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Interview by Angelo Furlan.
DECEMBER 2005
Introduction (by Angelo):
One of the best things about publishing SINNAMON is that I get to meet some cool people. Bill Messner-Loebs certainly fits that description. I made my initial contract with “Wild Bill” upon reading various online reports of his dire financial straits back in March 2005. My offer was to have him draw covers for the upcoming SINNAMON mini-series. Over the course of our E-mail exchanges, I found Bill to be a fascinating fellow. I suggested an interview, which we did in late September 2005. The idea was to release this interview to coincide with SINNAMON #1. Well, never trust a printer. I'm not sure when SINNAMON #1 will be coming out, and I didn't want this interview to get stale. So I contacted Bill who graciously agreed to update parts of this interview. Wild Bill has a number of cool projects coming down the chute, which we discuss later on in this interview.
ANGELO: Back in January/February 2005, comic fans were made aware that you were experiencing some major financial setbacks. It's now late September 2005. Can you tell us about your current situation? Where are you living?
BILL: I've gotten one Green Arrow story written and I'm in the process of getting another approved. Getting paid for that first pretty much canceled our food stamps, but it was SO MUCH fun getting paid at last for something. Unfortunately approval is a long process, made longer by the fact that everyone is busy. I have to remind the editors that I sent the ideas, then they (the editors) have to remind me to resend my revisions of the idea they liked. And so on. I actually shouldn't be so busy, having very little work, but somehow running around, making sure that checks don't bounce, doing the shopping, the doctors, getting us to the churches that give out free meals and so forth takes a huge amount of time. Frank Miller once said to me that being poor takes much more time than being rich. And if anyone should know...
I'm also doing, much more slowly than I meant to, your next Sinnamon cover, plus a four page story on Charon for Pickle press. I'm also doing a blog at Screamifyouwantit.com. And a couple of other things that sound interesting, but haven't gelled yet. For not much money. Everyone pays what they can, but Marvel and DC are really the only places that can pay substantial money. Call it middle class money.
ANGELO: Did I hear right? Bill's got a Blog?! What's up with that?
BILL: This wasn't my fault, honest. My pal, Hank Magitz, asked me to contribute, saying, and I quote: "You don't have to contribute any particular number, and you can just jot down any thoughts that come to mind. No pressure. " So I sent one in. Every since he's been on the phone every couple of days. "Make them longer, make them shorter, when's the next one? You owe it to your fans to be regular. Do you know how many hits you're getting? Hundreds, thousands a week. Keep pushing it out!" I don't sleep, I don't eat. I don't write comic books anymore, I don't do drawings or novels. I just write blogs!
Okay, it's not that bad. And I do get to regularly skewer Pat Robinson, and our miserable folly in Iraq, so it's mostly fun.
ANGELO: Let’s get serious for a moment. Your wife, Nadine, has had a number of health problems. How is she doing?
BILL: Nadine is doing much, much better. She is still using her walker and has a lot of pain in her arms and legs and back, her migraines and muscle spasms are still giving her trouble, but her asthma is under control as is her blood pressure. We just found out she in fact going on Medicare as of her 65th birthday, but they will be reducing her Social Security by $100, to pay for it. Hopefully I'll be bringing in more money by then. How does anyone really survive on these payments?
ANGELO: When I read the articles about your various setbacks, I was amazed by your refusal to be broken by your situation. How do you maintain such a positive attitude?
BILL: As I try to point out, every time I start to get low I see people so much worse off than I am. I'm healthy, reasonably fit, and surrounded by friends. The rest is just spillikins in the parlor.
The conversation turns to comics and Bill’s heroes in the second part of this interview, which you can read here
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