{"id":26435,"date":"2019-11-15T08:20:27","date_gmt":"2019-11-15T13:20:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/?p=26435"},"modified":"2019-11-15T08:20:27","modified_gmt":"2019-11-15T13:20:27","slug":"paul-kirchner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/2019\/11\/15\/paul-kirchner\/","title":{"rendered":"Nibble naan with artist Paul Kirchner in Episode 109 of Eating the Fantastic"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ve been attending the Maryland-based indie comics convention SPX<\/a> — that is, the Small Press Expo — for 15 or so of its 36 years, and this time around took the opportunity to dine with artist Paul Kirchner<\/a>, who breathed the same comic industry air I did during the ’70s. <\/p>\n

Paul broke into comics in the early \u201870s through a fortuitous series of events which had him meeting the legendary comics artist Neal Adams, who introduced him to DC Comics editor Joe Orlando, and within the week getting a gig as assistant to Tex Blaisdell helping him out on the Little Orphan Annie<\/em> comic strip and stories for DC\u2019s mystery books. He also worked for awhile as assistant to the great EC Comics artist and Daredevil<\/em> innovator Wally Wood. He moved on from mainstream comics to draw two wonderfully surrealistic strips — “Dope Rider” for High Times<\/em> and “the bus” for Heavy Metal<\/em>. His wide-ranging creative resume also includes a graphic novel collaboration with the great writer of detective novels Janwillem van de Wetering, designs for such toy lines as Dino-Riders and Spy-Tech, and much more.<\/p>\n

Paul and I had dinner once the con wound down at the nearby and recently opened Commonwealth Indian restaurant<\/a>, which had been favorably reviewed by the Washington Post<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

We discussed how a chance encounter in art school led to him assisting cartoonist Tex Blaisdell on Little Orphan Annie<\/em>, the life lessons he learned during his apprenticeship with EC Comics legend and Daredevil<\/em> innovator Wally Wood, the ruse he used to convince the editor of Harpoon<\/em> into commissioning more installments of his famed Dope Rider<\/em> strip, how the office of Screw<\/em> magazine was nothing like you thought it would be and the office of High Times<\/em> was everything you thought it would be, where he learned “the only thing that’ll kill you bigger than a flop is a hit,” the techniques he uses to dream up new episodes of his surrealistic strip “the bus,” his druggiest fan encounter, our joint memories of “Fabulous” Flo Steinberg, Marvel’s “Gal Friday,” his graphic novel collaboration with famed writer of detective fiction Janwillem van de Wetering, the first person he ever met in comics, and much more.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Here\u2019s how you can eavesdrop on our conversation at Commonwealth Indian restaurant —<\/p>\n

1) Subscribe at Apple Podcasts<\/a> — where I hope you’ll be tempted to download a few of the 108 previous episodes.<\/p>\n

2) Listen using the RSS feed of http:\/\/eatingthefantastic.libsyn.com\/rss<\/a> on the device of your choice.<\/p>\n

3) Or check it out via the embed below.<\/p>\n