as the philosophy, I believe I make a sincere effort to represent it, but invisibly. I'm talking about the thinking that goes behind lines of dialog or emotional reactions that you might not even notice. My characters don't give speeches.  This isn't going to be the KUNG FU TV show. 

It's all very far back there, research that I have done in order to develop and understand the character. But the character is presented as you might meet him, without his background. There are no thought balloons in the series, no captions. All you get are word balloons and pictures, and the hero doesn't talk much.  He has to be judged by his actions.

DAK: Would you say his philosophy is the theme of the series? 

FRANK: No, his personality is. The theme of the series is disenfranchisement. No longer having something to believe in. It's represented in nearly every character in the series. A very prominent character is Casey, a corporate cop, who is essentially a modern-day samurai. Her loyalty to the corporation is like that of a samurai to his lord.

DAK: Are there other strong characters and do you consider this in a general sense to fall into the superhero category meaning, will Ronin go up against strong villains?

FRANK: It's very hard to classify.  Yes, it is a superhero strip, because it does have a strong central character who does amazing things. But it doesn't fit any particular super-hero formula that I know of. And the ronin is not always heroic or virtuous - as we define virtue.  It's a superhero strip in the same way that THE ODYSSEY is a superhero story or YOJIMBO is a superhero story. It's an adventure about a man who can do extraordinary things.  But there is no skintight costume.

DAK: So there are no super-villains, per se?

FRANK: Well, there isn't any RONIN revenge squad, but there is a villain. A real down-home mean and nasty sum-bitch. 

JIM: Judging from the actual look of RONIN, it's very different from DAREDEVIL. You're doing the writing, penciling and inking who's coloring and lettering the book? 

FRANK: Lynn Varley is coloring and John Costanza is lettering. 

JIM: How did the whole look evolve? 

Was it a conscious effort?

FRANK: Very conscious. I studied samurai comics published in Japan extensively, particularly KOZURE OKAMI.    Translated it means A WOLF AND HIS CUB.  I find that the story and artwork are wonderful.   The artist and writer do a better job of storytelling than anything I've seen here in the U.S. Period.  KOZURE OKAMI has never been translated into English, but I can flip through these 250 page monsters -

DAK: Sort of the Russian novels of comics! 

FRANK: and I can read 250 pages, not knowing Japanese, and never get confused, because the visual storytelling is so perfect.

DAK: That's incredible. 

FRANK: It's amazing work. Beyond the storytelling, there is the actual style of the linework, which excites me.  I haven't tried to outright imitate it — but it's been a very strong influence. 

DAK: Do you think not just your linework, but your method of storytelling, has changed?

FRANK: I really hope so.   I hope that when RONIN comes out, people resist the temptation to compare it too much to DAREDEVIL, because it's really apples and oranges.   The style of writing is different, the storytelling is different, everything is different right down the line.   

DAREDEVIL owed mostly to old movies - the '40s and '50s movies - for its tone and RONIN draws from a variety of different sources. The other thing about the artwork that I want to mention in particular, is that most of what I'm doing right now is changing my art style to accomodate better printing. I've found that when the paper is white, most of what comic-book inking is no longer works.  The heavy blacks and the bold outlines produce too slick a look for good paper.   

The style of inking that we do in comics now is designed to compensate for bad printing. And as the printing gets better, we have to change our whole approach to rendering, so that we're playing against the quality of the printing rather than trying to bring it up. We have to soften our image, because the resolution is so fine. Luckily, I've got Lynn Varley coloring the book. She has an understanding of better reproduction, and an imagination and expertise with color that makes her contribution a crucial part of the project.

Remember back when inkers were thought of as just people who darkened the penciller's lines? 

Then along came Terry Austin and Klaus Janson to show how important a stage inking is. Well, I think that RONIN and Lynn will demonstrate the importance of coloring -- especially now that the production values are being raised.

JIM: How closely do you work with the colorist and letterer? 

Are you editing RONIN, too?

FRANK: Yes. Lynn and I confer on the parts of her job that overlap with mine. That is, the emotional context of the scene, or what time of day it is, or like that. But she knows much more about color than I do, and she brings a very sophisticated approach to RONIN. So mostly I stay out of her way. The color is her province.

JIM: Are you designing the word balloon shapes yourself, too?

"RONIN is taking longer to do than DAREDEVIL... it's much more important to me."

FRANK: Yeah, I lay in the lettering in pencil, after I've typed up the script. John Costanza puts down the letters on the page, while I do the panel borders and the balloon shapes, because I want the whole thing to be as organic as possible. The particular style of panel borders and balloon shapes I'm doing I wouldn't ask anyone else to do.

DAK: How has your method of working changed? With DAREDEVIL, toward the end, you did very rough thumbnails. 

FRANK: Layouts on typewriter-size paper.

DAK: And Klaus Janson pretty much did the finishes.   On RONIN, do you write it first or do you do thumbnails first?

FRANK: I've gotten very traditional. I write myself a full script, now. 

DAK: So, even with yourself, you don't work Marvel style? 

FRANK: No. I write a script, with the number of panels per page and dialogue indicated. After I've written the script, I play around with it quite a bit and break it into different sequences. I don't have any real hard-and-fast rules.  I'll get an idea halfway through the job to change the ending. It happened in the first two issues of RONIN. I've deleted major scenes or completely turned them around.

JIM: How have you adjusted to the longer story length, Frank?

FRANK: That's been what's excited me the most, Jim. It's allowing me to do so much more with the characters. I still favor, in the pacing of the stories, to get each scene as tight as I can, so there isn't any draggy excess. You know how it is when you watch a movie, and a scene goes on for a couple extra minutes you get bored.

DAK: Did you see CONAN, the movie? 

FRANK: Yeah. Like that. I still believe in cropping them, but every once in a while there's a moment that you really want to stretch out.   There's a scene in #2 where Ronin is beaten and left lying in the garbage, and I leave him there for two pages. It's something I might not feel free enough to do, if not for the longer page length, but it more thoroughly gets across the pain than it would otherwise. Also, there's simply room to do a great deal more and get deeper inside the characters. I can have a protagonist who doesn't talk hardly at all. I can show enough of his actions so that he becomes an understandable character, rather than a cardboard stand-up. Also, very simply, there's more plot. I can advance things much further.

DAK: RONIN is on Baxter paper? 

FRANK: Probably better than that. Each issue is 48 pages, with no ads. There are six issues.

DAK: And RONIN comes out- 

FRANK: Every six weeks. 

DAK: An odd publishing schedule. 

FRANK: I'm kind of charged up by the fact that we've worked out a format and publishing schedule around the creative needs of the project, and not vice versa. 

JIM: The sensible approach. 

FRANK: Yeah. We - Dick Giordano and I - worked out what this project had to be, to tell the story the best way.  We really worked out a production schedule and format to accommodate RONIN, specifically.  It's a much better way to do it.  That way I don't have ten extra pages to fill or not enough room to do what I want to.

DAK: Has DC had any input, Frank, or do they see each issue only when you finish it?

FRANK: I show it at various stages to Dick and we talk it over.  I'm being given an awfully free hand, which is very good, I think. I have the duties of editor, writer, artist, and that involves a lot of checking on myself. I'm not out in the world alone with this thing, but I do have the kind of autonomy that I really looked forward to having.  It's really encouraging, it's really exciting, it's very fulfilling all that, because it's my ass that's on the line. 

it's my ass that's on the line."

DAK: I know you became pretty good friends with Denny O'Neil when you were working on DAREDEVIL. Has he had any input on RONIN?

FRANK: It's funny, I haven't shown any of it to him, because both of us have been so busy with our different jobs. I intend to. My working with him on DAREDEVIL had a lot to do with me conceiving the RONIN project, because he was the one who encouraged me to study all that Eastern martial arts stuff.

JIM: What happens after the sixth issue? Is there a definite ending?

FRANK: There is a definite ending. 

JIM: Will there be more RONIN adventures after that?

FRANK: My feeling is that it's a contained, closed series.

JIM: You wouldn't want to do any more? 

FRANK: I don't think so. One of the things I like about a closed series like this is that it makes everything possible.  Heroes can become villains, anybody can die, or anybody can change, or anybody can retire, and I don't have to be bound to producing twelve issues of RONIN FAMILY next year.

DAK: You said something before the interview, Frank, about how the series has lots of changes in it, and people may think that it's one thing and find out it's another...

FRANK: Yeah.  That's one of the reasons why I'm reticent to talk about the plot at any great length, because many things change in the course of the series. I'm most interested in the development of the character across time. My main frustration with superhero comics, in general, is that fundamentally heroes can't change. Particularly, heroes that have been around a long time.  One of my frustrations with DAREDEVIL was that, no matter what I did to him, he still had to be Daredevil, he had to be the good guy, he couldn't do certain things. I couldn't push him right to the limit, I could never have him really be changed by anything.  In this case, I can do anything to these characters.  There's just no end to what can be done with them. And I have 300 pages to put them through everything that they can go through.

DAK: It's a self-contained novel,

FRANK: Yeah. 

JIM: Are there any plans for RONIN in any other media? 

FRANK: There are no plans, presently.

JIM: Would you like to see anything? 

FRANK: Well, I fluctuate a lot on that.

JIM: Probably not a Saturday morning cartoon...

FRANK: (Laughter.)  No, not a Saturday morning cartoon.  My feeling right now is that I'm really into it as a comic book, and I'm really into comics right now. Anything else is kind of unreal to me, as far as this series, because it was dreamed up to be a comic book. If it dreamed up to be a comic book. If it turns into something later, I hope it's done well.

DAK: Do you have any say in what might become of RONIN, if it were to go into other media?

FRANK: Some. I can't really go into that much, Dave.  The arrangement I have with DC is pretty involved.  I am satisfied that if anything did come of it I'd be closely consulted. 

DAK: Which issue of DAREDEVIL do you consider the best you've done? 

FRANK: I felt the last issue I did was the best of the series. I was very proud of it.

DAK: Did that sort of make your statement? 

Did you plan up to that point, knowing you were getting off the series?

FRANK: I sure knew by the last two that I was going fast, yeah. In fact, my feeling was that after #191, the one where he was in the hospital with Bulls-eye, he went home and hung up his costume, and went on to be a lawyer for the rest of his life. I really felt that that was the end of my involvement with the character. In my own head, he retired right then. I'm sure the people writing it now don't agree with me. (Laughter.) 

DAK: There's no chance of seeing you back at some point on DAREDEVIL? 

FRANK: No.

JIM: What are the things you hope to accomplish with RONIN, like the DAREDEVIL issues you're proud of? 

FRANK: I'm not uniformly proud of my work on DAREDEVIL. I gave it a sincere effort, straight through - but it was sort of a chaotic experience.  I came onto the book thinking I was doing a couple of fill-ins on the writing.  I ended up taking over the series, had a character who was only supposed to appear for an issue take over the series on me ---- Elektra.   A story came out of that that was very involved, but it wasn't all planned in advance, and it wasn't as carefully constructed in advance as the 1 RONIN book is. And because DAREDEVIL was part of a larger Marvel mythology, there were many limits as to what I could do with it. Also, much of my work on DAREDEVIL represents a very awkward, early period for me. Still, I gave it every ounce. And it had some moments. My goals in RONIN are mainly to get the story across, to make it as exciting as I can, as involving as I can, and also to hone my craft as much through it as I can. That's what I seek out of the project. However, I'd hope that it will be as experimental and and formative for me as DAREDEVIL was. In fact, I think it may be more so. 

"There is humor in RONIN. It's black."

JIM: You said that on the first and second issues of RONIN, even though this was the most tightly structured material you've worked on, halfway through each you changed the plots. What happens if you get halfway through the whole self-contained RONIN saga and you decide to change it? 

FRANK: Then I'll change it. 

DAK: Can you talk about what the ending for RONIN #1 was before? And why you changed it? 

FRANK: Oh, yeah. As it stood before, the story didn't build to quite such a crescendo. There was no explosion, no demon shot across the city. I'd planned a brief skirmish between the demon and the Ronin, from which Virgo rescued the Ronin. But, as I was working on that. sequence, I realized that I had been building and building tension across the story and hadn't done anything to re- lease it. The feeling of the story, as my hands were on it, was that it needed something big to happen there, some- thing to release the tension. And, as it turns out, this actually works out as not only a more dramatic scene, but as a much more visually exciting one. It's the appearance of the Ronin at the end that brings back the ominous tone, that builds the tension again.

You need to change tone, to change mood. Anything drama, tension, humor, you name it - can get tedious if it isn't contrasted with something else. Often the most effective scenes in a story come from playing humor off horror, or vice-versa. I'm much more in touch with this when I'm executing the story than when I'm plotting it. So I've taught myself to take liberties with my own material.

There is a brief scene in the middle of the story, where the Ronin saves a woman and a child. Originally, that scene was much longer. He had an episode with the woman and the child. It was kind of an adventure within an adventure. I found that, although it was rather a nice little story within the story, it was distracting. And, without offering anything integral to the plot, it broke the rhythm of the tension I was building across the story, so I deleted it which gave me more room to do the crescendo at the end.

DAK: At what point did you decide on the change after you'd written it or after you'd drawn it?

FRANK: While I was drawing it. Part- icularly at the beginning of a series, there's a lot of that.

DAK: Then you are, in fact, acting as an editor on your own work, having yourself make changes? 

FRANK: Yes. I rewrite and throw out pages all the time. The particular way I'm inking RONIN, I have to be really spontaneous, and when you work that way, it's easier to make mistakes. So, if it doesn't work out, I just toss it away and start over, and make it come out better the next time. That way the look is energetic and the artwork doesn't look too self-involved or constipated. 

JIM: I remember when you were pen- ciling DAREDEVIL, Frank, it took you a long time to do every page. Has this method of doing RONIN affected your speed?

FRANK: RONIN is taking longer to do than DAREDEVIL did. It's that much more important to me. DAREDEVIL was very important to me while I was doing it, but it wasn't as entirely mine as this. I created RONIN and I'm doing more of it than I did of DAREDEVIL. And I feel much more con- nected and committed. This product will have to sell itself. It hasn't got anything else bolstering it. It's not part of the Marvel mythology, it's not a previously established superhero char- acter. It's either going to sell for what it is, or it's not going to sell at all, so I'm much more aware of it.

DAK: And you are, indeed closely identified with the project. After all, it is FRANK MILLER'S RONIN.. 

FRANK: Right!

JIM: How do you like working here in a studio with other artists? 

FRANK: I like it.

DAK: Who all works here at Upstart Associates?

FRANK: Walt Simonson, Howard Chaykin and Jim Sherman. 

DAK: I've always envied artists, because at least if you're drawing you can talk to people while you work. But you absolutely can't get other verbal input while you're trying to write... 

"Writing is more intense, much harder...'

FRANK: Absolutely. You can't listen to any kind of music that involves lyrics at least, I can't. I know that some writers watch TV while they write. I don't understand how they do it. 

DAK: Neither do I.

FRANK: I sometimes listen to clas- sical music while I'm writing but, generally, writing is much more intense, I think, than doing anything else in this business. It's much more brain work, it's much harder, and it takes a lot longer. I can draw for twelve hours and feel okay, but if I write for six, my brain is completely fatigued.

JIM: When I write, even the hum of the electric typewriter can be too much of a distraction...

FRANK: That's called a good day! (Laughter.)

JIM: Having taken on so much with RONIN, from writer to penciler, are there any points where you feel you need someone to talk to?

FRANK: I suppose that's one of the reasons why I share work space with other artists. It's important to cross- pollinate, or even to just have someone impartial look at the stuff you've been sweating over. One of the reasons I'm glad to be working with Dick Giordano is that the discipline I'm newest at is inking, and I couldn't get better advice on the subject.

DAK: You said you were very much into comics now. Do you look at the other books?

FRANK: I'm very, very much into doing comics, Dave, but most of the comics I'm into aren't published over here. I've been looking at mostly the samurai stuff, and the work of Moebius, Bilai and all in Europe.

JIM: I've always felt Walt's stuff is terrific, but I think it loses a lot when someone else inks it, no matter how good that inker is. With that other identity superimposed over it, some- thing of the looseness is lost. I noticed with your RONIN that, although it doesn't look anything like Simonson's stuff, it has more of that quality of looseness that Walt's work has. Do you think that comes from working with him, unconsciously, or do you think it's because you're inking your own work?

FRANK: I don't know. I don't think there's much that Walter and I have in common as artists. I'm bound to have learned some things from him, because he's been doing it for so much longer than I have, and he does it so well. 

JIM: It's mostly that looseness. 

FRANK: That may come from just working on the material and thinking of it as drawing, rather than just penciling and inking. I still pencil first and then ink it, but I'm thinking from the start what the finished thing is going to look like. Instead of applying technique to drawing. My favorite kinds of artists are those like Nick Cardy and Joe Kubert, who obviously think in ink. 

DAK: And have an incredibly loose flow!

FRANK: Yeah. I got the idea of doing those free-hand borders from BATLASH. It's one of my favorite strips ever. Beautiful work.

DAK: I still have all my BAT LASH issues safely preserved..

"I'm working on becoming a cartoonist.."

FRANK: That's the kind of stuff I really get off on, much more than I do the super-slick stuff. What I get out of looking at pictures is emotion, move- ment, energy. I'm not really into pretty stuff.

DAK: Did you design the RONIN logo?

FRANK: Neal Posner came up with the idea for the logo. He showed it to me and I went ape-shit. It's the first comics logo I've ever seen with blood on it. (Laughter.)

JIM: The whole tone of RONIN, if I'm not mistaken, is very grim. When humor appears, it's very rare.. 

FRANK: There is humor in RONIN. But it's generally pretty black. What's interesting is that, as I've been getting into this grim, scary series, I've found myself investigating cartooning. I'm not talking about big foot cartoons here, though. I'm talking about the political work of Daumier, the caricature, the distortion of reality that the great cartoonists, and the early comic book artists, were into.

It seems that as comic books have gotten more and more into adventure, emphasizing the hero versus villain conflict, they've lost a lot of what makes cartooning work we've lost a lot of the texture and character that you find in old cartoons. Some of the old comics artists, like Jack Kirby, did terrific caricatures. That's an essential part of why his work, worked. Because of the particular atmosphere in RONIN, I'm finding the opportunity to get into the particular characters who are straight| caricatures of people who I know and things that I see. Because it is a science fiction story, it's removed from this particular time it's a little further away I can take what's around me and interpret it as much as I want to. Really, I'm working on becoming a cartoonist in more senses of the word than it is now. 

I'm trying to make the stuff very textural, and very lively, so while the context is essentially pretty grim, I think that in many ways RONIN is going to be pretty... well... bouncy. 

DAK: Even though you don't want to give away the plot, is there science fiction in RONIN?

FRANK: Yeah. It's there...

DAK:... for all you curious people out there!

JIM: You mentioned JIMBO before 

FRANK: That was YOJIMBO, the movie.

JIM: I thought you meant the underground comic..

FRANK: No, I wasn't talking about JIMBO, no. (Laughter.) 

JIM: Are you familiar with any of the underground stuff, like AMERICAN SPLENDOR?

FRANK: I've only seen a little bit of that, and read a few issues of RAW. I've seen some reprints, and some in French that were just knockouts.. by Samayo...

JIM: Is that the guy who did the Manhattan story in RAW? I really liked that.

FRANK: "Joe's Bar" is the name of it. 

JIM: For someone who's never been to New York City, that really captures the feeling. What have you been reading lately?

"I'm going to get it for RONIN this project has become an obsession.""

FRANK: I enjoy Stephen King, and I just recently read TIME AND AGAIN by Jack Finney. But mostly, for the past year or two, Jim, it's been samurai books. Anything I could find written about or by samurai, I've devoured. I've become addicted to the research. Most of it never appears in the final product, it just affects my attitude toward the character.  Especially since the actual samurai part of the RONIN adventure is only half of one issue. It was technically more research than I had to do, but it helped me put together my thoughts for the series. I'd say the research affected the writing much more than may be immediately obvious.

DAK: It helped in getting your head in the right place?

FRANK: Yeah. It gave me comparisons to make between past and present. That's important stuff. And plenty of detail on the samurai, which is essential. 

DAK: Even with comics, which in this country have relatively limited exposure compared to, say, television - it doesn't matter what you're writing about, there's always somebody out there-

FRANK: Who'll catch you with that soup ladle that wasn't right in thirteenth-century Prussia, or whatever. It's awful. In fact, I'm going to get it for RONIN, because I stylized the hell out of the costumes. I wanted the book to look historical, yet I wanted it to be modern enough so that the reader could read it without saying, "Look at those neat costumes." I take lots of liberties with the facts, and as always I catch mistakes after things go to press.  Little technical things. I know that from the number of times I got corrected about the way Elektra held her sai. (Laughter.)

DAK: Well, there's some cosmic law that says no matter how hard you work on anything, the second it comes back printed, that's when all of your mistakes will glare out at you. 

FRANK: No kidding!

JIM: Are you doing any other new projects?

FRANK: No, no stories outside of RONIN for now. I got off to a particularly slow start after months of negotiation on the series, and I've still got lots of time to gain on the schedule. 

DAK: After the popularity of  DAREDEVIL, you must have had lots of offers from people who were willing to publish Frank Miller... 

FRANK: Yeah. I haven't really felt insecure on that score, but this project has become an obsession. I work best when I'm completely involved.  When I was just doing DAREDEVIL and nothing else for a stretch of months there, I produced some of the better issues.  And with RONIN, it's going to take the same kind of toll on my time. I can't hop from project to project doing RONIN is almost like going off and writing a novel.

JIM: Would you like to write an actual novel?

FRANK: I don't know. Right now, I want to do comics.

DAK: I enjoyed your talking about how comics had evolved from political cartoons all the way to superhero comic-books. Speaking of antecedents, isn't it interesting that you're doing a comic-book novel, and it's being published the way Charles Dickens' material was first published. He did these big novels, but they, too, were serialized,and came out in installments. 

FRANK: I'd love to see the whole RONIN saga collected in one volume someday. That's what's so nice about  what's happening now: There are different formats and different printing schedules, all being adjusted to specific projects. To be speaking with a publisher or a potential publisher and have them say, "Well, what size and shape is your project and how many pages will it run, and how many installments will there be?" That's a brand new phenomenon. It's completely different and it's going to change the face of the comics industry here in the U.S.

JIM: Not only are you acting as editor, artist, and writer on RONIN - the the whole creative side but you're also taking care of the business side, too. 'How do you handle all that? 

FRANK: Not as well as I should. I've lost a lot of work time. I don't like doing business much. But it's a necessity right now. Because of the changing state of the industry, it's finally possible to make some of the changes in the business that should have been made a long time ago, 

And just enough of the people who have enough power people with enough clout in the marketplace and who are therefore valuable enough to the client are making changes happen that will benefit not only the talent in comics, but the companies as well, since comics will the companies as well, since comics will improve and sell more.   Everybody is going to win, if things go the way they should if the companies can learn to give up enough to make it worth our while, and if the freelancers can learn to value their own work enough to demand rights that are theirs the moment they do the work.

Unfortunately, there's still sizable resistance even among writers and artists. We've all been treated like children for so long that it feels to some like they're attacking mommy when they say "No, this is mine" about copyright, or whatever.  Keep in mind that the work-made-for-hire provision in the copyright law declares the client the author of the work, and you'll see how the pride that should be attached to creative work has been kept in check.

Fortunately, what changes have been made have so radically improved the freelancer's life - or at least made it possible to improve it - that even the most stuck-in-the-mud good soldiers are starting to get a better sense of their own value.

All of which doesn't change the fact that doing business is tiring, tedious, and frustrating.  And I don't get paid for it. But neither does Starlin or Englehart or Gerber.  What it constitutes is an investment of energy in my future and the quality of my life. So, in a way, I guess it does pay - eventually.

DAK: And, important as it is in causing the format of comics to change, it's unseen by the readers.

FRANK: Absolutely. It has to be. I don't ever want to become a public personality. The characters that I create  like RONIN  may be popular or hated or whatever.  But I don't want to be in front of the work. It's a very bad thing for people who do comics to start appearing in public too often and start becoming stage acts in and of themselves.  I think you can see what happens to people who hop from con to con, seeking applause. They either stop producing altogether or start eating their own tails, creatively. 

They follow an audience that doesn't know what it wants, trying to second guess fans who should be following them. I'm afraid of comics becoming as inbred and clubby as science fiction is, where authors read their books out loud before they're published, where the difference between artist and audience is faded, and where the product is uniformly predictable and unimaginative. 

Good work is not produced by a democracy, or a committee. 

It's produced by someone who does what satisfies himself, without living on reviews and applause. 

In comics, we aren't singers or dancers, so our physical appearance isn't part of what we sell. 

We, ourselves, are not the product. 

The only thing we should be selling is the story.

[NOTE: “YOJIMBO is a superhero story. It's an adventure about a man who can do extraordinary things.” , “YOJIMBO” refers to the 1961 film of the same name, that stars Toshiro Mifune, and is directed by Akira Kurosawa.   A Masterless Samurai (a rōnin), arrives in a One-Dog town, divided by two rival criminal gangs who are fighting for supremacy. The Rōnin manipulates each of the gangs bosses to hire him as a Yojimbo (a body-guard).   Both the Japanese samurai film directed by Akira Kurosawa, and its leading actor Toshiro Mifune are to this day regarded as unrivalled. ]

[NOTE: “KOZURE OKAMI” Translated from the Japanese means “A WOLF AND HIS CUB”. (aka Lone Wolf and Cub.). To quote Miller in 1983; “The artist and writer do a better job of storytelling than anything I've seen here in the U.S. Period.”  - The Artist is Goseki Kojima, and the Writer is Kazuo Koike, in this collaboration of Manga.]

[NOTE: To quote Miller in 1983; “I can read 250 pages, not knowing Japanese, and never get confused, because the visual storytelling is so perfect.”. Using this as high praise in an example of Goseki Kojima's artwork in Manga, highlights the difference in visual storytelling to Western American comic-books at that time, they were text heavy, with pages of dialogue, thoughts, and narration to move the story along.   To further emphasise of this is Miller saying “I can have a protagonist who doesn't talk hardly at all. I can show enough of his actions so that he becomes an understandable character, rather than a cardboard stand-up.”]

[NOTE: To quote Miller in 1983; “KOZURE OKAMI has never been translated into English” - Miller's future self four years later would play an integral part in the First translated reprint entitle 'Lone Wolf and Cub', that was released in May of 1987; by First Comics (64 pages, one per month) with 45 issues of 'Lone Wolf and Cub',  published out of a possible 140 to 150 issues that would have completed the story. - First Comics closed down in 1991, and to my knowledge 'Lone Wolf and Cub' was their only manga title.   Comic-book publisher 'Dark Horse' holds the English\American rights, and still publishes it, as of 2025.]

[NOTE:“I've got Lynn Varley coloring the book. “, and in the future Lynn Varley would also collaborate in Frank Miller's 12 covers for 'Lone Wolf and Cub'.]

[NOTE: In issue #55 of the First Comics newsletter 'FIRST EDITION', printed in March 1987 featuring comic-books to be on sale in May of 1987, we are told “THE ULTIMATE SAMURAI ADVENTURE! With Full-Color Covers by Frank Miller”, “for the first twelve issues”. And as printed on the front cover of issue ONE of  'Lone Wolf and Cub', we read;  “Introduction by FRANK MILLER”.] 

[NOTE: In issue #52 (1987) of DAVID ANTHONY KRAFT's COMICS INTERVIEW its main feature was the release of First Comics' Lone Wolf and Cub, and all those involved.]

Issue #52 (1987) of DAVID ANTHONY KRAFT's COMICS INTERVIEW.

[NOTE: Denny O'Neil (editor, for Marvel Comics) who Frank Miller worked for on DAREDEVIL, that by January 1981 on issue #168, Miller had full duties as writer and penciller on DAREDEVIL, and later as writer and layout artist by the story's end in February 1983. To Quote Miller “Denny O'Neil “, "was the one who encouraged me to study all that Eastern martial arts stuff.", so we have Denny O'Neil to THANK.]

[NOTE: "An example of how applicable samurai thinking is to the modern world is that THE BOOK OF FIVE RINGS, which is considered the final word on the samurai, written by the greatest samurai, Musashi, is used by Japanese businessmen to develop business tactics."    The business tactics of the Japanese were clashing with the U.S. way of doing business, a mainstream exaple of this in the 1986 Holywood film 'Gung Ho'  - When a Japanese company buys an American automobile plant, there is a clash of work attitudes between the Japanese management and American workers.   And an example within RONIN is;  "A very prominent character is Casey, a corporate cop, who is essentially a modern-day samurai. Her loyalty to the corporation is like that of a samurai to his lord."  this type of  business loyalty would be portrayed in the 1993 Holywood film 'Rising Sun', with such moive tag-lines as "A battle between tradition and power. Business is war."]

[NOTE: “I'd love to see the whole RONIN saga collected in one volume someday.” Well maybe not considered a book per 'sa, but the TPB (trade paperback), or Graphic novel did get printed...1987.] 

[NOTE: When Miller speaks of "This isn't going to be the KUNG FU TV show. ", I believe he is referring to the 1972 to 1975 TV series (The adventures of a Shaolin monk, wondering in the Wild West, fighting injustice with philosophy, and his hands and feet) – believed to be taken from a concept from BRUCE LEE.]

[NOTE: When in RONIN, a character's dialogue issues "Y'BETTER SCOOT NIPPO." this derogatory term helps you imagine the Dystopian Manhattan of the future. ] 

Issue #2,1983 

DAVID ANTHONY KRAFT's COMICS INTERVIEW© 

Frank Miller.

Issue #2,1983 

DAVID ANTHONY KRAFT's COMICS INTERVIEW© 

Issue #2,1983 

DAVID ANTHONY KRAFT's COMICS INTERVIEW© 

Frank Miller.

Issue #2,1983 

DAVID ANTHONY KRAFT's COMICS INTERVIEW© 

Frank Miller.

Issue #2,1983 

DAVID ANTHONY KRAFT's COMICS INTERVIEW© 

Frank Miller.

Issue #2,1983 

DAVID ANTHONY KRAFT's COMICS INTERVIEW© 

Frank Miller.

Issue #2,1983 

DAVID ANTHONY KRAFT's COMICS INTERVIEW© 

Frank Miller.

Issue #2,1983 

DAVID ANTHONY KRAFT's COMICS INTERVIEW© 

Frank Miller.

Issue #2,1983 

DAVID ANTHONY KRAFT's COMICS INTERVIEW© 

Frank Miller.

Issue #2,1983 

DAVID ANTHONY KRAFT's COMICS INTERVIEW© 

Frank Miller.

*********

What follows is the full text of the printed Interview with Marvel's representative for the Orient, GENE PELC (May 1983).

DAVID ANTHONY KRAFT's COMICS INTERVIEW©

Issue #3, May 1983.

INTERVIEW with MARVEL's GENE PELC.

MERCHANDISING   GENE PELC

"We had 52 episodes (of) a Japanese live-action version of Spider-Man, all new."

VITAL STATISTICS

Name: Gene Pelc.

Occupation: Marvel representative for the Orient.

Residence: Toyko, Japan. Born: Queens, N.Y.

Outstanding Achievement: I can eat raw fish without throwing up.

Wearing his trademarks dark sunglasses with a gray business suit- and looking a lot like the third Blues Brother, Gene Pelc took time out from a last-minute blitz of business meetings in Manhattan to discuss Marvel's Japanese merchandising before flying back to the Land of the Rising Sun...

I was in radio for a lot of years, and there were always young guys jumping from one station to another, looking to get into show business and the big time. I decided to get out of that silly, immature business into a real man's business - so I got into comics.   You have to realize that was sarcastic. 

I represent Marvel East and Marvel West in both the TV and animation facilities, licensing comics and doing anything that we can in Japan.

In the animation division, we are doing all the new SPIDER-MAN episodes for NBC. We did twenty-six for syndication.   I oversee and coordinate what we do at the studio, which is taking the shows from layouts to camera there. 

I am also acquiring properties in Japan to be used in America and trying to put together some  co-productions.

One product that I just acquired is a war film called 198X FUTURE WAR. We'll have to change the title, but it's a one-hundred-thirty minute animation concerning what everybody today is afraid of: The accidental nuclear war. It's a very realistically done animation film. We're hoping to get people like Simon and Garfunkel, Paul McCartney - people with broad spectrum appeal but with anti-nuclear credentials to create a music-track for this film. If you've seen that film, like I have, in the screening room, you know it'd be the greatest thing in the world to end the thing with "Give Peace a Chance." L.A. is now working to create a new voice and music track, and then make a deal with a major distributor.

Here, on this side of the world, I try to license Marvel's properties, merchandising of comics, anything between the U.S. and Japan, and also Korea. We just opened up Korea. It has a huge, growing market. 

 Over in Japan, I've been re-responsible for 208 live-action half-hour TV shows we've been on the air with the Marvel copyright, the Marvel concept and the Marvel characters, four years in a row... starting with SPIDER-MAN, which began roughly four-and-a-half years ago. We had him on for fifty-two episodes. This was a Japanese live-action version of Spider-Man, all new, all re-shot, all scripted over there.

You won't be seeing them here, though, because of Marvel's commitment to Columbia. They had a live-action show. So the territory is limited to Japan. We're controlling the territories because the Japanese market is so big but so different. Mostly what we do is cut off the Japanese market as a territory and then we make film in Japan, for Japan, but we don't let it out because it would conflict with other shows that are going on.

We did something called BATTLE FEVER J, which is a concept based on THE AVENGERS, in that you had superheroes from different countries: Captains France, Kenya, Russia and Japan - and Miss America. Originally, we wanted Miss America leading the team, but we couldn't do that in Japan, so Captain Japan became the leader.

I found that it was much easier, once we had done a lot of Japanese programs, to come up with new concepts based more closely on what the Japanese are viewing, rather than just taking Marvel characters and re-doing them. At that point, we started getting into creative new stuff, and we did fifty-three episodes of DENJI MAN - about a year of that.

The latest one, called SUN VULCAN, is technically our best product. We did fifty-two episodes. I just talked to Stan Lee about a half hour ago and he is so in love with the program. He said that in all his experience of writing for people, if they could see this show in America on Saturday morning, it would wipe out anything because it's full of action and very entertaining. He's trying to sell this to an American network, HBO, anyone who buys films.

He can sell it as is with a new voice track, or take the prints and cut out the parts where Japanese actors appear, which is about one-third of the film, re- shoot that with American actors, and cut back to the show with the special effects and opticals and visuals, thus creating a series that looks American.

Those are the things I'm proudest of. We also did a DRACULA two-hour animated movie film, which was based on the original Tom Palmer - Gene Colan concept. We changed it a lot and adapted it for the Japanese market.

I've mentioned the live-action and animated stuff, but I should mention the things I've done in comic books, too.

What I'm most personally proud of is the concept of the POPE comic. I was in Tokyo when I heard that Pope John Paul II was going to take a trip to Japan. I happened to know a Polish priest and he came up with a way for me to meet the Pope. I had a chance to very briefly say hello.

That's when the idea occurred to me how about a POPE comic! The ST. FRANCIS book was a tremendous, successful comic for Marvel.

The Polish priest put me in touch with Father Malinski, who is a life-long friend of the Pope. He grew up with him, visits with him all the time at the Vatican, and is the official biographer of the Pope. He's written nine or ten books about his life.

So, I met with Father Malinski and showed him the ST. FRANCIS book and we discussed the possibility of doing the POPE comic. He apparently conferred with the Pope and his people, came back to my house the next day, and said that the Pope was willing to do it if he wrote the script. I brought Father Malinski into New York. The Father brought all his books, all the European books, plus pictures of the Pope when he was a child, of his family and home. I honestly believe the POPE comic will be the largest selling comic of all time. We're going to do ST. THERESA next.

As for how I'd describe my occupation I actually do very little, I just confuse everybody so much they can't do without me.

[NOTE: Gene Pelc tells us, that from the late 1970s, and up to the 1983 time of the interview, 'MARVEL' was adapting their comic-book intellectual property for the Japanese market, as animation, and live-action, as well as adapting Toei Animation fo the North American market.]  

[NOTE: Gene Pelc, informs us that "I can eat raw fish without throwing up", this does show how attitudes and learned behaviors and beliefs about Sushi, & Sashimi (raw fish dishies) have changed in the West - June 2025.]

[NOTE: NO USE OF THE WORDS "Anime", or "Japanimation", or "Manga" when refering to Japanese animation and comic books feature in this interview. MAY 1983,]

[A SIDE-NOTE: This issue of  DAVID ANTHONY KRAFT's COMICS INTERVIEW - Issue #3 (May 1983), did have a Letters Page called "LAST WORD" (and was the reason I bought the magazine on Spec), on pages; 61, 62, 65, 66 - all the letter were about Issue #1, and not Issue #2 as I had hoped.]

[NOTE:  Gene Pelc states having "just acquired is a war film called 198X FUTURE WAR" (aka; Future War 198X, Future War 1986.)  I have yet to find the 1982\1983 English dub that Gene Pelc tells us about! (as of 09/June/2025). ]

[NOTE:  The Japanese live-action version of SPIDER-MAN (Supaidâman) (  ), TV Series had 41 episodes acording to IMDB, spanning 1978–1979.   52 episodes is what Gene Pelc states, about four and a half years on!]

[NOTE: The Japanese live-action BATTLE FEVER J (Batoru Fîbâ Jei), TV Series had 52 episodes spanning 1979–1980, acording to IMDB.]

[NOTE: The Japanese live-action DENJI MAN (Denshi Sentai Denjiman), TV Series had 51 episodes spanning 1980–1981. ]

[NOTE: The Japanese live-action SUN VULCAN (Taiyô sentai Sanbarukan) TV Series had 50 episodes spanning 1981–1982. ]

 [NOTE: Gene Pelc states; "We also did a DRACULA two-hour animated movie", IMDB has it listed as 'Yami no teiô kyuketsuki dorakyura', adaptation of the Tomb of Dracula comic book series, Running 1h 34m.   Also Note that IMDB lists; Kyofu densetsu: Kaiki! Furankenshutain as another Japanese adaptation of Marvel's "The Monster of Frankenstein" comic book series.] 

[NOTE:  Pope John Paul II, visits Japan, from 23–26 February 1981; Tokyo, Hiroshima, Nagasaki.   THE LIFE OF POPE JOHN PAUL II #1; Was a ONE-SHOT Mavel Issue, with Cover Art by JOHN TARTAGLIONE. Printed in 1982.]

*********

Issue #3, May 1983.

Issue #3, May 1983.

INTERVIEW with MARVEL's GENE PELC.

*********

Issue #4, COMICS INTERVIEW June 1983.

[NOTE:  I was interested to see if any follow up reviews of issue 2's DAVID ANTHONY KRAFT's COMICS INTERVIEW© with Frank Miller, and his thought behind the comic "RONIN" , and if the manga of "Lone Wolf and Cub" were sitetd in any of the 'Letters Page'? - .]

Issue #4, June 1983.

DAVID ANTHONY KRAFT's COMICS INTERVIEW© 

Issue #4, June 1983.

DAVID ANTHONY KRAFT's COMICS INTERVIEW© 

Left; FIRST COMICS ADD. "AMERICAN FLAG"

Right; Page 61 "LAST WORD" Letters page,

Left;  ADD. "OMNIVERSE"

Right; Page 65 "LAST WORD" Letters page,

Left;  ADD. Kitchen Sink Press "THE SPIRIT"

Right; Page ADD for Baltimore's Comicbook & fanzines Subscriptions;

(an overview of comic books, and special interest magazines, and publishers, and their titles.) 

[NOTE: Fan Magazines, to look out for; Comic Fandom's Feature, Comics Feature, Comic Informer, Comics Journal, Comic Reader, Comic Scene, Fanfare, AND; SPECIAL EFFECTS MAGAZINES; Cinema (British), Fangoria, Fantasy Modeling, Starburst (British), Starlog.] 

[NOTE: ECLIPSE COMICS and FIRST COMICS, would pioneer Manga in English in 1987.]

'THE ALL PURPOSE GENERIC LETTERS PAGE!'

https://t-a-p-generic-letters-page.blogspot.com/