There are very few corners in the world of comics that Joe Staton's pen hasn't touched. He is one of the greatest artists in the history of the industry. Many of the medium's greatest characters have had their legacies sharpened by his craft. Best of all? Joe Staton is a Svengoolie fan, just like us. 

He was kind enough to take time out of his busy schedule to speak with Yikesgeist and answer all our questions about his life and art.

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Yikesgeist: Joe, did you watch a lot of horror growing up? Did you have a horror host on TV?

Joe Staton: I was growing up close to Memphis, Tennessee, and we had a horror host whose last name was Davis. So, flip that, and he becomes Sivad, S-I-V-A-D. Sivad, the horror host. He was well-known because some mothers picketed the station. He was supposed to be a bad influence. So he went out in full costume and joined them in their uh protest. So it didn't put a hamper on it.

One other connection is— I was on the Dick Tracy strip for 10 years, and my writer on the strip was Mike Curtis. Mike was also in West Tennessee, but he appeared on the Jackson station as Count Basil.

So, I've been surrounded by horror hosts!

Yikesgeist: Was it the case that Dick Tracy was one of the first comic strips that you were drawn to as a kid?

Joe Staton: Oh, yeah. I was reading Dick Tracy before I could read. The very graphic design— all the blacks, and very cartooned characters. I was drawn to Tracy from the start.

Yikesgeist: As you began drawing for Dick Tracy, how did you make sure to do right by that little kid who fell in love with that strip?

Joe Staton: You know, that's a good point. I try to remember the little kid who loved Tracy. I tried to be right by him. Harvey Comics reprinted a lot of the old Tracy strips from when I was growing up. I read everything that was in the papers. So I pulled everything out. I had a lot of reference in front of me all the time, and I just tried to be faithful to what I remembered there.

Yikesgeist: As comics grew into your profession, was it an active practice to keep that kind of childhood wonder alive, to keep it from being a total slog as your 9-5?

Joe Staton: I guess it was trying to remember what drew me to comics to start with. Chester Gould was a lot of it, and other strips. Of course, when I was working in mainstream comics later on, I had to kind of tone down the cartoony [style], and I examined what it used to be as opposed to what it was at the time.

Yikesgeist: I was hoping you could explain to our readers what the Southern Fandom Press Alliance was and how it helped in your career development.

Joe Staton: Do you know of APAs at all? Amateur Press Associations? Before the internet, that's how fans kept in contact. There would be a central mailer. All of the members would print a certain number of their own little fan zines— their own little magazines, or whatever interested them. The Southern Fandom Press Alliance was mostly science fiction, but it overlapped into comics.

You would send out your books to the central mailer. He would make up a bundle and send a bundle to each member. The members would read each other's fan zines, and then we would all comment on what the others had said. So it was a lot like any kind of internet chatroom or anything would be now, but it was mimeographed.

The strange thing is— I was, oh, I don't know. When did I start doing um that? I was probably in my early teens— Anyway. I'm still in contact with people I was trading fan zines with back in those days, and it makes connections that last.

Yikesgeist: As you built that network and began creating a professional Rolodex, one of the names that we came across when doing research was Dan Adkins. Can you tell us about how Dan Adkins helped influence your early career?

Joe Staton: Wally Wood was one of the very famous cartoonist artists in comics, and Dan was one of his main assistants and helpers, and developed a style of his own similar to that. And very often in the zines, not necessarily the SFPA, but in other zines, in fanzines that I would get, Dan would— before he would get into his art every day, he'd do little sketches, little science fiction type drawings, just to get going. And he would give them to other people as illustrations for their fan zines. Even if you had to trace them on mimeo stencils, they made nice drawings. So, there was a lot of influence from Dan Adkins, and I think I can say that I'm probably— well, there may be others who are working in comics who are influenced by mimeograph stencil drawings. I'm not sure if there were others left, but at least I am.

Yikesgeist: That makes it all the more special to be having this conversation with you. Joe, a lot of people ask you about all of your superhero work, and we'll be excited to, but before we get there, we'd love to talk to you a little bit about some of your work in Charlton Comics titles like The Many Ghosts of Dr. Graves, and Ghost Manor, and Ghostly Tales, and anything with a "ghost" in it. Because, you know, Svengoolie is our ghost host! So, was that an interest of yours before those titles were brought to you professionally?

Joe Staton: Oh, yeah. When I started at Charlton Comics, they tried me out on romance comics, and decided I didn't really have a slick enough fetish to get the romance feel. But, they had me try out on the horror stuff, on the mystery stuff. I was a perfect match for that, especially since one of their main artists was Steve Ditko, who was a big influence on me at all times. So I fit right in. Oh yeah.

Yikesgeist: Did you ever meet him?

Joe Staton: Yeah, I met him at Charlton, and then later, he worked at Marvel. But I knew him more at DC Comics. We worked for Joe Orlando, an editor there. So, yeah, we kind of hit it off.

Yikesgeist: Joe, any of these horror characters, were you drawn to any of them as a kid? Were you a Frankenstein guy or maybe a Dracula fan?

Joe Staton: I was definitely a Dracula fan. I remember being really influenced by the Hammer films. The Horror of Dracula with Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee—I was very impressed by all the Hammer stuff. Also, by the black-and-white Universal stuff, but somehow Hammer hit me at a good time, and I still have a good feeling for them.

Yikesgeist: It's clear to see how, as a comic book artist, you would connect with those rich colors in the Hammer movies, especially The Horror of Dracula. Those big close-ups of Christopher Lee's face with the blood. It seems like it's right out of a panel!

Joe Staton: I specifically remember a scene where Peter Cushing had been bitten by Dracula. And to deal with being bitten, he pulled an iron out of a fire and cauterized the bites on his neck. I remember that being a very strong scene.

Yikesgeist: How in your career have you balanced keeping true to a long-established character while also bringing something new to the art that you create?

Joe Staton: Well, some of it's just— you can't help but vary it. Some of the animated stuff is very strict on designs that you have to stick to. Sometimes when you're working with a character that's been around a long time, you can't avoid some variations in the drawing. And for the superheroes, they're pretty much allowing a good range of what happens. You get your own ideas of what they look like, and just as long as you don't go off the deep end, there's definite room for variation.

Yikesgeist: Batman's still got to have a cowl no matter who's drawing him, you know?

Joe Staton: Yeah. But it sure varies on how big his bat ears are from shot to shot.

Yikesgeist: That's absolutely right. Joe, are there any elements of your style that you see as your signature? Like, something that you'll look at and go, "Oh, that's me on the page. That is my art specifically?"

Joe Staton: People tell me that more than I see it myself. But there are people, you know, who tell me that they can pick me out on a page. I guess it's the kind of cross between cartoon exaggeration and the horror stuff. So, I'll get something that's a little scary and a little funny at the same time, even if that's that's not what I'm shooting for. I try to keep it scary, try to keep it heroic for the superheroes. A little bit of everything.