I little over two years ago, I decided to jump back into comics. I was in it in the 1970s, in. underground comics. It was not a great time to be doing it, unless you trekked to one of coasts, and I was in Missouri. I put out a comic in 1979, which I’d done in 1973. Wrong time to do it. I’d already left the field, and it only came out because a publisher approached me.
In 1985, I got a good review in The Comics Journal 101 for the comic, at least it said I was “a major talent” that left comics to pursue “art”, meaning I went back to college and looked at Picasso, Matisse, Rembrandt and Leonardo instead of what was going on in comics. I’d never even known about the article if a comics fan hadn’t approached me at a college party and asked me if I was the guy mentioned in the review. Otherwise, it would never come to my knowledge. I was that far out of the comics world. I’ve gone over this in other posts, but here I am saying it again.
I did a lot of things to get through college. I had no support, other than my own sweat, and kept getting derailed. But after stints of taking care of invalids and selling ice cream in the summers, I did it. Then I went to Pratt Institute for my masters degree, which completely changed my life.
I still had no interest in comics. I worked at Utrecht on 4th Avenue in Manhattan for a few years, and would occasionally stroll through Forbidden Planet, which as only a few blocks away. I think the Strand Bookstore was closer, so I more often browsed its aisles, picking up a horde of used books. No comics, though. The WWW had not happened yet, and even though there were comics artists at Pratt, something to do with fish in their name, I didn’t hang out with undergrads too much. I think it has to do with the underground thing from the 1970s. Even though I was a superhero fan in my teenage years, the undergrounds untethered me from that. I was interested in stories. Just people living lives, seeking something to hang onto that made those lives worth living.
When I finally started on a new comic book in 2018, after being out of the game since 1979, those themes of how people go about their lives after great difficulty, they still resonate with me. I have a lot more life experience than I did in the 1970s. I understand myself now, which I could not say truthfully back then. I suppose part of this is living, and also exploring the stories of my ancestors, a colorful bunch if there ever was one. My great-great-grandfather fought in the Civil War, and all hell broke loose from that. War does not come without consequences. All that began a strange set of circumstances, with which I’ve weaved in a lot of things that never happened, but I’ll leave the reader the task of figuring out which is what. There is some real evil going on in this series of books, which I have mapped out to resemble actual evil I’ve either observed, or know about from witnesses of that time, whose testimony is trustworthy. Evil is a strange thing, since it imagines it can do anything it pleases, and yet it always does the same thing, over and over again. Evil can be cunning, but it’s not wise.
To get this thing to the point it needs to be, I invite you to become a Patreon supporter. The more support I receive, the greater the chance I can realize the goal I’ve set for a nine-book series that fully explored the theme I have set for it. In 1985, Dale Luciano said in The Comics Journal that I was a major talent, but alas, he left. I’m back. I believe I’m different than any comics artist/writer working today. How that plays out is partly in the hands of the reader, since I am still like an underground comix artist, and don’t plan to ever work with a corporate publisher. I need support from readers who will help me get the long term project materialized.
Please hop on board. I’ve got six Patreons now, but need more. I’ve got lots of treats planned, including original art for upper level patrons. Who knows, this could be something historical, landing in your hands for a song.