Paul Tobin Interview -- Writer of Marvel Adventures Super Heroes Part 3 of 3

This is the third installment of my interview with writer Paul Tobin. Click here if you need to read part 1 and here for part 2.

Marvel Adventures Spider-Man #6 on sale 2010-09-22

Finally, I’d like to finish with a few personal questions.

Matthew: Where do you live? Have you always lived in that region or did you grow up somewhere else?

Paul: I live in Portland, Oregon, perhaps the highest concentration of comic book creators in the world. I’ve lived here since 2004, and previous to that I was an Iowa boy. I still miss the storms of the Midwest. Doesn’t really seem to ever rain, here… not by the standards I know.

Multnomah falls along the Columbia River Gorge 31 miles east of Portland

Matthew: I know you’re married. Is there anything you’d like to share about your family?

Paul: No children. It’s just Colleen Coover and I. We don’t even have a pet. We spend most of our time creating things, or building our secret base.

Some of Colleen's excellent artwork

Matthew: This may seem like an odd question, however, I think it tells a lot about a person… What’s kind of music do you like?

Paul: A wide variety, but music doesn’t play as big a role in my life as I’d like. I simply can’t listen to music when I’m working, and I work quite a bit. I do like to listen to music when biking, or walking. Eagles of Death Metal. Black Joe Lewis. Ennio Morricone. Tom Waits. Yard Dogs. Gogol Bordello. Neko Case. Smugglers. The Cramps. Split Lip Rayfield, etc. etc. I don’t go to live shows as much as I’d like, but whenever I do I find it really inspiring, afterwards, to write.

Matthew: Do you have a particular philosophy or guidelines you like to live by?

Paul: Done is beautiful.

Matthew: When you said "Done is beautiful", do you simply mean finishing assignments?

Paul: "Done is beautiful" is across the board for me. It comes from a theater friend I once had... he was in charge of all props and sets, and he was always having to rally his team to quit worrying about minutiae and start realizing that, sooner or later, the curtain has to go up. Some of the best artists I know will never work in the industry. I started a project a couple years back with a guy who drew the first page TEN times. Just needed to get it "right." End result... nearly two months of work for one page. Secondary result... dead project.

Matthew: Just because I have such strong opinions myself on the subject…What’s your favorite text font to use on the computer?

Paul: I’ve been using Garamond of late. I’m not a font-junkie, though. I’m okay with Times New Roman, or Arial. I don’t like comic sans, but I don’t have the vicious hate of some of my friends.

Matthew: I've got to say I despise Times New Roman, especially in the technical reports I have to review and/or write. Arial's my preference.

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Matthew: Other than the books we already mentioned what’s next for you?

Paul: I’m working with some of Robert E. Howard’s characters… starting with Conan. And Colleen and I will be having our Gingerbread Girl graphic novel come out from Top Shelf. I’m helping to develop a television property that’s been a lot of fun, and has a rather big name person looking through my scripts. There are two unannounced Marvel projects. And I’ve even been hitting my sketchbook, of late.


Matthew: Do you have an on-line way for your fans to interact with you like a blog or a facebook page? Anything else you’d like to mention?

Paul: I have both a twitter… http://twitter.com/PaulTobin And then my own website: http://www.paultobin.net/

Thanks again to Paul for taking time out of his busy schedule to answer my questions. It was a blast!!! The next issue of Super Heroes goes on sale this Wednesday, 2010 Sept 15.