By Erwin Rafael  Dan Fraga: It's actually the first time that I've worked on a monthly. I am very excited and ready to prove myself.ER: Black Panther has long been a critics' darling, not only because of its writing but also because of impressive art stints by the likes of Mark Texiera, Joe Jusko and Sal Velluto. How did you land this Black Panther gig? Do you feel any pressure being selected as the lead artist for this "relaunch"? DF: It was a blessing that I was asked to draw Panther really. I was in the right place at the right time. Thanks to the Mike's for that. I look at this book as a great way to learn and improve my craft. No pressure. I respect all of the great talents that came before me. ER: Can you describe for us your stylistical approach to Black Panther? How does your work in Black Panther compare to your previous works in books like Gear Station, Supreme, and Wolverine? DF: I'd have to say that it's more cinematic and a lot more thought out. I have a new found appreciation for nuance and staging that I really wasn't keen to earlier in my career. I’m trying to apply everything that I've learned over the last ten years. ER: Without getting spoilery and such, can you give us a hint of how this new direction would feel like? Why should people who never read Black Panther before check out issue #50? DF: Priest knows how to do it. He's a genius. This is quite the ride that people will love if they've read Panther before or not. He stays faithful to his writing style and still manages to add even more gunpowder to the mix. ER: Thanks, Dan! Any final words you want to share to readers of this primer? DF: Thanks for giving Panther and me a chance. Both Larry Stucker and I are giving it our all and we thank you for letting us bring it to you. ER: It's been quite a while since Black Panther operated as a regular member of the Avengers. What prompted you to include him in your lineup?  GJ: I love his book and I love the character. To me he should be one of the main Avengers.ER: Without getting too specific, what role does the Black Panther play in your Avengers? GJ: Unknown quantity… for now. He'll actually cause quite a stir in the team. ER: There is a promise of a new direction and huge changes for Black Panther in the pages of his own book, starting with issue #50. Would your stories in Avengers reflect those changes as well? GJ: We'll be keeping with what's going on, yes. ER: On another note, outgoing Black Panther inker Bob Almond seemed very excited that he and outgoing penciller Sal Velluto would be working with you on a "prestigious yet unrevealed DC assignment." Care to shed some light on why Bob is getting all giddy? GJ: Can't say what it is yet -- but it's cool. ER: Well, I guess that's all for now, Mr. Johns. Any final words you may want to share to readers of this Black Panther #50 primer? GJ: Black Panther's year is next year - get on the bandwagon while you can!  ER: Good day, Bob! Let's start by talking about the title to which you have been most identified for the past few years. Black Panther #49 would be coming out soon, which would mark the end of your run with Sal Velluto on this critically-acclaimed series. How would you describe your experience with BP for the past three years?Bob Almond: Our 3 year run was passionate. It was the most memorable and fun experience I have ever had doing comics in my ten years in the biz. Without a doubt. This is due to a few reasons. One being that as a Marvel fan and with Avengers being my favorite title since the age of 9 (I have every issue of every volume), working on a great character like Black Panther is the next best thing to a personal dream project. Another reason is that Priest, after BP's 32 years of existence at that point, breathed new life, a new spin into the character. He wrote him as a prime MU player and first tier character. All the while respecting the history of the guy. I felt proud to be a part of this fresh, sophisticated and brilliant approach to T'Challa.  Lastly, creatively I contributed more on this run than on any work I'd ever worked on before. Besides obvious inkwork, of which Sal allows me quite a bit of freedom and generously utilizes some of my art ideas and requests in the art and covers, I acted as unofficial continuity cop when the need arose. I was the colornotes liaison with Jennifer Schellinger, our phenomenal color artist. I supplied quite a bit of research and reference due to my knowledge of useless Marvel trivia and available library of all things comic, and Priest respected my email feedback from time to time to actually use some requests of mine pertaining to the stories' content. How could I not get pumped about all of that?! As a creative team I couldn't ask for two more talented and respectful professional artists to create with, along with letterer Paul Tutrone, Jennifer, and our various editors. Together we had the incredible synergy to produce work to really be proud of. I hope the work will stand on its own and be remembered over time. ER: Well, that certainly was a very passionate response! I guess it'd be an understatement to say that you'd miss working on BP. BA: Yes. Anyone who's spoken to me at store signings and conventions know full well what I'm like when they pick the right subject to discuss such as Panther. I just gush with enthusiasm and then they spend the next hour trying to shut me off. [laughs] ER: Since we're already playing with nostalgia, was there any particular "highlight" moment you find most unforgettable during your BP run? A favorite issue perhaps? BA: OK, you asked for it...!  I hold issue 23 pretty close to my heart since we got to do a full feature Avengers appearance in it, something I'd been clamoring for. It's the only original cover art I ever got back that I wouldn't sell and I must thank Sal and Tom Smith for giving me the preliminary sketches and the colorguide to it as gifts upon my pestering.Other highlight issues (there's no way to narrow it down to one): #17, "Uptown", the '70s Marvel blaxploitation issue with all the fun guests and villains (except for the Robocop suit Falcon had to wear to accommodate the Avengers animated series at the time). Most of "Sturm Und Drang"- during this arc I was experiencing one of the worst periods of my private life but in contrast we were working on perhaps the best arc of our run. Fave moments here: all the MU leaders and royalty having the most realistic battle of egos in Luke Charle's classroom without a fist thrown, Panther giving Namor a great right hook, and KLAW, KLAW KLAW! I pleaded with Priest to use him but he was hesitant not to fall into that 'BP vs. Klaw' mode too many writers have fallen into instinctively in the past. He waited until the moment was right and finally relented and used him, which made my year. #31-33- for Man-ape!! Another classic nemesis I begged Priest to use and he thought I was crazy! Until, like with Klaw, he saw Sal's brilliant revamped designs and the positive reader reactions!  #36 & 37- "The Once and Future King"- this was originally intended as a BP annual while Ruben Diaz was editor but Marvel later decided a Panther annual was not viable sales-wise. For months I had been letting Priest know that T'Challa's 35th anniversary was coming up. He finally was able to fit this arc in where he wanted with issue 36 to celebrate the event (#34 was the actual anniversary if anyone cares). And to top it all off, we got most of the Jungle Action rogues and even the 100-page Monster treatment, something else I'd been pleading for and had been told for months that it just wouldn't happen. And finally Priest and editor Mike Marts made it happen. 36 & 37 was the impossible made possible!All the Kirbyesque characters used in "Enemy of the State 2". Originally, Priest and Marts planned to pull in another artist for these parts of the story. Sal and I said we could pull it off and it was then handed to us. We looked over the Jack Kirby/Mike Royer run from the '70s and it all just poured out of us. The 'Kirbypalooza' issue, 43, was just too much fun! And the biggest highlight of this arc was when Priest was quoted at usenet saying: "Happy Pants (TM) was inspired by inker Bob Almond's almost constant requests for Panther nostalgia." Whoa. Lastly, issue 49, our goodbye book. Besides a cameo of Venomm I asked Sal to sneak in, we were able to design, for the first time ever, the Wakandan national banner, something I stalked Sal about designing and trying to stick into the last several months worth of issues but he never found the right opportunity until Priest coincidentally requested it in this issue at the end! Plus, we got to say goodbye and personally thank everyone in the lettercol for all their support. ER: You sneaked in Venom in issue #49? Now I know why Priest sometimes thinks you're crazy!  BA: Yeah, but not Eddie Brock. That was not a typo. Venomm (with two 'm's) was one of Killmonger's subordinates in the "Panther's Rage" epic from Jungle Action who reformed and befriended T'Challa and became an ally to Wakanda. He was last seen in Panther’s Prey and Deathlok around 10-15 years ago, except for that alternate future version seen in "The Once and Future King". It made sense to me that he would get involved with the big event that occurs in issue 49 to help T'Challa. But he's only a visual treat for older BP fans and if you blink you'll miss him. New readers do NOT need to know or recognize him AT ALL to understand and enjoy the actual story.ER: Uhm… so it's Venomm, not Venom. I'll be watching out for that. [laughs] Anyway, your passion showed a lot in your work, and you really had very good synergy with Sal Velluto. I noticed that another avenue where your passion really showed was in the way you went out to the public to promote Black Panther personally. Now, we got to know each other back when I was promoting my Black Panther contest, and I have to say that promoting BP can be very rewarding but, ironically, very frustrating as well. Did you feel the same way when you did your own promotion for this title? BA: As I'd commented at length on Comicboards BP message board, Sal and I knew that sales were a problem factor from our first issue. The cancellation concern was always in the air even if not ever officially mentioned at Marvel. Ironically, we never thought our time with the title would be a long-term one. But we tried to be positive and not dwell on the uphill battle. I did the convention circuit, store signings, and, along with Priest, I spent a lot of my spare time on-line at message board forums to always convert new recruits and thank our loyal supporters. After awhile we realized that the title's sales stopped hemorrhaging and were actually stabilized. This was around "Sturm Und Drang", an arc that got fandom's attention and added to our sales numbers. Thanks to Marvel's effort and support (like adding BP to the subscription service, house ads, and adding a BP support page temporarily to their website), as well as the positive reviews and columns, Squiddy awards, and critical-acclaim and buzz, we felt more secure as we entered the '30s and I'd like to think my efforts were partially a factor as well because that would be SO rewarding.  It wasn't until that cover price situation in the early '40s where this worry resurrected itself again. Sales weren't down but, in my opinion, "Enemy 2" wasn't as sales building as we'd all hoped. But Joe promised another year to our title, along with Spider-Girl and Captain Marvel (pre-U-DECIDE), so we figured we were safe up to issue 54. Little did we know that the TITLE was safe until then, not US.ER: It's really sad since you and Velluto pretty much defined the look for this incarnation of the Black Panther. But I guess that's just part of the reality of doing work-for-hire. BA: I learned the hard way in the early to mid-'90s when the industry was going to hell that you don't put all your eggs in one basket and get too settled making any one title or editor or publisher your home. I've learned to enjoy what you got while you're doing it but, at the same time, to have an outlook where you never expect your stay somewhere to be very long with all the creative turnover that occurs these days. This way your whole world doesn't get pulled out from under you suddenly and you find yourself bitter, shell-shocked and with weak prospects. Sal and I are always mentally prepared to move on if need be. But at the same time, as Priest and company knew, we were hardly eager to go. Had changes not been made we would've stayed with Priest for another 3 years of tales yet to tell. All good things must end. C'est la vie! ER: Well, now that you're in the "cheap seats" once again, what can you say about the little tidbits about Black Panther #50 that has been shown to us so far? Are you excited? BA: I saw the preview art a few weeks before the fan community did as well as a few other pages but I haven't seen any more than you did since then. It's definitely quite different in look from what we were doing and will probably give the title a fresh, start-from-scratch platform for new readers to jump on. And ain't those Kubert covers nifty! I wish the new team the best of luck and longevity. As for being excited, well, yes and no. Obviously I'm not excited about now being out of the loop and not in the front seat with Priest to see where he's going since I don't have the scripts to read any more. But, at the same time, for the first time in 3 years, I'm putting my 'reader' cap back on and ENJOYING being out of the loop and trying to figure out what the heck Priest is doing and, as the fans know, that's half the fun when reading Panther. ER: So now that you have finished your tour of duty with Black Panther, what does the future hold for Bob Almond? Are you and Velluto still sticking together for coming projects? BA: Yes, the Sal & Bob show hops over to DC on its next stop. In fact I just got my first pages to ink for that assignment this week. But it's still way too premature for me to spill the beans since it's not even scheduled to ship until around mid-2003. All I can say is that Geoff Johns and David Goyer write it and we think y'all are gonna really dig it. Sal and I also have another new project in development with another popular publisher just about set in stone but I'll leave it at that until things are a definite go so I don't go and curse anything. [laughs] ER: Geoff Johns and David Goyer? Sounds like a JSA-related project… but I won't delve into that because, as you said, we might jinx your future projects. Well, before we end this interview, let me confirm one thing first. There are rumors spreading around that you and Sal would still be working with Christopher Priest on a future project. Any truth to this rumor? BA: Anything is possible for the future. Why don't we leave it at that. ER: And we WILL leave it at that. Thanks for your time, Bob!!! Any final words to the people reading this interview? BA: Just that I hope the readers enjoyed the Black Panther ride while Sal and I were at the artistic helm. Stay tuned for the next ride. It's guaranteed to be full of more thrills and excitement! We'll keep you posted. |
