I remember going to a rather seedy old newsagents in the Newfoundland Road area of Bristol in the early 1980s because it usually stocked Charlton Comics –a rarity because comic distribution was not really organised in itself. Books were repackaged or added to bundles of mags heading for news shops.
On one occasion I picked up a copy of E-Man and noticed a really weird character on another Charlton Comic. It was issue number 38 of Scarey Tales [1983]. I had to buy it.
I read the book once and it was swiped. Never saw a copy again. In fact,people thought I was making up the character. But Mr. Jigsaw was a real comic book character. I thought about him every-so-often and looked at comic dealers tables but never saw the book again.
Then I put a brief piece up on CBO about a book,Jim Anthony:Super Detective. I then got an email telling me about a type in the title and a shock. The writer,Ron Fortier,had created Mr. jigsaw! The bigger shock was that Mr.Jigsaw was set to return to comics.
I could not let this pass so,without further blabbering,allow me to present The Ron Fortier Interview!
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TH:Ron,you mention in your text feature in MR JIGSAW #1 that you had wanted to be a comic book writer all your life. So at what point did you get into reading comics as a kid and what books really inspired you?
RF- My father came home from World War II reading comics. The first comic I remember him buying me was a Kid Colt Outlaw from Timely (which later became Marvel). I think I must have been five or six and just beginning to grasp the fundamentals of reading. Of course it was the pictures that first fired up my imagination until my ever curious mind demanded to know what was going on in the captions and world balloons.
By the time I was seven, my favourite comic title was Superboy and I can remember bugging my mother to pronounce the word invulnerable to me, as it seemed to appear in every single issue of that book. God bless Mom, she would not give me an easy out, but rather instructed me to use the dictionary and figure it out for myself. When I say comics like these taught me how to read, I am not joking. They are fond memories and comics have been a huge part of my life since.
TH:Educationally,did you study literature or creative writing?
RF – That I did, starting in high school and then in college. Everything from poetry to journalism. If it had anything to do with writing, I signed up. But oddly enough I ended up with a degree in Business Administration, which has helped me deal with the business end of a writing career.
TH:I should jump back in time here I guess because I have not answered that all important question:why did you want to be a comic book writer as opposed to what most people saw back then as the “glamorous” job of being an artist?
RF – Like every other young boy (or girl) addicted to comics, I too tried my hand at making my own crude comics early on. My mother is an artist, and she taught me a great deal about free hand sketching and drawing. I discovered I had a rudimentary level of talent but by the time I’d reached secondary school, I realized that’s all it would ever be.
Looking at the artist like Joe Kubert and Russ Heath, two of my favourites at the time, I knew I could never reach that level of skill. Yet I still wanted to be a part of the comics industry, thus in my freshmen year of high school, I made the switch and set my sites to writing comics instead of drawing them. Looking back over my career, it was a very smart move to make.
TH:Did you write anything for the amateur comic press before comics?
RF- While I was in the army (1965-68) I wrote a local newspaper back home about my experiences in the military. Upon my return to civilian life, I took up comic collecting again and through periodicals like the Comic Buyer’s Guide discovered the wonderful world of fandom and fanzines. I began to contribute articles to many of them over a long period, seeing it as my entry into the world of professional comics.
At that time people like John Byrne, Paul Kuppenberg and many others were all either publishing fanzines or contributing to them.
TH:And Gary Kato had the dream of becoming a comic book artist –how did you two link up in the first place –I mean,you were in
RF – Via the fanzines I just mentioned. I’d seen a few spot illustrations from Gary in several of the fanzines I was buying and really enjoyed his work a great deal. Finally I wrote to him via the editor and he was kind enough to respond. We struck a corresponding friendship and when I wrote my next science fiction short story for Time & Space,Gary provided several spot illos for it. That was the beginning of a very long and happy partnership between us.
TH:Gary has a very distinctive style and it is filled with fun and quirkiness. Had it been decided that if the opportunity arose you would both work together on a comic?
RF- By this time, I’d been an avid comic book reader for many years and realized immediately that Gary drew very, very much like the great Steve Ditko. I swear, at times I think Gary does Ditko better than Ditko does himself. Ha. Gary captures the same sharp angles and kinetic, action energy in his bodies-in-motion. I knew Gary would be perfect to do comics, but at that time there didn’t seem to be any real opportunity for us.
TH:1982 was the big break. Can you tell me how the concept of Mr.Jigsaw came about and how you got in at Charlton Comics –initially it wasn’t with Mr Jigsaw,was it?
RF – Yup, that was the year. One day I read an article in CBG that Charlton comics was starting a new try-out program for new comic writers and artists called Bulls-Eye.
The idea being, you submitted work to them and if they accepted it, the work would appear in this particular title and they would reimburse you with 50 copies of the book. No cash. Now if you are a rookie dreaming of breaking into the pros, that sounded like a pretty good deal.
I immediately clipped out the article and sent it to Gary along with a letter asking him if he would like to team up with me and have a go at this? Since the snail-mail back and forth from New England to Hawaii was a long interval, I took a guess his answer would be yes and sat down to write a 12 page action space opera called DUEL IN THE STARS. The day I received Gary’s affirmative response, I mailed the script off to him immediately.
As I’d been the one to propose the space opera, I thought it only fitting to let Gary suggest an idea for a new story. He asked me to come up with a comedic superhero who could dismember his body parts like a Jigsaw, but still control them. I thought the idea was insane at first, but the more I mulled it over, the more the silliness of it infected me until ultimately I wove the entire Mr.Jigsaw Man of a Thousand Parts plot from that one basic idea.
Of course Gary loved the script, Jiggy’s origin tale, and whipped up a truly amazing graphic masterpiece.
TH:In the 1960s Myron Fass,the mind behind MF Enterprises and all that entails,had Carl Burgos re-invent Captain Marvel as an alien android who could split apart and move fingers,arms,legs,etc. independent of his body [my history what it was with Fass and this character I’ve already gone into on CBO–were either of you aware of the character?
RF – Only vaguely. Many years after we had done our character, a fan sent me a copy of a Harvey comics character called Jigsaw, whose power was to stretch like Plastic Man and Mr.Fantastic. Which I thought was odd, as it had nothing to do with his name. I later heard of the android Captain Marvel as well. Of course neither of these characters had any real similarity to our Jiggy.
TH:Now,to be fair,I have to point out that MFEs Captain Marvel was a super android sent to Earth whereas Charles David Grant [aka Mr Jigsaw] was born and,with a doctor’s slap to his bottom,fell apart! His mother having been accidentally exposed to a mad scientist’s experiment. So,Mr.Jigsaw was a human-mutant and the difference is that Burgos kept to the old super hero style story while you and Gary were a little ahead of your time and played it “just for laughs”.
And yet you were even further ahead of your time by using a “physically handicapped” female character –Mr.Js friend,Amy Boucher –did that raise any eyebrows?
RF – Keep in mind, both Gary and I were in our thirties when we started doing Mr.Jigsaw and both of us had grown up reading many of the great comedy titles all the companies were doing in the 1950s. DC had books starring Bob Hope and Jerry Lewis amongst others. So Gary and I were no strangers to comics made to make you laugh. All we did was add a superhero twist. And if you’ll recall the Golden Age Plastic Man by Jack Cole and C.C. Beck’s original Captain Marvel, we only following in a very noble tradition.
As for creating a handicapped supporting character, well that’s just how a writer’s mind works. As I was envisioning all the absurd things our hero could do with his body, I realize it would be the height of dramatic juxtaposition to include a character actually missing a body part. That was the literary nucleus. The fleshing out was inspired by my cousin, Gloria, who lost her right hand in a horrible accident at the age of five. Fitted with a hook prosthetic, Gloria grew up raised by a loving family that never allowed her to believe anything except that she was capable of doing she put her mind to. She was the true life model of Amy “Buck” Boucher, a woman who wouldn’t let any handicap ever stop her. Honestly, once Buck appeared in Gary’s drawings, I fell in love with her. I think she’s just remarkable and Jiggy is so lucky to have her as his best friend.
TH:I guess that was the good thing about Charlton in that they allowed virtually free creative reign. There is,however,as documented in many magazines such as Alter Ego,the darker side to Charlton Comics. What might be called the shadier dealings”;did you ever come across this or were you out of that company loop?
RF – We only ever dealt with Bill Pearson and our experiences were only positive. Keep in mind, the Bulls-Eye program had folded before they could publish the Mr.Jigsaw story. We had learned, from Pearson, that all the unpublished projects were being returned to their creators. But Pearson and Editor Bill Wildman were so taken with Mr.Jigsaw, they did not want to let it go. So they asked us if they run it in one of their regular monthly titles. Of course we happily agreed. Then they went and asked Gary for a cover illo and that’s how our Mr.Jigsaw popped up on the cover of Scary Tales # 38. We will always be indebted to the Charlton editorial team for helping us break into the comics.
TH:How many Mr.Jigsaw stories did Charlton publish?
RF- Just that one story.
TH:Tony Isabella was a huge Mr.Jigsaw fan and introduced it to Don Thomson of the Comic Buyers Guide and both men really promoted Mr.Jigsaw but was there ever a time when you thought the whole buzz was just going to die?
RF – Well, to be honest here, even with Don and Tony beating the bushes telling everyone about Mr.Jigsaw, there was never any overwhelming response from either fans or any new publishers. After that one story, we simply assumed any further interests would be nil. And for a couple of years we were right.
TH:You did a series with
RF – Street Fighter was a five issue, full-color mini-series that told the story of a young man who, with the help of loyal friends, becomes a vigilante to clean up the streets of his city from drugs. It was the longest project we had ever worked on together as a team and the series was well received at the time of its release. Unfortunately along about the same time, Viacom’s mega hit video game with the same name came out and fans confused our books with that Street Fighter.
TH:Following Street Fighter you produced Mr,Jigsaw for Ocean Comics and I’m interested to hear how that happened?
RF- Ocean Comics operated out of Warwick,
I was simply stunned that anyone, other than Don and Tony, were even familiar with that character. By the time that third fan inquired, Bob Palin was completely hooked and asked me who the hell was this Mr.Jigsaw people were asking about? I proceeded to tell him and Bob was taken with the entire thing and asked if he might produce a Mr.Jigsaw one-shot comic?
I wrote Gary and sounded him out. The idea was we would reproduce his origin story from Scary Tales to kick off the book and then produce two new stories to fill out the issue. Obviously both of us were extremely excited to be doing the character again and I wrote the stories, LT.BOLTZ – PORTLAND P.D. and THE JOB.
TH:I have to be diplomatic here:without causing distressing memories,can I ask why you hated the Mr,Jigsaw comic Ocean published?
RF – The launch of Mr.Jigsaw in his very own title had tremendous potential. All of us were hoping if this one issue went over well and proved profitable, it would be the first of a whole new series. But unbeknown to either Gary or myself, Bob came up with a gimmick idea to help market the book. He would do the book on blue paper, thus being able to advertise it in TWO colors.
The thing is, he never bothered to tell us about this ploy. Had I known, I’d have put the brakes on immediately. I’ve always detested gimmicks and would have known instinctively that this was a very bad idea. But alas, we were not informed and on the day we Bob arrived, at yet another one day con here in our locale, with copies of the book, my hopes and dreams for Mr.Jigsaw were fairly dashed in the blink of an eye. I had everything I could do to remain civil to Bob the remainder of the day. The blue paper looked atrocious and made seeing Gary’s artwork near impossible.
TH:Oh,I know about printing on blue paper. I did that once and it was horrific! That traumatic incident aside you did more work for Ocean and, eventually another Mr.Jigsaw strip?
RF – Actually yes. A few months later, Bob called to say he was doing a comic anthology and would we consider doing a new short Mr.Jigsaw story for it? I’d since gotten over the blue paper fiasco (although I made sure this new venture would be on traditional white paper first..ha) and so agreed to contribute a new Jiggy tale. That story was THE APARTMENT. It was the last Mr.Jigsaw story we did for Ocean Comics.
TH:You’ve written professionally for 27 years now so can you fill us in on some of that work?
RF- Ha, now there’s a simple question, he said with chuckle. Hmm, let me see. Aside from the two original concept listed here, I also did an alternate world pulp comic for Caliber called THE BOSTON BOMBERS. Again for Ocean, I did two Popeye comics book, one telling the secret origin of the famous one-eyed sailor. At
While at Now Comics my career kicked into high gear when I landed the GREEN HORNET series and then added TERMINATOR – BURNING EARTH, the latter being the first comic project for a young artist named Alex Ross. Ever heard of him? Ha. I later worked for Tekno Comics on their GENE RODENBERRY’S LOST UNIVERSE and most recently produced an erotic graphic novel DAUGHTER OF DRACULA, for Wild Wolf Entertainment and done with my long time artist pal, Rob Davis.
Oh, and there are a few one shots and other titles I’ve forgotten for sure. At last tally, my wife says I’ve over four hundred published comic scripts. Not a bad career.
TH:Has Gary been working on comics –I’ve even tried googling his name but not come up with much!
RF- Well, Gary is one of those rare individuals who has not signed on to the age of computers and he doesn’t own one, never mind use one. Ergo, it is no surprise you wouldn’t find his works too readily accessible, which is in itself a crime.
TH:Wow. I think I’ve seen those Ms Tree issues but they must be in storage box ~786! At least we now know more about Gary than we did before!
Ron,you now manage Airstrip 27 and produced the Jim Anthony:Super Detective book. Can you tell me why “Airstrip 27” and a little about the company?
RF- Sure, happy to. Along with artist Rob Davis, I produce, under the flying dirigible logo of Airship 27 Productions, brand new novels and anthologies starring classic pulp heroes from the 1930s such as Secret Agent X, Dan Fowler G-Man, the Moon Man and many, many others. Jim Anthony Super Detective is our latest pulp release.
TH:Jim Anthony is wholly text stories,right? Can you tell me something about it?
RF- All Airship 27 Production books are prose. Still, like the original pulps, we add a few black and white spot illustrations. Anthologies feature 12 such and novels have 9. The spot illos in Jim Anthony Super Detective were done by the talented Pedro Cruz of Portugal.
TH:The cover is a superb piece of art –who painted it?
RF- That cover was done by Chad Hardin. Chad is an up and coming graphic super star whose work has appeared both at DC and Marvel in the past few months. We were thrilled to have him do this, his second cover for Airship 27. Last year he handled the cover chores for our new pulp series, Ghost Squad.
TH:Future plans for Airstrip 27?
RF- Continue to doing more books and expanding our genre umbrella. This year we did our first pulp horror title, Weird Horror Tales and in a few weeks release our very first modern pulp thriller, Jagger –Time Served. Later this summer we’ll release our first Sherlock Holmes anthology and a sci-fi fantasy adventure. To date I’ve personally written four brand new Captain Hazzard novels and hope to get started on a fifth soon. With pulps, the sky is the limit.
below:artist Rob Davis
TH:And Pulps are making a big come-back at the moment so continued success with that.
Jumping back to Mr.Jigsaw;what made you decide to reprint the old strips as part of a new title series –and was Gary as enthusiastic about the idea?
RF- Truth be told, I’ve always wanted to get back to the character. It had been eight years since Gary and I last worked on him for a now defunct website called Adventure Strips. Thing was, I knew Gary was busy with his painting career and did not want to impose on him for something having no guarantees of bringing us any kind of profit for our efforts.
Months ago, I sent Gary a copy of DAUGHTER OF DRACULA and he was very much taken with the quality of the printing.
It was one of the first self-published books he’d ever seen and he called to tell me personally how much he liked it. During the course of that conversation he suggested we might consider bring back Mr.Jigsaw to self-publish him in this manner. I was totally flabbergasted. Here he was telling me he would be willing to do new Jiggy adventures, if I wanted to write them and Rob would print them via his Redbud Studio, a company he devised when we started self-publishing. Excitedly I fired back that before we simply started doing brand new stories, we should collect the dozen or so previous stories we had done (scattered throughout comicdom) and kick off a series with doing them first to re-introduce comic readers, old and new, to the character.
TH:How many issues of reprint material will there be before the new stories appear? As the originals are near impossible to find the more the better!
RF- God bless Gary, he meticulously keeps copies of everything he ever draws and so he was able to dig into his files and either find original pages or decent copies. From these, Rob and I broke them down to fill three regular sized comics. Over the years I had corresponded with several Jiggy fans and I made a point of letting them know these plans. Their reactions were all positive. People like Tony Isabella and Kurt Busiek let me know they were eager to read more Jiggy stories.
TH:Kurt Busiek?? That man is one of my favourite comic writers and I still reread his Avengers Forever and JLA-Avengers series regularly. If he’s a fan then its got to be good!
Do you have a plan to produce a certain number of issues and then stop or can you see it as an ongoing series?
RF- Now that we’re back, we plan on being around for as long as the Good Lord will allow us to. A few days ago Gary turned in the pages to the all new issue # 4 and it was like Christmas morning here. He has lost none of his energy and abundant enthusiasm for this character and every single page had me clapping for joy. Our fans are going to truly love this. Meanwhile I’ve just finished issue # 5 and am already plotting # 6.
TH:In the year 2009,Gary is still not on the internet? I have to admit to actually envying him –the only other creator I know who refuses to get onto computers is Finland’s Pekka Manninen.
RF- As much as I do admire my friend’s decision to remain PC innocent, it is frustrating to wait weeks for new art to come in. Perhaps that’s a sign of just how much we’ve all become addicted to speed of the 21st Century. Patience, they say is a virtue, and so maybe we could all use a little more of it.
TH:Ha ha! True. It is easier to scan and send but it is that joy of opening up a new package of artwork I loved –mind you,the tension waiting and hoping the post office didn’t crush or lose it got too much to bear!
I know I get told its unfair to ask but if I never offered the opportunity I’d be called unfair so,if no one out there is familiar with Mr.Jigsaw what would you say is a good reason to go out and buy it?
RF- When’s the last time you picked up a comic book and smiled, chuckled and outright laughed as you were reading it? Then upon completion, handed it to your son, daughter, niece or nephew and knew it was safe for them as well? Don’t think to long on it, as I doubt an answer will come to mind too quickly. Today’s comics are way too dark and grim. We’ve lost the FUN of comics. But it’s alive and well in Mr.Jigsaw, Man of a Thousand Parts. But don’t take my word for it, pick up a copy and see for yourself.
TH:Airstrip 27 titles and Mr.Jigsaw can be ordered online?
RF – But of course. All Airship 27 pulps can be found at
http://stores.lulu.com/airship27
Note our books are also available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble on-line. Whereas both Mr.Jigsaw # and # 2 are on sale at
And hopefully within the next week, issue # 3 will also be there as well.
TH:I’m sure you’ll be attending conventions this year –San Diego?
RF- Prior to getting back to comics with Daughter of Dracula and now Mr.Jigsaw, the only conventions I attended were the pulp shows. But back in February, I did go down to the giant New York City Con. On the 1st of May, Rob Davis and I will be in Chicago for the Windy City Pulp and Paper show and then we’ll be going to Columbus, Ohio July 31st for the first ever Pulp Fest. Which will be the extent of my travels this year. If Mr.Jigsaw takes off and does well, who knows what next year will bring?
TH:Final words to the readers?
RF- Only thanks for reading all this and any one wishing to stay abreast of what Ron Fortier is up to these is invited to visit me at my website (www.Airship27.com ) where I post a new Flight Log every Friday morning. That’s where my friends and fan find the latest news on all our comic and pulp projects.
TH:Ron,thank you very much for taking time and and remember if there’s ever a Mr,Jigsaw T-shirt I’m XL for fun and I accept Ts as a bribe!
RF- I’ve jotted it down, Terry. Thanks, amigo. This was much fun.
Below:Ron Fortier:Man Of A Thousand Stories!
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