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The Complete Skywald Checklist


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A 2004 Interview with Augustine Funnell!
Thanks for taking the time for this interview. First, can we have a little background on your early life and interests?
Until I was thirteen I lived in the country in Southern Ontario. I went to a little one-room school. Eight grade, and at most, thirty pupils. It was in this little school that Gene Day and I met. His family moved into the school district when he was in the third grade (he was a year older than I, so I would have been in second), and since I was always writing little stories and he was always drawing something, we hit it off right away. The next year I started in the third grade but by the end of the year was moved up to the fourth, so we went through the rest of our school years in the same grade. We spent an awful lot of free time writing and drawing comics, or just writing stories. Recesses, after school, sometimes weekends, we were often telling stories in one way or another.
When I was thirteen, my family moved into the nearby town of Gananoque, but since that was the year I started high school, it meant that Gene was also starting, and he hopped onto a school bus every morning and headed into the same town for the same school. We certainly weren’t inseparable, or even absolute best buddies, but we sure did spend a lot of time together.
I was interested in sports (hockey and baseball) and—naturally—reading. The Hardy Boys, Edgar Rice Burroughs fantasies, adventure stuff, sf. I remember reading my first copy of an old Doc Savage pulp in about 1963 or 1964 and I got hooked on that stuff right jeezly quickly. Gene had liberated it from an abandoned farmhouse (ironically, the house had been my grandfather’s for a long time before.) That stuff took us in additional directions.
How did you become interested in comics?
As I mentioned, my interest in comics was the natural one which most kids have, nourished through contact with a like-minded kid in Gene Day. It just seemed natural to us that we should write and draw our own.
How did your contact with Skywald come about?
Skywald came about for no other reason than because from early childhood I wanted to write for a living, and comic stories were one of the things I wanted to write. I would come up with scripts, fire ‘em into the postal orifice, and in due time get them back whence they had been sent, with the usual notes about the script not fitting current needs, or no additional material being needed. But when one has done a thing for almost as long as he can remember, and he’s not really good anything else (not that I was all that good at writing comics, either), he just keeps plugging away. Which I did. I sent out mainly horror scripts, addressed to anyone who was publishing horror comics. Skywald was one of the possible publishers on my list.
Who were your contacts at Skywald? What was your experience with editorial?
My first contact at Skywald was Jeff Rovin, who was the first editor who showed any interest. But before I could write anything good enough for him to buy, he was replaced by Al Hewetson, who early in the game informed me that while he liked some of my stuff, he was doing virtually all of the writing, and that since there was no money budgeted for anyone else anyway, he couldn’t afford to buy anything. I had another script ready to go when I got this particular rejection letter, so I just wrote back to tell him hat while I understood that Skywald couldn’t afford to buy anything, I couldn’t afford not to send things. Therefore, please consider the enclosed story…
I don’t remember too much editorial interference, really. I would say that easily 95% of the time I sent off a story Al either bought it or returned it (mostly that second thing) . For the miniscule rest he suggested or insisted upon changes. For the most part I think he saw my stuff as a bit of balance for what he was writing…a different slant, or a different style, or a different something, so it pretty much went through as submitted. Which doesn’t mean that there weren’t suggestions…there were lots of those. But interference of the usual writer-bitching-about-an-editor? Not much. I do remember titles were a big thing for Al, and he did occasionally suggest something less mundane than what I had used. But as time went on I got a better feel for what he wanted, and I was able to come up with titles [that] suited us both. At least, they suited me then. Now, I’m not so sure…
Your serial, ‘Monster, Monster’, was never concluded. Was an ending written? Where did you see the story going?
That serial. Phuck. I didn’t think when I wrote it that it was all that good and today, upon reflection, I see no real reason to think otherwise. It was just…I don’t know. Goofy. The first story or two were okay, but it never felt like it had any cohesion, which made me feel like I wasn’t playing fair. Al did make some suggestions for the series (I can’t remember if I used them or not, but I suspect I did). He liked series material to be a little on the convoluted side, and while I have no objections to convoluted storytelling, I didn’t feel that I did a very good job with this one. But Al seemed to like it and there might have been two fan letters, so I plugged away. And occasionally, even today, I will get the occasional email note complimenting the series. So there may be a jot or a little more to the series than I give it credit for, but I have my doubts.
An ending wasn’t exactly written, but one was certainly outlined, and the series was definitely going to end. It was some convoluted, nonsensible thing which, at present, I honestly can’t remember. But when Skywald went tits-up Al asked me to write something about the series and my experiences with Skywald so I did. He sent that essay back to me almost thirty years later to be updated for the ‘Complete Illustrated History of the Skywald Horror-Mood’ which David Kerekes of Headpress is putting out. If anyone is truly interested in how that lunacy was going to play out, it’s in the book. I remember there was a twist of some sort (what are the odds?????), but I can’t remember the details.
Was ‘The Eaters’ story you did with Gene Day intended for Skywald or for Orb? Orb advertised the story for the never published 7th issue but it seemed much more like a Skywald tale. I ask because I’ve heard several different versions for that story’s origin & intended publication.
According to Renegade Press, which eventually published the story in ‘Gene Day’s Black Zeppelin’, it was written for Skywald. Then I believe Orb showed interest, but went the way of the dodo before anything could happen. Me, I just don’t remember for certain (I had a lot of stories that were going to be published somewhere, but never were). So flip a coin. If everyone else says it was Skywald-bound, who am I to argue? Writers can’t be relied upon for accuracy where their stories are concerned, anyway.
Do you have a favorite story personally?
I have to say, again, in all honesty that I’m not too enthusiastic about most of my stuff. There may have been potential in some of the stories, but I don’t believe that it was fully realized. If you put a gun to my head and insisted that I pick one, I suppose that I would carefully weigh the advantages of answering or not, and if I opened my mouth the words ‘You Can’t Judge A Killer By The Corpse’ or ‘Down To Hades To Die’ might come out. Maybe.
Whose work in comics did (and do) you like?
Archie Goodwin’s stuff. Frazetta, of course. Denny O’Neil’s stuff. I though our own Ed Fedory was pretty good. Wrightson. Tom Sutton. Early Jack Kirby. Steve Ditko. John Severin. Pablo Marcos and Maelo Cintron, naturally. Will Eisner. Jeff Jones. It occurs to me a complete list would take far too long. I liked an awful lot of people. Of course, there were guys whose work left one cold as death in a freezer, but there’s no point in listing that crew. These days I’m not reading much in the way of comic material, but I must admit some fondness for the work John Gallagher [of Chimera Arts] is putting out. Outside the comic field I’ve read across the board. Mark Twain, Stephen King, Harlan Ellison, Theodore Sturgeon, Thomas Harris, John Irving, John Kendrick Bangs, John D. MacDonald, P. J. O’Rourke, Henry Kuttner, Fredric Brown and so on and so forth.
When Skywald folded, did you look elsewhere for comic work?
Yes, I did, but without too much luck. Charlton published a story. Orb. And Seaboard [Atlas], where Jeff Rovin was working, also bought one. But it was tough going, so I concentrated a little more on short stories and longer prose works for the sf/fantasy/horror markets. I’d always written those anyway, of course, even while working in comics, but since there seemed no future for me in comics, I concentrated more on them.
Please bring us up to date. What are you doing now?
Well, after that complete domination of the comic book world I mentioned. I wrote a lot of prose stuff, and fairly quickly drifted away for comics. I sold a couple of inane sf/adventure novels, and about a dozen sf/fantasy/horror stories/novelettes to a variety of magazines. Two of the stories were included in a couple of year’s best anthologies, but that sounds more impressive than it is. In total, I guess I spent about twenty-five years writing as much as I could, and that’s my oeuvre. Except for a killer drug poem in Rolling Stone, that is. I’m one of the horde of people who put all their energies into writing for ‘X’ length of time, had just enough success to keep them in the vain hope that they might be able to pull off an actual living at it, but who in the end just didn’t have enough cookies to make up a whole chocolate chip package. But that’s okay…some people don’t even have the chips. As [for] these days, when I’m not drinking or serving time in prison, I am a form of life even lower than a writer of horror comics: I’m a bookseller. I have an on-line business [www.gusbooks.com], and I deal in used, collectable and out-of-print titles. As when I wrote, I spent weeks trying to come up with just the right combination of words to name my business, and finally settled on something I feel certain no one else could have created: Augustine Funnell Books.
RA: Thanks, Gus, for the interview and some fondly remembered stories.

An Interview With Maelo Cintron!


RA: Hello, Mr. Cintron. Could you tell us a little of your background?
MC: Well, I was born in Puerto Rico in a little city called Fajardo. I moved to the United States when I was bout five years old, and grew up in Brooklyn.
RA: When did you first get involved with comics?
MC: I became involved with comics early, not because I read them, but because of the art. Whenever I picked up a comic and disliked the art, I would put it down and look for something else. At that time, I particularly liked the art in some of the Western comics, as well as some of the Superman comics. Although I loved the art in the EC horror comics, I stayed away from them, fearing that I would have nightmares.
RA: How did you get involved with Skywald and Al Hewetson? Was that your comics debut?
MC: At that time, I was reading the Warren magazines, loving the artwork of people like Frank Frazetta, Neal Adams and Al Williamson. I then became inspired to do comics, so I thought I’d give it a shot, and possibly make a few bucks. At Skywald, I had called to make an appointment to see Sol Brodsky, but he was moving back to Marvel. However, Alan Hewetson met me instead, buying a one-page sampler that I created called ‘Game Of Skill’.
RA: I remember that one! Who was the “Kinsman” who wrote it?
MC: The “Kinsman” was my ex-wife, Joan. Kinsman was her maiden name, so I used that. Sometime afterwards, we also did a vampire story called ‘Daughter Of Darkness’, which she received credit for writing.
RA: Can you tell us about your work on the Human Gargoyles?
MC: When I first started working on the Gargoyles, I hated it because I pretty much had no idea what I was doing. I also hated it because it was taking forever. However, as I went along I felt that my artwork started to improve. I continued to work on it, and the work itself became easier for me. Thus I started to enjoy it.
RA: Were there any unpublished chapters of the Gargoyles? I know there was one cover for a special featuring them that wasn’t published.
MC: There was one Gargoyle chapter that wasn’t used because the magazine folded. I remember trying to buy it back later on, but was told that the art was put away in some warehouse, and they {the Waldmans} did not know where it was. The Gargoyle cover that wasn’t published was by a Spanish artist by the name of Vicente Segrelles. I too did some work on it, changing some of the colors, and the Human Gargoyle pose, increasing its animation.
RA: What was your understanding as to what the Horror-Mood was?
MC: Spooky. The only thing Al ever said to me was “good, put in more spider’s webs! Have people drooling from their mouths!”
RA: What was your impression of Al Hewetson?
MC: Al was a mild-mannered individual. I liked him from the start. We had great plans for the future.
RA: When Skywald folded, did you move on to any other comic companies?
MC: When Skywald folded, I concentrated on doing paperback covers and magazine covers. This is due to the fact that I thought I wouldn’t be able to make a living doing comics, being as they were so time-consuming for me. I began making the rounds of publishers.
I sold my first three pieces to Warren Publications, covers for Famous Monsters Of Filmland. They used one of them, but I don’t know what they did with the other two. I went on and worked for Dell Publishing, doing illustrations for may subjects. I also did about twelve of the Star Trek covers for Pocket Books. I worked for Tor Books, and a few years ago I did a comic story for a magazine called Forbidden Zone.
RA: Shortly before his death, Al contacted me to see if I knew where you could be located, because he wanted to do a new Gargoyle story with you. Several weeks later, you contacted me and I passed along your address. I know the story was started. Was it ever finished? Is there any possibility of it being published?
MC: After he contacted me and told me about the book he was publishing about the Skywald Horror-Mood period, we talked a lot over the internet. We began speaking about bringing back the Human Gargoyles, making it take place out West. The original Human Gargoyle baby would be all grown up, working as a marshal. One day, Alan sent me a complete story, and I started working on it. I did the color cover for that story, which they used for a fan magazine in England, called From The Tomb. The art for the story was never completed, due to his untimely death. At this point in time, the story itself does not look like it will be completed, mainly because we don’t know if we can get it published. But who knows?
RA: What comic artists or writers did or do you enjoy? Do you still keep up with the field?
MC: I enjoy the work of artists like Alex Ross, and old timers like Alex Toth, Al Williamson, Neal Adams, and many of the Spanish artists. I don’t keep up too well with writers.
RA: Any final thoughts or words?
MC: Not really. I’d just like to say that it is very sad and unfortunate that Al passed away before seeing his book, The Complete Illustrated History Of The Skywald Horror-Mood published. He would have loved it.
RA: Thank you, Mr. Cintron.
--

This bibliography is copyright 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, & 2007 Richard J. Arndt.



© 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, & 2007 R. Arndt.
Do not reproduce or mirror this bibliography without prior written permission. Mainly, I’m worried about old versions floating around growing stale, so I want to keep track of where they are. Plus, please give credit where credit is due. If you want to post it or use it in some fashion, then feel free to contact me at rarndt39@hotmail.com.
Not for use or reproduction in any publication or media that is for sale, including but not limited to websites that are ad supported.
This bibliography may contain errors, omissions, or inaccurate material. It is provided as-is, without any express or implied warranties. Use it at your own risk. Although effort is made to keep all the material presented here accurate, the contributors and maintainer of this bibliography will not be held responsible for any damage -- direct or indirect -- which may result from inaccuracies.
Publications, titles of publications and characters appearing therein are ©, ® and/or ™ of their respective publishers, authors or creators.
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