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SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2008


WONDERCON: TERRY DODSON PANEL

SAN FRANCISCO -- Interviewed by Aaron Lopresti, a friend and his successor on Wonder Woman, Terry Dodson took a tour through his 16-year career in comics on Friday at WonderCon.

Dodson talked about his journeys through both Marvel Comics and DC Comics, his influences and his style choices.

Following are highlights.

* Lopresti ran through a timeline of Dodson's career, which began at Malibu Comics and included trading card work and Mantra.

* Lopresti asked Dodson, how did his wife Rachel become his inker?

"She was not a comic fan per se, but she had gotten her degree in interior design," Dodson said, noting he tried her out at lettering and noticed she had excellent control. She began inking more and more,and by the time Generation X came out, they were married and an artistic team, and have worked together for 11 years.

"It's worked out especially well," he said. "She reads the occasional comic book, but it's really a day job for her."

* Dodson said working on an X-Men book gave him good exposure, and that his favorite artist at the time was Jim Lee.

* Dodson said he had "a good run" on Generation X and wanted to move on to the X-Men. Unfortunately, he didn't get any offers from Marvel, and his familiarity with editor Matt Idelson and his admiration of Bruce Timm's work and animation helped him decided to go to DC and Harley Quinn. That run lasted two years, and the second year he was under contract with DC.

* Marvel editor-in-chief Joe Quesada then approached him about the Black Cat/Spider-Man book written by Kevin Smith. He said he enjoyed the chance to draw Spider-Man, as well as New York City and redesigning.

While that book was plagued by Smith's late scripts, Dodson did a graphic novel called Coraline for Humanoids through his old Malibu colleague David Olbrich.

He was also approached about doing "the secret origin of Peter Parker" written by Mark Millar, which turned into Trouble. "That was kind of a fiasco," Dodson said.

* After 3 1/2 years at Marvel, Dodson said he had a great time on Spider-Man and was glad to work on a character who wasn't a female. "The guest star in that book was New York City, and I love architecture."

* Wonder Woman was always a character that interested Dodson, and he was offered three things by DC's Dan DiDio, but stopped him at No. 2: Wonder Woman. Dodson was intrigued at the design challenges and the opportunity to create his take on characters.

Dodson's contract ended in September, but he remained with DC through January to help Gail Simone on her run.

* Dodson said it is time to honor his contract with Humanoids for a second Coraline graphic novel, having received a good response to the first one.

Is it a sequel? "The first page picks up off the last page of the first volume," he said.

* Dodson he enjoyed doing designs for DC toys, including eight mini-busts of DC's female character. "It's really easy for me to do three-dimensional things," he said, showing off The Huntress for the first time.

Dodson said he is already working on a second series mini-busts.

* Dodson doesn't mind a reputation as a pin-up artist, noting that Jim Lee, Adam Hughes and Mike Mignola have all been influences.

* For the last year, Dodson colors his own covers, using Photoshop. He also colors his own work on Coraline.

* Dodson's plan is to get all the linework done on the Coraline project before any more interior work for American comics.

He is doing covers for Marvel, including the first six covers of Young X-Men and a Ms. Marvel/Captain Marvel coupling. "Which is great because I get to color them myself this time," he said.

* Dodson said that DC is a little more controlling can corporate than Marvel.

"Both companies are a little bit different, which makes them the way they are," he said.

* Dodson said he spends 3-5 days on a cover. "Sometimes I lose money because I spend too much time, but it's the cover that sells the book," he said.



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