Off the Record...

From his break into comics via the Marvel Try—Out Book 15 years ago, to his penciling one of the hottest comics currently being published, Mark Bagley, also known as "Bags," is the epitome of the "Rags (or Bags) to Riches" stories out there. We chatted with Mark recently about why he didn’t want to do Ultimate Spider-Man, which Mary Jane he likes more, and why he keeps copies of "Seventeen" in his closet.

Many know you got your start over 15 years ago by submitting via the first Marvel Try-Out Book. For those that never heard this story, can you describe how it happened?

Well, I was 27 years old and I was real close to not trying anymore to break in. I didn’t want be one of those 34-year-old losers walking around in a convention with a five-year-old portfolio saying, "Uh, would you look at my stuff?" Ya know? I had a good job and I just wasn’t going to do that. It was going to happen or not happen.

Marvel came out with the Try Out Book, which was 20 bucks – which was a lot of money at the time. I thought it was just a gimmick. I heard a lot of bad things about Marvel, who was having a tough time then, so I wasn’t going to buy it.

Cliff, a friend of mine for years, told me that I would hate myself if I didn’t do it. He gave me the book and said, "Do it!" I apparently won first place and got a trip to New York to meet all the editors. Finally, on the last day I was there, the last editor I met said, "I bet you would like to do something, wouldn’t you?" And I said "yeah!" So, he gave me a one-shot thing on their "New Universe" line at the time, and then another one, and about a year and half later I was doing comics full time. And that’s it!

What was the first book that you did for them?

That got published? It was, ummm… a book called Nightmask. I did a couple issues of that, and it was canceled. Then I did an issue of Star Brand. Then I worked with Fabian Nicieza on Psi-Force. So, for a year and half I worked my full-time job at Lockheed and did comics – so I got about 3 hours of sleep a night.

How did you get involved with Ultimate Spider-Man? Were you approached, because of your history with Spider-Man, or did you lobby for the job?

I was dragged kicking and screaming. I literally turned down the job twice. President Bill Jemas, who’s been a big fan of my stuff since working on the Amazing Spider-Man trading card set I did, wanted me for the job. So, he and (Joe) Quesada were talking about all this Ultimate stuff and hired (Brian Michael) Bendis – who I never heard of since I don’t read that many alternative comics. They really wanted me to draw it.

Now, I’ve done my Spider-Man bit, and was happy working on Thunderbolts at the time. They just finished doing the John Byrne revision of Amazing Spider-Man – and that went over like a fart in Church – so I just didn’t see this as being something the fans would enjoy, that I would enjoy, so I turned it down a couple of times.

Finally, editor Bob Harras made me an offer I couldn’t refuse. You see, I was always looking for extra work. I can’t do 2 books a month ‘cause it just kills me. But I can do like a book and a half, So, I was always looking for that little bit of work, whether it was a fill-in, or a mini-series. Now, it was never stated, but it was implied that if I turned this down, I could forget getting extra work.

So, I agreed. And I wasn’t very enthused about it. But, enjoying it as much as I do now, I wish I could go back and re-draw the first 4 issues. Because I don’t think I put as much into it as I could have.

So, you never had a clue that the Ultimate concept would take off like it has?

No. I didn’t have a clue. Ya know, it was proposed to me as a six-issue mini-series. And I said I would do the six issues, but nothing more. I had 4-5 of the issues drawn before the first issue came out. And half way into it, they said they were going to make this an on-going series. And I told them I didn’t want to do it.

You see, it was proposed to me as something else – "something" Spider-Man, not Ultimate Spider-Man. And the title just threw me. I thought "how arrogant is that!" I didn’t know it was going to be a whole line of comics and I was bound and determined to leave after #6. They actually offered #7 to someone else.

Then, I started reading Bendis’ stuff and realized how good he was. And then I saw Art Thibert’s inks and how good my work looks with his inks on it. And then the first issue came out. It looked beautiful and people really seemed to like it. Cliff, once again, called me and said "You gotta stay on this book – it’s great!"

I was like, "Holy $#%! – maybe I should stay!" I was still doing Thunderbolts at the time and I called Ralph Macchio up and asked "Um…do you mind if I stay on the book?" And Ralph was excited because he had told Jemas I was leaving and Jemas said "Who the hell fired Bagley?!?" He was pissed, apparently. The day before, they offered the job to Leonard Kirk – who’s doing Supergirl right now- who told me this story. He’s a bitter man right now. Poor guy, I feel bad for him, but everyone’s had this happen to them in their career.

Did you take a while to learn how to draw Peter Parker as a teen, after so many years as drawing him as an adult?

No. One of the nice things about this is that I can draw these characters without any pre-conceived notions of how they should look. I always didn’t like how I drew Peter Parker – I thought it should look more like John Romita’s Parker, or Gil Kane’s Parker. So, that was very easy for me. Re-designing all these characters was a real guilty pleasure for me.

Drawing Spider-Man thin and lanky was the way I always wanted to draw him, anyway. That’s the way I drew him for years – and my editors were always fighting with me to bulk him up and towards the end of my run I actually did bulk him up. And I look back at that stuff and say "That’s not Spider-Man – that’s some big hulking guy with a mask on."

Well, let’s be honest here, who’s more fun to draw… Mary Jane as a woman or as a kid?

Ya know, it’s just drawing to me. I don’t get any kind of visceral pleasure out of it. Although, drawing Moonstone naked in every issue of Thunderbolts was kinda fun!

Her costume is form fitting, that’s for sure!

I just never thought I drew a very good Mary Jane. I just drew this good-looking woman with red hair. Drawing her now as a little kid is kinda fun. I can make her a little sexy, without being too nasty about it. Gwen Stacy is a lot of fun to draw because she tries to come across a lot sluttier than she actually is – or, that’s how I see her. It’s like a lot of kids nowadays, they dress a lot sexier than they should, and really don’t know what they are doing half the time.

You have a teenage daughter…

Yeah, she’s going to be 19 soon.

Does that help you with your design, or spark any ideas, and would she kill you if you told us?

No, she wouldn’t kill me. She doesn’t get them anymore, but earlier I used to save her issues of YM and Seventeen and file away the teenage girl fashion sort of thing. She gives me pretty good input.

Do any of her friends know you draw Spider-Man? Does that make you one of the "cool Dads?"

Hell, no! I just draw Spider-man. I don’t know if I’m a "cool Dad." My daughter thinks it’s cool. Actually, 2 of her first boyfriends dated her because I was her father! As soon as she realized that she dumped them fast!

I have tons of nieces and nephews, so they tell me stories all the time. Like one of my nieces does hair and the subject of the new Spider-Man movie came up. And she said, "My Uncle Mark draws Spider-Man." And the lady 2 chairs down said "You’re uncle is Mark Bagley? My son would just die!" My niece said it was the coolest thing.

Speaking of the movie, have you had a chance to preview it before it came out?

Nah, living here in Georgia, I don’t have the opportunities like the guys do out West. Bendis went and saw it with Stan Lee and said Stan cried at the end of it, because he was so emotionally moved by the whole deal. So, I’ll see it with the rest of the un-washed masses on opening day.

So, what’s in store for Peter and the gang that you could possibly tease the readers with?

I try not to read that far in advance. Ya know, Bendis is so good at the end of the book with the cliffhangers. When I read the scripts, by the time I get to the end, I’m like "Oh, my God!" Like, when Hammer pulls up in a limousine and there’s Doc Ock having a press conference! What a "screw you!" I would have never thought of that.

There’s stuff I can’t tell you. I will say this, at the end of #23 and beginning of #24, something happens that takes us away from the regular Amazing Spider-Man continuity as much as anything we have done so far in this book. It’s nothing earth-shaking like Peter revealing himself to Aunt May or gets new super powers or anything, but it’s just so "Of course! That’s exactly what should have happen!" Especially the way it’s been set up in this book and in the Ultimate Universe. But you never see it coming. You just don’t.

So, there’s not going to be a "Cosmic Spider-Man" in the Ultimate line?

(Laughing) No, I don’t think so.

No clones?

(Groans) Not as far as I know…

With Free Comic Book Day here, and Marvel’s contribution being Ultimate Spider-Man #1, how does it make you feel that Marvel chose this book out of all the comics in their vast history?

Well, it’s nice. It’s such an approachable book. It’s written intelligently enough so adults can read it with an emotional impact. But, it’s also written so a kid could pick it up, if it’s his first comic, and immediately see what’s going on, identify with the characters… its sort of a natural choice. My artwork is approachable to a wide range of people (I’m not exactly avant garde), so I think the whole package is appropriate. So, it’s nice.

What do you think of the whole concept of Free Comic Book Day?

I think it is a good idea. If only 2% of the people that got free comics are ones that haven’t read comics for 10 years and decided to come back, or it’s the first time they ever read them, then it’s all good. I don’t know if comics are ever going to be like they were in the ‘30’s and 40’s – where they were selling millions of copies of Superman and Batman. But, if we can increase the reader base some, then great.
Comics make money. Marvel never lost money-selling comics, it was all the other stuff they were doing. And the same with DC. Now that they cut back on the amount of books they are putting out, I think the majority of the stuff is better than it was before. I didn’t think there was ever enough talent to support the amount of books that were being published in the ‘80’s. That was the biggest problem in the ‘80’s – there was so much crap out there that I think it hurt the whole business.

I think some of the talent back then didn’t appreciate what they were getting the chance to do (create comics), so a lot of crap was put out. Now, I’m not the most talented guy in this business by a long-damn shot, but I was very professional during those years. I hardly ever missed a deadline and I’m a good guy to work with.

You know Cully Hamner, right?

Yeah, I know Cully. I never slept with him, or anything.

Well, Cully had an interesting quote: that to be successful in the comic book artist, you need to be two out of three things. Those three things are: a very nice guy; a really good artist; and a really fast artist. You could be a really nice guy and a really fast artist, but you don’t really have to be that good. You could be a really good artist, and a very fast one, but you don’t have to be that nice. Or you could be a really good guy and a good artist, but not be that fast.

I think I actually told Cully this! We may have all come up with this together, but I swear I came up with this on my own. My version was: real fast, real talented and real disciplined. You can’t make a career out of one of them, you need at least 2, and if you have 3 that’s amazing.

Which 2 do you think you fit the best?

I think I’m all 3! I think I’m pretty good, better than average. There are guys that will disagree and everyone has their opinions. I fairly fast and I’m very disciplined. ‘Cause there’s been jobs I hated and I really love this job. I think that’s one of the reasons I’ve been around as long as I have. Editors know that if they give me a job. It’s going to get done. Fans know, even if they are not huge fans of my work, that if it’s a good writer, Bagley won’t make the book suck.

I’ve been lucky. I have been on books with excellent writers. That makes it fun to draw for me. Even if someone’s not crazy about my work, if they want to read a Fabian book, or a Kurt Busiek book, or a Bendis book, they’re not going to look at it (unless they’re just vehemently against my work) and say "Aw, I’m not going to pick it up because Bagley’s drawing it!"

You’ve worked with some of the top writers, liked you said, like: David Micheline, J.M. DeMatteis, Nicieza, Busiek and Bendis… who is out there that you would like to work with someday?

Hmmmm… there’s so many talented writers out there. I would love to do something with Chuck Dixon or Mark Waid. I really don’t have a list, it just depends on what comes up.

How often do you attend conventions? Do you get to speak with other people in the business about projects?

I really don’t attend many, and when I do, I’m usually too busy to interact with other guests. We don’t get to see each other too much, so it’s not like we’re all friends. We may know each other, or of each other, and that’s about it.

Conventions are a lot of work. It’s fun to meet the fans, but I feel like I have to draw sketches and make a few dollars – cause I have a kid in college, a mortgage to pay and so on. If I’m not sketching, I’m autographing, so by the end of the day… I’m just beat. And then I go out and eat too much and drink too much, and then I’m sick and fat and hung over! (laughing).

Plus, I’m used to working by myself. At the beginning of the day, I’m cutting up with the fans in line, but by the end, my small talk is just gone. I try to be polite and pleasant, but I find myself just signing whatever they put in front of me and responding in monosyllable tones. That’s usually when the guy turns around and say "Bagley was a real asshole!"

The new Ultimate Spider-Man bust is pretty cool. What was your role and have you ever helped design a toy or statue before?

No, I never have. I designed a Christmas ornament one year, but that’s it. I was called up to see if I had any input on the Goblin and Spidey busts. They were pretty well into production by the time I got involved. I was amazed, because it looks just like how I would draw them. I was very impressed. I suggested a few things, but they have some really talented guys working on these things!

I first noticed your work on Marvel’s Strikeforce: Morituri…

Oh, that was some bad stuff! I look back on that and just… ugh!

Well, in the 15 years since the beginning of your career, where do you feel you have grown most as an artist?

Hmmm… that’s an interesting question. Well, I’m still growing. I just think my craft has gotten better. My story telling has gotten better. My actual visual sense and flow of the page has gotten better. There are a lot less wasted panels. I think my faces have gotten better, but I think I still could use some work on that. I’m still figuring it out.

Ya know, a lot of guys develop a style and spend the rest of their careers working from that style. But they have a fundamental basis for doing things. I just never had that. Each day I begin drawing and figure it out as I go along. Maybe that keeps me fresh, I don’t know.

Well, who were some of your influences, prior to breaking into comics?

(In mock surprise) I’ve never been asked that before!

I’m sure…

(Laughing) Ya know, when I was a kid, John Buscema and Gil Kane were my 2 favorites. I was never a big Kirby fan – I got into him later on. He was a little to abstract for me. Neal Adams came along and I liked his stuff, although I could never do it. Jim Starlin… But my 2 major influences were John Buscema and Gil Kane.

I look at guys now and say "Wow, he draws great!" and "What can I learn from him?" I try to cherry-pick from each person and try to incorporate some things. I try to do this with newer guys, otherwise you look like you’re drawing from 20 years ago. So, if I can do that without swiping from anybody, then I think that is an honest way of making a living.

Who do people tell you that your work looks influenced by?

I don’t get a lot of that. Some people see Gil Kane in me and depending upon who’s inking I can see it some, too. Alan Davis draws a lot like someone I wish I could draw like. If I were going to actually swipe anyone, it would be him. His work, to me, looks like the way a comic should look like.

It’s weird… I have a style without having a style. People can recognize my work, but have a hard time describing or labeling it. It’s like I never designed my own autograph – I just never put that much thought into it. I just go with what moves me.

It’s funny how many artists have actually put that much thought into their signature!

Yeah, I know! I just never had that much ego when I was a kid to design my own autograph. It’s funny, the first time I ever met Adam Kubert was at this convention years ago. I swear to God, the first words out of his mouth were "Man, you have a #$%-ing awful autograph!" I mean, he was laughing, but he was serious! It’s just so funny.

Over the years, you have been associated with long runs on several Marvel titles like Amazing Spider-Man, New Warriors, Thunderbolts, Ultimate Spider-Man. Have you ever done any work for someone besides Marvel?

I did a few things with DC Comics. I did the Batman/Spider-Man team-up…no, wait, that was a Marvel book. I did an issue of Superboy (which didn’t have Superboy in it). Uh…I did a few pages for a Superman special.

Was this because of a contract with Marvel, or just by choice?

For about 5-6 years, I was exclusive with Marvel, and couldn’t do anything else. But, I would love to play in DC’s universe, but Marvel’s just kept me busy, and they pay me a little more.

Your run on Amazing Spider-Man was pretty impressive. You began in 1991 with #351 and ran until…?

You’re asking the wrong guy. I don’t know! It was about 5 years, 50 some issues. For a while, I was the title’s longest continuous run, but I think John Romita Jr. may have surpassed me.

Looking back on that long run, what was some of your fondest memories?

Hmmm… working with DeMatteis, Danny Fingeroth, my editor. Just drawing Spider-Man during the 30-year anniversary. There was a lot of heat and attention.

But, then it got so crossover heavy and it was hard to start and stop. The Clone saga was only supposed to be 6 months, but ran a year and a half. It became such a mess, for a whole bunch of reasons. Carnage and Venom became so big and I just got sick of that. I was really ready to go. I had a nice run, but it was time.

When I spoke with Todd Dezago recently…

Yeah, I know Todd!

Well, he reiterated the whole crossover mess. He was writing Sensational Spider-Man at the time and, even now, he said crossovers kill him.

Well, I’m sure it’s even tougher for the writers! A lot of the times you don’t even know how the whole thing is going to end. The whole sense of how to frame a story is gone, or the emotional and psychological point of view is hard to describe to 3 different writers. And then the art may be bad in one part because it’s hard to get 3 or 4 guys that are all good at drawing a particular character. It’s just not anybody’s one vision, and I didn’t enjoy it at the time.

That’s one of the reason I’m enjoying the hell outta Ultimate Spider-Man so much – I’m not involved in anyone else’s storyline. We’re starting and finishing and Bendis doesn’t have to "bend over" (laughs) for anyone else’s input on his storyline.

If you could have your own "Spidey-sense," what would you like to be warned about?

(Laughing) On-coming traffic?!? I don’t know! Um… when I have too much to drink! My spider-sense goes off "Stop now!" (Laughs) I think that would be good.

Any other projects coming up for Mark Bagley?

Well, no. Ultimate is going to 18 issues a year and that is going to keep me busy. I’ve been doing 2 books a month for about a year and a half (‘cause we’ve been trying to sell a house and needed the money), but I could use the break. Quesada suggested doing Ultimate 24 issues a year, but we worked it down to 18. Bendis can handle it – he’s already through #28! He really enjoys this stuff. And I know I’m enjoying the hell out of it!

Okay, now is the time for "2099" portion of our interview. This is where I ask you 20 questions in 99 seconds. It’s basically an "either/or" type of response, but you can answer whatever first pops into your head.

Interiors or Covers: Covers

New Warriors or Thunderbolts: Thunderbolts

Late night or early day: Early day

Ultimate or Amazing: Uhhhh….God. Ultimate

Big screen or rent. Big screen.

Play with toy or keep in box: Oh, you play with the toy!

Crossovers or One shots: One shots

Fly or drive: Drive

Telepathy or Flight: Flight

First Print or TPB: Both

Cats or Dogs: Uhhhh….. Dogs

Mary Jane or Gwen Stacy: (Laughs) Ultimate Gwen Stacy!
And amazing Mary Jane? Uh, yeah.

South Park or Simpsons: Both

Cell phone or E-mail: Neither!

Sleep in or make deadline: Make deadline

Squeeze in the middle or at the end: Uhhh… Middle

Who’d you rather smack? J. Jonah Jameson or Speedball: Speedball

World Series or Super Bowl: World Series

Lou Ferigno or Adam West: Uhhhh…Adam

Buffy or Vampirella: Ooooo… my nipples are hard as a rock! And that’s my answer!


ART CREDITS (not official)
Ultimate Spider-Man #1 – current
Fantastic Four #51-54
A Moment of Silence (9-11 Tribute Book)
Thunderbolts #1 – ?
SuperBoy (fill-in)
Batman / Spider-Man
New Warriors #1 - ?
Amazing Spider-Man #351 – 400s (5+ years)
Strikeforce: Morituri #23, 26-31
Psi-Brand (fill-ins)
Star Brand (fill-ins)
Nightmask #9, 10, 12