Interview with Ron Marz

Ron Marz has been writing comics for almost 40 years, and doesn't think he'll stop anytime soon. Recently transitioning to the world of video games with companies like Bungie and Blizzard, Marz has worked on some of the biggest names and created iconic characters at both Marvel and DC with his legendary runs on Green Lantern, Thor, and Silver Surfer. 

 

Des Moines Con welcomes Ron as one of our featured guests this year, along with a slew of comics' biggest stars and industry pros. Nerd Street's Director of Comics Programming Lan Pitts chatted with Marz at his home in upstate New York about coming to Iowa for the first time, what he has in the works, and his golden guide for making comics. 

 

Lan Pitts: Ron, thanks for taking time out for us in your schedule. What are you working on today? 

 

Ron Marz: I've got some Blizzard stuff, but tonight I'm working on some creator-owned script with Tom Raney, for a project that we haven't talked about yet. 

 

Pitts: You're a travel expert at this point doing shows for so long, but this is your first time coming to Des Moines Con, much less Iowa. What are you excited about experiencing in the city? 

 

Marz: Yeah this is my first visit ever! I'm looking forward to Iowa and all its flatness and local delicacies. I think the only person I know in Iowa is Phil Hester and I'll see him at the show. Seriously though, I'm looking forward to it. Going to places I've never been before is a fringe benefit of doing this for a living. So I'm excited to visit, and catch some minor league baseball games, that's all attractive for me. 

 

Pitts: You have your big industry shows in New York and California and even some down south, but serving the nerd community is something that Nerd Street has been trying to do for a while. Why do you think the Midwest is so underserved in that regard? 

 

Marz: I don't know, because obviously there's a strong comics community everywhere. Some of the Midwest shows like the old Mid-Ohio, Chicago cons, Wizard Chicago, and those were stalwart shows for years. I'm just glad to be visiting a place I've never been to before.

 

Pitts: You've been doing this for, man, almost 40 years. Where's a place you haven't been yet that you're like 'I wish somebody would set up a show here' just to knock it off your travel bucket list? 

 

Marz: Oh, man. You know I've been pretty fortunate and blessed, but somebody needs to do an Antarctica show. That's the last one on my seven continents. I gotta get it! 

 

Pitts: I think the closest one would be [Nerd Street owner] Ben's Fairbanks show in Alaska. 

 

Marz: I am keen to do that show! I want to do that show in the worst way! I've been to Alaska once, but I've never been to Alaska in the dead of winter. That is definitely a bucket list thing. Experience an arctic winter. 

 

Pitts: You know, you've done so much comic work and I think did more Witchblade issues than anybody else, but in the past couple of years you've moved over to a lot of video game narration with Destiny 2, and Blizzard properties like Diablo. Was there a learning curve for you personally with how you worked? 

 

Marz: The jobs are different, but they're the same job. It's ultimately your job to tell a story, and the number you tell that story with is very different. With a comic, it's maybe four or five other people; with a video game, it's hundreds. The scale is much different and the time you have to do it, but the goal is always the same: something that emotionally engages the reader or player. That is at its core what storytelling is. 

 

Pitts: You've taught writing comics and I'm sure have done a plethora of comic writing panels at shows, what's always your top-tier words of advice for someone who wants to do this? 

 

Marz: The thing I tell everybody over and over again the way to learn to make comics, is to make comics. You learn from your mistakes and your successes, but probably more from your mistakes. If you want to make a comic, nobody is there to stop you. Find other people you want to work with, learn what you can, but learn the lessons that are there for you. In all honesty, your first comic might suck, but that's okay. Your second might suck less, and so on, as you learn how to do this. You will teach yourself how to make good comics, you have to work your way through it. 

 

There's nothing better in the world and nothing you would rather do.