Alpha Flight Questionnaire

[Le Messor]

I agree with most of what you say; and have had a crush on (Claremont/Byrne) Storm too long to judge you for loving Snowbird.

I think it was Hudnall who wrote the #12. arc you speak of - for me, he's done other things in Alpha that I liked, so I wouldn't put him as worst.

I've found that if I open editing in a new tab, it works (I do that by middle clicking on my mouse, but I'm on a PC, not a phone - I don't know what will work for others). You need to copy your whole message first, since it just opens up an empty editing panel.

[Tawmis]

Ah, yeah. Hundall wrote other good stuff in AF (I mean, by this time, AF was a tragic train wreck with no writers wanting it, no artists wanting it or squabbling between writer and artist) - but that "town gone crazy" story is so absolutely horrid that it even overshadows stuff Mantalo introduced (which, I can't remember who made Walt a woman, also another bad idea) - but the town gone crazy is so seared into my brain. It's literally one of the worse stories I've read in comics. And, I am sure a BIG part of that may have also been the artist doing a HORRENDOUS job (whoever that was) in my opinion. It just felt like - AF, at its worse, with what felt like neither artist or writer even TRYING.

[Le Messor]

I believe the Walt as a woman was Bill Mantlo.

The town-gone-crazy, iirc, was the result of editorial interference. This is one of my vague memories, but I remember hearing something about how Sandman was popular at the time, so editorial told Hudnall to make Alpha Flight more horror-oriented. And that's how we got that story.

John Calimee drew the arc. He's since come onto this site for an interview; his art has improved a lot since then, and he seems like an okay guy. Just for another side of that. (I don't like the art on that run, either, though.)

[Tawmis]

Yeah - we interviewed James Hudnall for my podcast (Comic Relief Podcast) - http://comicreliefpodcast.com/archives/1375 (starts at 37:50) - 41:58 we start talking Alpha Flight. Around the 43 mark he talks about how Bill was essentially flailing or bored in Alpha and was asking the editor for ideas when Hundall was brought on. Although, I remember wanting to correct him when he said Dream Queen was modeled after Mephisto - and telling him it was Nightmare, since it was (is? Supposedly?) his daughter. Around the 45 mark he starts talking artist... and he'd wanted Mark Bagley (who he worked with previously)... around the 45:45 mark he starts talking about the artist he got (Calimee) and mentions he wasn't "there yet" (but like you seems to think he got much better... and really, we all get better at a craft we continue to keep at, so I don't doubt Calimee is much better these days then what we got in those issues of AF... also probably helps if you're passionate about your work, and it didn't feel like post Byrne, many were passionate when assigned to AF, which is also a problem), but he goes on to explain that unfortunately he and Calimee didn't gel properly. He does admit that he was by far a bigger DC fan than a Marvel fan.