INTERVIEWS BY:
FRIENDS OF THE PHANTOM
TWOMORROWS PUBLICATIONS

JIM APARO: "I'm self-taught. I just drew as a kid and went with it. I studied and copied comic strips and comic books. I grew up with Superman, Batman, and Captain Marvel. I really liked Captain Marvel Jr. by Mac Raboy. That was beautiful stuff. I liked Alex Raymond, Milton Caniff... all of those guys.

After I finished high school [in New Britain, CT], I worked in factories, doing stock clerk work and all kinds of jobs. The drawing part was at night on my own when I had time.

I was 18, 19 or 20 years old, and was roaming around New York in the Summer, living on a few bucks and banging on doors, trying to see if I could get any work. I went to Hartford Art School for a semester, just to brush up on anatomy.

Then I got a job at an advertising agency in West Hartford, Connecticut. Our main account was an air conditioner manufacturer. At the ad agency, I used to do layout work in pencil,and if there was any fancy script or special type of lettering the typesetter didn't have, I would do it. I was always fascinated with lettering; I liked to letter.

One Summer vacation, I didn't have any money to go anywhere. My wife and I had just bought our own home, and we had three kids. I decided to run down to Charlton comics, which was about an hour or so away.

I brought samples of my stuff that I had made up on my own, and I met Dick Giordano for the first time. I showed Dick what I could do. He liked what he saw, so he gave me a script to do.

I penciled, inked, and lettered the first page of the job. I called him up and told him I had the first page done, and I'm only an hour or so away. I'll come down and show it to you. If you think it's worth continuing, fine. If not, that's it. I brought it down, he loved it. Dick said, 'It's great! Go finish the job.' " -- JIM APARO