Mark: I did both book illustrations-how-to books, mostly-and advertising art over my first few years out of college, while working on my painting-which I thought was what I wanted to do. I understand you started out doing commercial illustration?

Matt: How did a love of art turn into a career. But the first thing I remember drawing was a brontosaur, so maybe I was lured. I can’t remember ever not drawing or painting. Mark: I don’t think I ever needed luring. Matt: Those are definitely some fantastic images there, especially those dinosaurs! What lured you into exploring your artist abilities? I also became fascinated with learning what I could of the history of comics-EC’s output in particular left a big impression. I went through phases of following Gold Key comics ( Turok) DC, Marvel, and the underground publishers. It was a memorably hallucinogenic experience. My mother got it for me when I was recovering from a tonsillectomy-I was still doped up from the surgery and trying to read in the dark, by the hospital parking lot lights. The first comic I owned was one of Joe Kubert’s Hawkman turns in The Brave and the Bold. The story started with dinosaurs and giant flying manta ray-who could forget that? Fellow classmates would bring them in and I specifically remember the first appearance of the Metal Men in DC’s Showcase. It wasn’t until I was in the first grade that I can remember actually looking past the cover of a comic book.

Then it was a dinosaur on the cover of what I think was one of DC’s war comic books that first grabbed my attention in a store, although I didn’t know what a comic book was at that time. Dick Tracy, Li’l Abner, Pogo and Prince Valiant were favorites, even before I could read. Mark: I first encountered comics in the newspaper funny papers, not surprisingly. Why don’t you tell us a bit about your early experiences with comics? Matt: I love going back to the beginning of people’s interest in the comics medium. The comics medium is lucky to have him, and I was blessed to talk to him. Mark’s work is staggeringly beautiful, a painstaking work of a true artist.

The series was later adapted into an animated series called Cadillacs and Dinosaurs. Mark is best known for his 1987-1996 series Xenozoic Tales, which won him two Eisner Awards and five Harvey Awards. Those who endured through this era proved themselves as craftsman serious artists who wanted to explore the art form for all it was worth.

During the indie comics boom of the 1980s, and we’re talking the post Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles era here, there were quite a few creators who came and went without a trace.

Xenozoic Tales #11 by Mark Schultz