Mike Bullock has written the adventures of Lee Falk's most famous character since he authored what was supposed to be a fill-in isuse of The Phantom. With the last issue of Moonstone's run with the character just a few months away, Scoop caught up with him and talked about how he got where he is and where he's headed...

Scoop: In the past, we've covered a number of your projects in Scoop and even interviewed you a couple of times, but we never really asked how you got started writing comics. So, Mike, how did you get started writing comics?
Mike Bullock (MB): Unprofessionally, I started writing when I was four. My brother and two cousins could all draw and I couldn’t. I complained to my aunt one day and she told me “A pictures worth a thousand words, if you can’t draw the picture you better learn to write the thousand words.” Not realizing she was being silly and trying to get me to cheer up, I took it to heart and went in the next room, sat down and wrote a 1000 word story. If I recall correctly, it was wildly awful, but every walk has to have a first step.

Professionally, I was blessed enough to get my first serious project approved by Erik Larsen at Image when he first took the reins as publisher. Six years later, here I am with more work than I know what to do with and more published stories than I can recall at once.

Scoop: Let's go further back. What was your first exposure to comics?
MB: My brother, who is about three years older than I am, is a huge Batman fan. When I was three, he would sit and read his Batman 80 Page Giants and such, so wanting to be like my big brother, I'd pick a copy up and pretend to read it. Problem was, I couldn’t read, so I’d just make up the story as I went along. This irritated my brother to no end, since he was a serious Batman purist at the age of six, so he forced me to learn how to read with those very comics so I'd quit ruining his Batman stories.

Scoop: How long was it from when you first started to when you considered yourself a serious collector?
MB: From the time I could first read, I always had a pile of comics lying around, but they were usually fairly beat up from hundreds of readings. Then, when I was around seven or eight, my mom took me into a drugstore and let me spend my own money on anything I wanted (within reason, of course) and I headed right for the comic books. I bought a copy of The Avengers for 35 cents and about a year later I got the collector bug. I’d ride my bike all over town looking for Highs and 7-11 stores where I could pour through their spinner rack trying to grab comics I was missing. It wasn’t until the sixth grade when I was able to set foot in a real comic shop

Scoop: What were your early favorites, and why?
MB: I fell in love with anything Bill Mantlo wrote in the late seventies to mid eighties. Especially ROM: Spaceknight. But, with ROM, I came on board a few issues late and had to scramble to get back issues. Then one day, I walked into a store and saw a #1 issue for the first time ever. It was Moon Knight and it hooked me before I'd even made it to page two. To this day, the Moench/Sienkiewicz run on Moon Knight is still my all time favorite comic series. We’re even honoring it in Phantom: Ghost Who Walks #12 which features an homage cover to Moon Knight #25.

Scoop: As you matured, how did your tastes change?
MB: I’m not sure they ever did or I ever matured for that matter [laughter]. I still love anything that wraps my imagination in a sense of anxious anticipation. Granted, it’s harder and harder to find things like that, especially now that I’m writing so much. I catch myself dissecting things a little too much these days and not simply trying to give myself over as a reader.

Scoop: Where did you go to get your comics?
MB: I remember hearing about a store where they sold nothing but comics called Geppi’s Comic World. It was in Silver Spring, MD and I was in Laurel and for a twelve-year-old, it may as well have been on Tatooine. Finally, in the sixth grade, we took a school field trip to the inner harbor in Baltimore, and I had just discovered a Geppi’s store was there as well. So, I saved my allowance for weeks leading up to the trip and as soon as we were turned loose for lunch, I bolted straight for the store, cash in hand. I picked up a few ROM back issues I needed and another #1, this time it was Starslayer from Pacific Comics, which also had the Rocketeer in the back. I think I read that issue four times on the bus trip back to LaurelElementary School, completely oblivious to my classmates who were engaged in the typical elementary school chaos all around me. After that, some wonderful folks opened a store in Laurel called Classic Comics, if I remember correctly and whenever I couldn’t get to a Geppi’s, I’d hit CC.

Scoop: As you grew up, did you drift away from comics the way lots of folks do, or did you stick with it?
MB: I drifted away for awhile when I was a musician, only to come back in the 90s, then walked away again when the big publishers were doing the ‘you have to by 30 books in the crossover to understand what’s going on in the three you like’ thing simply because I couldn’t afford all the books in the crossovers. Then, I came back again around 2002 and have been back ever since, although I don’t have much time to read comics recreationally these days.

Scoop: What's your educational background?
MB: After High School, I enrolled in the school of hard knocks for quite some time before heading to college for journalism. After that, I took the Writing for Children and Young Adults course through The Institute of Children’s Literature. Right now, I’m looking into a few schools to enroll in to complete my Bachelors Degree, but haven’t chosen one yet.

Scoop: Comic writing wasn't your first career. What was, and how did you get there?
MB: Well, when I was kid, I wanted to be one of four things: a fighter pilot/astronaut, NFL wide receiver, rock star or comic book writer, not necessarily in any particular order. I found out in High School I wasn’t tall enough for flying fighter jets, and by then was very jaded at the schools football program due to the behavior of the head coach, so that left music and comics. I fell in with a bunch of guys who were in a few local bands and pretty soon I was touring and recording for Restless Records. That occupied most of my time from the mid-80s until the late ‘90s. Then, I got out of the music industry, went and got myself a 9-5 job and proceeded to really hate life. After awhile, my wife couldn’t take it anymore and told me I needed to find a new creative outlet, as I was driving her crazy, too. It was then I decided to get serious about writing and not long after got into the comics industry.

Scoop: You mentioned submitting during Erik Larsen's stint as publisher at Image Comics. Was that Lions, Tigers & Bears, and how did it come about?
MB: That was indeed Lions, Tigers and Bears. I had a pitch package that I’d put together, with the tutelage of Ron Marz and the glorious artwork of Jack Lawrence. I took it to the San Diego Comic Con with the goal of landing it at Image. I was able to show it to five publishers before I met with Erik, and each of them offered to put it out. While that was awesome, I was still pretty darn nervous when I handed it to Erik. He opened it up, read the one sheet and then turned to the first page of art. At the time, I felt like I was spending a few hours analyzing his facial expressions and body language, looking for any clue of his reaction to it, even though in reality it was less than three minutes. Then suddenly, he pointed at something and said “I really like this.” My heart surged heavenward, but fate being the cruel mistress that it is, Erik immediately followed with “I don’t like that,” dashing my hopes of comic success against the cold, grey industrial carpet on the convention center floor. Just when I thought it was over, he closed it, handed it back to me, looked me in the eye and said “Yeah, we can publish this,” and I was once again on cloud nine.

Scoop: What were the ups and downs of doing a creator-owned project?
MB: At first, I have to say it was just about all ups. Working with Ron Marz was a great thing, as I’d been a fan of his for some time. Reading his work in the 90s really distilled my desire to become a comic writer. Working with Jack was also a great thing, as he and I were so in sync in the beginning it was almost surreal. Unfortunately, Jack had to pull out of the series after volume II began and then all the ups turned into downs as I spent months finding artists to replace a guy who was seemingly irreplaceable. Thankfully, a wonderful fellow named Michael Metcalf happened to run into Ron at a show and before long, Michael was the new LTB artist and things are once again looking up for Lions, Tigers and Bears.

Scoop: A lot of fans discovered you through The Phantom. Your first issue was supposed to be a fill-in, right? How did things develop there?
MB: Yes, it was indeed supposed to be a fill in issue. I had gone to Moonstone publisher, Joe Gentile with the intent of getting a friend of mine a job on a different book. After listening to what I had to say, Joe replied that he would check into it and then asked me what I wanted to write for him. Without hesitation, I said the Phantom! He told me, as I already knew, that Ben Raab was the series writer, but that they did have a fill in issue slot coming up. So, I put together the story that ended up being #12, sent it to Joe and he sent it to King Features, who approved it a few weeks later. Not long after Joe contacted me and told me Ben was stepping down from the series to pursue other interests and since King Features liked my work, the job was mine if I wanted it. Forty odd stories later and I’m saying goodbye to the Ghost Who Walks and looking forward to the stories from the next publisher.

Scoop: Before the long Moonstone run, a lot of American fans weren't very familiar with the character. What drew you to character and why do you think he's so popular around the world?
MB: I used to read the Phantom strips in the Sunday paper back in the day, when I was saving my allowance for trips to Geppi’s and riding my bike around to raid the spinner racks. So, when Moonstone started putting out Phantom comics, I was immediately drawn to them. When Ben’s first issue came out, I thought to myself, I really want to write that. And thankfully, God blessed me with the opportunity not long after.

As for why he’s so popular elsewhere, to me, it’s simple. The Phantom is a great character. I think it was Chuck Dixon who once said something like “The guy lives in a house shaped like a skull with a vast fortune, has a wolf for a best friend and leaves a skull mark on anyone he punches out. What’s not to like?” It’s harder to answer why he isn’t as popular here in the US. I know a lot of the other heroic icons have multi-million dollar marketing machines behind them, making sure every little boy can go to bed wearing Spider-Man underwear in their Superman themed bed with visions of Zorro and Conan racing through their minds. But, Phantom has never had that sort of force behind him to keep him omnipresent in the public eye. We’re such an advertising led society that things lacking any real marketing end up falling to the wayside, unfortunately.

Scoop: Over the course of the Moonstone run, you became the American author with the most Phantom stories under his belt. Would you have expected that when you started?
MB: Hoped for it, yes, expected it no. The first issue I wrote turned out to be the worst comic I’ve ever put my name on, in my opinion. The story wasn’t good and it led to a lot of self doubt where I was expecting to get the hook any day for the first year or two. But then, once I got past issue sixteen and really began to feel comfortable in the role, I decided I wanted to help Moonstone put out more Phantom comics than any previous US publisher. I set my sights on hitting issue #75, and didn’t even realize how far we’d come until Phantom expert Ed Rhoades pointed it out when we found out the run was coming to an end.

Scoop: One of your final Phantom projects is the current Phantom/Captain Action crossover. It seems like you did a good job of balancing both leading characters and their worlds. What has that been like to work on?
MB: It’s been a lot of fun. When Ed Catto, one of the two owners of Captain Action, came to me with the idea, I couldn’t believe the two characters had never been in the same comic book before. My wheels started turning and before long I had a huge story, spanning several issues, with threads that laid the groundwork for several more. I felt like the eight year old kid who had his action figures in hand and all the time in the world to get lost in make believe adventures. Thankfully, Joe Gentile woke me up from my daydreaming and told me to write a two issue miniseries, which I did, with the childhood gleam still in my eyes.

Scoop: Now that writing Moonstone's Phantom series has ended and the character is moving over to Dynamite, what replaces him in your schedule?
MB: I’m not at liberty to say, just yet, but it will appeal to those who were enjoying our Phantom run and those who love to see another pretty face.

I can tell you about some of my other stuff that will come out in the meantime, however. My first post-Phantom book will be the Black Bat Doubleshot, a pulp influenced comic series starring Black Bat and Death Angel. Black Bat is the character that inspired Batman and Daredevil, so working with him is a blast. Death Angel is my first mature creator owned character, who debuted in Phantom Doubleshot #1.

I'm also doing more pulp stories in Moonstone’s new Return of the Originals line featuring Captain Future: Wizard of Science, Gladiator (which I’m co-writing with new comer Josh Aitken), and Runemaster.

Scoop: What can tell us about each of those projects?
MB: Black Bat and Death Angel are two highly driven characters, shaped by tragedy and motivated by a need to set things right. Unfortunately, neither one of them has a line they won’t cross when it comes to their brand of justice. Well, that’s unfortunate for those they target, at least. Michael Metcalf is delivering the artwork for all the Black Bat and Death Angel stories, not only in the pages of the Doubleshot book, but in the pulp magazine as well.

Captain Future: Wizard of Science is a wonderfully scienteriffic pulp property starring Captain Future, the solar system’s smartest man, and his group of Futuremen as they go on amazing adventures to save the galaxy. It’s all very space opera, Flash Gordon meets Doc Savage sort of stuff, with a nice John Carter of Mars flavor tossed in for good measure. Anyone who watches Big Bang Theory can see a gorgeous old school Captain Future poster next to Leonard’s front door in every episode. Norman Lanting is bringing Captain Future’s exploits to life with some stunning art that really captures that old retro sci fi vibe.

Gladiator is the story, written by Philip Wylie that many credit as the basis for Superman and Captain Marvel. e operated

He operated around the time of WWI. So far, I’m plotting and polishing and Josh Aitken (who you may know as the fantastic letterer on many of my books) is doing the heavy lifting. Steve Rupp is the man behind the gritty Gladiator artwork.

Runemaster is a pulpy sword and sorcery/barbarian character in the vein of Conan, Kull, etc. My good friend Rob “Absolute Tyrant” Osborne is providing the skull cleaving artwork for Runemaster.

Scoop: What is an average day like for you (or is there such a thing)?
MB: I get up anywhere between 4-5 AM, depending on how well I sleep (I’m a confirmed insomniac). While downing a little distilled bean, I answer emails, read some news on the ‘net and prepare to write. Then, I work on and off from about 7:30-4:30, taking breaks to watch my son, play games with him, etc. In the middle of all that, I handle two or three business related conference calls every week and reply to a few hundred emails/Facebook messages/forum messages and such. My brain is an utter mess of assignments, plans, scripts, schedules and needs all oozing out of both ears at once…

Scoop: When you're writing, can you have TV, radio or other distractions going on or do you need peace and quiet?
MB: It depends on what I’m writing. I also do some nonfiction work still, and for that I don’t need it so quiet, but for fiction, I prefer dead silence. I really like to block out everything that belongs in this world and imagine myself in the world I’m writing about and TV/music/noisy neighbors, etc. really pulls me out of it.

Scoop: What is your work area like? Do you have a regular place to work or can you work just anywhere?
MB: I have a corner desk in a home office, buried in books, comics, Captain Marvel action figures, Phantom statues, original artwork and other random bits of flotsam and jetsam.

Scoop: Without putting any of the others down, what's the best collaborative experience you've had so far in comics?
MB: It’s hard to pick just one. Working with Jack Lawrence was a wonderful experience as Jack and I seemed to always be thinking the same things, for the most part while working on the first Lions, Tigers and Bears series. There was a sort of unspoken communication between us that was really synergistic. I’ve also greatly enjoyed working with the team on Phantom. Silvestre Szilagyi, Fernando Peniche, Bob Pedroza and Josh Aitken are all guys who don’t care how far they have to go to get the best job out there. I can’t stand collaborating with people who just want to do the minimum. I hated that in music, and still hate it in comics. So, being surrounded by the Phantom gang for the last few years has really been special. Michael Metcalf is another one of those types, too. He puts his heart and soul into it and tries his utmost to get the best product on the page, each and every time.

Scoop: Going back to your musical roots, what are the similarities and differences between collaborating in music and comics?
MB: It’s a team effort in both cases. Most bands achieve success because the sum of the total is far greater than any one musician could achieve on their own. I loved getting together with the guys, watching one person toss out a riff or a beat, someone else would add to it and so on until we had this awesome song. It’s the same with comics. I toss out a story idea, the penciller brings it to life, adding his own embellishments, the inker gives it depth, the colorist adds a dynamic brilliance and the letterer can bring sound to the page. At the end, you have a comic far better than any one of us could have created on our own and it’s something special.

The differences, well, let’s say I can’t perform in the comic industry after downing a pint of Absolut and a six pack of Budweiser…

Scoop: The Phantom was one sort of dream gig for you. What's your next dream gig?
MB: Mostly, I enjoy working on my own stuff and consider that a dream come true, but there are still a few characters I really want to work with, especially Moon Knight and ROM. After that, I’d say John Carter, Captain “Shazam” Marvel, Silver Surfer, Firestorm and Batman.

Scoop: What comics have you enjoyed reading recently?
MB: The Spider comics from Moonstone. Really love that character and love what CJ Henderson and Martin Powell are doing with him. Other than that, I’ve been reading some older stuff, when I have time to read, like Savage Sword of Conan, Allen Moore’s Swamp Thing and a lot of old pulps featuring Captain Future and Black Bat.

Scoop: Where would you like to see yourself in five years?
MB: On a beach in New Zealand. I think I’d look good there.

Scoop: Anything else you'd like to add?
MB: Thanks for all the great questions, and stay tuned for some really big announcements coming from Runemaster Studios, Moonstone Books and a few other places in the very near future. I have three really big irons in the fire that I can’t wait to talk about.