Scott Dunbier on Jim Aparoās Spectre: Inside the Artistās Edition
My friend, and former co-host of our now-defunct Tuesday Night Comics podcast, Billy Henehan, recently had the privilege of interviewing Scott Dunbier for The Beat about the new Jim Aparo's DC Classics Artist's Edition.
For anyone unfamiliar, Artistās Editions are oversized books that reproduce original comic art at full scale and in full color. While most original comic art was created in pencil, pen, and ink (black and white), the color preserve every detail: white-out corrections, blue-line pencils, margin notes, and all the wonderful tiny imperfections. Theyāre about as close as most of us will ever get to holding the actual pages.
As great as the entire interview is, one moment really stood out to meābecause I got a surprise shout-out, alongside the Spectre no less:
Henehan: Itās funny, when I mentioned a friend that this interview was going to happen today, he asked, āOh, is there going to be Spectre stories in the book?ā and I said, āYeah! Itās like half Spectre stories!ā And then he sent me an image of the cover ofĀ Adventure ComicsĀ #431 and said, āI had this book as a kid. I read it until it wore out.ā I said, āYouāll be really happy. Itās in there.ā Dunbier:Ā Those particular stories, thatās my wheelhouse for Jim Aparo. My favorite is that stuff. There are only 10 stories in the original run inĀ Adventure Comics. But they were so creepy.Ā Michael FleischerĀ did such an amazing job on them. I remember when I was reading them, when I was like 12 years old, I couldnāt believe this was in a DC comic.Ā
Those Spectre stories by Aparo and Michael Fleisher are some of my all-time favorite work, and hearing Dunbier talk about it with such affection really drives home how great this Artistās Edition will be.
The full interview is thoughtful, informative, and clearly done by a guy who loves the medium. Go give it a read, and track down a copy of Jim Aparo's DC Classics Artist's Edition. Itās a must-have for fans of Aparo, the Spectre, and classic DC storytelling.
