Here's a quick interview I had with Dan Jurgens, the writer and artist known for his work on Zero Hour, Superman, and Spider-Man. In May, he teams with John Romita, Jr. and Klaus Janson for the monthly Thor series. Many people may not know that Jurgens drew issue #224 of Daredevil.

Kuljit Mithra: How did you get your start in comics? What made you interested in doing this for a living?

Dan Jurgens: I liked reading them as a kid and always kept them as an interest. I'm an artist first, a comic artist second.

Mithra: Was your Daredevil issue (#224) one of your first comics jobs? How did it come about?

Jurgens: It was the third job I ever did in comics. I showed my Warlord samples to Jim Shooter at a con and he gave me the Daredevil job which was an inventory story so it wasn't printed until a couple of years later.

Mithra: What do you think of the Daredevil character?

Jurgens: I love Daredevil. He's a great character and certainly more human than Batman.

Mithra: What do you think is stronger - your writing or art abilities?

Jurgens: Frankly, I don't separate the two. As far as I'm concerned it's all part of one continuous job that is a cohesive process for me.

Mithra: In May, your new Thor series starts, with John Romita, Jr. and Klaus Janson doing the art chores. What do you think of their previous work?

Jurgens: I think they're both brilliant and always have. Klaus, of course, worked on Spider-Man with me and John was doing one of the other titles while I was there. They're both tops in the field.

Mithra: Why did you choose (or did you?) to just write the series?

Jurgens: JR was already assigned to the book when the offer came in and part of my willingness to do it was the opportunity to work with John.

Mithra: If you had a chance to write Daredevil, what type of story do you think you would write?

Jurgens: I'd build a mystery and adventure story with some legal thriller stuff going on at the same time for Matt.

Mithra: What do you think is needed for the comics industry to attract new readers?

Jurgens: Everyone knows we need to get them somehow. I'd say, more than anything, our material has to be more accessible. Also, we need to stop skewing our product toward a disenfranchised customer and get back to the mainstream readers who will be our only hope of salvation. Right now we're fast becoming a ghetto industry.

Mithra: What do you think of the Event Comics deal with Marvel?

Jurgens: I wish Joe and Jimmy all the luck. They're talented guys.