VISUAL ARTS
BY BEN RICKER
RED ALL OVER
Local comics illustrator Mike Allred talks
Silver Surfer, killing the Comics Code and
the dearth of superhero penises
E
ugene-based comics artist Mike
Allred smiles wide. “I’m a
professional child,” he says.
Allred’s understated style
turned heads when his Madman
hit stores in 1992, paving the way for him
to work with many of the best writers in
the business as he drew the shiny,
spandexed heroes he grew up loving.
A couple years back, when Marvel
Comics green-lit a new, light-hearted
series based on the classic brooding hero
Silver Surfer, editor Tom Brevoort knew
instantly this project had Allred’s name
written all over it.
Cruising the cosmos at speeds faster
than light, his conscience heavy with
atrocities committed while enslaved by a
planet-eating giant, the Silver Surfer is
one of Marvel’s darkest, strangest
creations.
As a kid, Allred had the first issue of
The Silver Surfer. “We weren’t allowed
to take comic books to school,” he says.
“So I cut him out of the cover and pasted
him on my notebook.”
Mike Allred and his wife, Laura
Allred — who colors all of Mike’s
illustrations — work from separate
studios in their Eugene home.
EW caught up with Allred at Nostalgia
Collectibles on Willamette Street, where
he’ll sign copies of his new Silver Surfer
book on Saturday, Jan. 23.
What’s it feel like to know your work
contributes to pop culture?
I don’t give it that much thought, until
I go to a comic book show. It’s very
flattering that anyone would enjoy what
we’re doing. One thing, as far as making
an impact, the first issue of X-Force we
did [#116, 2001 with writer Peter
Milligan] was rejected by the Comics
Code Authority.
[Note: The CCA came about as a
response to Fredric Wertham’s prudish
campaign in the early 1950s to convince
parents that comic books were
contributing to juvenile delinquency. To
get Wertham off its back, the industry set
up an outside board to determine what
was appropriate to print. Comic book
readership fell off steeply after the CCA
formed.]
Axel Alonso, my editor at the time, and
Joe Quesada, who was a publisher for
Marvel, told me that the CCA rejected the
book. Typically you would make the
changes that the code asked for. So of
course, I’m thinking, “What do I have to
change? What do I have to redraw?” But
before I could even complete that thought,
I was told we weren’t going with the code
anymore. Only once or twice in the past
they’d released a book without the Code
Authority stamp on it. [The last time was
a 1971 issue of The Amazing Spider-Man
in which Spider-Man rescues a drug-
addled man who falls off a building.] And
so the book came out and where the CCA
seal normally would be, it said “Hey kids!
Look, no code!” So we killed the Comics
Code. Everybody else stopped using it
after that. As far as making an impact on
pop culture, that’s something I’m
extremely proud of.
Superheroes are usually all bulging
muscles. You draw superheroes with
realistic physiques.
It’s important to me to relate to the
characters. I want people to relate to the
characters.
Something I’ve been wondering lately:
Why don’t superheroes have penises?
[Laughs] Mine do! If you look at my
Madman character, for example, I don’t
draw an outline where you can see the
size, and whether it’s laying left or right;
but there’s a mass there, like there’d be in
real life. I had done Madman for about a
year and someone came up to me and
said … and said, “I like what’s, uh …”
[Allred laughs, shakes his head] This is a
weird discussion.
Wait. What’d the guy say?
I don’t know if I can repeat it.
Come on.
That there was a banana in the
hammock, or something like that. And, I
was like, “Well, that’s just life.”
Exactly. If you were in a figure drawing
class and you drew every detail but left
out the junk, a psychologist might say
you have some issues.
That might have something to do with
it, too. I took college art classes and,
growing up, we had the Andrew Loomis
art books and his nude men have penises.
There was never any shame or discomfort
in that. It just was what it was. Look, just
yesterday I was drawing Silver Surfer
turning sideways and I thought: Is that
too big? Should I bring that back a little?
It could be the code, too. I think the code
did a lot of damage, particularly in terms
of self-censorship. I don’t know. Editors
have been given certain lines not to
cross. I never had those lines drawn for
me. My earliest successes were with my
own characters, working for publishers
that didn’t have those boundaries or
concerns. I was never told I couldn’t
draw stuff. So I don’t know. ■
HEY KIDS! LOOK, NO PENISES
eugeneweekly.com • January 21, 2016
29