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Since his creation in 1934, Flash Gordon has been associated with many top names in entertainment: Alex Raymond (his creator), comic artist Al Williamson, actor Max Von Sydow, the rock group Queen, the immortal Buster Crabbe (of course), and so on. If the rumors are to be believed, he'll soon be associated with Stephen Sommers: writer/director of films such as The Mummy and Van Helsing.

Most recently, though, the eternal battle between Flash Gordon and Ming the Merciless found a new sense of life and energy under the pen of comic artist Jim Keefe. A graduate of the Joe Kubert School of Cartoon and Graphic Art, Jim started his career as a colorist for King Features Syndicate, where he was eventually hired as writer and artist of Flash Gordon, a strip he authored from January 1996 until March 2003.

Jim now freelances as a writer/illustrator for numerous syndicated features and clients, and is teaching a continuing education course on cartooning at Hofstra University. Throughout all of this, the one thing that's been there helping him along (aside from his wife and children), is his Macintosh.

Jim recently took the time to talk with us about Flash Gordon, the Macintosh, and job interviews in hospitals.

Applelinks: For the benefit of those readers who aren't familiar with your work, I'll let you introduce yourself. When did you first realize you wanted to be a professional cartoonist? What inspired you?

Keefe: I've always loved to draw, the trick was to find a school that taught what I needed to know to enter the field. A couple years after graduating High School, I discovered the Joe Kubert School of Cartoon and Graphic Art in Dover, New Jersey.

What inspired me was the great graphic novels and comics coming out at the time. It was a watershed time for graphic storytelling. There was Frank Miller's Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, Swamp Thing by Alan Moore, Steve Bissette and John Tottleben; the list just goes on and on...

Applelinks: Certainly some impressive names there. I'd say that The Dark Knight Returns and Watchmen inspired even those of us who aren't illustrators. And speaking of impressive names, you wrote and illustrated Flash Gordon from January 1996 until March 2003. How did you land that gig?

Keefe: To answer that, I have to back up a little. At the time I graduated from the Kubert school, King Features Syndicate was shopping around for a colorist. The Joe Kubert school was one of a number of art schools King called and I was one of a handful of students Joe Kubert referred. I ended up getting the job.

Other than color guides, I ended up doing everything on staff at King—from drawing one of their fashion columns to briefly ghosting an adventure strip called "Secret Agent Corrigan." I also submitted samples when the opportunities arose. When I heard they were shopping around for a new artist for the Flash Gordon strip, I got a copy of the current script and submitted some pages. Initially I was rejected. Not to be deterred, I submitted samples again, this time with a script I had written myself which I thought showed off my work more. They liked them and asked me if I was interested in writing the strip as well. The sample pages I submitted ended up being the first three pages of my first story that saw print.

Applelinks: That must've been some thrill, to suddenly be following in the footsteps of the likes of Alex Raymond, Austin Briggs, Mac Rayboy, Al Williamson, and such. Was that at all intimidating?

Keefe: Luckily, there's been a bunch of different artists between their tenure and mine, so I don't have that feeling of constantly being compared. Of course Alex Raymond's the high water mark. He's what you always aspire to.

Following Raymond, I've always thought of Al Williamson as the heir apparent to Flash. During my tenure on Flash, Al generously assisted on the art chores on two separate occasions. When he accepted the work, he had the following two conditions:

1. He had a good lead time.


2. That under no circumstance would he accept payment.

I wish he could have done more, but he was tied down with other work.

Applelinks: Yes, Al's Flash Gordon work has been consistently great for a long time now. You can tell there's a respect there for the characters and their creator. Speaking of that, unlike many of the artists and writers before you, you chose to keep Flash on Mongo, where you rejuvinated a lot of the original characters we hadn't seen for quite some time. I think this was a great decision on your part, and I'm curious to hear your thoughts on why you did so instead of taking Flash to new worlds.

Keefe: I feel that if you're working on an established character, it's important to go back to the basics and stay true to them. In the case with my work on Flash, any time I veered away from Raymond's vision, I wasn't happy with the outcome. I think too many writers make the mistake of trying to update a character and end up changing something essential that made the character successful in the first place.

Applelinks: True enough. You kept Flash true to his character for over seven years, certainly one of the more successful Flash Gordon runs in quite some time, in any incarnation. Regarding those incarnations, outside of comics, are there any versions of Flash Gordon you particularly enjoy?

Keefe: Those old serials starring Buster Crabbe. They're the best! I have them all on DVD. My kids love 'em too. Speaking of which, there's a great website devoted to them at http://flashgordon.ws/

Applelinks: Now, it's your turn to inspire others with your new job teaching cartooning at Hofstra University (alongside your freelance projects). How did the Hofstra job come about?

Keefe: Well, I've been guest lecturing and teaching at schools and libraries for years now. During a recent library show, one of the teachers from Hofstra's Continuing Ed program saw me and recommended me to the head of their Cartooning department, Al Baruch. Al is a veteran from Disney, having worked on such classics as Peter Pan and Lady and the Tramp. He's a great guy and quite the character. He interviewed me for the job in the hospital after he had just had bypass surgery. When I got to his room, he was in a chair, dressed in one of those hospital gowns, pencil and sketch pad in hand, drawing away. One of the more unusual job interviews I've had, to be sure.

Applelinks: One of the more unusual job intereviews? I'd hate to hear what happened at the more unusual ones. So, let's shift over to the Macintosh. You mentioned to me that you love your eMac. How much of your work is actually done on the eMac?

Keefe: This may sound like an unabashed plug, but my eMac is invaluable in my work. From lettering Manga books, doing color separations, scanning artwork, burning CDs of finished work for clients, e-mail correspondance, listening to music while I work, making Quicktime documents using iMovie...

My wife recently told me that if I ever left her, it wouldn't be for another woman, but for my eMac. Luckily, my marriage is on stable enough ground that I don't have to make that choice...

Applelinks: Ah, yes; the Macintosh widow. She's not alone (they should start a support group). How long have you been using Macs to handle all of this?

Keefe: I've been using a Mac since the early nineties (the Macintosh Performa 6400). When I went to the Joe Kubert school, they didn't have computer instruction (they've since added it to the curriculum). So, when I entered the work place, I had to be dragged kicking and screaming to use a computer. It took me a while to realize that the computer wasn't out to replace the graphic artist, but just another tool the graphic artist could use. I was lucky to learn on a Mac, being they're the industry standard. I've tried PCs, but they just seem light years behind what the Macs can do. Kind of feel sorry for people who do use them.

Applelinks: What equipment (hardware and software) would you recommend to young artists looking to get into your field?

Keefe: For someone just starting out, the hardware I'd recommend would be the eMac (with about 256-512 more ram), inkjet printer and a scanner. For software, you'll want to get Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator. That will give you the basics. As you become more experienced, you can build from there.

Applelinks: It's easily apparent computers have affected the way comics are produced, but do you feel their impact goes deeper—say, to the appearance or even the stories, as they have with movies?

Keefe: I'd say the lettering and coloring are the most apparent. The art, in some cases, is being done on Wacom tablets, but, for the most part, is still being done using traditional pen and paper. As mentioned before, the computer is a great tool, but, as with any medium, it's not going to replace the artist. You still need a creative person behind the wheel to get the most out of it.

The great thing about having a Mac is I have more control regarding how my artwork will be printed. Not too long ago, I would send the artwork to the printer along with a color guide. Now, I can scan the artwork (cleaning it up accordingly) and do the color separations as well. That's a huge leap.

Applelinks: Your printer trusts you with the color separations? Obvoiously, you have a deep knowledge of the Mac's graphics capabilities. Did you get formal training with the apps and hardware (you mentioned there was no computer instruction at the Joe Kubert school) or are you self taught?

Keefe: Mostly self taught. I find that the instructions that come with a program or hardware aren't always the easiest to understand, so I go out and buy Visual Quickstart Guides or Missing Manuals. For example, being that I couldn't afford to hire anyone, I put together my web site by myself. It started with a book called SAMS Teach Yourself HTML in 24 hours.

On a side note, that's why I prefer Macs over PCs. They're just easier too
use.

Applelinks: How about OS X? Were you comfortable with that jump?

Keefe: I give OS X a big thumbs up (I'm a sucker for the little perks, like the dock with expanding icons). My only complaint is that when I finally upgraded to 10.2, 10.3 came out. I always feel at least one or two steps behind that way with all my hardware and software.

Applelinks: Do you have any ideas for what Apple could do next to help out artists such as yourself?

Keefe: What I think Apple should focus on is not so much improving the Mac for artists, but making them more accessible to the general public. Most everyone I know has a PC because they think Macs are just for artists and can�t cross platform. Come to think of it, if they had Macs, they'd realize it's the PCs that can't cross platform!

As a Mac user, it's frustrating to see so many computer stores that don't even cater to Macs (luckily for me, a Mac store opened in my area recently). The novice who goes into a Mac-less computer store has the false impression that PCs are the way to go for lack of an alternative.

Applelinks: How about with Flash Gordon? There are rumors of a Flash movie in development for Universal. Anything you'd like to see the producers do or avoid there?

Keefe: Keep it faithful to the original comic strip and rent the Buster Crabbe serials as a primer!

Applelinks: Are you open to returning to the Flash Gordon character as a writer or illustrator, if asked, or are you looking forward to other things?

Keefe: I'd love to work on Flash again, just not the newspaper strip. There's no room to tell a decent story and, because adventure strips aren't in many papers anymore, no money to be had. You can't support yourself.

As far as what's next, I've been keeping myself pretty busy with freelance (illustrations, coloring, lettering) and I also have in the works a project I hope to self-publish in the next couple of years. It's called "I-304-76." It's a graphic novel based on the true story of Company I, my Dad's unit in WWII. I've been interviewing veterans from the company and doing research for years now. I'll have a preview for the upcoming Mocca Art festival at the end of June. For those interested, you can get more information on the festival at [url=http://www.moccany.org]http://www.moccany.org[/url].

Applelinks: Sounds like a great project, certainly one that's important to you on multiple levels. Since you're self publishing it, it sounds like you'll be utilizing that eMac to its fullest potential.

Keefe: I wouldn�t have even thought of attempting this without it. Once you find out what your Mac is capable of, it opens up a lot of new possibilities.

That sentiment seemed like as good a way as any to close the interview, so we let Jim get back to doing what he does best, producing artwork. You can learn more about Jim and see many samples of his artwork at his website. Also, since Jim left the Flash Gordon strip, King Features has been recycling his material at [url=http://www.kingfeatures.com]http://www.kingfeatures.com[/url]. Macintosh spotters will want to note that the old iMac did make an appearance in Flash Gordon, although during a brief excursion back to Earth...not on the planet Mongo.

Applelinks thanks Jim for his time, and wishes him the best with his current and future projects...on whichever planet they may take him.