[NOTE: I speak about a lot of different Doris Danger books in this commentary. For the complete illogically complex list of all the comics and books where Doris’s adventures were printed AND reprinted, and what’s in them, please peruse Doris Danger Publishing History]
I’m going to use this page as an opportunity to talk about how I’ve managed to get so many BEST FRIENDS, who kindly give me QUOTES OF ENDORSEMENT from all my favorite comics artists.
In June 2006, I released a trade paperback called “The Lump,” which collected the main feature story from my first self-published comic, the five-issue “Tabloia Weekly Magazine” (a book containing four different comics series inside its covers). Because the story had come out in previous issues, I had a stack of decently favorable reviews, which I decided I wanted to quote from, for the back cover. When I picked and chose lines to quote from these reviews, excising anything unfavorable the reviews had to say, and just focusing on the “hit” phrases and words and lines, I wound up with what I felt was a nice page of positive endorsements, and it made me feel like maybe the book was a decent one.
During my formative years as a comics reader, it struck me how Frank Miller had gotten quotes of endorsement from so many great comics creators in the industry, which he published a few at a time on the backs of his DC “Ronin” mini-series. Each new issue, more fantastic artists and writers were praising his book, and the onslaught of support made me feel intimidated that it must be a great book, and I’d better like it too. I loved this about the book.
So I thought it might be fun to try and do something like this for my own work. Obviously, Frank Miller and I are similar, in that we’re both comics professionals of a similar vision and style, who produce a like quality of work, and share a similar fame and respect within the industry. And I’m being sarcastic. But despite this, I had a couple tricks up my sleeve in attempting to accomplish this goal.
Since 2002, I’d been getting in touch with all my favorite comics artists who I could find online or at comics conventions, and showing them my Doris Danger work in the hopes of convincing them to create pin-ups of giant monsters that I could publish in my giant monster books. And I had incredible luck. While going through this process, a number of them said kind words about the work (perhaps out of sad kindness). Much of these compliments I’d received in emails. So in 2007, I began writing to these artists to see if they would mind if I quoted them for promotion purposes. Many asked that I not quote them. Some just didn’t respond at all. But a number of them very kindly acquiesced.
Some artists altered their quotes for better “quotability.” For example, in April 2004, I wrote a letter of introduction to Matt Wagner, in which I included a few pages of my comics to share. We’d never met, but he was going to be at a comics convention I would be attending. He replied, “Yer book looks like a buttload o’ fun!”
Here’s me with Matt, a la San Francisco Wondercon 2007:
In February 2007, upon my asking if I could use that quote, Matt wrote back:
How about–
A big, bristling, bombastic, black&white, blockbusting buttload o’ fun!…”
Matt Wagner
So I began to collect and gain permission for quotes such as these. Dick Ayers inked the first five 5-page Doris Danger adventures for me (first published in “Tabloia”, collected in “Doris Danger in Where Giant Monsters Creep and Stomp” and now in the SLG book, “Doris Danger Giant Monster Adventures”) so I’d had a number of correspondences with him. In one complimentary letter, he told me, “I rank you with the so-called King, Chris.” When I asked for permission to publish his quote, he responded, “I rank you with the very best of pencillers, Chris.”
Here’s Dick and I at the Baltimore Comic-Con, 2005:
I’ve been trying to see if Tim Bradstreet might have time in his schedule to make a giant monster pin-up for me, I think since 2002. He actually said in a correspondence, “Dude, you know I love the magazine and think it rocks…”
Here we are at Comic-Con in 2006:
At one point, he actually wrote a big letter, explaining his stance on doing a pin-up for me:
In an amendment to my letter dated 1.27.05 OK Cree (that’s what I call Chris’ that I like –Not the ‘OK’ part, the ‘Cree’ part . . .) Anyway. It should be stated for clarification that when I mentioned (in the aforementioned letter) that “I’m so not a monster guy”, I’m not suggesting that I don’t like monsters, nay. Only that it’s a challenge to draw them. And I’m talking big, nasty, monster type monsters like Godzilla, Mothra, a giant stone Golem, or for that matter even werewolves. It’s that photo ref thing you see. A lot of artists who do not admit to using photo ref call this dilemma “limitation” or “restriction of the media”, or simply a “lack of talent”. Petty technical jealousies aside, I call it plain laziness. You see normally I’d just do a little research and find out where the closest possible giant stone Golem was hanging out terrorizing some townspeople or villagers, but I’m lazy see? I mean everyone knows there are Werewolves in Bakersfield and even in El Centro, but who wants to go there, right? So you see my problem. I apologize if my earlier generalization was not totally clear. I write it off to sleep deprivation.
Now normally, if you were paying me a huge amount of money like those movie people who talked me into drawing a big poster for a Werewolf film, I’d somehow find the time or summon up the guts to drive up to Bakersfield for a clandestine photo op. And the bitch of it is you have to wait until the Lunar cycle is in full to make the trip, otherwise you’re just wasting your time talking to Native American medicine men and the occasional alleged witness to a sighting. So it’s true, money talks. But flattery and tenaciousness certainly has it’s upside. It just takes longer. Anyway stay in touch on this.
I may be doing a scout for Lion’s Gate for an upcoming Succubus thriller called “Dear Vlad”. I have a special relationship with the Vampires so maybe, just maybe I’ll have something for you soon.
Eternally yours – Tim
Dave Gibbons had produced a pin-up for one of my books. I naturally sent him a copy of the book, when it came out (“Doris Danger in Outer Space”, then republished in the trade, “Doris Danger in… Where Urban Creatures Creep and Stomp” and now in the SLG book, “Doris Danger Giant Monster Adventures”.)
When he received the book in February 2006, he said, “A fantastic hoot! Great pin-ups, too…”
In February 2007 I asked if I could quote him. He replied, “As I’ve had a full read now, rather than just a quick skim-through, and the opinion still stands!”
That totally cracked me up, so I immediately wrote him back asking if I could quote THAT too. He replied,
LOL
Do it!
We had met at the Bristol Con UK in 2005. My wife and I took a photo with him at San Diego’s Comic Con 2005, when he stopped by my booth, to give me the pin-up of a giant monster I had commissioned, included in this book.
I sat near Mike Mignola at Wondercon 2006, and as he passed by he said something like this of my book, “It’s the ultimate Kirby-style monster comic,” or something like that. This photo is taken probably at the moment he gave me the quote:
A year later, I emailed to ask if I could quote him. For some reason, I had in my head that he had said, “It’s the ultimate Kirby-style monster comic.” He replied, “I don’t believe I’ve ever actually used the word “penultimate” but it makes for a good quote.” So we used that quote on my second Doris Danger trade, “Where Urban Creatures Creep and Stomp.” The image is posted in page 000a Back Cover – Pre-Edits.
Getting ready for the Doris Danger SLG trade, it was brought up that “penultimate” means, “second to last,” for example “the penultimate stanza of the poem.” I had mentioned this before to Mike, and wanted to see if he wanted to change the quote at all, so the published book for Doris Danger (vol. 1), page 000a Back Cover – Published ultimately contained the quote , “(I don’t believe I’ve ever actually used the word ‘penultimate’, and I’m pretty sure I’ve used it incorrectly, but I like the way it sounds.)” What a sport that guy is!
With such good luck getting quotes, I soon gained the confidence to begin writing to artists I knew, to see if any of them might be willing to offer me a quote. Many didn’t respond.
But Adam Hughes sent me his quote, “This book has giant monsters that outshine even the ones from WUTHERING HEIGHTS! Enjoy!”
This photo is from when I first got to know him, at Orlando’s Mega-Con 2006:
I saw Steranko at the New York Comic-Con in 2007, and asked if he might give me a quote of endorsement. He kind of went, Gee, Chris, I don’t know… But when I emailed him to follow up, he sent me “A MONSTERous thrill on every page! How could I live without it???”
I tried to convince Jim to let me take a photo with him for years, and finally, in 2011, I got this beauty while filming my Diary of a Struggling Comics Artist Documentary:
And last of all … Stan Lee!
This family portrait of us with our “Uncle Stan” was taken at Emerald City’s Comic-Con 2010:
I’d been going to San Diego Comic Con since 2001, and exhibiting since 2004. We got to know one of the security guards a little, and in 2006, I mentioned that there are often guests of the con who I’m unable to hunt down, because they’re such sensations.
He said, “Like who do you have in mind?” I told him, for example, Stan Lee, Moebius, and some others.
He said, “Well tell you what, if I’m put on duty with any of them, I’ll pop over here to your booth, and bring you to meet them!” WOW!
I said, “Well for example, it says Moebius is doing a signing at the Activision booth, but it doesn’t say when.” So he sends one of his fellow guards over to the Activision booth to find out some information for us. UNBELIEVABLE! While we’re visiting, he suddenly says, “Hold on just a second,” and starts listening and talking into his headset for a moment. “Yeah? Yeah. Okay. All right. Thanks.” Then he says to me, “Moebius is signing at the Activision booth right now. Let’s go.” INCREDIBLE! So we march all the way to the opposite end of the convention together, and when we get there, STAN LEE IS SIGNING AT THE SAME TIME! FRIGGIN’ AMAZING!
The place is a madhouse. There are mobs and mobs of people swarming the area, and there’s just a feeling of tension.
I follow my security guy, and he goes around and says a quick hello to the security guard manning a station, and then walks through a roped-off area. I try to follow him, but this new security guard stops me. My pal turns back and says, “No, it’s okay. He’s with me.” And next thing I know, I’m coming through, into the inner circle, just outside where Stan Lee is signing. My buddy is talking with various people, who are pointing back and forth, and finally he comes back to me and says, “Stan is really busy, and as soon as he’s done signing, he’s got to get somewhere. Did you want him to sign a book? Because we can leave it with his rep, and get it signed, if you want.”
I told him, I didn’t have a book to sign (I did, but I had left it at my booth). I said what I wanted was to give the esteemed Stan Lee a copy of my giant monster book. My friend stepped me over a few steps (because we were in an extremely tight, cramped area) and said, you need to talk to this man. He’s Stan Lee’s representative.
I introduced myself and told him I’d been doing Kirby-style giant monster stories inked by Dick Ayers. The representative said, “Oh, I haven’t seen Dick in a long time. How’s he doing?” I gave him a very quick update, and told him I’d also had a chance to spend time with Larry Lieber when he came out to see me at a convention in New York a couple years ago. (Larry is Stan’s brother. Stan’s real name is Stanley Lieber.) I told him I’m too young to have met Jack Kirby, but I would love for Stan to see what I’ve been working on. I gave him a copy of “Doris Danger Seeks… Where Giant Monsters Creep and Stomp” and was was assured Stan would receive the book. As I left, I asked if there might be any chance, if he enjoyed it, that he could write a quick blurb that I could publish with my next book. The rep said that would be a possibility, and he gave me his card, and told me to ask for Stan, and that would put me through to him (the rep). Wow, I couldn’t believe it!
When I got home, I did as he said, and spoke with him on the phone. He assured me that he had gotten my book into Stan’s hands. I asked if there might be any chance to get a blurb from Stan, and at first he said he didn’t think so, but then he rethought it, and by the end of the conversation he was asking me, So if Stan called me and just said something about my book, could I use that? I was dumbfounded. I told him, Well, you could just email me a sentence or two, if that would be easier. He said he’d check with Stan and get back to me.
I assumed I would need to call back in a couple weeks, but before I had a chance to even think about it, I got a call saying Stan would do a blurb for me, and could I please send an email with an idea of what I might like Stan to say, and then Stan would rewrite it in “his own inimitable style.” Uh…okay… He wanted me to just send a couple sentences. Man, what a lot of pressure. So let me get this straight, I’m just going to write whatever I’d like Stan to say about my book, and then he’ll change it so that it sounds like something Stan said. Yes, that’s right.
At first I thought maybe they had actually just lost the book or thrown it out without looking at it, and that’s why they wanted me to give them a sample of what to say. Upon looking at what Stan wrote, though, I see he must have seen the book.
So I thought over my dilemma for a while, then I finally sat in front of my computer and basically just brainstormed a bunch of outrageous, self-congratulatory, pretentious, pompous compliments about myself. I ended up sending a full paragraph of what I thought Stan “The Man” Lee should say about my work, and here’s what I wrote:
“Quirky, kitschy, hilarious, odd, full of Lee-Kirby energy…and I know! A loving homage full of bizarre and random characters, plot twists that don’t make much sense, kooky giant monsters, and a whole lot of exclamation points and fun! Takes me back. Kirby and I did giant monsters better, but Chris’s “Doris Danger Giant Monster Adventures” are next up on the list. A great package, full of pin-ups by all my favorite artists, in a gorgeous over-sized format that makes me feel like a kid. The truest, most heartfelt homage I’ve seen to my work.”
Oh, man, it makes me gag to think Stan “The Man” Lee, my idol, saw me write this stuff about myself and knew I wanted him to say these things about me. But the following week, I had a blurb from my idol, and the man who wrote the stories I grew up with and loved so much that I dedicated a book to ripping off his style…Stan “The Man” Lee wrote me a blurb about my monster books!
“The title alone, ‘Doris Danger Seeks Where Giant Monsters Creep and Stomp’ should have warned me off, but I read it anyway. Somehow, Chris Wisnia had performed the amazing feat of taking the minor masterpieces that Jack Kirby and I had done and looking at them through a carnival’s distorting mirror. I wanted to write the sort of thoughtful, philosophical blurb about “DDSWGMC&S” for which I’m so justly famed, but after getting caught up in its weird and wacky contents, no mere words of mine could truly do it the injustice it deserves. Therefore, I’ll just add the one sentence that applies to any horror or monster tale—’Read it at your own risk! ” – Stan Lee
You can read TONS of very kind quotes from tons of fantastic comics artists (who are all my BEST FRIENDS) by clicking the TESTIMONIALS link at the very-top menu.
