Heritage Comics is holding their monthly auction. Some of the original art being auctioned are from NEW TEEN TITANS #23 ( Lot Number: 6964 - Lot 6964: George Perez and Romeo Tanghal), LUKE CAGE, POWER MAN #27 ( Lot Number: 6963 - Lot 6963: George Perez and Al McWilliams), and TALES OF THE TEEN TITANS #43 ( Lot Number: 6962 - Lot 6962: George Perez and Mike DeCarlo).

INTERVIEW: QUENTIN TARANTINO

(excerpt)

YL: What books do you remember?
QT: I could always read really, really well so I could like read adult books when I was very, very young. I didn't all the time because they were kind of boring to me, but I could. But I loved comic books. I was really into comic books. And, hands down, my favorite comic book in the mid-70s when it came out, was Shang-Chi, Master of Kung-Fu, which was sort of like the Kung-Fu comic book. It was really great. But my favorite hero, the hero I wanted to be, was Luke Cage, Hero for Hire, which was basically the Blaxploitation comic book. [Luke Cage] later became Power Man, but in the beginning he was, like, the black super hero.

I collected comic books and it was kind of cool, because back then if you lived in the suburb or if you lived in a project, it didn't matter, you probably had about six kids in the general area that collected comic books. You could literally go to the kid's house and never having met him and bring your comic books with you, knock on his door, and you open the door, 'hi, my name is Quentin, are you Ken? I heard you collect comic books. I collect comic books too. Can I see your collection and I will show you mine?' 'Oh yeah, come on in.' It was a ritual. You show out yours, you have your best ones, and you lay them out and everything and you kind of look at them. And then he would lay out his and you'd look at them and go 'ooh and ahh' about your stuff and maybe you'd talk about trading. You could literally go into a kid's house you never knew before and start a friendship. You're happy that someone cares. You are happy to show them. So I did that, but the entire time I remember it was like 'Why do you like Luke Cage? He's black. Why do you like Luke Cage?' Black kids 'Why do you like Luke Cage. He's black.' I wasn't allowed to have Luke Cage be my favorite character. That wasn't allowed. That wasn't made for you. It can't be your favorite character. Only to grow up and find out that Nick Cage took his name from Luke Cage. His name is Nicolas Coppola. And when I found that out I went 'Oh my God, how cool!"

(Vu: I know this really has nothing to do with George Pérez, but I have always loved Quentin Tarantino. I have all his movies, with the exception of National Born Killers as Oliver Stone really messed up that movie. I also really identify with Tarantino, the fact that I grew up in the ghetto, get obsessed over collectible things, and I LOVE movies & music. Anyway, I'm glad that Tarantino is sort of back in the spotlight - I can't wait for his new movie, Kill Bill.)