Editor-in-Chief for a Day

[Kan-Man]

Not sure if this has been done before, but if not... here's the premise. Take any artist or writer (living or dead) and match them with a character or title that you would have liked to see them work on. The only caveat being they never worked on it before.

For example, Jack Kirby doing an issue of Batman or Will Eisner drawing a Phantom Stranger story. (Not great examples, I know, but you get the idea.)

To start things off, I'll nominate Joe Kubert drawing an issue of Captain America. Kubert's one of my all-time favorites, so he was an easy choice for me. Matching him up with a title was a bit trickier. I first thought of Westerns or perhaps something more in line with the style he's known for, but I thought that was too easy. The Cap story would, of course, be set in WWII so Joe could flex his military muscles, but I'd be more interested in his take on Captain America. Whenever I get a glimpse of the character these days, he's even more muscle-bound than the time before (just how much super serum did they shoot into the guy anyway?) I think Kubert's muscular but leaner approach would be a refreshing change.

Well, that's the concept... play along or ignore. The choice is yours.

[Allan Harvey]

I would have loved to see Jack Kirby tackle the Legion of Super-Heroes. Seriously. The futuristic setting would have allowed him to indulge himself in all kinds of gadgetry and sci-fi fun. All those alien planets to visit too! It could have been marvelous! Levitz and Giffen later proved that Darkseid could work in the 30th century, so it's not that great a stretch of the imagination.

Failing that, Jack on Green Lantern. For much the same reasons...

[dan bailey]

As I wrote some months ago in a vaguely similar thread, I'd love to have seen John Severin draw Tomahawk. (Heck, I'd love to see John Severin draw the phonebook!)

[Gingold]

Dick Sprang on Spider-Man.

[MDG]

Dan Clowes on Archie

Spain Rodriguez on Batman

Curt Swan on the FF

Gilbert Hernandez on Little Archie

Alex Toth on the Shadow

[Stephane Garrelie]

Chris Claremont on Flash Gordon.
David Michelinie & Bob Layton on Thor.
Alex Raymond on Batman
Mark Gruenwald and Mark Silvestri on Amazing Spider-Man.
Ann Nocenti & Wally Wood on Iron Man
Roger Stern and John Byrne on Nick Fury agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.
Roger Stern and John Romita Jr on The Invaders.
Bill Mantlo and Sal Buscema on Detective Comics.
Marv Wolfman and Joe Kubert on Uncanny X-Men.
Louise Simonson and Marie Severin on Batgirl (Babs)
Walt Simonson on the Flash (Barry).
Archie Goodwin & Arthur Adams on Atom.
Roy Thomas and Neal Adams on Hawkman.
Len Wein & Alex Toth on Captain America
Ann Nocenti & Louise Simonson with Sal Buscema on Fantastic Four inked by Terry Austin.

[benday-dot]

How about Frank Miller taking on Doctor Strange... or just about anything Ditko. If the idea is to put together a natural seeming pair-up, than I think this fits. If the idea is to come up with something incongruous then how about... i don't know... Gene Colan on Superman seems kind of odd.

[Kan-Man]

How about Frank Miller taking on Doctor Strange... or just about anything Ditko. If the idea is to put together a natural seeming pair-up, than I think this fits. If the idea is to come up with something incongruous then how about... i don't know... Gene Colan on Superman seems kind of odd.

No rules... just something you would have liked to have seen (or like to see if the creator is still with us).

[Aaron King]

Frank Miller & Steve Ditko on Mr. A. Miller asked Ditko if he could revive Mr. A in any sense, with Steve writing and Frank drawing, vice versa, just in some way. Ditko said no.

[spoon_jenkins]

Jim Aparo on Spider-Man

Paul Smith on Legion of Super-Heroes

Don Newton on Daredevil

[Allan Harvey]

How about Frank Miller taking on Doctor Strange... or just about anything Ditko. If the idea is to put together a natural seeming pair-up, than I think this fits. If the idea is to come up with something incongruous then how about... i don't know... Gene Colan on Superman seems kind of odd.

I seem to recall Frank Miller drew a Spider-Man Annual that featured Doctor Strange. Nothing seems quite as odd a pairing as Roy Thomas and Gene Colan on Wonder Woman -- and yet that happened for real..!

How about Karl Kesel and Tom Grummett on an OMAC series in the Kirby tradition? That, I'd kill to see.

[Sir Tim Drake]

Gilbert Hernandez on Little Archie is a brilliant idea. I think, though, that Jaime would be better suited for this assignment, since he already has done stories that were very close to Little Archie. I'm thinking of "Home School" here, which was a funny, adventurous story about little kids depicted cartoonishly.

On the other hand, Gilbert is also very good at telling stories that are simultaneously humorous and serious, so he would be a good second choice for the assignment.

Paul Smith on the Legion is another good idea, though I don't know if he can draw crowd scenes.

[Rob Imes]

Joe Kubert actually inked an issue (or about half an issue, if memory serves) of Captain America when one of his sons was the penciler of the series circa 1999.

In the early 1980s, Marvel published some house ads which (again, if memory serves) promoted a new creative team on Doctor Strange -- Roger Stern and Frank Miller. The ad in the pic was by Miller, but in the end, it was Marshall Rogers who became the new artist, not Miller.

Personally I'd love to see some creative teams to return to comics they had once done, such as Roger Stern and John Byrne on Captain America, or Paul Smith drawing Dr Strange again, or even Alan Davis back on X-Men.

Tom Grummett is an underrated artist who does good work in a kind of neo-Byrne style, but usually he's on comics that feature newer characters: Power Company, Thunderbolts, etc. I'd like to see him as the regular penciler on a comic with the more traditional characters, like Avengers or Defenders.

I always though Tom Sutton would have done an interesting Thor comic; don't know if he ever drew Thor.

The Curt Swan drawing FF is a great idea, a nice fit.

[dan bailey]

The Curt Swan drawing FF is a great idea, a nice fit.

Indeed. And how about Wally Wood on the FF? I know he drew the early Dr Doom solo strips in Astonishing Tales; did the FF ever show up in those, or were they pretty much Latveria-centric (as I vaguely recall from my Marvel Art of Wally Wood hardcover, or whatever it's called, which I haven't yet had enough to caffeine to stumble to my living room to consult)?

We know from T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents & All-Star that he could handle a team book quite nicely, & from Daredevil that his Marvel heroes looked awfully good. What a Sue Storm he would've given us!

[benday-dot]

Indeed. And how about Wally Wood on the FF? I know he drew the early Dr Doom solo strips in Astonishing Tales; did the FF ever show up in those, or were they pretty much Latveria-centric (as I vaguely recall from my Marvel Art of Wally Wood hardcover, or whatever it's called, which I haven't yet had enough to caffeine to stumble to my living room to consult)?

We know from T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents & All-Star that he could handle a team book quite nicely, & from Daredevil that his Marvel heroes looked awfully good. What a Sue Storm he would've given us!

Very good. And let us not forget that the Fantastic Four were pioneering astronauts. Now the man had many fortes, but not least among them was Wood's brilliance at depicting... well pioneering astronauts.

[Aaron King]

Gene Colan did a Superman mini with Steve Gerber called Phantom Zone or something like that. It looked neat.

[MDG]

I was trying to get through the movie version--failed--when this vast improvement came to me:

Sin City by S. Clay Wilson

MDG

[benday-dot]

Gene Colan did a Superman mini with Steve Gerber called Phantom Zone or something like that. It looked neat.

I had no idea. That pair could probably make most any comic book look pretty sweet.

[Jake Lockley]

Neil Gaiman and Steve Ditko on the Phantom Stranger would be awesome.

[damienwhiter]

How about Frank Miller taking on Doctor Strange... or just about anything Ditko. If the idea is to put together a natural seeming pair-up, than I think this fits. If the idea is to come up with something incongruous then how about... i don't know... Gene Colan on Superman seems kind of odd.

I don't know if you're aware but, at one point, Frank Miller was due to take over Dr Strange. I have some early 80s Marvels which contain a house ad for Dr Strange by Roger Stern and Frank Miller. It never happened.

As for my choice of fantasy creative team, it's got to be Alan Moore, Curt Swan & Wally Wood on Legion.

[MichaelT]

Will Shakespeare for the Fantastic Four and Charles dickens for Batman.

[damienwhiter]

Will Shakespeare for the Fantastic Four and Charles dickens for Batman.

Jane Austen on Green Lantern.

[dan bailey]

HP Lovecraft for the Phantom Stranger.

[Cei-U!]

Off the top of my head:

Will Eisner and Mort Meskin on Batman
Jim Steranko on Challengers of the Unknown
Archie Goodwin and Curt Swan on Spider-Man
John Ostrander and Tim Truman on Sgt. Fury
Bob Haney and Jim Aparo on Daredevil
Alan Moore and Berni Wrightson on Dr. Strange
Darwyn Cooke and P. Craig Russell on Adam Strange
Jack Burnley on *any* of the Silver Age DC or Marvel heroes
Me and Steve Rude on the JSA

Cei-U!
Welcome to Fantasy Island!

[damienwhiter]

Why didn't I think of nominating myself? Presumably in the alternate universe where I was EIC I'd also have some writing or drawing talent, so I could be writer/artist on Legion. Cool!

[dan bailey]

Yeah, that occurred to me, too.

The thing is, Kurt (Cei-U!) actually is extremely talented, as both a writer & an artist.

Note to self: Add Kurt to most-hated list.

[dan bailey]

Dan Bailey -- editor in charge of choosing Marvel reprint projects, dammit.

[benday-dot]

Why... Jack Kirby on Popeye.

[benday-dot]

And Frank Quitely would draw a fine Tintin.