Twice in the past two years, Erik Larsen has been in the unenviable position of following Todd McFarlane on the adventures of Marvel's favorite webslinger. He replaced McFarlane as artist on Amazing Spider-Man when the fan-fave went on write and draw Spider-Man; now, with McFarlane dropping the top-selling Spidey book, Larsen has been asked to be one of the first creators to come in and do a story "arc" as the title moves into its new format, a "mini-series within the series" riff.

Larsen: I'm doing a five-issue run on Spider-Man that starts with #19 and runs through #22. I'm writing and inking it myself. It's all-new; all-fun!

At this very moment, as we're speaking I'm doing an inventory story for X-Force that Rob Liefeld plotted and Fabian Nicieza will be scripting. I'm doing a Lobo mini-series that I just got the plot for. I haven't started on it yet, because of Spider-Man suddenly opening up. I'm also supposed to be doing a Legends of the Dark Knight story in three parts--writing and drawing that as well.

Wizard: Writing your own stuff is fairly new to you, isn't it?

Larsen: I started out that way, actually. As a kid, I wrote all my own stories, of course. When I first got started doing stuff for regular comics, I worked for a black-and-white comic called Megaton. I did some plotting back then and some scripting of my own stuff, too.

I got away from that as I got further into the field. I hadn't really written for a while, and last year I did a three-parter for Marvel Comics Presents with Wolverine and Spider-Man. I kind of liked doing it again. Since then, I've written another Wolverine story that I didn't draw, that will be coming up one of these days, drawn by Chris Marrinan of Dr. Strange and Wonder Woman fame. He did a bang-up job. It's not quite done--he hasn't finished the pencils, I haven't finished the script.

It makes the drawing part more fun, because I know what to look forward to.

Wizard: When you write something you're drawing yourself, do you start out with a written plot?

Larsen: Yeah, I have to, because I'm working with editors and editors want to see that. They don't want to just have pages coming in and not know what's on them. "Hey--what's this? You can't have Spider-Man's arm torn off!" They want to know what's going on and have some sort of control.

Wizard: Is that plot fairly tight? Fairly loose?

Larsen: I'd say looks is as good a description as any.

Wizard: Does it read like just a classic high-concept sentence? "So-and-so meets the villain and they fight?"

Larsen: It's usually a little more involved than that--about a page and a half of writing; not too terribly involved, because I know what I'm going to be doing with it. What I need to show the editor is just that I know what I'm doing and what the basic storyline is. They need to know if there's any problems with any basic concept, so they can say, "Hey, you can't use this character this month," or something like that.

Wizard: When you've finished the pencils, do they get passed by the editor as well?

Larsen: Actually, the pencils I turn in are very rough. They're less than layouts--because I'm inking it as well--and I do most of my drawing on top of those roughs in ink. I just need the bare bones construction I would be doing for myself if I were doing full pencils.

I send the editor those, along with the script, and get it lettered on the boards. That way, I don't have to draw a lot of stuff that I would have to if I were just pencilling it. There's background stuff that I don't have to put in because it will be covered by the word balloons.

I think you get a better balance of copy and artwork, because I can work the balloons in so they don't intrude on as much as they would if I had just drawn it and a writer placed the balloons.

Wizard: It's been suggested to me that some artists who write their own stories havea tendency to design their pages so that each page works more as a total image than as a story-telling unit. Do you find that true?

Larsen: You try to strike a balance. There are several things I think about a lot. The people who buy this stuff often flip through it first to decide whether they're going to buy it, so I give them some neat stuff to look at.

I really don't know how to answer that question. Sometimes I think about it a lot, sometimes I'm just drawing the story. Generally, I'm just trying to have fun with it.

Wizard: Once you have an approved plot, do you do thumbnails or some other sort of breakdowns before you begin pencilling?

Larsen: I almost always just go right on the boards. A few times I've done layouts for myself; sometimes if I'm really stuck on something, I'll sit down and draw out a couple of different versions--but I sometimes do that full-size.

On the story I'm doing right now, I just did four different splash pages--but they're all so rough, most people wouldn't know what they are anyway. I'll just keep the one I like and set the others aside.

Wizard: The five-issue Spider-Man arc. Can you give us a quick couple of sentences on what it's about?

Larsen: Last summer, I drew a six-issue story in Amazing Spider-Man called "The Return of the Sinister Six"; this is "Revenge of the Sinister Six." Doctor Octopus sort of betrayed the group last time so this time they decide to kill him. It's a lot more involved than that...it'll develop into a reconstructed Sinister Six; Sandman's working his way out of it, because he's a good guy, now. We've been talking of replacing him with the Sandwoman from Thor, or maybe Hydroman, because he has a similar kind of power. The story mostly involves Spider-Man finding out he can't actually beat six guys; throughout the five issues, he gets his head handed to him a couple of times. Spidey goes out and recruits his own group to combat these guys-- the new Fantastic Four.

Wizard: When you're asked to work on something like the Spider-Man arc or a Wolverine story, does the editor ever suggest to you the kind of story, or the thrust, or the theme he'd like to see?

Larsen: He might, in some cases; in thes he didn't. I really haven't been doing the writing that much or that long for there to have been that kind of interplay between me and the editor, generally. It's been me coming to the editor with story ideas, after he's said he'd like me to do something.

But he can always say, "No, don't do that."

Wizard: In working with another artist, are you ever surprised by what you get in the pencils? Is there ever a niggling thought in the back of your mind, "Gee, I wish I could have pencilled this myself. I would have done it differently."

Larsen: I'm surprised and generally I like being surprised. Every artist thinks in a different fashion and along different lines. There are many whose work I find predictable and they don't surprise me anymore. Cris Marrinan surprises me--he'll choose shots and angles that I wouldn't choose; he'll design characters in a way that I wouldn't think of. I enjoy it from that perspective; it's an entirely different process. I didn't come into it with a whole lot of expectations in terms of how I would have done it myself-- and because it was tailored to Chris, because of what he wanted to do, it wasn't a situation where I found myself saying, "Boy, I should have been drawing this story," because it was his story.

Wizard: What are the basics of that Wolverine story?

Larsen: I don't want to give too much away. There's a lot in that story that can't be given away--I don't think I better say a whole lot about it. It takes place in Africa; basically, Wolverine goes on vacation and finds out he doesn't get much of one. The guest star isn't revealed until the third chapter.

Wizard: You're now in a situation a lot of comics creators would want to be in: You're picking and choosing your projects; you're writing some of them; you're drawing some of them; you're writing and drawing some of them. What's Erik Larsen's next step?

Larsen: I think it's getting a long-term segment on one book and sticking with it for years and years.

Wizard: Earning lots of royalties?

Larsen: That's never been a big concern of mine. I've never been a very money-oriented person; I've mostly been a "this would be cool" type in choosing what I do. I do like Spider-Man, I enjoy being able to write Spider-Man.

When I left Amazing Spider-Man, they mentioned a project I've been working on for a long time, which has more worked out on it than any other--Nova, as an on-going series or mini-series, whatever. It's been approved as a mini-series and I've been told that if it gets in house and it's great, it'll go as a continuing series. I've worked that one pretty much through; all this other stuff is not as clearly worked out. It's kind of a shame, really; what tends to happen is that the stuff I really work on doesn't get approved for awhile or I'm waiting for things to happen. Then the other projects get needed right away, so I don't have any choice but to do them right away.

Nova's something I definitely want ot do. I'm hoping to get to it, but in the meantime, I have to do the stuff that's needed immediately.