Hey Patricio: Whatever happened to Carl Potts?

 

Carl Potts started his comic book career in the mid-1970s working for DC Comics and eventually made his way to Marvel Comics as an artist. He then worked as an editor for Marvel Comics on Alpha Flight, The Defenders, Doctor Strange, The Incredible Hulk, Power Pack, and Strikeforce: Morituri. He also did several memorable fill-ins, such as Dr. Strange #63, and wrote the first 24 issues of The Punisher War Journal.

He helped Jim Lee and Art Adams break into comic books and in particular with Jim Lee, Potts provided the layouts for Lee’s pencilled art in the first dozen issues of The Punisher War Journal.

From an interview with PopImage (it’s a really great interview and delves quite a bit into his post-Marvel career, check it out here: http://www.popimage.com/may00/interviews/pottsinter.html):

"I went from freelance artist/writer to editor, overseeing about 5 monthly titles, a bunch of limited series, graphic novels, posters, etc. Mark Gruenwald was the only Executive Editor until around 1989 when I was promoted to Executive Editor, in charge of the Epic Comics imprint. As Exec. Ed., I found, developed and published numerous new titles for Epic and oversaw several editorial teams.

  

Eventually, the position included overseeing a large part of the Marvel line as well. In the early '90s, Marvel had so many titles that there were three Executive Editors, each overseeing approximately 1/3 of the line. Bob Budiansky was the third Exec. Ed. We all answered to Editor-in-Chief Tom DeFalco and Publisher Mike Hobson. All three Executive Editors decided not to add our names to the already crowded credits on the Marvel titles. Therefore it wasn't easy for readers to tell which titles were produced by which Executive Editor (if they cared!).

In late '94, Marvel reorganized into a number of different publishing divisions, each with its own Editor-in-Chief. I was EIC for the "General Entertainment" and "Epic" divisions. The higher in the ranks I got, the less creative and more bureaucratic the work became."

After more than a decade at Marvel Comics, Potts moved on to various roles as a creative director. His blog, http://generaleclectic123.blogspot.com/, features some great 1980s moments and has some rare photos of the Marvel Bullpen back then. He is currently teaching "Drawing for Comics & Storyboards" at a college level. And recently, Disney and Jerry Bruckheimer purchased the rights for an Alien Legion film.