ROGER STERN

The following is an e-mail interview with ROGER STERN, who can best be summed up as an all around great writer. Some of his more famous works include long runs on Spiderman, The Avengers, Dr. Strange, Captain America, and many others. This interview took place August 1, 1998.

DOUG WILKINSON: What first got you interested in the field of comics?

ROGER STERN: I guess I would have to say my maternal grandfather. One of my earliest memories is sitting on his knee as he read me the Sunday Comics.

DOUG WILKINSON: What was your first professional work, and how did you get it?

ROGER STERN: Technically, my first professional comics job was an article for Marvel's old fan magazine FOOM. (It wan't a big check, but it was money!) My first professional script was an inventory story for Charlton's PHANTOM Comic. (The book was canceled before my story was ever drawn!)

DOUG WILKINSON: What work are you most proud of to date?

ROGER STERN: My Spider-Man stories . . . . Doctor Strange . . . . The Captain America run with John (Byrne) . . . . quite a bit of the Avengers and Superman . . . . and Starman (the one that few people saw).

DOUG WILKINSON: Your writing shows a deep interest in comics history. To what do you credit the recent interest in the rest of the industry in reviving older characters and titles?

ROGER STERN: It's cyclical. I've lost track of how many times Doctor Strange, for example, has lost his book and gained a new one. And at Marvel, at least, characters usually come back as themselves. I suspect that some of it is brought about by young eager-beaver editors who fondly remember a series from their youth and want to bring it back. And, of course, they're not the only ones.

DOUG WILKINSON: How do you see comics changing, for better or worse, as we enter the 21st century?

ROGER STERN: I think the price on the old 32-page pamphlet that we call a magazine has been raised about as much as it can. We need to find better, more economically viable formats. CD-ROM might be one way to go . . . . at least it wouldn't be at the mercy of printers and paper prices. Or it's possible that comics could go away completely.

DOUG WILKINSON: Your work has ranged across the length and breadth of comicdom. If you could have any charaters or any project, what would it be?

ROGER STERN: I would like to write and own a high circulation, monthly series.

DOUG WILKINSON: What advice would you give people trying to break into the comics industry today?

ROGER STERN: Invent a time machine and go back to the early 1980's. It was a healthier market back then.

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