Once Upon a Geek

BLUE DEVIL WEEK concludes here at ONCE UPON A GEEK…

Today we’ve got a very special treat – the first creator interview from ONCE UPON A GEEK!  Dan Mishkin and Gary Cohn, creators of the DC comic book characters Blue Devil and Amethyst Princess of Gemworld, were kind enough to spend some time with Ravenface and I discussing their creations.

Dan Mishkin & Gary Cohn both have been professional writers for nearly 30 years.  Their writing credits go on for miles, whether writing as a team or independently.  They are probably best known together for creating Blue Devil and Amethyst Princess of Gemworld, but they have also written a great deal on their own.  Just to name a few items… Dan wrote the Wonder Woman comic from 1982 through 1985, and more recently published a children’s book entitled The Forest King: Woodlark’s Shadow;  Gary wrote Shi for Crusade Comics and the Masters of the Universe action figure mini-comics.

Dan and Gary are true professionals and a joy to talk with.  We truly appreciate how generous they were with their time.  They indulged all our fanboy questions and explained a lot of the inner-workings of the comic book industry.   We talked about the characters, artists, the writing process, creator rights, proposed action figures, crossovers, and much more! I believe any comic book reader, even if you aren’t a fan of Blue Devil or Amethyst, would genuinely enjoy this interview.

Dan and Gary did a fantastic interview about Blue Devil for Back Issue magazine two years ago. In that interview they discussed things such as: how they came together as a writing team; what inspired them to create Blue Devil; and what was it like working with artist Paris Cullins. It’s the holy grail of Blue Devil interviews, so we did not re-tread those same questions here. If you haven’t read that excellent interview, issue #21 of Back Issue is available as a digital download from TwoMorrows Publishing.  Normally the digital download would cost you about $3, but they are running a special right now and this particular issue is FREE in PDF format. Go check it out!

During our interview we reference two different Amethyst-related works of art.  Here are links to both of those:

• Early Amethyst art by Ernie Colon
• Superman and Batman: World’s Funnest comic page by Ty Templeton featuring Gemworld

Our interview with Dan and Gary lasted an astonishing one hour and forty-one minutes (101 minutes).   You may play the interview right here on the ONCE UPON A GEEK site with the handy-dandy player below! I apologize for not offering the interview in text format, but transcribing an interview that long would have taken months.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Alternatively, you may download the file and listen to it on an MP3 player or your computer. You may download the interview by right-clicking here, choosing “Save Target/Link As”, and selecting a location on your computer to save the file (48.5 MB).

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you enjoy the interview.  If you are in the Michigan area, please try to attend the Kids Read Comics event in Chelsea, Michigan on June 12-13.  Dan has been heavily involved with this event and it sounds really special.  You can read more about the Kids Read Comics event on their website.

This will do it for BLUE DEVIL WEEK!  Thanks to everyone for reading!   Long live Blue Devil and Amethyst!