Luke McDonnell Update?

[bdog]

Hi All,
I am new to this board, and to reading your fine zine (which I was very happy to discover). I saw the thread about the Luke McDonnell interview, and was very happy, as I think he's one of the most underrated IM artists. Then I noticed it hadn't been updated/added to since November. I was going to add some questions to the 'call for questions' that Chris Frye posted, but didn't know if it was too late, if the interview had happened (or, yikes, perhaps fallen through), or what. Forgive the ignorance-- I'm new here, and I don't know the lead time between asking questions like that and when the interview gets published. Has it already run? And is it too late to add my two cents? Whatever the case, thanks so much for a great feature, in a great zine, about a great character. And this message board seems a lot nicer than some of the comics ones I've visited (:.

[The IronJedi]

bdog, welcome to the boards! The LM interview runs in the next issue fo A.I. so you haven't missed the interview. Go ahead and either post your question and/or PM me the question and I'll see what I can do.

IronJedi

[bdog]

Cool, thanks! My questions mostly have to do with influence and the creative process of working on the title. This is what I'd ask Mr. McDonnell:

1) Who were your major influences during your tenure on Iron Man? I know Frank Miller's been mentioned in the past, but I also thought I saw a bit of Jim Steranko in the layouts, and maybe even some R. Crumb influence in the figuration.

2) Your work with Steve Mitchell is really fabulous, but it also looks very different from other periods on the title. Was there ever any resistance from the editors about the visual/design choices you two made?

3) Your run saw the splitting of "Iron Man" into two characters: Stark and James Rhodes. For months, these characters never even saw each other. Were there conscious choices you made about how to depict these two very distinct spaces in this period of Iron Man: the skid-row, drunken Stark and the action-packed Rhodey/Iron Man?

4) What was it like working with Denny O'Neil? Did he give you detailed scripts to follow, or was it more the "Marvel method" of plot/then layouts/then dialogue? How much of a hand did you have in the creation of new characters like Stane, Indries, and the Erwins?

5) Was there ever anything you wanted to do on Iron Man that you didn't get a chance to do?

6) You left the title after issue 195. Any regrets about not being there to wrap up the Stane storyline you helped start?

7) Not a question so much as a word of praise: Iron Man 182 is my all-time favorite IM cover. What led to that Stark, Iron Man-less image being chosen for the cover?