For part one of this interview, click here.
DFG-Online: Todd, before we leave the early days of DFG, can you tell us about the legendary battle you had with Dan over the Cyclone-Tornado storyline?
Todd Abbot: First of all, let me say this: Those two characters were mine. Period. I created them from start to finish. I also wrote and drew an entire two-parter for the Captain Nepto comic that never saw the light of day. I might also add that it was to be my debut as a writer! Well, I sent it in and then I get this phone call from Dan’s secretary. Apparently he wants to talk to me about the issue. Well, at first I figure that I’m getting a friggin’ award because it would have been the best thing DFG had ever published. At the very least, I thought that maybe he was going to suggest a “Cyclone and Tornado” solo title.
DFG-OL: But it didn’t quite pan out the way you were expecting…
TA: Oh boy…it sure didn’t! So, I walk into Dan’s office and he’s behind his desk as usual, but behind him he had his freakin’ lawyer. So I said, “Dan, baby, what’s with the suit with the LLB?” He didn’t answer. After a long pause, he says to me, “Todd…we can’t print it?” Well, let me tell you, I lost and it and said some things that you sure as hell can’t print. I’d poured my heart and soul out on that friggin’ storyline, you know what I mean?
DFG-OL: So what did you do?
TA: Well, first of all, I wanted some things clarified. “Is it the art?” I asked him, “Does it make all the other DFG hacks look bad?” I have to admit, it was a bit avant garde – I knew some people, that is some small minded people, would look at it and all they would see was a bunch of scribbles, but I was in a bit of an impressionistic phase in those days. But it wasn’t that. Dan said, “Todd, it’s not the art, per se, we’ve published worse crap and got away with it. Actually its what you drew on panel 3 of page 5.”
DFG-OL: Which was…?
TA: The goon thought I’d drawn genitalia on Cyclone! That was why he had legal counsel in the room. He told me that to publish the book I’d have to change that panel. Well… I told him that he must be wearing his friggin’ glasses upside-down and that the book was a friggin’ masterpiece and that I wasn’t going to change one freakin’ detail of that panel.
DFG-OL: And then…
TA: He told me that he wouldn’t publish it, plain and simple. And he never did.
DFG-OL: I heard that Dan destroyed the artwork.
TA: No. Dan may have been a spineless whelp, but we would never destroy another guy’s art. He still had a spark of creative integrity underneath all his corporate bravado. No, I took all the pages back and burned them, except for the panel in question (shows it to the interviewer – and is reproduced in this column). I dare anyone to see what Dan and his brain-dead lawyer saw. In fact, I dare you to tell me the difference between Cyclone and Tornado!
DFG-Online: Todd, before we leave the early days of DFG, can you tell us about the legendary battle you had with Dan over the Cyclone-Tornado storyline?
Todd Abbot: First of all, let me say this: Those two characters were mine. Period. I created them from start to finish. I also wrote and drew an entire two-parter for the Captain Nepto comic that never saw the light of day. I might also add that it was to be my debut as a writer! Well, I sent it in and then I get this phone call from Dan’s secretary. Apparently he wants to talk to me about the issue. Well, at first I figure that I’m getting a friggin’ award because it would have been the best thing DFG had ever published. At the very least, I thought that maybe he was going to suggest a “Cyclone and Tornado” solo title.
DFG-OL: But it didn’t quite pan out the way you were expecting…
TA: Oh boy…it sure didn’t! So, I walk into Dan’s office and he’s behind his desk as usual, but behind him he had his freakin’ lawyer. So I said, “Dan, baby, what’s with the suit with the LLB?” He didn’t answer. After a long pause, he says to me, “Todd…we can’t print it?” Well, let me tell you, I lost and it and said some things that you sure as hell can’t print. I’d poured my heart and soul out on that friggin’ storyline, you know what I mean?
DFG-OL: So what did you do?
TA: Well, first of all, I wanted some things clarified. “Is it the art?” I asked him, “Does it make all the other DFG hacks look bad?” I have to admit, it was a bit avant garde – I knew some people, that is some small minded people, would look at it and all they would see was a bunch of scribbles, but I was in a bit of an impressionistic phase in those days. But it wasn’t that. Dan said, “Todd, it’s not the art, per se, we’ve published worse crap and got away with it. Actually its what you drew on panel 3 of page 5.”
DFG-OL: Which was…?
TA: The goon thought I’d drawn genitalia on Cyclone! That was why he had legal counsel in the room. He told me that to publish the book I’d have to change that panel. Well… I told him that he must be wearing his friggin’ glasses upside-down and that the book was a friggin’ masterpiece and that I wasn’t going to change one freakin’ detail of that panel.
DFG-OL: And then…
TA: He told me that he wouldn’t publish it, plain and simple. And he never did.
DFG-OL: I heard that Dan destroyed the artwork.
TA: No. Dan may have been a spineless whelp, but we would never destroy another guy’s art. He still had a spark of creative integrity underneath all his corporate bravado. No, I took all the pages back and burned them, except for the panel in question (shows it to the interviewer – and is reproduced in this column). I dare anyone to see what Dan and his brain-dead lawyer saw. In fact, I dare you to tell me the difference between Cyclone and Tornado!
DFG-OL: Okay. So you left DFG in the mid-eighties. What came next?
TA: Well, fortunately, my advertising career was beginning to take off at this point. I got a contract designing kitty-litter packaging. It was quite lucrative. I even got to use some of my talent as a writer and came up with their jingle, which you may remember: “Plop, plop, wiz, wiz, Kitty’s done his biz biz.”
DFG-OL: Oh yeah, I still hum it in the shower sometimes.
TA: Well, it was a great contract, and those guys at the firm really appreciated what I brought to the company. It was then that I realized how “small-potatoes” the comic industry was compared to kitty litter. I was working with the big boys, now!
DFG-OL: But…
TA: Yeah, there’s always a “but.” About the mid-nineties the bottom fell out of the kitty litter market and things dried up.
DFG-OL: Is that when you approached DFG again?
TA: Are you kidding, I resolved that I’d be on skid row before I’d ever work for DFG again! However, Darryl called me up one day out of the blue and told me about DFG’s newest relaunch: Spy ’96. I asked him if he’d found some new shmuck to do all his work for him. “Well, that’s why I’m calling,” he said. DFG was expanding again, and they were letting me in on the ground floor. If you ask me, the only thing that was expanding was Dan’s ego, as usual. Anyway, I sucked up my pride and went in to see Dan. There he was behind that same big desk, a little greyer, still with the same K-Mart suit that he used to wear back in the eighties. Man, that guy needs to get some help with his wardrobe. Anyway, he turns on his famous charm and next thing you know, I’m redoing the old Jester story arc from Cap #2 for a new title, Spy Classics. You remember the original story… it was one of the ones that I ghosted for Darryl. It was just like old times, except I made sure I got my name on the book.
DFG-OL: And then?
TA: Well as usual, Dan over-expanded and by mid-’97 he was out of the game again. Fortunately, that Spy Classics issue brought me back into the game and I’ve been doing the convention circuit, other freelance work, and lecturing at art colleges ever since.
Next: Todd talks about his return to DFG for the 2008 line-up and talks about his several new projects!
This interview is copyright 2008 by DFG ONLINE and may not be reproduced, either in whole or part, by any means, without the express, written consent of the editors.
DFG-OL: But…
TA: Yeah, there’s always a “but.” About the mid-nineties the bottom fell out of the kitty litter market and things dried up.
DFG-OL: Is that when you approached DFG again?
TA: Are you kidding, I resolved that I’d be on skid row before I’d ever work for DFG again! However, Darryl called me up one day out of the blue and told me about DFG’s newest relaunch: Spy ’96. I asked him if he’d found some new shmuck to do all his work for him. “Well, that’s why I’m calling,” he said. DFG was expanding again, and they were letting me in on the ground floor. If you ask me, the only thing that was expanding was Dan’s ego, as usual. Anyway, I sucked up my pride and went in to see Dan. There he was behind that same big desk, a little greyer, still with the same K-Mart suit that he used to wear back in the eighties. Man, that guy needs to get some help with his wardrobe. Anyway, he turns on his famous charm and next thing you know, I’m redoing the old Jester story arc from Cap #2 for a new title, Spy Classics. You remember the original story… it was one of the ones that I ghosted for Darryl. It was just like old times, except I made sure I got my name on the book.
DFG-OL: And then?
TA: Well as usual, Dan over-expanded and by mid-’97 he was out of the game again. Fortunately, that Spy Classics issue brought me back into the game and I’ve been doing the convention circuit, other freelance work, and lecturing at art colleges ever since.
Next: Todd talks about his return to DFG for the 2008 line-up and talks about his several new projects!
This interview is copyright 2008 by DFG ONLINE and may not be reproduced, either in whole or part, by any means, without the express, written consent of the editors.
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1 comment:
i REMEMBER that kitty litter commercial...Catchy...
Dan, you may have let a gem slip away here!
ccm
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