ValiantFans.com Board - Since 2004

On Friday, June 9th, Joe Petrilak created and coordinated a celebration of Jim Shooter's 50 years in the comic book industry. Joe graciously asked me to conduct the interview with Jim, which went on for hours. Joe also coordinated the plaque, the cake and a set of Shooter signed bookmarks as a thank you gift for everyone that contributed money and comics toward the effort.

Many thanks to Joe, it was one of the best days of my life.

The files are huge and will take some time to upload, but the award presentation is relatively small so I did that one first. I will post the interview segments as soon as I get them uploaded.

Plaque, cake and gift: here.

The Jim Shooter Interview:

Part 1 (Runtime 11:23):
What are you up to these days?
What is your connection to the GK3? (3:55)
The intersection of Shooter, GK3 and the nascent days of Valiant.

Part 2 (3:52)
The Creation of Marvel Acquisition Partners sets the stage for the creation of Valiant.

Part 3 (26:44)
The creation of Valiant: business and money talk
Nintendo, WWE and eventually, Valiant
David Lapham (11:33)
The early art crew (14:55)
Let's not be Image (16:32)
BWS (17:25)
More panels, more story (18:10)
The role of Editor-in-Chief (22:20)

Part 4 (27:03)
Tight continuity and editorial coordination
Roger Stern has Jim's back (5:40)
Jim tries to protect Marvel employees from management (6:43)
Management plots Jim's ouster at Marvel (10:15)
Some of the ValiantFans.com questions (12:30)
--- Solar: "I wish it would stop."
--- Stories where the good guys lose
--- Talk of Valiant characters
--- "When you ran Marvel, how much did it cost to print a comic book?"
The early years, Jim can't afford to stay in NYC (19:45)
Jim establishes royalties at Marvel (26:05)

Part 5 (26:17)
More talk of royalties, DC vs Marvel; other Marvel benefits under Shooter
Marvel sales and market share, the direct market, pay increases (4:55)
ValiantFans questions (7:55)
--- "What accomplishment are you most proud of with your time at Valiant?"
--- "What was your favorite character that you created?"
Harbinger was created first as a movie treatment, surprise twist ends that idea (12:50)
The story of the cover of Harbinger #1 (16:20)
---- "How is Paul Creddick these days?" (Jim talks about his panel layouts for his early Superman related titles) (19:05)
Jim pencils a little at Valiant; great story about being 'on time' for printing (22:50)
Lapham accidentally cheated out of his first comic credit

Side Note: Jim mentions going to art school. Afterwards when we were signing books and having fun, I mentioned that I went to college in Pittsburgh, his home town. As it turns out, Jim studied art in a special program for high-schoolers at my alma mater, Carnegie Mellon University. Small world.

Part 6 (14:55)
ValiantFans Questions
--- "Who owns the rights to Broadway Comics and Defiant Comics?"
--- "What was the creative genesis behind the Warriors of Plasm concept?" The business stuff (2:25) The creative stuff (8:55)

Part 7
Plasm story continues...
My brief reflection on the story. (8:55)
ValiantFans Questions
--- Jim talks about his brief time with VEI (9:30)
--- "Can comics survive today without movies? What will the market look like in 10 or 20 years?" (10:44)
--- "What do you think about the continual universe reboots?" (12:03)
Decompression (14:05)
What do you think about the idea of retiring worn out properties and starting with something fresh? (15:55)

And with that, we conclude. Congratulations to Jim, thank you for everything you've accomplished in your wonderful career.

Some pics of the day further down in the thread.

Really nice job to you guys. I know that has to make Jim feel appreciated

Good stuff , looking forward to the rest

Hey guys...great *SQUEE* job...super stoked that you guys did that...I'm a big Jim shooter fan, and hey it may be just the valiant fans and a living room, but at least some people gave him some credit...I really liked the plaque...super cool guys..really cool..
I wish I could've got some questions in before hand, but I was too late, would really like to know who owns the defiant properties, especially dark dominion...

Watched, and liked. Well done
Audio is great BTW

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I wish their was a Spinal Tap comic, and I had a copy CGC graded at 11.

+1, looks great!

/Magnus

Great job guys! I met Jim last year at Planet ComiCon in Kansas City, MO and he was so nice to talk with. He signed a copy of Magnus #1 personally for me.

Well done!

Michael
Mkb28

Such a cool gesture.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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Sonicdan's Comics and Original Art: http://www.sonicdan.com
My eBay Store (Comics, Art, Collectibles) https://www.ebay.com/str/sonicdanscomicsart

We got that one. It's gonna take me all weekend to upload these files. I will identify each with the questions that were asked so people can find the content they want.

I'm so jealous!! Jmatt your so lucky!!

John asked about Plasm and Jim gave the whole story of Plasm vs "Plasmer", which made him rename Plasm to "Warriors of Plasm".

You know what's funny? Jim probably signed 500 or more autos for me over the years and well, I only have 2-3 of them... all the rest went to you folks! And I am happy! I was the cameraman so I don't get shown in the interview and that's OK too... I met Jim a bunch of times in a bunch of places over the years; time to give John JMatt the reigns of creativity that make cool stuff like this happen!

I must say again we did a hell of a job! Couldn't have been better and am waiting for Marvel and DC to send him awards like the one us VALIANT fans did!

JMatt: you look great on film!

Everybody involved did a great thing yesterday for a legendary but underappreciated comic creator! Thank you!

Jim is my hero. If I had to do it all again I'd be Jim!

My thanks to all involved. Wonderful. And it's good to see Jim looking well. I owe a lot to that man. I first encountered him through Marvel Age magazine and quickly became aware of the great things he was doing at Marvel -- stories that made sense again, for example, and, most of all, Epic Magazine and the graphic novel range. And then, later, picking up Archer & Armstrong #0 because of his name (and the BWS art, of course) and getting blown away by it, so much so that the next few weeks were spent scouring comic shops locally and across the world (Magnus #1 [with card!] from Singapore, Solar 1 & 2 from California...) and I soon had the full range published to date. And that's how it has been ever since -- all of VH1, VH2 almost complete (missing Shadowman Vol 3 #6), and VEI all present and correct as of May 31... All of Defiant and Broadway... Plus Jim's Dark Key work, even his last LoSH run, truncated as it was by DC... So yes, Jim changed my comic collecting life. Which means he kinda changed my whole life. And the way he was treated at Marvel and Voyager -- not just by the money boys but also by colleagues and many of the so-called creators he'd worked with -- opened my eyes to the sick side of the comics industry... I want so much to read new work by him. I want him to get the success that he is due. And so I'm grateful for what Joe and jmatt and the folks here at Valiantfans have done. Without him this site would not exist. We'd probably have given up on comics long ago. I know I would have. Archer& Armstrong #0: that's what kept me going. Thank you, Jim.

And thank you again, guys. (And if the words Jim, Shooter, & Kickstarter ever come together, I hope we'll be there for the Man.)

ErikG

Really neat stuff

Yikes! Please don't anoint me anything. This is your gig!

John- You are doing a great job of editing and uploading the interview... I would have just slapped it online but you edited it to make it look professional. You are a natural at this. And I want more!

Thankyou for taking the time to do this.
Will listen today.

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I wish their was a Spinal Tap comic, and I had a copy CGC graded at 11.

Part 4 finally up!

Thank you

Part 5 is up.

Brilliant! Listened to part 4
Hopefully Linten to part 5 while working today.

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I wish their was a Spinal Tap comic, and I had a copy CGC graded at 11.