In considering the most influential and important comic book artists of all time, Todd Abbot's name is never far from the top of anyone's short list—indeed many of today's industry professionals wouldn't hesitate to call him simply the best there ever was. Few artists of his calibre contemplate and study the art form as intensely—and with such obvious love for the form—as our passionate (and often, angry) interview subject, Todd Abbot. Our DFG ONLINE staff reporter, Bob Barnes had the pleasure of interviewing the artist in his Modular home in February 2008. The first part of this serialized interview is presented below:
DFG On-line: Todd, you were in on the early days of DFG. Can you tell us how you came to the company?
Todd Abbot: Well, as I recall, it was about 1982, and I was still a student in art college looking for a part-time job to break into the industry, trying to fill out my portfolio, and build up my resume. An acquaintance told me about DFG and set me up for an interview with DFG president & publisher, Dan Graves. It was around the time that DFG was first expanding, you’ll remember those days…
DFG-OL: Actually, that was a bit before my time…
TA: Oh, yes, well – when you get to be a giant like me, you forget that not everyone else has been around so long. Anyway, Dan was basically snatching up a whole bunch of small presses. Even Captain Nepto started out under a different publisher, Darryl Andrews’ DTA Comics, before it was published under the DFG label. Dan was very aggressive and was on a spending spree. He snatched up DTA, SPM, Superb and a few others – I can’t remember them all – and consolidated a whole bunch of their characters and titles under the DFG banner. In the process, Capt. Nepto creator Darryl Andrews came on as co-publisher and vice-president of DFG and eventually became so consumed in his management responsibilities that he had less time to draw. He needed some help on the Capt. Nepto books and basically, I was brought on to help out Darryl. At the time Dan was inking a lot of Darryl’s stuff to keep things on track in terms of our publishing schedule. Dan was really too busy, too, what with running the company and jet-setting around the world, so I started doing some of the backgrounds, eventually took over much of the inking, and pretty soon Darryl was only drawing heads and faces and I was doing pretty much everything else. I was really “ghosting” for Darryl when all was said and done.
DFG-OL: You say, “ghosting,” but I’ve seen your name on many of those early issues…
TA: After the legal disputes began, Dan & Darryl went back and credited me on a chunk of my work. They just didn’t seem to want the lengthy, drawn-out legal battle I was prepared to give them. And frankly, I don’t blame them – I’m one formidable son of a gun! They didn’t credit me on everything, though. There’s still a lot of early DFG stuff that you can go back and say, “That’s Todd Abbott’s work.”
DFG On-line: Todd, you were in on the early days of DFG. Can you tell us how you came to the company?
Todd Abbot: Well, as I recall, it was about 1982, and I was still a student in art college looking for a part-time job to break into the industry, trying to fill out my portfolio, and build up my resume. An acquaintance told me about DFG and set me up for an interview with DFG president & publisher, Dan Graves. It was around the time that DFG was first expanding, you’ll remember those days…
DFG-OL: Actually, that was a bit before my time…
TA: Oh, yes, well – when you get to be a giant like me, you forget that not everyone else has been around so long. Anyway, Dan was basically snatching up a whole bunch of small presses. Even Captain Nepto started out under a different publisher, Darryl Andrews’ DTA Comics, before it was published under the DFG label. Dan was very aggressive and was on a spending spree. He snatched up DTA, SPM, Superb and a few others – I can’t remember them all – and consolidated a whole bunch of their characters and titles under the DFG banner. In the process, Capt. Nepto creator Darryl Andrews came on as co-publisher and vice-president of DFG and eventually became so consumed in his management responsibilities that he had less time to draw. He needed some help on the Capt. Nepto books and basically, I was brought on to help out Darryl. At the time Dan was inking a lot of Darryl’s stuff to keep things on track in terms of our publishing schedule. Dan was really too busy, too, what with running the company and jet-setting around the world, so I started doing some of the backgrounds, eventually took over much of the inking, and pretty soon Darryl was only drawing heads and faces and I was doing pretty much everything else. I was really “ghosting” for Darryl when all was said and done.
DFG-OL: You say, “ghosting,” but I’ve seen your name on many of those early issues…
TA: After the legal disputes began, Dan & Darryl went back and credited me on a chunk of my work. They just didn’t seem to want the lengthy, drawn-out legal battle I was prepared to give them. And frankly, I don’t blame them – I’m one formidable son of a gun! They didn’t credit me on everything, though. There’s still a lot of early DFG stuff that you can go back and say, “That’s Todd Abbott’s work.”
DFG-OL: Your years at DFG seemed to come to an end as quickly as they began.
TA: Yeah, about the mid-eighties, I think. They did their first re-launch of Spy Comics around ’85 and I was gone by the time all that business shook down.
DFG-OL: So what happened?
TA: Well, it’s complicated. I alluded to the legal troubles earlier. You see, I wanted a fair shake at what I drew and what I created. And everything had either Dan or Darryl’s “John Henry” all over the friggin’ place. Well, dammit, I’m Todd Abbot … I’m my own man with my own friggin’ creative integrity. I went to the bosses and they began to give me this sob story about how times were tough for the industry. This was the early days of the black & white explosion when every Tom, Dick, and Harry were setting up presses in their basements and publishing any old crap. To be fair, they did need to do some consolidating, but cripes, I was the friggin’ backbone of DFG! They whined on about how they’d over-expanded, all the while telling me how much they valued me. I just said, “You friggin’ jokers can tell a judge just how much you friggin’ value me ‘cause I’m gonna sue your pants off for creator rights!” Well, that’s when Dan went back and put my name on all the reprints and gave me a tidy little royalty check to shut me up. Boy, did I have those two clowns shaking in their boots.
DFG-OL: But that little conversation had some negative repercussions, too…
TA: Oh yeah, you bet! They were hopping mad! They never showed it in person. In person they were all nice and buddy-buddy, and “we’re all one big DFG family.” But they stopped giving me work. They brought in some guy, I can’t remember his name, Colin something-or-other, and he started picking up the inking and backgrounds on Nepto. That sure was a mistake ‘cause it looked like the guy had pigeons in his pen – it was all one big, scribbly freakin’ mess! Well, needless to say, after a couple of issues he was gone.
DFG-OL: And they didn’t call you back?
TA: Call me back? Nah, they were so busy acting like corporate fat-cat big-shots that they hired some guy named Curtis-something to act as editor-in-chief. This guy basically had no experience in the industry – like, you know, he couldn’t tell a comic book from a “Big Little Book.” You know what I’m saying? The guy was a friggin’ “suit.” Anyway, when they sacked Colin, I made an appointment with Dan and he told me to talk to Curtis. Well, after weeks of not returning my calls, I finally get in and he tells me that they’re scaling back, consolidating, putting both Nepto and Spymaster in a relaunch of Spy Comics and that I was no longer needed. That was late ’84. So, I shook the dust off my feet and left town.
DFG-OL: That must have hurt.
TA: Hurt? Hurt?! What are you, stupid? Of course it hurt. Here I was – Todd friggin’ Abbot – a comic book legend, man, and these two goons and their lap-dog in a suit give me my walking papers?! After all we’d been through together? It more than hurt. It stung deep, man.
DFG-OL: This really touches a soft spot, then…
TA: Well, I eventually got over it. I later learned that they let Peter (Repas) Repovski (creator of Nitro: The Man with the TNT Punch) go, too. If I was giant, then Repovski was friggin’ Godzilla, man. He was THE KING. Nobody came close to him. No one could touch him. And these two friggin’ no-talents sack us, we’re two friggin’ giants.
DFG-OL: I think they also let Frank Daniels go, too.
TA: Who?
Coming Soon: Part II of the Todd Abbot Interview, which will include the famous fight over the Cyclon/Tornado issues of Capt. Nepto, some lost artwork, a recounting of Todd’s late 1980’s advertising work, and Todd’s Return to DFG in 1996.
This interview is copyright 2008 by DFG ONLINE, and may not be reproduced or redistributed, in whole or part, by any means without the express written permission of the editors.
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