GMC’s Edge: An Interview with Brain James Riedel

One of the first artists to be hired when Dale Quick financed the resurrection of the Silverwolf line under the name ‘Greater Mercury Comics’ was Brian James Riedel. Brian was the artist for Edge, a vigilante hero who had an unusual ability to improvise almost anything at his disposal for offense or defense.

This second volume lasted for 11 issues, with Mr. Riedel as the artist for the entire run, making him the SW/GMC artist with the longest run on any title.

Mr. Riedel was very generous with not only his time in answering the interview questions, but also in sharing with us several unpublished pages from what would have been issue #13 along with scans of his two tryout pages which landed him the job.

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How did you come to work for Greater Mercury?

I was at Golden Apple Comics on Melrose for my weekly fix of four color and B&W madness, when I noticed a wanted ad on the bulletin board for comic book artists that had been posted by Dale Quick. I gave him a call and we arranged to meet sometime later.

He showed me some of the earlier Silverwolf issues of the characters (I had no idea who any of these comic book heroes were, I never heard of Silverwolf) and asked me to do a samples of Grips. So, off I went to see what I could do with the character. [These tryout pages are posted Here]

After he, and I presume Kris Silver, had a chance to digest the samples of mine and other artists, I was asked to do the “Edge” book. I said okay. We agreed on, I believe, a $1,000 for 20 pages and a cover. They sent a script along with the stick-on lettering I was to use. As I was working a full time job as a color man for a silk screening company, I did the art in the evenings, weekends and any spare time I could find.

For the first two covers, they wanted to use some one they knew to “try” and give the covers a painterly look.  They failed miserably. I told them I knew some one who could do the job, so my friend Gary Wray did the colors in a more “classic” comic book way.

Now, if you look at the books I did, you will notice a change in the art from storyline to storyline. For the first four books, I used a brush to ink. Not my natural method on inking. I prefer to use the pen look over the brush.  The second group of books were done in pen and ink, and probably my favorite art of the series. The last set of books were done with a black marker pen for lines and grey pencil for shading. I found it went faster to do it this way.

I wanted to go faster because after the first four (I think) books wages went down.  And down, and down until it was no longer feasible for me to do it any more.  I was about a third of the way doing #12 when it was decided to end it…I couldn’t do any more for the money he was paying.

After getting $1,000 for a complete book and cover at the beginning, by the time # 10 rolled around I was getting maybe $250.  He begged me to do two more so he could get another artist lined up, but he folded the whole thing after #11 was published.

What did you think of the characters, and the company?

I wasn’t all that impressed with any of it.  I was happy to be doing comic art and appreciated the chance to do it, but sometimes I had to stop and say “really?”  Superheroes just wasn’t my thing, I guess. As a kid, I was inspired by the art of Mort Drucker, John Severin and Will Eisner. Not your typical guys in underwear type artists.

From your perspective, how did it all end?

Too many people “investing” in comics instead of appreciating the art and story in them. Too many hacks trying to cash in on the boom and bringing down the value of what the good ones were. The cream doesn’t always rise to the top.

Any good tales, tidbits, or trivia you can add?

I got the job of finishing the Legion X -2 story after Nigel Tully left. I inked his pencils on what he had already done. It was up to me to finish it.  Foolishly, I got talked into letting a third guy help and maybe get a credit as a “bone-fide comic artist”. To say I was let down is an understatement. As you can see by this page from the “Greater Mercury Newsletter”, Kris was not happy. [See Gripes >>]

Some of you may have met me at the Greater Mercury booth at the San Diego Comic Con in 1990. Worked the booth with Mr. Silver.

Life since then

After leaving, I did a few pages for various books for Fantagraphics and Rip Off Press and Vortex. Gary and I published our own “mini-books” or 8 pagers. See, I’m more comfortable doing short stories than long books.

I managed to do a set of pogs before the craze was killed (it’ wasn’t me, honest!). 

I’ve done storyboards, illustrated a children’s book, and I’ve done character designs for various things involving graphic design.  At the moment, I’m occasionally doing paintings with acrylics.

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The great news for us fans out there is that Mr. Riedel also got most of his artwork back from the publisher, and some of this original art is available for purchase if your interested. SW/GMC collector Bill C. has posted several covers and a DPS (Double Page Spread) purchased directly from the artist to his Comicartfans.com page, including the unpublished cover to Edge Vol2 #13!! 

You can see much more artwork by Brian on his archived blogsite Here.

Thanks go out to Gary Wray for his help making this interview possible, and to fellow SW/GMC fan Bill C. for all his help in putting together the big picture, sharing his extensive knowledge and passion for collecting. 

And thanks especially to Brian James Riedel himself, for taking the time to stroll down memory lane and indulge us fans.

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