Comic Book Creator # 44 July 2026 (magazine review)
This issue of ‘Comic Book Creator’ starts off with the first of a three-part interview by Glen Cadigan with writer Joe Hill. For those who don’t know, Hill has a famous writer father in Stephen King but didn’t want to get a leg-up by that association. Getting his big break took time and he started off writing for comicbooks and even that took time. Hill also had four failed books during the same time. He relates not only his love of comicbooks with his brother in a shared collection but also raising a family. I’m surprised Cadigan didn’t ask where his income came from for the latter but there are two parts to go.
Last issue, we had an interview with Jack Katz’ son about his father. Here, we have the first of a two-part interview with Katz himself by Ted Jalbert. This is largely his growing up in New York, mixing with the talent we all recognise today and getting his own career started in comicbooks, although his background was painting. A lot of it was ghosting and across many firms as he made his own name for himself.
Artist David Mack’s art has a Sienkiewicz look and belongs to that order of artwork. He explains to Darrick Patrick that his ‘Kabuki’ series changed with every volume. I did look his work up but considering the prices the individual volumes costs, the complete set from Dark Horse looks cheaper.
An interview by Anthony Taylor with the late Dave Cockrum about his work designing for Aurora model kits shows some of his design work. It does show a problem from 1976 in that the holding company didn’t really know what to do with their modelling arm.
In the early days of 1960s American comicbook fandom, Bernie Bubnis lived in New York and saw it as an opportunity to do interviews with various people in the industry. Reading them here, even he says there was a certain amount of naivety in his approach but achieved several pieces which are included here and give some remarkable insights into the likes of Jack Kirby, Joe Giella, Mike Sekowsky, Julius Schwartz, Carmine Infantino, Flo Steinberg and Steve Ditko.
Of course, the biggest item here is a radio interview transcript by Ken Gale and Ed Menja with Carmine Infantino from 2000. Much of his history as an artist and chief editor at DC Comics should be familiar but it is also combined with a lot of art as well. The detail on why he was sacked on the second job clearly shows his own bosses that they knew nothing about keeping a stock presence on the shelves when Marvel Comics was the preferred buy. Objectively, it was the right move but the I suspect the real problem was not having enough good material at short notice. Had this happened later when a theme like ‘Crisis On Infinite Earths’ or even the death of Superman that would have gotten into the international media, things might have been different.
There are always a lot of material in ‘Comic Book Creator’, so I’m only picking the highlights.
GF Willmetts
July 2026
(pub: TwoMorrows Publishing. 82 page illustrated magazine. Price: $10.95 (US). ISSN: 401-783-1689. Direct from them, you can get it for $10.95 (US))
check out websites: www.TwoMorrows.com and https://twomorrows.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=98_132&products_id=1852&zenid=8f136rrj8fj7jf0ghnciig4t94
