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Jerry Ordway, an interview

posted by Matt Knicl at 7:23 pm.

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One of the comic writers/artists I spoke to at NYCC was Jerry Ordway. For the past 20 years, Mr. Ordway has worked in the comic industry as a writer and artist, working mainly for DC on titles like Power of Shazam and Superman, though he has also worked for Marvel on occasion. Currently, Mr. Ordway is working on illustrations for Brave and the Bold.

Mr. Ordway took time to talk to me about his past work and his reaction to alterations made to the characters he’s written for.

Matt Knicl: What are your current projects?

Jerry Ordway: At the moment I am drawing JSA Annual #1, with Geoff Johns writing. I spent the last several months working on Brave and the Bold, and that was an awful lot of fun as well.

Matt: Do you prefer writing or penciling?

Jerry: I like both, actually, but I miss not being able to script comics. I always have ideas of my own for characters, and it’s hard not to second guess most scripts I get to work on as a writer. With Brave and the Bold, I got to work plot style, and Mark Waid was cool with me offering input in the story elements, which is much more rewarding than working from a full script which seems to be the writers preferred method these days.

Matt: Which of your past projects stayed with you the most?

Jerry: Of all the books I have worked on, I find that Shazam is the toughest to to get over. I had the most fun working on that character, and felt very close to the whole Marvel family. Also, it was the only comic I worked on that was canceled while I was doing it, and I had more stories left to tell. With Superman, or Infinity Inc or whatever, I left of my own accord.

Matt: How did you approach writing Power of Shazam?

Jerry: When I got the assignment, I wanted to develop a distinctly different setting in Fawcett City, and basically approached the Marvels as if it were a Spider-man comic from the 1960’s, when I first discovered comic books. The Shazam property is forever stuck in the 1950’s era when it was best received, and the fans who worship that stuff are hard to please. Basically I didn’t want to try to recreate that era, as current readers want their stuff to have a different level of continuity. DC also wanted it all integrated into the DC Universe better than in the past, and that meant our book had to tie into about 6 company crossovers over the four year run.

Matt: Do you think there will ever be trade paperbacks of that series?

Jerry: I wish there would be some trades of Shazam, at the least as a way for readers who like the current stuff with Cap and Black Adam to see where it started in current continuity. I set up a lot of things in the series that were picked up in JSA by Geoff Johns and others.

Matt: Do you think the portrayal of Black Adam today is accurate to the character?

Jerry: I don’t think it’s too different from what I set up– basically using Doctor Doom or Prince Namor as the role model, making Adam a foreign monarch with diplomatic immunity. I avoided the pointy ears on Black Adam in my Shazam stuff because it made him look too much like Namor. I based his visual on a younger Boris Karloff, but none of the subsequent artists followed that.

Matt: What is your opinion about evil Mary Marvel?

Jerry: I didn’t mind the whole Countdown storyline, but it didn’t accomplish much in my opinion. I will admit that I have a hard time accepting Mary as a cookie cutter female character. In my own opinion, she is not a vamp or an exhibitionist. She’s a nice polite girl from the Midwest who tries to fit in. Every girl character in comics has to be some male fantasy “babe” and that’s not at all how I saw Mary. Way back when I co-created Infinity Inc with Mike Machlan and Roy Thomas, I worked hard to protect Jade from that fate. I drew a petite, cute girl with a relatively flat chest, counter to what is regularly portrayed in comics. The minute I was off that book the artists drew her like She-Hulk. That’s the hardest part of vesting a character with your creative spark– once you’re no longer controlling the character’s destiny you have absolutely no say in how the character is portrayed.

Matt: Also, what is your reaction to Judd Winick’s Trials of Shazam, where Billy Batson is replaced by Freddy?

Jerry: I didn’t care for the issues I read of Trials of Shazam, but that concept wasn’t bad. I don’t bear any ill will towards the participants in this or Countdown, because I totally understand and sympathize with the folks who try to create a spark with the Shazam Family. I disliked Winick’s approach to Dr. Sivana especially in Outsiders, though. I hate the trend that remakes every villain into a serial killer these days. There are all kinds of evils in the world, unless of course you read nothing but James Patterson books. As for Shazam, this is a property that never was successful for DC, as it was to Fawcett Comics. I always equate Shazam with Wonder Woman, which hasn’t been a great seller for a lot of years, but DC kept the book going through thick and thin, whether it was making money or not. If they had done the same with Shazam over the years, basically replacing the creative teams, but keeping the title going, it would have caught on, or at least maintained the image of being a viable property. DC always made money off the licensing. With so many canceled and miniseries over the years, retailers perceive it as being worse off that it is. Power of Shazam, the graphic novel I painted, is a steady seller since it first came out in 1995, and is now in it’s 4th or 5th printing. I think it sold 18000 copies in hardcover, as well as 25 thousand or more trade paperbacks. The comic sold solid numbers for 4 years, and basically DC pulled the plug on it because they didn’t see it growing in sales, and they wanted me on other stuff.

Images courtesy DC

Matt Knicl: My name is Matt Knicl. I'm a U of I alumn and one of those unemployed English majors Garrison Keillor likes to make fun of. I've been reading comics since high school and one day I would like to write them. My goal is to expose readers to what is out there in the world of comics and using my English powers, show what is worth reading or not. I can be reached at buzz.comics@gmail.com.