Bill Black: Paint It Black!
By Rik Offenberger

(excerpt)

Bill Black is one of the unsung heroes of the independent publishing business. A stalwart of the shelves, Black has built up a following that has outlasted most of his contemporaries. In this mammoth interview we trace the length and breadth of Black’s career, from his beginnings at Warren Publishing and with his own Paragon Publications, to a discussion of the Direct Market from a unique perspective, through to details on the upcoming Femforce Relaunch!

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PRETTY GIRL SKETCHBOOK #1 (1981) Paisley Publications

RO: AC [AMERICOMICS] started with some pretty impressive talent and discovered even more. With artists like Dave Dorman, Dave Robertson, Dick Ayers, Doug Hazelwood, Erik Larsen, George Perez, Greg Horn, Jerry Ordway, Pat Broderick, Paul Gulacy, Paul Ryan, Steve Lightle, Tim Townsend, Tom Lyle, Willie Blyberg, and Wm. Michael Kaluta, why hasn’t AC found mainstream acceptance?

BB:

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Remember Deluxe Comics? No? Few do. They had the top artists... Perez, Ordway... many more who were top dogs in 1983-84. Top notch quality printing and production. Bankrupt. This happened again and again. AC Comics is the ONLY one of the original Independent publishers who started this whole system that is still in business. I'd like to think that I have learned from my own mistakes and the mistakes of others. To me, it is sheer folly to try to be the "biggest and the best" (like CrossGen tried to do and failed in current times). I love creating comics. I thought, "Wouldn't it be wonderful to make a living creating comics? I love to draw. Writing comes easy to me. I have and endless supply of ideas." I never thought, "Hey, I'm better than Stan Lee and Jack Kirby! I can do comics better than Marvel! Paragon is better than Batman! I'll show 'em!" I love the Stan Lee/Jack Kirby Marvel comics. I understand how they were done the way they were and WHY they were done the way they were. No, my goal was to make a decent living in comics.... to support my family in a comfortable manner. At that I have succeeded. I have no desire to be "popular." It seems that to become "popular" is a quick route to obscurity. I have always tried to approach publishing realistically without absurd expectations. My goal now, after 20+ years at AC, is survival. I've seen so many comics publishers come and go! Hundreds! Do you realize that there are today (in 2003) over 400 comic book publishers? When AC started there were less than a dozen.