Exclusive Marvel Wolfman Video Interview Interview!
Vampires, Titans, Ducks & the Games People Play...
MARV WOLFMAN is the award-winning writer of not only American comics and games but both fiction and non-fiction books. Join us in this exclusive interview held at Animex where he reveals how when one door opens another one doesn’t always close.
Marv Wolfman’s professional writer career began at DC Comics during the late sixties where he later became an editor, likewise at Warren, before moving to Marvel where he attained the role of Editor-in-Chief. He scripted many of those companies’ iconic characters over the length of his career; notably his extensive run - alongside artist Gene Colan - on Dracula Lives where he created the character of Blade, that would go on to headline its own trilogy of films, and the Nova sci-fi superhero series whose background scenario would be featured in the recent Guardians of the Galaxy blockbuster.
Wolfman would then herald in what was referred to as “the new DC” when – with artist George Perez – he returned to that company and scripted the critical and sales successes that were The New Teen Titans and Crisis on Infinite Earths among others, while helping relaunch Superman and create The Night Force.
After a later public falling out with DC over censorship he began to branch out, still scripting the likes of Batman and Nightwing for that company over the years, but writing for Disney Comics at one end of the market and The Man Called A-X for Malibu’s Bravura imprint at the other.
He increasingly began delving into other media though; notably animation by developing the Transformers: Beast Machines television series for Fox, then as the gaming industry’s horizons expanded becoming further involved with that, the results for which he was honoured with an Outstanding Achievement in Videogame Writing Award.
Those various elements combined are what made him a very special guest at the Animex Festival held annually in the UK where journalist Paul H Birch caught up with him in 2012. The results of that interview were captured on film by video director Martin Tierney and can be viewed here:
ANIMEX
THE ANIMEX Festival takes place at Teeside University in Middlesbrough around February each year. Long established now, this relatively small event is one of the most professionally organised of its kind in the UK.
Delegates attending Animex go to be educated, inspired and entertained: They can learn from the foremost in the field and get the chance to meet and discuss state-of-the-art techniques, by way of talks, workshops, networking events, exhibitions and screenings.
(Image Below: Marv Wolfman, Night Force).
The original goals of Animex were for it to be an inclusive festival that would draw animation's brightest lights and future stars to a little town in North East England. It promoted an ethos of collaboration and sharing, to draw in audiences of all levels of expertise, regardless of background and prior knowledge. It achieved those goals quite successfully early in its development, further continuing to expand its horizons by drawing in the wider aspects of animation by engaging the world of computer games and as of 2012, giving over a dedicated afternoon to the subject of comics.
The Animex Comics part of the festival invites a core group of established comic writers and artists as guests to give presentations and workshops on the medium, as well as signing collections of their works (theirs being the only books on sale in a manner more akin to a literary signing than the traditional comics show).
Representing The Birmingham Mail newpaper, Paul H Birch attended the inaugural Animex Comics 2012 event. A cynic not easily impressed, he found the event incredibly well organised with assistance offered at every level and tips his hat to organiser Gabrielle Kent and her team, while the show itself proved ducational, friendly and for those seriously pursuing careers in its related industries. seriously worth attending.
(Image Left: Marv Wolfman, New Teen Titans). Among the guests there that year were familiar faces such as graphic novelists Bryan and Mary Talbot, and artist Doug Braithwaite who had dipped his toes into the animation world early in his own career but was primarily there to explain how he got into the comics business (a combination of a good English teacher who saw something in him, then daring to show Dave Gibbons his “scrappy portfolio” at UKCAC85 and prophetically being told he would be working professionally in the field within six months) before proceeding to discuss his then current Storm Dogs series, published by Image, where he was applying a less laboured and more European art style (a series, ironically enough, he was pondering over when interviewed by Birch at BC 2011, an event captured on film).
Also in attendance was Niel Bushnell whose animation company, Qurios Ltd, was based locally and had himself worked briefly in comics, primarily for Marvel UK and local newspapers but had then recently - with the debut of Sorrowlines - become a children’s novelist too. Comic Time looks forward to featuring an exclusive interview with him conducted by Birch that also took place there alongside the earlier one with Braithwaite).
Sponsored by Art of Illusion.
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