Interview with former Tharg, Richard Burton (questions needed)

[maryanddavid]

Burton was involved with fandom in the UK for years before joining IPC producing (The Excellent) Comic Media News. When he started in IPC he replaced Nick Landau, whom he knew from the early Comic Media News.

[SuperSurfer]

No question comes to mind at the moment, but just sticking my oar in to say that I interviewed Burt in the Nerve Centre when I was a student.

I can't remember much of the interview. What lodged in my mind is that on the wall behind Burt was the original (or a print) of a brilliant piece of Brett Ewins cover art. I thought it was a prog cover. Months later it turned out to be the cover of the 1989 2000AD annual.

[sheridan]

No question comes to mind at the moment, but just sticking my oar in to say that I interviewed Burt in the Nerve Centre when I was a student.

I can't remember much of the interview. What lodged in my mind is that on the wall behind Burt was the original (or a print) of a brilliant piece of Brett Ewins cover art. I thought it was a prog cover. Months later it turned out to be the cover of the 1989 2000AD annual.

This one?




Nice fanzine cover - nice to see that 2000AD was already making a pop cultural impact in its first year!

[Frank]

.
Your manners are a credit to the way your mammies and daddies raised you, but I thought one or two folk might have wanted to ask the man who was in charge at the exact moment everything went wrong why things went wrong.

Normally all you have to do is mention the nineties and boarders are lining up to offer their opinion on why the comic was rubbish and what the worst strips were. Hopefully, this interview will serve as the missing chapter of Thrillpower Overload.

[AlexF]

Well, now that you mention it, I'd be curious to get Burton's response to Garth Ennis's assertion that he was basically left alone on all his Dredd work. "The editorial team wasn't up to it" I think is how Ennis phrased it.

Did Burton just believe that Ennis's work was fit to print as was, or did he not have time to have a go at editing it? Or did he, in fact, provide some edits that Ennis has forgotten about?

NB, although it was clearly not as good as Wagner/Grant Dredd, Ennis's run isn't terrible by any means. Sillier in tone, yes, and with far less to say about the real world, but perfectly enjoyable.

[Frank]

Did Burton just believe that Ennis's work was fit to print as was, or did he not have time to have a go at editing it? Or did he, in fact, provide some edits that Ennis has forgotten about?

Ennis went on to claim that, on the occasions when the editorial team did sub something he'd written, it was usually for the worst.

Difficult to know how much of that is authorial preciousness or excuse making, but then Ennis does seem pretty self effacing about his skills and the quality of the work.

Thanks for the feedback, Alex and everyone else - getting other perspectives really does make you think in ways you never would have done in isolation. I'm sure the interview will be better for that.

[Jim_Campbell]

Difficult to know how much of that is authorial preciousness or excuse making, but then Ennis does seem pretty self effacing about his skills and the quality of the work.

Hmm. We are talking about the writer who told Andy Diggle not to alter so much as a single comma in the script for Helter Skelter...

[JayzusB.Christ]

Something I've often wondered - when he saw how much Mills and Bisley had stepped up the nudity and violence content for The Horned God, did he hesitate to publish it?

[Frank]

This is your chance to ask the Tharg who doesn't do interviews anything you want to know about his time on the Galaxy's Greatest, first as sub-editor (1980-1984), and again as editor (1987-1993). They were the best of times, they were the worst of times.

Burton poached schoolboy Steve Dillon from Marvel UK and coached Morrison through all 4 phases of Zenith, so whether your question is a nerdish 'whose idea were the Horned God intro pages?' or a controversial 'what on Earth happened to 2000ad in the 90s?', there's plenty to ask him about.

I'll let y'all know the deadline for questions, and I'll post a link to the ECBT site when the podcast goes up online.

An interview so great it had to be split in two.

Your incisive queries are addressed in episode two, so part one is an entertaining overview of Burton's progress from fan press to his current gig writing about Marvel for the Eaglemoss partworks.

Along the way, Robin Smith almost drives Burt out of comics, Kev O'Neill screams that he'll never work for 2000ad again, Alan Moore learns he wasn't cut out for fame, IPC try to buy DC comics (!), Hilary Robinson walks off with episodes of her strips that will never be seen, and we learn who killed Johnny Alpha (the reason given may not ring true ...) :

ECBT2000ad site

Libsyn (click on mp3 link to listen direct)

PlayerFM

iTunes (episode 283)

[matty_ae]

Could you ask him -

1) How do you edit talent that got as big as Grant Morrison/John Wagner/Pat Mills. At that point do you just accept their scripts?

2) What would have improved 90s 2000ad the most in retrospect - stopping Bisley Clones or sorting out creator rights?

3) Why did so many staple 2000ad characters emerge and stick in his first tenure?
Why did so few enduring characters emerge in his second go at editor. What had changed the most? (Age of readership? UK talent drain?)

[Frank]

I'm not sure if Stephen and Richard have already completed the second part of their conversation, but I'll make sure they see those questions.

While we're asking questions, how many of us know Richard Burton wrote the bridge story that explained how old Dan Dare turned into new Dan Dare, or where that story appeared? I do, but only because I listened to the podcast.

[Leigh S]

Who killed John Alpha?
Why an' what's the reason for?
"Not I, " says the art maestro,
"They asked me but I just said "no"
I could've done it for that's for sure
But I was drawing Third World War,
And the readers would've booed, I'm sure,
At me killing him off without John.
It's too bad they did him in,
But If I didnt draw it did it happen?
It wasn't me that made him fall.
No, you can't blame me at all."

Who killed John Alpha,
Why an' what's the reason for?
"Not me, " says that Alan Grant,
at least not without John's consent.
"It's too bad he died that night
But we just like to see a fight.
We didn't mean for him t' meet his fate,
We just wanted to keep him safe,
There ain't nothing wrong in that.
I read Mark Millar so made a call.
You know you can't blame me at all."

Who killed John Alpha,
Why an' what's the reason for?
"Not me," says the editor
Puffing on a big cigar
"It's hard to say, it's hard to tell
I just thought that he wasn't well
It's too bad for his fans he's dead
But if they liked his strip, they should've said
It wasn't me that made him fall
No, you can't blame me at all"

[TordelBack]

Lovely stuff, Leigh. Now imagining a mutie minstrel with a four-legged frame extending from his hands...

[Frank]

Can you whistle it, so I can get the tune?

I like that this was obviously the first time Richard had heard the idea that Grant killed Alpha because he and Wagner were leaving the comic and didn't want anyone else playing with the characters ... despite Wagner and Grant saying that was the case for years.

[Frank]

.
THE 2 HOUR THARG INTERVIEW YOU'VE ALWAYS WANTED!

Flint outdoes himself, giving Tharg the deepest probing he's received since the Men In Black bent him over and discovered a wealth of Mike Hadley PARAsites artwork they were then forced to print.

This is Richard Burton's challenge to the version of the early nineties presented in David Bishop's Thrillpower Overload - mention of Bishop produces the same reaction in Burton as saying The Bandit's name to Sheriff Buford T Justice.

Those drawers full of unused artwork (see above) are described as 'a treasure trove', Fleisher's Harlem Heroes reboot is justified, and we learn which artist Alan Grant insisted Burton employ against his will (forcing Wagner to play shop steward):


playerFM

ECBT2000ad

iTunes (episode 285)

Libsyn (click on the mp3 link)