Mark Evanier

"The early conventions were a lot of fun... Everyone knew everyone. You got a chance to see everyone... It was kind of like a party with people of like interests."

Mark Evanier doesn't remember a time when he wasn't reading comics. As a child, he was drawn to comics of characters he knew from television, favoring funny animal comics, as a way to revisit his them outside of the typical half hour weekly cartoon show. Growing up in west Los Angeles, Mark knew he wanted to become a professional writer at an early age. Less than two weeks after he graduated from high school in 1969, he sold his first professional stories to Laugh In Magazine.

Soon after, he began working as Jack Kirby's assistant and writing foreign comics for The Walt Disney Company. Mark attended the first full summer Comic-Con in 1970 as a professional comic book writer and has attended every Con since. Among his many works are Groo the Wanderer, The DNAgents, and the animated cartoon shows, Garfield and Friends, Scooby Doo, and Thundarr the Barbarian. Mark has multiple Eisner Comic Industry Awards and was the recipient of the 2001 Bob Clampett Humanitarian Award. You can visit his website at www.povonline.com

Interviewed by Mark Habegger