“The future of comics history.” Such a great tagline.

In recent years I’ve been digging into more and more of TwoMorrows’ output, a magazine company that puts out several monthly publications relating to classic pop culture, and comic books in particular. Part of the reason is because I still love a lot of the old, classic stuff, and part of it is because I need to get my comic fix and a lot of the new stuff just doesn’t do it for me, unfortunately.

Back Issue is a great magazine that has been going now for over a decade and focuses on one era or group of characters each month, with fantastic content and interviews. You may have also heard of Roy Thomas’ long running Golden Age love letter Alter Ego, as well as Kirby Collector, which are probably the most famous.

Several others are solid as well, including Retrofan, Comic Book Interview, and more, and one I have found myself gravitating toward quite a bit of late has been Comic Book Creator, which focuses more or less entirely on the career of one creator each issue (… y’know, hence the name…).

I finally ordered a copy of the Dan Jurgens-themed issue from last year and absolutely loved it. I don’t know if I had ever read as extensive of an interview with Dan in my life. Some highlights of course included “The Death of Superman” craze, Rebirth and Booster Gold, but there was a lot of attention also given to Mr. Jurgens’ early years and specifics of how he got started in the industry.

Some fun facts about Dan’s career talked about in this issue include his love of the Adam West Batman show, which got him into superheroes, being trained first in tech specs in art school, and Mike Grell helping him get his start at a comic book store signing.

Some other fun tidbits from the interview were how Booster Gold came to be, the ins and outs of working for both Marvel and DC in the late 90s, and how a Superman storyline wrapped up plot threads from his first miniseries, Sun Devils, which I’ve never read before and now will have to.

There is some really, really great stuff in here that is lovingly put together by fans and is well worth the cover price of $11. I would love to post the entirety of the interview on my page, but unfortunately 40+ pages is just too long to upload that many pictures.

If there is one comic book creator still working today who deserves to have a retrospective on his long and illustrious career, it’s Dan Jurgens. Hugely satisfied with this issue and am so glad to see him getting the recognition he richly deserves.

Very much looking forward to his two Superman projects coming out this summer! Enjoy!