Mantlo: A Life In Comics - Sleeping Giant

I've been anticipating this ever since I first heard about it--writer/artist David Yorkovich's magazine-sized tribute book to comics writer Bill Mantlo, who was in an accident in 1992 and has been in institutionalized care ever since.

Every so often I think of some comics writer or artist I read as a kid, and wonder what are they doing now? Comics, like a lot of entertainment-related industries I guess, is pretty brutal to its non-superstar veterans, many of whom toiled for average wages at best and no plan for the future. Once a comic company stopped liking someone's work, that was it--let's get the next hungry generation in here!

So when I read in TwoMorrows' Back Issue! a little while back what had happened to Bill, I was deeply saddened. So a benefit project sounded like a great idea, and I couldn't wait to read it once it was published.

First off, it seems only appropriate that this book is magazine-sized, since Mantlo's first published work was for Marvel's b/w line, but also because the extra size gives the presentation more "heft", rather than have it be a standard comic. I'm glad David Yurkovich went for this look, I think it works well.

It opens with an intro from Bill's brother Michael, and it's a touching read, hearing about them growing up reading comics together and how Bill probably saved his brother's life--literally.

What follows is a detailed chronology of Mantlo's writing career, which was spent almost entirely at Marvel. From their b/w magazines like Deadly Hands of Kung-Fu to his work on Marvel Team-Up, IronMan, The Human Fly, Incredible Hulk, and Spectacular Spider-Man, it's all here in vivid, sometimes blunt detail. Mantlo wasn't shy about expressing his distaste for some of the artists drawing his stories--which makes for interesting reading, since you don't feel there are punches being pulled.

Then it moves onto the work Mantlo is most known for and had the most creative control over, ironically two of the titles--Micronauts and Rom: The Spaceknight--were originally conceived as just toy tie-in books, and we know how usually awful those are(Crystar, anyone?). But Mantlo really cared about what he was doing, and worked hard with his artist collaborators(people like Michael Golden, Mike Mignola, Butch Guice, and Sal Buscema) and within the sometimes maddening bureaucracy at Marvel to deliver the best product possible.

It also touches on his other work like Cloak & Dagger, Rocket Raccoon, Alpha Flight, Vision & Scarlet Witch, and even his rare DC work, like Invasion! While I have to admit, sometimes I thought Mantlo came off a little rude in some of his critiques about people he worked with and for, I ultimately think it was a good move to not edit or try and smooth down some of the rougher edges--you get a good sense of the real man behind all these stories: someone who worked very hard, and cared deeply about his craft, but was frequently disappointed with the end result or all the interference getting there. So much so that during the mid-80s, Mantlo pursued a law degree and eventually became an attorney, writing for Marvel on the side.

It was in 1992 that he had his accident, and it's heartbreaking to read of it, and how he lives his life now terribly diminished. I read in Back Issue! that his brother and other family does read him the fan-mail he receives and they think he appreciates it. I can only hope this magazine tribute generates a lot more of it.

In addition to family photos and lots of comic art, there are three prose fiction pieces he wrote, one that Yurkovich illustrates, called "Aftermath." They are in turn silly and surprisingly melancholy; it's almost as if Mantlo was expressing feelings here that he never could in, say, Spider-Man Vs. Hulk At The Winter Olympics.

There's also a brief but touching story about how he helped comic creator Colleen Doran with free legal help in her battle to retain ownership of her comic A Distant Soil. It's a great story to hear of someone helping someone else out so selflessly like that.

A solid tribute, and an absolutely worthwhile cause. I mentioned it before, but if you haven't ordered one of these for yourself, pry a measly $7.50 out of your wallet and go here.


On a more personal note--I used to have over 15,000 comics, collected over the course of my child and young adulthood. To help pay for art school, I sold almost all of them off, and saved just one longbox worth of JLAs(my favorite title). But over the years, I've gone out and hunted down about another few hundred of the ones I used to have--beloved stories I missed being able to read again. And one of them was The Incredible Hulk #261, written by Bill with art by Sal Buscema.

Bruce Banner wakes up on a Easter Island, and runs afoul of the supervillain The Absorbing Man. The story is entirely about these two, and about how Banner is pushed around by the thuggish Absorbing Man. There's a sequence where he forces Banner into this dark, tight tunnel; so dark and tight that Bruce becomes afraid he might "Hulk out" in there, but become lodged in a way that not even the Hulk could break out, and he would suffocate.

That whole idea--that the Hulk could die from something as non-cosmic and mundane as getting stuck in a crawlspace--was so terrifying to me as a kid that I never forgot it. And when I went back and bought the comic again, it worked just as well as it did twenty-five years earlier. Now that's good writing. That was Bill Mantlo.

Hmm, I think I need to write a letter...