my back. It seemed more real to them than drawing all day and I
actually had a job. Back then, most of my classmates would have
rather died than do graphics, but it made no sense to me to get
a job doing something outside the creative world after spending
three years at Kubert’s.
SP!: SO THAT SETS UP THE NEXT STAGE OF YOUR CAREER.
COULD YOU TELL US ABOUT YOUR EARLY YEARS AS A GRAPHIC
DESIGNER?
removed and it became a store manager/sales position. I didn’t
want to be a salesman. It was a case of bait and switch. I took
the bait, but refused to switch. There was no point in working
60 hours, six or seven days a week, doing something I hated.
After that debacle, I decided to take my chances as a freelancer
and pursue some work in comics as a career. Since you’ve never
heard of me, you can assume comics didn’t go to well. Like
I said, I really wasn’t much of an artist back then, but I was a
decent enough designer and could score some freelance gigs.
Steven: I spent the summer after graduation working for a printing
company that designed doctor bills. It’s as exciting as it sounds, The biggest issue I faced as a young designer was not having any
desktop publishing skills. Don’t forget, this was the mid-1980s
and the Kubert School taught old school paste-ups and mechanicals between 1982 and 1985, when I was there. I had to teach
myself how to use a Mac, as well as learn all the software. I couldn’t
afford to purchase a Mac back then and PCs weren’t suitable for
DTP/graphics. I’d do my typesetting at AlphaGraphics, which
sucked, because they were renting their Macs at $50.00 an hour.
I was lucky to get that much an hour as a freelancer, but I needed
to produce type and body copy if I did a brochure or whatever.
Eventually, I started getting steady work as an in-house graphic
designer for a financial consulting company, which was great,
because I got a steady paycheck and health insurance bennies.
It’s sort of a dirty little secret most artists don’t want you to know,
but there’s this thing called real life and it’s not always fair. Artists
tend to not think about that stuff, but a real job comes in handy
when you fail to conquer the world, the rent is due, or you get sick,
or the guy at the register wants you to pay for the movie ticket or
the burger.
SP!: WITH THAT BACKGROUND, I AM SURE THAT YOU COULDN’T
HELP BUT DABBLE IN THE COMICS INDUSTRY. WHAT HAPPENED
IN THE COMICS WORLD?
Steven: I had some opportunities, but they never panned out. I
did write and draw a “Battle Album” for Joe Kubert during my last
year at the school. It was a two-page biography of General Billy
Mitchell and he bought it from me and the guy who inked it, Mark
Pennington. It was payable upon publication—Woo Hooo! I actually almost got paid to draw a comic book and then, just like a VH1
special about Leif Garrett or Motley Crue—minus the booze and
honest. I left to take a job doing market comps for a custom fur- babes—tragedy struck. Joe left his editorial duties on Sgt. Rock and
niture designer, which was kind of strange, because I wasn’t it never saw print and I never got a check. I never got the originals
an architect, but I could draw a convincing representation of a back, either. This isn’t a knock on Joe. I knew the situation