Paul Smith

No, I had.

I was going to do with Paul Smith.

Originally, it was Carlos Pacheco.

Then it was Paul Smith.

A book called Trinity.

There's since been a Trinity.

Was that Roger Stern and-

Paul Smith.

Paul Smith.

Yeah.

Terry Austin, wasn't it? Yes.

Yeah.

All that, yo.

I love Paul Smith's run on that.

I'm like, I don't even know if this exactly makes sense.

I might put X-Men Alpha Flight ahead just because I believe Paul Smith did the art on that.

He

does.

Chad.

Paul Smith.

That is correct.

It is Paul Smith.

Chad is up to 500 now.

Chad, you are commanding lead.

And then also the I'm drawing a blank off the top of my head.

I'm pretty sure it was Claremont and maybe Paul Smith.

I want to say it was Paul Smith, just because I'm picturing all the artwork in my head, and it's just gorgeous artwork.

And a lot of the work with Madeline Pryor reminds me of how Paul Smith used to draw her hair and stuff.

I always forget off the top of my head the numbers.

It was like 172 and 173 of Uncanny X-Men.

It just kind of he invited the X-Men to their wedding.

And then, yeah, we just never kind of saw what happened.

But, uh, you know, Chris Claremont came back, and the book was good.

Um, it hit hyperdrive again when Paul Smith was doing the artwork.

He, um, he had this kind of understated way of drawing that was just really something, and I was really heartbroken when he left.

Um, and I feel like the book never fully recovered for me once he left because it was at such a standard.

And, uh, you know, whereas, you know, John Romita Jr. and, and people like that took over the book and did wonderful jobs, and the stories were really good, uh, it really hit a peak for me under Byrne and Paul Smith, really.

Yeah, Paul Smith was absolutely amazing.

Just-

His, his stuff was strangely understated.

And there was a lot of different creative people in there.

You've heard Jeph Loeb, you've heard Robert Kirkman talk about what a shitshow- uh these creative retreats are I went to one Jim Lee went to one Mark Silvestri went to one we never went back I don't want to make my work in unison and if you say but that's Rob that's how things run better no thank you you know what I know Frank Miller has never been to a planning committee to a creative committee but again if you're going to take the check you're going to show up you're going to be part you're going to um you're going to you know you're going to lend your voice and according to Jeff Loeb according to Robert Kirkman and many many others Mark Miller among them those retreats got crazy they got hairy because everybody is competing they want to be alpha man if I'm going to go in here I'm going to take my shot but there may be one guy who's a bigger alpha than you and shoot you down and set you back and Loeb talked about his conflicts with with Bendis uh he talked he talked to you at his that the conflicts with uh J Michael uh Straczynski all of whom were very prominent in the early 2000s don't kid yourself that's happening right now as people jockey for position and other writers have for better force they have veto power so Marvel is indeed acknowledging that the X-Men relaunches uh of the last couple years have fallen flat it's why the books all get canceled within five issues it's why this stuff doesn't carry uh it it is um it is it is why sales are so low and in on some of these titles in absolute free fall and I'm going to tell you whether you're Rob Liefeld growing up with John Byrne and Terry Austin and I'll go Dave Cochran I'll go Paul Smith because you know what that that shows that it was working with vastly different styles of artistic storytelling and and illustration uh all the way up through obviously Rick Leonardi Mark Silvestri Arthur Adams just incredible incredible personal visions aligned with the premier showrunner of the time Chris Claremont because I believe in looking back as we look back and you see that solid 10-year run of excellence of top sales Chris cannot be uh he has no equal in this market as of this time 10 years at the top with X-Men you know absolute pulls that off in 10 years we'll get him into that conversation with Chris Claremont Claremont just had a uh had a lasting power that is significant that other people can aspire to but no one has equaled it and he was able to work alongside all manner of different artists and really in all honesty bend them to his will or align with their visions in order to bring about a better vision whether again Leonardi Adams Silvestri Cockrum Byrne Ramita Jr uh all manner of different uh artists on on New Mutants you'd go Bob McLeod you'd go Salvi Sema he was as flexible as one could be on Wolverine at Frank Miller uh the annuals he had he had everybody from Brent Anderson to Michael Golden basically everybody who was a who's who and then Chris uh met lightning in a bottle again kind of the John Byrne 2.0 which was Jim Lee and they electrified everyone and got everyone just going crazy again but there's no denying that X-Men was the brand the top selling title the most influential comic book uh of over a decade and for over a decade the X-Men have struggled I'd say for 20 years they've struggled I really think the big miss was when they uh did not align with Grant Morrison's big swing mentor mentality I think Grant's first several issues showed so much incredible promise they were electric with ideas with execution with characterization and it was so weird right after he was done they they set about erasing and I don't know if it was personal I don't know if there was a falling out because we've seen uh when talent ticks off publishers or editors they will they can be very vindictive and remove everything that you applied so as to erase your imprimatur and and and have no imprint uh left that you ever even touched the touched the work and and I felt like it was a big mistake Grant Morrison uh was the most visionary of all the writers that I think have touched I know Hickman gets a lot of lip service but Morrison is the real deal and I'm gonna not I'm not gonna close this out without emphasizing uh some Grant Morrison news which is very exciting but they are looking for another massive talent a showrunner another name that can come in and say I have got ideas for Wolverine I've got ideas for X-Factor I've got ideas for X-Force I've got ideas for X-Men they know how powerful X-Men can be when it is the top selling book but they're not going to get there unless they have great art X-Men was defined so all the names I just gave you now let's go into the 2000s and whether it was the Messiah Complex uh whether you had covers all by David Finch and maybe some bookends by David Finch uh you you had Mike Choi uh you had Clayton Crane I mean guys who are substantial fan favorites with huge fan bases and they built them drawing great renditions of your favorite characters that you couldn't live without I want to see more of Dave Finch's Cable Dave Finch's Wolverine that's what you were thinking that's what I was thinking they haven't had that guy who's been like oh my gosh these renditions I've got to buy two three copies I've got to double down and now in today's marketplaces it would be which of these can the retailers buy umpteen amounts of variants and give us that substantial uh additive that the retail variants can offer in terms of boosting doubling tripling your numbers so that's what Marvel is looking for in terms of the X-Men and rightfully so they should not be satisfied with what they have now it was a tremendous misfire um I'll go back to you don't give Ryan Stegman the X-Men and not have him be drawing the book with Wolverine in it Ryan's if you have a casual knowledge of Ryan's style he excels at Wolverine uh he he he has influences uh all over the place but very a prominent Todd McFarlane-esque element in his work it doesn't dominate it but it's definitely visible you know that he digs that guy's work Todd drew an incredible, a great Wolverine, but, but tying Ryan Stegman's hands behind his ha- uh, uh, h- you know, his back and telling him, "You're gonna get the Cyclops book without-- and Juggernaut without Wolverine," just never made any sense to me.

Uh, that, that, that's a, that is a man- managerial decision that should have been shouted down immediately and someone said, "No, no, no, we're doing this wrong.

Put, put this, put, put Wolverine with Ryan Stegman.

Yeah.

Um, I th- I mean, like my personal favorite run is the Paul Smith From the Ashes era.

Sure.

His tennis sho- uh, tennis shoes of, uh, yeah.

[laughs]

So if I don't watch myself, if I just draw, I'm gonna be hatching and rendering all this stuff.

But returning to the grace of Alan Davis and Paul Smith is always my ideal.

Or really, like, being able to go further than that and, and channel Alex Toth is my ultimate goal.