I will agree, though, that the title of the interview was unfortunate and perhaps deliberately misleading.

You also need to push the shift key down to create an upper case letter!

if you were a true journalist, you would stick with your guns. regardless of how misleading, misinformed or mistake-ridden your interview article was, or the overwhelming load of negative responses to your position have been. that’s why there’s usually an editor and a publisher (neither of which your project has) to bounce things off and proofread before publishing.

all of your rebuttals (including the ones from your sidekick robin), appear disingenuous at best. you’re not really concerned about carmine’s legacy. you’re just trying to make a name for yourself. so do it on someone else’s dime.

I have actually been touching base with the message board while on the road from Virginia, all day, and have had several hours to reflect upon this essay. Only out of respect to Mr. Infantino, I have made a few minor edits - not to any of the historical details researched by me, or my interpretations of his work - but to details that have proven a misinterpretation or matter of sensitivity to Mr. Infantino.

Now, with this behind me and a new day ahead, it’s back to work!

Best,
Christopher Irving

The comparison to his old age to The Flash is sick to read. It’s out there and it’s too late. Both Carmine and Christopher got what they wanted. Both came out as the losers. We are the winners as we once again watch the disgrace of a misunderstanding that led to bitterness for both parties.

I have always felt that Carmine defined The Flash from the beginning, however, from 1981-85 when he returned to the series, he killed the series with his awful art. It was not the same anymore. Crisis didn’t kill the Flash, Carmine killed the Flash. When George Perez drew the Flash at the same time, it was night and day. Man those were horrible times for the character. I hold no ill to the man, but as said in the interview, history will judge Carmine. He had many brilliant ideas, but this interview was his Bela Lugosi moment before he died. He is a shadow of his former self.

Somebody should warn Mark Waid about them.

Which is here in case anybody is interested: http://www.collectortimes.com/2007_05/Clubhouse.html

“That doesn’t mean they get to have control over the piece, which seems assumed in all the descriptions in this thread so far but is really two hugely different things.”

See, I disagree on that, quite strongly. The moment you agree to give up what you’re going to print BEFORE you’re going to print it, I think you’re indeed relinquishing a considerable degree of control over your piece. (And I’m not talking about fact-checking or on/off-the-record concerns here, of course. Those are different considerations altogether.)

Now, as I’ve said, I’ve done the same. Because it was the way it was at the publication I did it for and it wasn’t a big deal to me, given that we were talking about comics and no big controversies were to be expected.

Then again, considering the case at hand, maybe I should rethink that.

ST: What would you most like to be remembered for — from your fellow artists; how’d you like them to remember you?

CI: I’d prefer to the days I was an editor, more so than [as] an artist.

ST: For editing?

CI: Yes. I think so. ‘Cause I think I helped make some big changes at DC Comics in those days. I think they’re proficient changes � I brought artists in as editors, which was an unknown [thing then].

ST: You raised the respect level. When you were coming in there full time, the respect level was pretty low, and you helped raise it.

CI: Right, right.

JDS: He would leave his office door open and he would wear a coat and tie to work, but he’d take it off, open the shirt at the neck and roll up the sleeves and that was his message to the employees.

CI: To come in.

ST: And did they do that?

CI: Oh yes. I also set up a room on the side, where no editors or myself were allowed, just the artists and writers, where they could give up gripes and look at each other’s work and enjoy each other.

There’s a related thing where someone will tell me something that’s amazing and then tell me it’s off the record. It doesn’t work like that.

I’m not sure any of that’s the pertinent issue here.

Also, I thought Carmine had died, too, I have to admit, or was at least jacked up somewhwere, and spent some workday time googling.

We (Calvin and I) always say NO. NO NO NO. NO. Creates more problems than it solves.

That said, I have NO problem with quote checking and have done it myself on occasion, esp. when a transcript is unclear for any of a variety of reasons. And having interview subjects check a transcript is SOP. (TCJ does it all the time.)

I think the point is that PR people will always ask to see a story before it runs, and sometimes younger journos will say yes in a weak moment.

The PARIS REVIEW also let the CIA review their interviews. They’re exceptional.

BTW, Carmine doesn’t live in a condo, he lives in an APARTMENT and he doesn’t live on Lexington, he lives on EAST 48TH. Check yer facts…

Someone prove to me this isn’t a hoax.

Carmine Infantino brought life to DC and it was really interesting to read of his evolution from old school cartoonist to designer. I remember Mike Kaluta joking about the sideways layouts, but we all knew they were cool.

Amateurish garbage. “You see, it’s ironic that he needs a walker because he drew the Flash! Get it? He’s slow…and the Flash is FAST! Haw, haw!”

Creeps.

Sometimes a reporter can use a similar offer - such as reading back a person’s quotes or main points to doublecheck for accuracy - to convince a subject burned in the past to go on the record.

Also, in my experience, if a Q&A ends up running as a standard-format story, it’s usually because the interview subject’s direct quotes are unintelligible and have to be paraphrased into making sense, which can also result in the subject claiming (rightly or wrongly) he was misquoted.

And personally speaking, I’ve only given an interview subject a copy of a story pre-publication once, and in that case, there was a translator and a lot of Engrish involved, so I was as concerned that I might have misheard something as the subject was.

Thanks for the clarifications. Based on Gary Groth’s interview with Infantino many years ago (http://www.tcj.com/2_archives/i_infantino.html), I wasn’t surprised by your partner’s essay. In fact, it all rang very true to me. Great images too!

Thanks,

Wayne