Ron Lim Interview, Cosmic Artist in 2018 by Alex Grand and Bill Field

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Go to 40:47 of the CBH Podcast episode to listen to this episode.

Bill: we’re going to go out on a limb now folks with Ron Lim. We’re going to ask him, was Norrin Rad? Was Thanos really a happy guy? We’re going to find out right now. Ron, how the heck are you?

Ronald: I’m doing great. How are you guys doing?

Bill: Fantastic. Hey Ron, can you give everybody a brief history of your professional work starting with maybe EX-mutants?

Ronald:E X-mutants was probably my first published work. I think I did Badger for first comics. What did I do after that? Then I did Psi-Force e for Marvel and I got Surfer after that. That was my big leap from the Psi-Force to Surfer.

Bill: How many surfer issues have you done to date? Do you know?

Ronald: I don’t know the exact number but I worked for almost six years on the title. I think from 15 to 92. But the latter half I missed a lot. It’s just for the Infinity stuff. I was busy with Infinity, Gauntlet war and crusade.

Bill: Fantastic. How about your influences? I’m curious who are some of the go to’s for you as far as following their art when you are achieving your own style?

Ronald: Jim Starlin of course, one of my favorites. George Perez of course, and John Byrne. Those are my three big artists I follow the most. Anything they drew, I would buy. Yeah.

Bill: Now as a pro I’m curious of your many Con experiences. Who are some of the heroes you’ve had some of the funnest meetings with and people that you really admire?

Ronald: Oh, you mean the ones I’ve met? Well, Jim Starlin I worked with him for several years. I don’t see him that often. But when we hang out, it’s awesome. He’s a great guy, so Jim. Simonson was fantastic to me. I only met him once and it was great. He was super nice. Gosh, I don’t know, there’s so many people. Yeah. I don’t know. My mind’s going blank.

Alex: When you did your first work with Jim Starlin and you had read his stuff in the 70s when it came out, was it like, well, I get to work with one of my heroes?

Ronald: Oh yeah, because I was working with Steve, which was great on Surfer. Then when Jim took over I was super excited because now I love Jim’s stuff and then they said we’ll do Banners with them. I was like, “What the heck,” so yeah. I almost couldn’t figure out what I was going to do because I was so nervous. Working with Jim, bringing back Thanos. I didn’t know it was going into the fancy stuff but it was pretty amazing. Yeah, I was happy.

Bill: I’m curious of the differences between the two writer’s style and what they gave you. Englehart versus Starlin?

Ronald: Englehart works more on a Marvel style. I think plot style if I recall correctly, I’ve been a while. Then Jim works full script style. That’s a little bit different. But other than that Jim’s stuff is tied more to his characters in the past whereas Englehart comic was more … he created his own universe kind of thing. The characters, but he created these other characters like Clumsy Foul Up and these characters that weren’t in the other stories.

Bill: Where do you go from now? What are you working on currently and where do you see yourself going in the future with the medium?

Ronald: Still working for Marvel so I keep me busy doing that stuff. I’m doing a ton of variant covers right now. I’m doing a spider man all-ages book for them right now. Right now I’m doing new stuff for Venom so that’s my latest stuff.

Alex: As an artist who knows every inch of Thanos’ body, how did you feel about the rendition of Fantasy and the Infinity War movie?

Ronald: Oh, I loved it. I was hoping that he’d be good, but I wasn’t quite sure how he’d turn out, so when I saw the movie it blew me away. I loved it. They captured Thanos perfectly I thought.

Bill: Josh Brolin got the attitude right?

Ronald: Oh yeah. Up until this movie, we only saw glimpses of it, right. I couldn’t really tell how he’d play them but after seeing the movie, yeah, he’s a perfect. I was stunned, I was like, “Wow, they pulled it off.”

Bill: Just amazing stuff, yeah. I think you had a lot to do with that because of the legacy that you’ve left with the artwork. Does that make you proud when you see the movies now?

Ronald: Oh, yeah, for sure. That they adapted it in any of our work it’s just really flattering and it’s amazing to see on the big screen. Yeah, I loved it. I was tears of joy. Yeah, it was great. It was great.

Bill: Alex, do you have anything else you’d like to add?

Alex: I just want to say that one of my first stories as a kid was the Evolutionary War stuff and I loved it. I bought a page from you a year ago and I look at it now and I’m thinking, I remember the innocence of discovering the universe with your art. I appreciate it.

Ronald: Yeah.

Bill: Ron, as an artist myself, I’ve looked up to you for years and now meeting you it’s just fantastic. I want to thank you so much for giving us a few minutes of your time today for the Comic Book Historians podcast.

Ronald: My pleasure. It was a blast.

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