MUERTOZ

US superheroes with Scottish accents

By Peter Murray  BBC Scotland Comic book superheroes are usually thought of as being as American as baseball and apple pie. Yet some of the top writers and artists for DC Comics are working from a small studio in the centre of Glasgow. The angular spires and towers of a futuristic city dominated the skyline, even though the view from the window was of queues of Glasgow buses and taxis and the wrought iron exterior of Central Station.Early summer sunshine flooded in on the desk where Frank Quitely worked, poring over an outlined image of Superman jumping from a helipad onto a flying car. He is one of a team of writers and artists, based around a tiny studio in Glasgow city centre, who turn out dozens of titles for that most archetypal American product: DC Comics. "I suppose from an American editor's point of view," said Mr Quitely, "my work doesn't look typically American." However, like the others in this prolific writing team - colourist Jamie Grant and story writer Grant Morrison - he is unwilling to put his finger on just what it is about their output which holds such appeal for US comic book readers. Bob Schreck, long-time editor at DC Comics, has no such reticence. "It's all about good writing and storytelling," he said. "The Scots have a wonderful history of storytelling."

De Richard Corben se ha hablado mucho, y sin ir más lejos, hace año y medio en la blogosfera española celebrábamos los 40 años de Corben en el mundo del cómic, respondiendo al llamamiento del mismísimo Jeremy Brood. En Entrecomics le dedicamos algunas entradas, e incluso escribí un artículo al respecto para Zona Negativa. Pero en cualquier caso, no son demasiadas las ocasiones en las que hemos podido acceder a Corben en sus propias palabras. Por eso cuando, de nuevo, el compañero Jeremy Brood me propuso traducir la entrevista con Corben aparecida en Comic Book Rebels: Conversations with the creators of the new comics (Plume, 1993), un libro de entrevistas conducido por Stanley Wiater y Stephen R. Bissette, no pude decir que no. Brood me proporcionó la entrevista, se ocupó de ilustrarla muy adecuadamente y de proporcionar los pies de imagen. Los errores de traducción son todos míos.