Legion World Forums LEGION CLUBHOUSE The Legion of Super-Heroes Visionaries of Tomorrow New Jim Shooter Interview!!

In which he reveals that

A) Ferro Lad was originally meant to black

B) the Twolf Lotus fruit story would today be credited as being the first comic to deal with drugs but Brin's drug addiction was majorly watered down after the story was rejected by the comic's code.

Read it all here: http://www.silverbulletcomicbooks.com/conceptual/

Although this interview doesn't cover new ground, it's always interesting to read a Shooter interview, so thanks for pointing this out, Shadow Kid.

If you look at SBC.com's home page, you'll see one of the scariest photos of Jim Shooter yet. I'm going to have nightmares from looking at that photo.

He sounds a lot less bitter in this interview than in others I've read. Maybe the nature of the questions is different. Maybe the second half will start touching raw nerves. Or maybe it's a matter of getting him at the right moment.

The problem with Shooter's reputation is that comic book fans tend to believe everything said by someone who's work they like, whether it's the truth or not. John Byrne hated Shooter, Byrne sold like hotcakes, therefore there were hundreds of thousands of people who believed whatever Byrne said about him. To this day, I have yet to hear a fan who has actually met the man say anything negative about him. The fact that he did an interview with a 19 year old who's just starting his own column speaks volumes, I think.

I never got the impression that Shooter was "bitter" in the interviews I've read. I felt he came across as "defensive" (less so in this interview but definitely in the other interviews I've read). He does try to put himself in the best light possible (and who wouldn't?).

I read recently in either Lying in the Gutters or All The Rage or something that the rumor is that Shooter's working under the table with Marvel. I guess that might mellow him out some.

It seems like there should be some room for him somewhere in the world of comics. I guess he pissed off a lot of people but as far as I'm concerned his tenure at Marvel was really fruitful. I was able to make heads from tails in the MU when I was a kid, and I don't know if I could say that now.

At the time, he seemed like a big, nasty dictator. My first San Diego trip, at the height of the Kirby art/credit controversy, everyone was wearing buttons of a quote attibuted to Shooter, presumably talking about fans, "We could trick the little f---ers," or something to that effect.

In retrospect, while he was a convenient villain at the time, he is also a talented writer and creater (Secret Wars excepted), and deserves another shot.