In the process of putting together my immense piece on the history and impact of the old Marvel Universe cards, I spoke with a lot of people to put it together. One of those – my chat with Joe Jusko – ended up being a bigger interview, as we talked about not just his work on the original Marvel Masterpieces set at Impel, but the upcoming anniversary set he’s doing with Upper Deck.
So it’s my pleasure to share that interview in whole today, as I spoke with Jusko about how that original project came together, what the experience was like, how shocking the response really was, and how he’s going to take all of that and put it into making his new Marvel Masterpieces series even better than the first one. A huge thanks to Joe for chatting with me, and look for those cards to arrive some time in 2015.
For the first Marvel Masterpieces set, how did you first get hired onto the project, and what appealed to you about the job?
Joe Jusko: Marvel was full bore into their trading card era at that point. After 3 sets of multiple artist Marvel Universe cards (I painted the unified background graphics for the 200 card Set 3 that created two single 100 card images when the cards were put together) Jim Lee had done the X-Men set by himself. All those sets were standard colored pen and ink comic art. In an effort to make each new set something different it was determined that the next logical step was to produce a fully painted set that harkened back to the great painted trading cards of the 1960’s. I was pretty much Marvel’s main painted cover guy at that point so I guess it seemed logical to ask me to do the project. The idea of painting all of Marvel’s main characters, many of which I had never had the opportunity before was really exciting. It was also the largest job I had ever been offered so that was sure appealing, as well!
JJ: I do take pride in that. Jim Lee was the preeminent X-Men artist at that time and had justifiably been the sole artist on his set. As the X-Men were so popular a dedicated artist set was an obvious decision. With the success of Jim’s set the idea for the Marvel Masterpieces was born. It was initially called Marvel Masterworks but changed almost immediately to avoid confusion with their high end reprint book series of the same name. There were artists whom I felt were better than me who could have been offered the project, ex; Earl Norem and Bob Larkin, but for whatever reason Special Projects editor Bob Budiansky presented the opportunity to me. It was a real boost to my confidence that Bob thought that highly of my work. I think I realized for the first time that the effort I had put in to improving my skills during my time at Marvel had not gone unnoticed and that the quality of my work was considered of a decent standard.
From what you remember, what notes and direction did you receive for the project? Beyond that, what was your approach for the set in creating iconic depictions of so many of Marvel’s characters?
JJ: There wasn’t a lot of direction, per se. A checklist of the most popular or iconic Marvel characters was created and a deadline was set. I’ve always found it interesting that you can determine the most popular characters at any given time by their inclusion or exclusion in any given card set. There are characters in that first set that were extremely popular but have pretty much been forgotten today. I thought that in lieu of generic action shots it was important that each character’s depiction in some way pay homage to the character’s history and personality if at all possible. Since I had grown up a Marvel kid I was very familiar with most of them, but I still pulled out my back issues and reprint collections to reference each character. I think I was about 70% successful in achieving that goal. The very last card I did was Tombstone because I just couldn’t figure out how to make a guy who talks scarily interesting. Since he was a hit man I came up with the death’s eye motif at the very last minute. I was also aware that the cards would most likely be kept in binder pages and made sure to vary the color palette of each card as much as possible to avoid them all looking the same when placed side by side.
Continued belowWere you surprised at all by the response the cards received at the time, and what is it you think people connected with so much when it came to these cards?
JJ: I think we all were surprised by the reaction. I remember there was a bit of angst over DC’s release of the Death of Superman cards around the same time, as that was such a major comic event. It was a concern that our cards would get overlooked, but they just exploded upon their release. Stores could not keep them in stock and I was traveling everywhere for signings. I remember in December of 1992 I did signings in Lafayette, Dallas, Chicago, LA and Las Vegas in 7 days. I was signing thousands of cards for collectibles dealers and did a 2 night Home Shopping Club appearance. They eventually won every major award that trading cards offered from distributers and the card industry itself. Skybox sold out the entire numbered print run of 350,000 boxes. They also produced a 20,000 run tin set that sold out and Marvel collected the art in a four issue comic set with 5 new images per book.
I’m not sure what it was about those cards that struck such a chord. You certainly can’t plan something like that. We just thought it was a cool idea and the next step in Marvel’s trading card line. My deadline was insane (104 paintings in just over 3 months) so I don’t think the paintings themselves are the best work I had done. In truth, I’m not particularly fond of the comic collection because they printed the paintings larger than their original 6”x8.5” size and it really showed how loose and unrefined that art really was, but I do think they captured the spirit of Marvel Comics for that generation. Their success has been credited with jumpstarting the painted trading card boom of the 90’s, and I take pride in that. I know that even though I had been in the business for 14 years prior to the Marvel Masterpiece project they raised my industry profile almost overnight. I liken it to acting, where you do competent work for years and then suddenly get that one role that propels you into the public consciousness. That was this card set for me. When it’s success was realized Marvel asked me to paint the follow up second set, but the deadline was as extreme as the first one and I wasn’t sure I could work around the clock for three months as I did before, so I passed.
Are these something that people still regularly bring up to you to this day?
JJ: My wife attends most shows with me and finds it amazing that I still sign more of those cards than anything else I’ve ever done. People tell me those cards are the reason they got back into comics or into comics for the first time, or they’re the reason they started to draw. The enthusiasm and passion with which they reminisce about the cards is truly humbling. I have a feeling no matter what I do in my career from that project forward those cards will be my professional legacy, and I’m okay with that.
You’re putting together a completely new set of Marvel cards all your own with Upper Deck, this time featuring 135 cards. How did that one come together? What appealed to you about taking another run at this?
JJ: I always felt a bit cheated by the time frame in which I had to produce the first set, as well as a bit envious that future artists like the Hildebrandts and Boris & Julie were given so much more time to paint their cards. As popular as my set was I’ve always known it was far from my best work. That knowledge has picked at me for years. As the 20th anniversary approached I contacted Upper Deck and proposed my interest in revisiting the property, with the request that I be given enough time to do the paintings and the brand itself justice. I’m 20 years a better painter and really felt I could make this set something special. The card market has definitely changed since the inaugural release and it took a while for the logistics of such a high profile project to be weighed, but we finally worked everything out.
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JJ: Upper Deck has graciously given me a substantial amount of time to create the paintings and I feel that I’m finally getting the chance I didn’t have the first time around to produce the best quality work I can. Each piece is essentially cover quality art. I could not be happier and I’m having the best possible time! I think the one thing I’ve learned is to trust my instincts and my talent. While the time frame I’m working in is much more accommodating, 135 paintings, done one after another with no real time to think or regroup is still very daunting and exhausting. Early on I was entertaining multiple ideas for the characters and it was really slowing me down. I had to get comfortable trusting that my first ideas would work and run with them. The concepts and pencils are actually the most difficult part of the job; making sure the character is properly represented and that I don’t repeat ideas, compositions or color schemes. At this stage of my career the painting is really just a process once all the thinking and drawing is done.
One thing I thought was really interesting from what you said was how that first set really represented who and what was popular at the time at Marvel. It was a good cross section of what Marvel was like in 1992. Do you think this new set will accomplish the same thing for 2014’s Marvel?
JJ: While there are several new characters that I wasn’t familiar with, what I’m finding most surprising are the amount of character redesigns that I wasn’t aware of. It makes characters I’ve painted before interesting because they really are new and fun for me. This set also a covers a larger cross section of Marvel’s history. I had a pretty detailed wish list of characters I wanted to paint, ones I had particular childhood affections for, just to make the project as interesting as possible for myself over the long haul and Upper Deck was really generous in signing off on the majority of my choices. I even get to paint a few Jack Kirby monsters! Overall, this is a dream job and I hope fans love the final results as much as I’m enjoying working on it.
