Ralph Macchio (Marvel Comics Editor)

Ralph Macchio is an comic book editor for Marvel Comics. He is commonly associated with the Spider-man comics. He began his association with Marvel Comics in the 1970s and from early on was associated with the Dazzler comic between 1981 and 1982. From 1984 through 1995, Macchio was the editor for Daredevil (Mr.A's favorite Marvel read). Unsurprisingly, he is nicknamed "Karate Kid" after the other Ralph Macchio.

 

Taking Mr.A's place to give this illustrious interview is Comic Avalanche staff writer Liam Webb.

1. How did you get into the comics business and Marvel? 

RM: I was not really planning to get into comics it was just a case that there was [a convention] in New York and I went.  As I was leaving, one of the professionals recognized my name from letters I wrote and invited me to a tour of Marvel.  I went and while there, there was someone who asked me to interview Roy Thomas for their fan magazine, and then doing freelance for their black and white magazines.  So I kept going back to Marvel in the ensuing weeks.  I kept hanging around and got to know people, and when positions changed and Archie Goodwin was promoted to editor in chief, John Warner, who was his assist, became editor of the black and white magazine line.  I knew John well, and he asked if I wanted to come on.  I had no intentions of doing this.  It seemed like something nice to do at the time, and I’m still waiting to figure out what it is I’m supposed to be doing.  This was in ’76.

2. Besides reading, did you have any interest in the field before working at Marvel?

 

RM: No, I didn’t have an interest or intention in working in field; I wrote letters though.  I had background in English literature much like yourself and thought about teaching jobs.  I was not in any great hurry to get a job--I still am not--it just seemed that when an opportunity came up there [were] no teaching jobs, so it was good to catch on and I stayed there for a while. 

3. How many books have you edited in your long career and can you name them? 

RM: As far as individual titles, I can’t tell you, but I started out assistant editing on the black and white magazine line which at that time included such classics as Doc Savage, Planet of the Apes, Marvel Preview, and The Deadly Hands of Kung Fu.  I began editorial assisting on [them] and I don’t think I was yet a full editor when I went to color comics, assisting Denny O’Neil.  When I eventually became an editor I got other gems such as Crystar, which I co-created with John Romita Jr. and Mark Gruenwald; The Dazzler, (I just edited that one); Rom Spaceknight, and also US 1.  And The Micronauts.  That was my first line of books.  Then I went on to work on lot of mainstream Marvel titles like Daredevil, Captain America, Thor, Fantastic Four, The Avengers, then Spiderman titles for a bunch of years, to the Ultimate line now.  Along way I’ve edited movie adaptations, Weird World, Starlord.  I also got the chance to edit some of my favorite things such as barbarian books like Kull.  That covers lot of territory.  I’ve edited some titles close to 10 years like Daredevil and Thor.  I made probably the longest run on Daredevil of anyone. 
                                                              
4. What character would you like your love, Gwyneth Paltrow, to play the most in a Marvel movie? 

RM: Probably she’d be good as the White Queen [from X-Men].

5. Who have been the best or worst writers/artists you’ve worked with? 

RM: That’s the kind of thing you can’t answer.  I’ve always worked with very good people.  There’s always going to be a sliding scale, but I just can’t say who’s low; it’s relative.  Some people that immediately come to mind [as the best are] Frank Miller and Walt Simonson.  It’s [really more about it being] great to work with freelancers and watch them develop.  On the art side, [it was great to watch] people like John Romita Jr. become a great penciler of DD and come out from his father’s shadow; working with [Bill] Sinekewicz on Moon Knight when he went from a Neal Adams thing to a Ralph Steadman thing to becoming his own guy, to become his own artist.  The most satisfaction I get is when a creator can achieve his potential on the book you’re editing.  [Giving them] latitude and letting them achieve their potential—there is nothing more rewarding, at least for this editor. 

6. Where do you see comics going in the next ten to twenty years? 

RM: I think that because we have managed to get into the mainstream and because apparently now, against all odds, comics are going up slowly but surely in sales, (and I think it’ll continue for a while), I think through the films and even toys we are able to create more public awareness for Marvel that comics are not able to do.  The books are limited to circulation, and by that I mean limited to where you can buy them, [and now] people I think are interested in seeking them out and we will catch that younger generation that we must have to sustain ourselves as a field.  The continued success of the comics and movies feed off other, and the future looks bright.  At one point it looked bleak, it became very difficult to sell comics anymore, but then out comes the direct market.   Now, with films and public awareness, people who are working on the books now have an understanding--that know what they need to make them accessible to a new generation.
                                                            
7. You’ve seen many changes to comics in your twenty-odd year career.  Do you prefer the current comics writing with the clear story line endings they have now, or did you like it the old way when the story never really ended between books, even if they shoehorned in the first page of the next plot at the end?  And do you prefer the four color dot art or today’s computerized glossy art? 

RM: I have to tell you, Mr. Liam, is that it is tough to answer because I have a totally different perspective now.  It is difficult to assess how I might have felt [if I didn’t work in comics]; all things have to be equal.  If I was just out there, just reading, then I don’t know.  Now that I’m working in it, I like the clear endings [which helps us] think past this storyline to the next one.  One thing that hooked me about Marvel was the long stories that Marvel did, but that was something that occcured later on.  Early on, in the early ‘60s lots of stories didn’t run that long, like Dr. Strange, the Hulk, Tales to Astonish when they only had ten pages for a character but Stan Lee, he could do some long serials on them to keep them going   [between books].  I think it’s not so much the quantity of the stories ans it is quality.  You can enjoy a one issue story or it can stink or be a serial and flop, so it’s not so much that.  It is really difficult to say what I prefer, especially because with them the stories could never really end, so I could go with both.  You can have a story with Galactus that takes forever or “This Man, This Monster” which took one issue but was an absolute classic in its day.  [Regarding art] there’s always a certain sense of nostalgia for what you grew up with, but it is difficult to answer because my perspective is different now.  If we suddenly did an issue of Ultimate Fantastic Four with flat four color on it as opposed to computer coloring with blending, shading and the like, I would find the transit jarring and not like it, but I have nostalgia for what [previous] books looked and felt like, but that was because [I was] a kid.  If you looked at an early issue of Marvel and at today’s, in terms of quality of production there really is no comparison.

8. If you could choose any other profession besides Marvel to try, excluding Mac-Ray (which is his family’s old moving company), what would it be? 

RM: There are certain things I’d find interesting to try hand at.  I think because I’ve always had a soft spot for animals it would be good to go into veterinary medicine.  That would have been a very, very interesting field.  That and acting would have been a challenge.  Not that I’d ever give what I’ve done to do it, but those things intrigued me a bit for different reasons. 

9. Which artist or writer, past or present, would you like to steal from DC for Marvel?

RM: One guy who recently has passed on and I always wished he did something for Marvel was Jim Aparo.  I thought he had a beautiful style and he could do any character.  It was nice to look at his work and his work wasn’t like dick giordano’s work at all [which I liked too].  I remember looking at many Brave and the Bold [comics] he did and thinking he had a real gift for atmosphere, body language, and telling a story.  He’s a guy I wished could’ve worked for Marvel.  Even on a few occasions I spoke to him but he was guy who was very happy at DC and had no reason to budge.  He said he was flattered but had no reason to move.  I could see him doing Daredevil, Captain America, and any hero well, even Spiderman.  I mentioned him because he’s one of the guys who’s never worked for marvel; I can’t recall him doing anything for Marvel. 

10. You once told me that getting Spiderman married shut down a lot of potential with the character.  Why exactly, and which developments in Marvel’s history during your tenure did you dislike the most, and how would you have done it differently?  

RM: Regarding the Spiderman marriage thing, I know there were circumstances at the time that just seem to lead toward the character being married but I would say as reader I just thought it would be better to have him unmarried because then there are so many more potential possibilities and when [a character is] married you close the book some.  One other thing I think would be very interesting to do, (and I wrote a long letter to Marvel that got published [on the subject]), was I think it would be really interesting to have placed Kirby’s Eternals outside the mainstream Marvel Universe.  It was one of those things that was so big it could use it’s own universe, and was—not “constrained” so much—but we already had Norse gods, the Greek gods and all.  [The Eternals looked like we] introduced another version of them, but Kirby conceptually said man misconceived gods, the Eternals as gods and the Deviants as devils.  Of course in the Marvel Universe we have devils.  The Eternals have a huge conception.  What it does is, it answers the big questions of why we are here, where we are and where we’re going.  And that is something that if I’d been able to, I’d love to have seen Kirby’s entire mythos in its own universe and not subsumed into the larger Marvel Universe. 

 

11. For all the aggravation you get at work, what has kept you at Marvel all these years?  What do you get out of it? 

 

What's this you ask? An eleventh question? Well I promised I would allow all 11 to stay so here you go readers with your (scoffs) eleventh answer!

 

RM: Well, that is a very simple one.  What I get out of it is the immense satisfaction of putting out a good comic book that will entertain readers the same way I was entertained as a kid.  It is great to be able to do something for a living that you really have a passion for, that doesn’t make you dread going to work or is just bringing home the bacon, done not just for those reason but do something you love, and contribute to the Marvel Universe which is a great, enormous fantasy world that we continue to add layers of depths and fantasy to every month.
                                                             

Webb:  Thank you very much for your time, Ralph.  I really appreciate it.

 

RM: You’re welcome, Mr. Liam. 

 

Thanks to both staff writer Liam Webb and Ralph Macchio, Mr. A