Back Issue #75 by TwoMorrows Publishing

COMICS’ BRONZE AGE AND BEYOND!

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’80s INDEPENDENTS! Dave Sim’s Cerebus the Aardvark Richard & Wendy Pini’s Elfquest Indies on Screen & more with Denis Kitchen • Trina Robbins • David Scroggy

THE RETRO COMICS EXPERIENCE!

Edited by MICHAEL EURY, BACK ISSUE magazine celebrates comic books of the 1970s, 1980s, and today through recurring (and rotating) departments like “Pro2Pro” (dialogue between professionals), “BackStage Pass” (behind-the-scenes of comicsbased media), “Greatest Stories Never Told” (spotlighting unrealized comics series or stories), and more!

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“British Invasion” issue! History of Marvel UK, Beatles in comics, DC’s ‘80s British talent pool, V for Vendetta, Excalibur, Marshal Law, Doctor Who, “Pro2Pro” interview with PETER MILLIGAN & BRENDAN McCARTHY, plus BERGER, BOLLAND, DAVIS, GIBBONS, STAN LEE, LLOYD, MOORE, DEZ SKINN, and others. Fold-out triptych cover by RON WILSON and DAVE HUNT of Marvel UK’s rare 1970s “Quadra-Poster”!

“Bronze Age Backup Series”! Green Lantern, Green Arrow, Black Canary, Metamorpho, GOODWIN and SIMONSON’s Manhunter, PASKO and GIFFEN’s Dr. Fate, “Whatever Happened To…?”, Nemesis, Rose and the Thorn, Seven Soldiers of Victory, art and commentary by CARY BURKETT, JOHN CALNAN, DICK GIORDANO, MIKE GRELL, ELLIOT S! MAGGIN, DAN SPIEGLE, cover by GRELL and JOE RUBINSTEIN.

“Bronze Age B-Teams”! Defenders issue-byissue overview, Champions, Guardians of the Galaxy, Inhumans, PETER DAVID’s X-Factor, Teen Titans West, Legion of Substitute Heroes, an all-star chatfest of Doom Patrol interviews, plus art and commentary by ROSS ANDRU, SAL BUSCEMA, KEITH GIFFEN, TONY ISABELLA, PAUL KUPPERBERG, ERIK LARSEN, GEORGE PÉREZ, BOB ROZAKIS, cover by KEVIN NOWLAN.

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“Bronze Age Team-Ups”! Marvel Team-Up and Two-in-One, Super-Villain Team-Up, CLAREMONT and SIMONSON’s X-Men/New Teen Titans, DC Comics Presents, SuperTeam Family, HANEY and APARO’s Batman of Earth-B(&B), Superman/Captain Marvel smackdowns, plus art and commentary by BUCKLER, ENGLEHART, GARCÍA-LÓPEZ, GIFFEN, LEVITZ, WEIN, and a classic GIL KANE cover inked anew by TERRY AUSTIN.

“Heroes Out of Time!” Batman: Gotham by Gaslight with MIGNOLA, WAID, and AUGUSTYN, Booster Gold with JURGENS, X-Men: Days of Future Past with CHRIS CLAREMONT, Bill & Ted with EVAN DORKIN, interview with P. CRAIG RUSSELL, “Pro2Pro” with Time Masters’ BOB WAYNE and LEWIS SHINER, Karate Kid, New Mutants: Asgardian Wars, and Kang. Mignola cover.

“1970s and ‘80s Legion of Super-Heroes!” LEVITZ interview, the Legion’s Honored Dead, the Cosmic Boy miniseries, a Time Trapper history, the New Adventures of Superboy, Legion fantasy cover gallery by JOHN WATSON, plus BATES, COCKRUM, CONWAY, COLON, GIFFEN, GRELL, JANES, KUPPERBERG, LaROCQUE, LIGHTLE, SCHAFFENBERGER, SHERMAN, STATON, SWAN, WAID, & more! COCKRUM cover!

TENTH ANNIVERSARY ISSUE! Revisit the 100th, 200th, 300th, 400th, and 500th issues of ‘70s and ‘80s favorites: Adventure, Amazing Spider-Man, Avengers, Batman, Brave & Bold, Casper, Detective, Flash, Green Lantern, Showcase, Superman, Thor, Wonder Woman, and more! With APARO, BARR, ENGLEHART, POLLARD, SEKOWSKY, SIMONSON, STATON, and WOLFMAN. DAN JURGENS and RAY McCARTHY cover.

“Incredible Hulk in the Bronze Age!” Looks into Hulk’s mind, his role as a team player, his TV show and cartoon, merchandising, Hulk newspaper strip, Teen Hulk, villain history of the Abomination, art and artifacts by SAL BUSCEMA, JOHN BYRNE, PETER DAVID, KENNETH JOHNSON, BILL MANTLO, AL MILGROM, EARL NOREM, ROGER STERN, HERB TRIMPE, LEN WEIN, new cover by TRIMPE and GERHARD!

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“Tryouts, One-Shots, & One-Hit Wonders”! Marvel Premiere, Marvel Spotlight, Marvel Feature, Strange Tales, Showcase, First Issue Special, New Talent Showcase, DC’s Dick Tracy tabloid, Sherlock Holmes, Marvel’s Generic Comic Books, Bat-Squad, Crusader, & Swashbuckler, with BRUNNER, CARDY, COLAN, FRADON, GRELL, PLOOG, TRIMPE, and an ARTHUR ADAMS “Clea” cover!

“Robots” issue! Cyborg, Metal Men, Robotman, Red Tornado, Mister Atom, the Vision, Jocasta, Shogun Warriors, and Big Guy and Rusty the Boy Robot, plus the legacy of Brainiac! Featuring the riveting work of DARROW, GERBER, INFANTINO, PAUL KUPPERBERG, MILLER, MOENCH, PEREZ, SIMONSON, STATON, THOMAS, WOLFMAN, and more, behind a Metal Men cover by MICHAEL ALLRED.

“Batman’s Partners!” MIKE W. BARR and ALAN DAVIS on their Detective Comics, Batman and the Outsiders, Nightwing flies solo, Man-Bat history, Commissioner Gordon, the last days of World’s Finest, Bat-Mite, the Batmobile, plus Dark Knight’s girl Robin! Featuring work by APARO, BUSIEK, DITKO, KRAFT, MILGROM, MILLER, PÉREZ, WOLFMAN, and more, with a cover by ALAN DAVIS and MARK FARMER.

“Bronze Age Fantastic Four!” The animated FF, the FF radio show of 1975, Human Torch goes solo, Galactus villain history, FF Mego figures… and the Impossible Man! Exploring work by RICH BUCKLER, JOHN BUSCEMA, JOHN BYRNE, GERRY CONWAY, STEVE ENGLEHART, GEORGE PÉREZ, KEITH POLLARD, ROY THOMAS, LEN WEIN, MARV WOLFMAN, and more! Cover by KEITH POLLARD and JOE RUBINSTEIN.

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Volume 1, Number 75 September 2014 Celebrating the Best Comics of the '70s, '80s, '90s, and Beyond!

Comics’ Bronze Age and Beyond!

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Michael Eury PUBLISHER John Morrow DESIGNER Rich Fowlks COVER ARTIST Paul Chadwick COVER DESIGNER Michael Kronenberg PROOFREADER Rob Smentek Stacey Kitchen Alan Light Deni Loubert David Miller Dennis Miller Mike Richardson Trina Robbins Patrick Rosenkranz Mark Schultz David Scroggy Dave Sim Anthony Snyder

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BACK SEAT DRIVER: Editorial by Michael Eury . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 FLASHBACK: The Life and Death of Cerebus the Aardvark. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 A close look at Dave Sim’s trailblazing, long-running series PRO2PRO: ElfQuest Behind the Scenes: A Chat with Richard and Wendy Pini . . . . . . . . 23 How the husband-and-wife team crafted a fantasy classic from the ground up BEYOND CAPES: There’s a Rattler in Your Kitchen Sink, Man . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 An overview of Death Rattle, with Baron, Ellison, Holmes, Kitchen, and Schultz OFF MY CHEST: Pacific Comics Memories by David Scroggy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 A guest editorial recalling Pacific’s growth from retail shop to publisher—and a look at Steve Ditko’s “Stickman”! FLASHBACK: Stone Skin, Human Heart: Paul Chadwick’s Concrete . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 From the banner year of 1986 emerged this dark horse hit BEYOND CAPES: Katy, Trina, and the California Girls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 Behind the scenes of Trina Robbins’ reader-participation comic BACKSTAGE PASS: 1980s Independents: From Print to Screen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68 From Bucky O’Hare to The Tick, these indies made it to Hollywood BACK TALK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 Reader reaction to our Hulk issue (#70) and more

BACK ISSUE™ is published 8 times a year by TwoMorrows Publishing, 10407 Bedfordtown Drive, Raleigh, NC 27614. Michael Eury, Editor-in-Chief. John Morrow, Publisher. Editorial Office: BACK ISSUE, c/o Michael Eury, Editor-in-Chief, 118 Edgewood Avenue NE, Concord, NC 28025. Email: euryman@gmail.com. Six-issue subscriptions: $67 Standard US, $85 Canada, $104 Surface International. Please send subscription orders and funds to TwoMorrows, NOT to the editorial office. Cover art by Paul Chadwick. Concrete TM & © Paul Chadwick. All Rights Reserved. All characters are © their respective companies. All material © their creators unless otherwise noted. All editorial matter © 2014 Michael Eury and TwoMorrows Publishing. BACK ISSUE is a TM of TwoMorrows Publishing. ISSN 1932-6904. Printed in China. FIRST PRINTING. 1980s Independents Issue •

BACK ISSUE • 1

All covers and related characters TM & © their respective copyright holders.

SPECIAL THANKS Bud Alligood Chuck Alligood Brook Anthony Roger Ash Mike Baron Alex Boney Jerry Boyd Tim Brown Paul Chadwick Dark Horse Comics Steve Ditko Jo Duffy Harlan Ellison Jackie Estrada Stuart Fischer Gerhard Grand Comics Database Heritage Comics Auctions Rand Holmes Denis Kitchen

As your comics-history guru here in the BACK ISSUE bunker, I’m fortunate—abetted by some of the most knowledgeable writers to have ever spun a squeaky spinrack—to guide you through two of the industry’s most influential decades in each and every issue of this magazine. The 1970s were a time of expansion, trial and error, and maturation. In a battle for shelf space, major and minor publishers opened a floodgate of titles. Some of these comic books changed the tide of the medium, and others … well, they polluted the waters (but ain’t that always the case?). A new generation of talent emerged, challenging conventional storytelling and producing material unlike anything readers had previously seen. By the time the 1980s arrived, the comic shop was supplanting the newsstand or the Mom and Pop’s store as the primary outlet for comics. This afforded writers and artists the opportunity to build upon the experiments of the previous decade and produce material for specific demographics, no longer beholden to a shaky distribution system chained to the previous generation’s target audience of elementary-school boys. Comics were elevated into something more than simply “kid’s stuff.” Much of the best material from the 1980s emerged from the independents, those upstart publishers that set out not to challenge the market dominance of Marvel or DC Comics, but instead to nurture individuality over a house style, and to embrace creator ownership over work for hire. In this issue, we spotlight a handful of indie series from the Big ’80s, particularly a trio of projects that helped define the decade for many readers: Dave Sim’s long-running Cerebus the Aardvark, Wendy and Richard Pini’s fantasy saga ElfQuest, and Paul Chadwick’s celebrated Concrete. Plus, there are some other gems featured in the pages following, and we’re honored to count Harlan Ellison, Denis Kitchen, Mark Schultz, David Scroggy, and Trina Robbins among the many voices sharing their recollections in this important edition of BACK ISSUE. Before I’m taken to task for calendar impairment, an editorial note about this issue’s “’80s Independents” brand: Yes, I’m aware that a few of the comics covered here actually premiered in the late 1970s—and in some cases, extended into the 1990s or beyond—but their emergence as market forces really occurred in the 1980s, hence our issue’s theme. Let’s not argue over dates, but instead enjoy these looks back at trailblazers that forever imprinted the world of comics. And for those wanting the BI treatment of some of comics’ other ’80s Independents, you’ll find the following articles in back issues of this magazine: 2 • BACK ISSUE • 1980s Independents Issue

Michael Eury

• Airboy (BI #26) • Alien Worlds (BI #26) • American Flagg! (BI #41) • Comico history (BI #2) • Dark Horse history (BI #22) • David Chelsea in Love (BI #39) • Destroyer Duck (BI #12) • DNAgents (BI #7) • E-Man (BI #13, 18) • Elementals (BI #24) • Flaming Carrot (BI #39) • Flare (BI #17) • Gladstone Disney comics (BI #22) • Grendel (BI #2) • Grimjack (BI #9) • Groo the Wanderer (BI #11) • Gumby (Comico) (BI #16) • Hellboy (BI #21) • Indiana Jones (Dark Horse) (BI #55) • James Bond (Dark Horse) (BI #26) • Jonny Quest (BI #59) • Jon Sable, Freelance (BI #10) • Milton Knight interview (BI #16) • MARS (BI #14) • Maze Agency (BI #2) • Miracle Squad (BI #47) • Miracleman (BI #28, 34, 46) • Michael Moorcock interview (BI #53) • Mr. T (BI #26) • Ms. Tree (BI #26) • Nexus (BI #9) • Planet of the Apes (BI #14, 49) • Reid Fleming, World’s Toughest Milkman (BI #39) • Rocketeer (BI #30, 47) • Space Ghost (Comico) (BI #2, 59) • Star Wars (Dark Horse) (BI #55) • Stig’s Inferno (BI #21) • Arthur Suydam interview (BI #11) • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (BI #22) • Vietnam Journal (BI #37) • Zot! (BI #22)

The Life and Death of

Roger Ash

A 24-Year Saga The beginning and end of Dave Sim’s Cerebus the Aardvark, comics’ longestrunning independent title: issue #1 (Dec. 1977–Jan. 1978), signed by its creator, and (inset) #300 (Mar. 2004). Cerebus TM & © Dave Sim.

Dave Sim, his girlfriend Deni Loubert, and Deni’s brother and sister, wanted them to look and exactly what I wanted in terms of content.” Michael and Karen, set out to make a fanzine called Cerberus. They (Worlds of Westfield, Nov. 1995) decide to publish their fanzine under the Aardvark-Vanaheim banner, The early issues of Cerebus are parodies of the sword-and-sorcery combining the suggestions of Aardvark Press and Vanaheim Press. Sim genre, with the Roy Thomas/Barry Windsor-Smith issues of Marvel’s drew an aardvark mascot and designed the logo, but the fanzine never Conan the Barbarian as a major influence. The early issues also included made it to print. After noticing that Deni misspelled Cerberus essays called “The Aardvarkian Age” by Michael Loubert, as Cerebus, Sim decided that was the name of the aardvark. which looked at the world of Cerebus. The first issue features “It was a small step from this point to penciling a many of the tropes one expects to see in sword-andpage of Cerebus bouncing merrily atop a horse (yay) sorcery stories: the barbarian thief, the bar fight, the and sending it to Mike Friedrich as a new feature betrayal by your partners, and the epic battle with a for Quack [a funny-animal anthology], which he mystical foe. However, seeing these things carried was quick to refuse (boo),” wrote Sim in the out by an aardvark is quite ridiculous. introduction of Swords of Cerebus vol. 1. There were a few things introduced in the first This was the setup that led to the publication issue that would stay around for the rest of the of Cerebus #1 (Dec. 1977–Jan. 1978). I asked Sim as series, the most obvious being Cerebus speaking in part of a self-publishing roundtable in 1995 why he the third person. Second is the term “earth-pig,” decided to self-publish Cerebus. “Largely because I which is used interchangeably with “aardvark.” was in that category of third-, fourth-, or fifth-string (Earth-pig is the meaning of the Afrikaans word freelancer with a lot of the (as we called them at from which we get aardvark.) Finally, while Cerebus dave sim the time) ‘ground level’ comics: Star*Reach being is the protagonist of the book, that does not mean the foremost ‘ground level’ publisher. And it did he’s the hero. He can be just as amoral as those he occur to me that perhaps I should make an effort to put something fights against. His motivations usually stem from what’s best for him. down on my own and see what kind of success I could have with I’m going to be discussing story elements in Cerebus, so if you that. The very worst that would happen is that I would end up with plan to read it and don’t want to know what happens, go read it first some more published samples of my work exactly the way that I and come back. I’ll wait. 1980s Independents Issue •

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FAMILIAR FACES (SORT OF)

The Eye of Turim and the Duck of Gerber (left) Page 14 of Cerebus #2 (Feb. 1978). (right) Sim’s aardvark meets Marvel’s Howard the Duck in this 1981 fanzine illustration. Courtesy of Anthony Snyder (www.anthonyscomicbookart.com). Cerebus TM & © Dave Sim. Howard the Duck TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

Issue #3 (Apr.–May 1978) introduces the first of the major supporting characters in Cerebus, Red Sophia, a parody of Thomas and Windsor-Smith’s Red Sonja. Sophia’s father is the sorcerer Henrot, who looks like artist Frank Thorne, who is considered by many fans to be the seminal Red Sonja artist. In fact, Henrot is an anagram of Thorne. The fourth issue (June–July 1978) introduces one of the most popular characters in the series, Elrod of Melvinbone, a parody of Michael Moorcock’s Elric of Melnibone. While Elrod looks like Elric, he has the personality of Warner Bros.’ loudmouthed rooster, Foghorn Leghorn. Elrod’s self-important and blustery personality always seems to land him and Cerebus in a fix. These issues marked the first two times Sim used characters that were based on other characters, something that would continue through the run of the book. “Characters who are based on other characters in Cerebus tend to be the easiest to write,” Sim wrote in the introduction to #4 in Swords of Cerebus vol. 1. “Once you catch the rhythm of their speech, you’re halfway home to the kind of interaction that sells comic books.”

4 • BACK ISSUE • 1980s Independents Issue

While Sim was working on Cerebus, Loubert was working in the office. “As the business side of the company, I handled everything that wasn’t actually involved with creatively producing the titles,” she recalls. “In the beginning, it was simply helping Dave get the book to the printers, shipping the books to our initial distributors Phil Seuling and Bud Plant, and paying the bills. As time progressed, that got more complicated. It involved developing a marketing plan; negotiating with distributors; talking to foreign-language publishers and any other secondary markets that approached us about Cerebus; planning for trade shows, conventions, and signings; or anything else that needed to be done. If it was going to take Dave away from the creative work of writing and drawing Cerebus, then it was my job to take care of it. It also meant that sometimes Dave came to me with an idea for something he wanted to do, and I had to figure out how we would do it.” The fifth issue (Aug.–Sept. 1978) continues to round out Cerebus’ universe with the introduction of the Picts. When a scouting party discovers Cerebus, they are amazed and insist on taking him to their leader, Bran Mac Muffin, which is a nod to Robert E. Howard’s Bran Mac Morn. Cerebus soon learns why the Picts were surprised when they found him when he sees a statue of their coming god-king—an aardvark. The following issue introduces a character who would become the most popular supporting character in the series, as well as a potential love interest for Cerebus: Jaka. A pair of thieves believes Cerebus has information they require. They take him to a bar, drug him, and attempt to get the information from him when the drug takes effect. Unfortunately for them, Cerebus instead falls under the spell of the dancer at the bar, Jaka. Eventually the drug wears off, and Cerebus has no memory of Jaka or their evening together. Aside from fleshing out Cerebus’ world, Sim had been making another change in the book: the look of Cerebus himself. In the first issue, Cerebus looked a bit

gangly with a very long snout. He was wearing a horned helmet and medallions. As the series progressed, Cerebus’ snout became much shorter and his body became stockier. While the medallions remained, the helmet disappeared after issue #3. He gained his signature vest in issue #4. There was a big change in issue #7: “This issue is my first radical departure from my intention to be a major Barry Smith sequel—the cross-hatching on the splash page,” wrote Sim in the introduction to #7 in Swords of Cerebus vol. 2. “I was trying to find a Barry Smithstyle texture that would allow me to render the webbing in two different shades. I broke down and did tight-weave cross-hatching even though Smith never used it. “Suddenly I was free.” In this issue, which features a cover by Frank Thorne, Cerebus is on his way to the Temple of the Black Sun to find a treasure when he runs into Elrod. The cult of the Black Sun is very dangerous, so keeping Elrod quiet so they don’t get noticed is important, but a fool’s errand. Important to Cerebus’ future is that the nameless god of the Black Sun is an aardvark. “I resolved to stay away from the ‘Cerebus as Messiah’ stories when I was done with this one. It is an aspect of Cerebus’ future, but it by no means influences his present actions to any large degree. Issues #5 and 7 were intended as complimentary stories.” When Sim wrote that in Swords of Cerebus vol. 2, I don’t think anyone aside from Sim realized just how major a part of Cerebus’ future that would eventually become. Cerebus #8 (Feb.–Mar. 1979) is another story that is important in the future. Cerebus is used by a group of Conniptin conspirators to wrest power from their foppish leader and CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT have Cerebus put in his place. While Issue #10 (June–July 1979) features the plan succeeds, Cerebus isn’t the return of Red Sophia. She finds pleased to be in charge of a group Cerebus wandering in the snow after he thinks are morons. Their ideals parting from the Conniptins and sound more cheerleader-ish than ropes him into helping her and a menacing: “Might makes right! couple of others steal a powerful deni loubert Might for right! Might for might! mystical artifact, the Black Blossom Right for Might! Fight, fight, fight!” Lotus. Cerebus plays against both While it is common today for fans to have all kinds sides against each other and ends up with the Black of access to creators through social media, web pages, Blossom Lotus for himself. and blogs, that wasn’t always the case as the Internet There was an important development for Sim in this is a fairly recent invention. That said, both Dave and issue. “This was also the first issue where I consciously Deni maintained a very open presence with the readers built tension between a number of characters by in each issue through Deni’s “Note from the Publisher,” molding four individual points of view at complete odds and later, Dave’s “Note from the President,” as well as with all others,” he wrote in the introduction to the story in the very lively letters column, “Aardvark Comment.” in Swords of Cerebus vol. 3. “Very little actually happens Why this openness with the fans? in the story, but I was beginning to lose my compulsion “For me, I think it is just in my nature to be open to change locales and situations simply for the sake with people, and that includes things like publishing,” of variety. Instead I was beginning to emphasize the says Loubert. “The whole idea was because I always personalities involved. The relationships between the found the editorials in magazines to be an interesting characters became the priority and the framework.” insight into the world of publishing and wanted to do The next two issues introduced a character that the same. I tend to view them today as early blogs, was to become another major player in Cerebus, and he since they have much the same function as a blog was partly inspired by Sim meeting artist Marshall would today for a publishing business. Somehow there Rogers at a comic convention in Toronto. Rogers is was always something happening that we felt we fondly remembered for his work on Batman, especially wanted to share with our fans.” his work with writer Steve Englehart in Detective Comics.

Aardvarkian Vigilance From the Heritage Comics Auctions (www.ha.com) archives, an undated Dave Sim Cerebus illustration in graphite, ink, and fine-line marker on paper. (inset) Cover to Cerebus #6 (June–July 1978). Cerebus TM & © Dave Sim.

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In the following interview, you will be privy to a rare glimpse of how the ElfQuest series was developed and expanded over a 36-year period. You will learn who the creators are, how the series was born, and what the connection is between ElfQuest and Warp Graphics. For those readers who are not familiar with the series, I’ll include a brief summary below, taken directly from the www.ElfQuest.com authorized website: “ElfQuest is the longest-running independent fantasy series, with more than 15 million comics, graphic novels, and other publications in print. The story of Cutter, chief of the Wolfriders, and his quest to find others of their own kind on the World of Two Moons, ElfQuest was first published in 1978 by creators Wendy and Richard Pini. The Wolfriders number only 17 at the outset, but come to know hundreds of other elves, trolls, and humans as the quest unfolds. The latest cycle, The Final Quest, is being published by Dark Horse Comics.” – Shaun Clancy by

Shaun Clancy conducted via email.

SHAUN CLANCY: Can we start off the questioning with Warp Graphics itself? I’d like to know when it was formed; who were the partners in it? What was the relationship between Warp Graphics and Apple Comics? Who came up with the name Warp Graphics? I also recall a comic book in the 1980s called Warp, which had Rich Buckler stories and art … was that ever a problem? RICHARD PINI: I’ll start off and take the questions about Warp Graphics. Warp Graphics the company was formed in 1977, once we realized that we were getting serious about trying to publish the embryonic ElfQuest comic series. We figured we were going to become involved in all sorts of business relationships not only with other people but with other companies (and especially the IRS). So since I’d often heard it said that incorporating a business is smarter than doing things as individuals, that’s the direction we decided to go. In the beginning it was just Wendy and I, as the sole officers of the corporation, and that’s how that aspect of it has stayed ever since—even though over the years we grew as a publishing company to the point where we had half-a-dozen fulltime employees and worked with over two-dozen freelancers. The name was my idea. By now, everyone knows (or should) that it’s an acronym made from “Wendy and Richard Pini.” It had (and has) a science-fiction-y, kind of edgy sound to it. I thought it was one of the most clever ideas I’d ever had—even though later I realized that my so-called wit would cause our listings to be way at the back of the various distributors’ catalogs! In that regard, Dave Sim was far more sly, naming his company “Aardvark-Vanaheim.” WENDY: The name “Warp” as a co-credit did get used once, a few years before the birth of our company. In the early to mid-1970s, I was providing cover paintings and interior illustrations for well-known science-fiction magazines such as Galaxy and Worlds of If. For one cover, that appeared in 1974, I needed some airbrushed smoke and clouds, and

“Fantasy’s Newest Sensation” From the collection of Richard and Wendy Pini, cover art to the con booklet for the 1979 Comic Art Convention in New York City. ElfQuest TM & © Warp Graphics, Inc.

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Galaxy Quest Early examples of Wendy’s art: (left) The cover of the digest-sized sci-fi magazine Galaxy, for the July 1974 edition. (right) An alternate cover design, drawn 12" x 17" with mixedmedia on paper. Courtesy of Heritage Comics Auctions (www.ha.com). Galaxy © 1974 World Editions. Art © Wendy Pini.

since Richard was playing with the airbrush where he worked at the time, he chipped in and added his artistic two cents. I insisted we split the credit, so that unique painting is signed “WaRP.” RICHARD: In 1984, after we’d completed the 20-issue “Original Quest,” which took the ElfQuest characters to the conclusion of their first big adventure, Wendy needed to take a couple of years off to have hip-reconstruction surgery. And I found myself in the role of publisher without anything to publish. So I began seeking other non-ElfQuest titles to take up the slack. We always knew there would be more ElfQuest coming as soon as Wendy was ready to get back in the saddle, but in the meantime, I didn’t want our company’s momentum to flag. By this time, we’d already brought on additional staffers to help with the day-to-day running of the business side of things—Joellyn Kopecky (nee Dorkin) was our administrative assistant, and Michael Catron headed up production. By 1986, Wendy was ready to start on the next ElfQuest arc, subtitled “Siege at Blue Mountain.” By then, though, she and I were starting to feel the stress of trying both to be creative and to run the business. Mike, who had come to us from a long stint at Fantagraphics, suggested that we and he form a

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partnership between Warp Graphics, to provide the art and story, and his nascent publishing company Apple Comics, which would take care of the actual publishing (dealing with printers, distributors, billing, freelancers, etc.). It did take a load off Wendy’s and my shoulders, by putting a firewall between us and everything that was draining our creative energies. On the other hand, there were some people whose work we published who, for whatever reasons, didn’t get along with the new arrangement, so that added its own stresses. We kept the Warp/Apple partnership in place for as long as it served, maybe half-a-dozen years, and then let it go. Right now, Warp Graphics is back to the basics of how it began, Wendy and Richard Pini. The Warp Comics thing, that was a comic-book series published by First Comics, based on a science-fiction play that [was art directed] by Neal Adams. We had a brief relationship with First (because of Wendy’s work on the two Beauty and the Beast graphic novels that she wrote and painted, which First published) in the late 1980s. I remember one time Rick Obadiah, the head guy there, joking with us that they were worried about us (Warp Graphics) suing them (for publishing the title “Warp”) because we were clearly around much earlier than the play or the associated comic. And even though I thought it mildly odd that some other comic-book entity should be using our company name, I knew even then that there were really no grounds—or reasons— to get upset or bring any kind of action, because a comic-book title and a company name are two very different things in the eyes of the trademark office. Besides, Warp the comic is long gone, and we’re still here. SHAUN: Cerebus beat ElfQuest to the stands by a few months. Did you know at the time of publishing ElfQuest that Cerebus was also going to be independently published? Were you in communication with Dave Sim or know of his plans? Did it ever occur to you to try and join forces in publishing? RICHARD: When we started this project in the spring/ summer of 1977, we had no idea anyone else was doing anything like this. Well, that’s not strictly speaking

Neighborhood Watch Another glimpse of the artist’s emerging talent, produced in 1974 for Worlds of If magazine. (inset) Wendy’s cover art, for Worlds of If vol. 22 #7. Worlds of If © 1974 UPD Publishing Corporation. Art © Wendy Pini.

true—we knew that Bud Plant was publishing Jack Katz’s First Kingdom, and had been since about 1974. And Mike Friedrich was doing his anthology comic Star*Reach at the same time. And, of course, we knew about the undergrounds from the 1960s. But Bud was already known as a comics distributor to the fledgling direct market, so in our minds he was already “connected” in the comics business. And Mike had worked for the comics, and we assumed he knew a lot of people … so he, too, was connected. We had no thought that anyone else was pursuing what we felt was a small-time Mom & Pop operation the way we were. We knew about science-fiction and comics fandom and fanzines, because Wendy was a member of a number of APAs (Amateur Publishing Associations)… WENDY: I had been a member of one called K-a (which stood, oddly, for Capa-Alpha—the K was the Greek letter I guess that sounded like the first name). Richard was totally new to fandom at that point, but he caught the bug and joined himself for a while. RICHARD: Yeah, that was a strange little interlude. But we were looking somehow to break into “real” comics publishing with ElfQuest. So no, we didn’t know about Dave Sim at all. In fact, our first awareness of Cerebus didn’t come until about a year into that title’s run. I remember seeing copies of the comic in some head shop (you have to keep in mind that in the early days of the direct market, head shops were a significant point of sales) and picking up the first several issues out of curiosity. A little later, we came to hear from friends who knew both us and Sim that because ElfQuest hit the stands so close after Cerebus, and so outsold it, that he felt we’d stolen his thunder—when in reality, we never knew he and Cerebus existed. It was purely independent (pun intended) parallel evolution. But even if we had known about Dave Sim and Cerebus, we don’t think it would ever have occurred to see about joining forces. We didn’t think of ourselves as any kind of pioneers in those days, though we’ve learned since that Dave did so consider himself, wanting from the start to demonstrate that a single individual could “take on” the big guys and produce a monthly comic book solo. We simply wanted to tell a story and get it out there to be seen and, hopefully, enjoyed. And to that end, we simply set out to reinvent the wheel over and over, on our own. We’ve never been good at joining others’ efforts or causes. One of the many things we had to learn in those beginning days was how to get the comics from the printing press into the hands of

the reader. We’d found someone local (a web newspaper printer) who could produce the books for us, but after that, we were clueless. We knew of a few comics shops back then—certainly we were familiar with the Million Year Picnic in Cambridge, Massachusetts, near where we used to live. But the mechanism of getting copies from press to shelves seemed arcane and daunting. WENDY: Here’s where I have to give many thanks to two people, Bud Plant and Phil Seuling, for helping give birth to ElfQuest. I had already made a name for myself via my science-fiction and fantasy illustration, which I sold quite a bit of at convention art shows. Plus, I was also doing professional assignments for newsstand magazines such as Galaxy and Worlds of If. SHAUN: Who distributed your books at the beginning, and does Diamond handle your books today? Was it always a direct-market book, or did the series ever reach the newsstands? And regarding issue #1: What was the print run, and did it go back to press? RICHARD: By 1977, Wendy’s was a known name, and a talent to be reckoned with. It turned out that both Bud Plant and Phil Seuling (who ran Seagate Distribution), the two major distributors to comics shops at that time, knew of Wendy’s work and respected it. Somehow—it was probably at one of Phil’s comic-book conventions right around then, the summer of 1977—we worked up the nerve to approach both Bud and Phil with a little mock-up of the first issue of ElfQuest and simply asked if they’d be interested in carrying the title. They were, and it was that expression of interest that gave us the impetus to go ahead with making the first issue actually happen. Here’s the most interesting part: We had no idea how many copies to print. We knew that fanzines of the time had print runs of, at most, a few hundred copies. We didn’t really want to get involved with an enterprise that small, and my inquiries to printers had taught me that no one was really interested in a print run that low. As it turned out, Bud and Phil jointly committed to take 10,000 copies. We thought that was really cool, even though we knew that Marvel and DC titles were selling many times that number. Still, for us, it seemed like an auspicious start. We wouldn’t know until sometime later just how auspicious it was, but it did point the way for us. Our initial print run on issue #2 was 20,000 copies, and with every new 1980s Independents Issue •

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ElfQuest Companions (left) From Heritage’s archives, the original cover art for the 1996 Tor paperback, ElfQuest: The Quest Begins. Painted by Kelly Freas based on Wendy Pini pencil layouts. (right) From 1982, the first of four issues of the ElfQuest fanzine, Yearnings. Courtesy of Shaun Clancy. ElfQuest TM & © Warp Graphics, Inc.

stapled collections of pages of varying length, and because of the low print runs sold for even more than we charged. We figured that if we could work in some economy of scale, we could offer a nice, thick magazine, saddle-stitched, with some color on the cover, for less. SHAUN: I must also assume the reason ElfQuest wasn’t in color was that color costs were so high when compared to black-and-white publications. RICHARD: I’m guessing that you’re referring to the black-and-white comics that we published from 1978 through the late 1980s—the original series, Siege at Blue Mountain, and Kings of the Broken Wheel. I don’t remember very well what it might have cost us to print ElfQuest in color back in the beginning. I know I felt that the cost was certainly beyond our means. But even more important was the fact that as a publisher in those beginning days, I had no clue how to go about making a color book. I came to learn that there were colorists who set up the different printing films by hand-cutting rubylith friskets and so on, but all of that was just a huge amount of unknown detail to us at the time. CLANCY: In 1978, Wendy wrote a five-page piece about ElfQuest for Rocket’s Blast Comicollector #146, where she explains in detail her experience with the Ralph Bakshi film Wizards. Here’s an excerpt:

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Sometimes it takes a good boot in the behind from a totally unexpected source to get one off one’s duff. That boot came in March 1977 when my husband, Richard, and I viewed Ralph Bakshi’s “Wizards” for the first time. Five minutes into the film, Richard leaned over to me and said, “You ought to be working for this guy!” I had never seen anything like “Wizards” before and I left the theater in a daze, mumbling, “Elves are legal…?” all the way home. How often had I painted or drawn little elfin characters similar to Bakshi’s without ever knowing that “Wizards” was being made? Fourteen (or is it fifteen?) viewings later, I still love the film for many reasons—but most especially for the inspiration it provided. My mind went to work at once on concepts for a comic book adaption of “Wizards” and even a sequel. I began writing almost weekly to Bakshi and received some encouraging responses. But after a while it dawned on me that I really wanted to do something with elfin characters of my own creation. Bakshi had given me that needed boot in the motivation, and as a result, ELFQUEST took shape almost overnight. [Reprinted with the kind permission of Richard and Wendy Pini.] RICHARD: At the time she wrote this, we’d not met Ralph Bakshi, though we have since. Please make it clear, though, that while we took inspiration from the fact of Wizards’ existence, Wendy was NEVER influenced by the artwork in the film. People to this day still think that, and they are mistaken. SHAUN CLANCY started collecting comics in 1975 at the age of eight, when his father brought home a Charlton horror comic for him to read. Today he owns a heating and airconditioning company in the Seattle area and collects original comic art.

By the middle of the 1980s, as a reader I was becoming burned out on wonderful people who flew, ran, and swam around in colorful costumes in comics. The New Teen Titans, the All-New X-Men, and their friends and foes were still fun, but less fun than they’d been before. Who’d come to my rescue? It wouldn’t be more of these superpowered kids—I knew that. Thankfully, the “hippy kids” over at Kitchen Sink Press would be my rescuers! Denis Kitchen, publisher and visionary, unleashed a second volume of the horror/sci-fi anthology title Death Rattle, and it was one of the best of its type. I took a chance on the first issue, having had a soft spot for these types of endeavors. I loved it! I was saved!

DEATH RATTLE 101

Jerry Boyd

The 1970s saw the first volume of Death Rattle, and it was probably never spotted by many of those who became readers of DR in the 1980s. I know I didn’t catch it. It was tucked away for the older, longhaired patrons of Bob Sidebottom’s Collector Comics in downtown San Jose, California, in 1972. You had to be 18 or older to skim through the underground comix shelves that Bob had—and he was strict with his rules, also. We pre-teens had to content ourselves with the majors. DR #1 (July 1972) sported a beautifully painted cover and an interior scary-old-house-with-aweird-resident tale by Rich Corben. There were two more issues. The title shook, rattled, rolled, and died off. By 1983, Warren Publishing had gone quietly out of business. Marvel’s horror heroes and heroines had overstayed their welcome, and Pacific Comics’ Alien Worlds and Twisted Tales, though extraordinary, weren’t exactly taking over the comic world. DC and Charlton’s sci-fi and horror books were either gone or were preparing to fold. To be fair, the possibilities of the genres seemed tapped out creatively … like so many vampires’ victims. But then Death Rattle #1 (Oct. 1985) appeared! This time I was old enough for this exciting fusion of the underground horror and alternative comics. I put this question to Mr. Kitchen, the publisher: What made you decide the 1980s was the right time to revive Death Rattle, and what was different about your vision for the title this time around as opposed to the book you did for the ’70s? His response was, “The comics market has traditionally gone through periods of expansion and contraction. These trends are hard for independent companies, like Kitchen Sink, to ride, given the inherent lack of capital, small staffs, and such. I restarted Death Rattle [vol. 2] in the ’80s because there was a rapid growth in comics and an opportunity to do full-color comics, something almost unthinkable in the ’70s. I had a much deeper Rolodex of artists by then, a larger staff capable of doing the color production work, and felt bullish about the market. I’m still very proud of those color issues—I hated that we had to revert back to black and white, but we tried to make the best of it.” What made Death Rattle special? To me, it was a simple but great realization of what real “terror” is. Denis and DR’s story editor, Dave Schreiner, made note of the fundamental teachings of Al Feldstein’s “preachies” (stories with socio-political matters) in EC Comics’ Shock Suspenstories and that was man’s inhumanity to man is our world’s greatest horror. From their earliest issues, DR promised terror tales of madness, obsession, decapitations, and slithering otherworldly unknowns interacting with humans with lots of neuroses. DR, its only mascot a coiled rattlesnake, wouldn’t even attempt to offer its readership the finest vampire, werewolf, living mummy, witch, or zombie imaginings put to paper. Instead, its contents (magnificently colored from #1–5 by Bill Poplaski, Ray Fehrenbach, Meg Schwemmer, and Mike Newhall) served up equal portions of death-obsessed natives and settlers, road kill-devouring rural crazies, shape-shifting man-killing monsters, and maniacal killers (more on the latter later). 1980s Independents Issue •

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America’s Pastime Holmes could deliver a folksy, all-American town setting with ease, conjuring up memories of Wally Wood. This opener’s from #17 (July 1988). © 1988 John Wooley, Jim Millaway, and Rand Holmes.

we had many mutual friends. And Capital City Distribution, then a major player in comic distribution, was headquartered there. CCD frequently held big parties. And Mike and much of the Capital City crew often attended big outdoor parties I’d thrown at my farm, too. I partied with Jaxon in San Francisco way back in 1970, but otherwise our social interaction occurred later when Jack was back in Austin and we’d meet at the Dallas Cons when those were the best conventions around. Who knew that Jack and Rand would die so young? I certainly regret not being more proactive in visiting them in person or encouraging them to come to the Midwest,” Kitchen explains.

THE DEATH OF THE RATTLER

20-or-so back issues to jog memories, I suspect reprints were a combination of budget restrictions and missed deadlines.” Radiation poisoning from Nevada A-Bomb testing was the basis for #12’s “More Horrible than Human Excrement.” Included were movie stars like John Wayne, Dick Powell, and Agnes Moorehead, who’d performed on radioactive sand Howard Hughes brought out to Hollywood (!!) for his adventure epic The Mongols. It seems the producer wanted realism, and shipped tons of “hot” dirt to Hollywood. The crew and some of the stars died slowly from cancer over the years to come and Hughes was secretly wracked by guilt over what he’d unknowingly unleashed. Bulto, the Cosmic Slug also made his presence felt in #12 (Sept. 1987) when Jaxon returned. Bulto was popular with the readers who wrote letters (I got a couple of mine printed and I praised Jackson’s surreal serial) … but there are always readers who don’t write. And some of them didn’t care for it. I recall chatting with friends at the comic stores in the late ’80s who derisively nicknamed the slug “Bluto” and preferred DR, which they liked overall, to not delve into continued stories. They may have had a point. Sales improved on the Rattler (during the time of Jaxon’s absence) and the opening intro pages said so! But was Bulto the reason sales declined once Jaxon resumed his opus? Jack’s storytelling was sound, his art beautiful and story coherent. Like all things in the creative world, there were those who didn’t care for it and those who did. P. S. Mueller and Bill Hartwig turned out to be sensations! Their “In League with the Devil” in DR # 11 (June 1987) was a midnight masterpiece! The art style was a happy medium that blended Wolverton and Matt Fox’s many lines approach with a dash of Feldstein. Did the DR contributors find time to socialize? I asked Denis. “Yes and no. I was then located in central Wisconsin, not exactly the hub of the universe. I saw Mike Baron quite often because he lived in Madison and 44 • BACK ISSUE • 1980s Independents Issue

Sadly, sales went down again. DR #17 (July 1988) featured the work of the title’s two biggest stars, Holmes and Jackson. “Slide, Sinner, Slide” starred a demon with a huge bargain store who coveted a small town’s baseball team. Rand’s wonderful capacity for capturing America’s backroads and small towns would’ve delighted Wood. Jaxon continued with Bulto. Superstar Frank Miller did a weird cover for #18 and the Rattler coiled itself up and died. Some loyal but frustrated readers, apprised of the end, blamed the title’s demise on a lack of strategic marketing or the loss of color. I asked Harlan Ellison if he ever wanted some of DR’s freelancers to do adaptations of his short stories. “No,” Mr. Ellison told me by phone. “I wasn’t particularly interested in that. I only write to order to please one person— me, and I present my material up to my standards. Generally speaking, as I said, the DR writers did a good job.” Still, while the Rattle-fest was here, everyone loved it. A third volume in the 1990s wasn’t very special. Denis adds that, “As far as a fourth resuscitation, I’d like to see a collection of a Best of Death Rattle, and have had conversations with a couple of publishers but nothing is imminent.” Mike Baron shares this: “My personal favorite was ‘Junkyard Dog,’ which can be found in Fantagraphics’ excellent Rand Holmes book.” Mark Schultz notes, “Death Rattle was my start in comics, and I am lucky to be associated with it.” Because of its underground foundations, there were plenty of sexy, nude women (Holmes and Jaxon again!), profanity, and surreal horror and sci-fi in DR’s pages. And despite three short-lived volumes, the comic that never truly dies may yet uncoil itself again at some point and bring back its mind-mangling, warped (but sometimes true!) accounts of excursions into the dangerous wilds of Wisconsin, other blood-soaked forests, and other planets! Don’t give up on the Rattler, man…. Thanks go out to Messieurs Kitchen, Baron, Ellison, and Schultz, as well as Mrs. Stacey Kitchen for photo scans. Special thanks also must be given to Patrick Rosenkranz and the nice people who maintain the estate of Clay Geerdes for art and photo scans. Special thanks go out to the estate of Rand Holmes. JERRY BOYD has written numerous articles for The Jack Kirby Collector, BACK ISSUE, Alter Ego, The Harveyville Fun Times!, Scary Monsters, Monster Memories, and the Spooky Fearbook. He’s proud to have interviewed numerous professionals in the industries pertaining to those publications. Jerry is a professional schoolteacher and an aspiring screenwriter living in Northern California.

David Scroggy

The Home of Pacific Comics Circa 1981, the staff of Pacific Comics in their then-new digs: (left to right) Bill Schanes, president and co-publisher; David Scroggy, editorial director; and Steve Schanes, art director and co-publisher. (The sign painter at right, in the ’80s short-shorts, is unidentified.) Photo by Jackie Estrada; originally published in the 1998 book Comics: Between the Panels by Steve Duin and Mike Richardson.

When I moved with my fellow Akronite Jon Hartz from Ohio to San Diego in the winter of 1975, it was with a vague notion of getting involved in comics somehow. In those days, San Diego was about as far from mainstream comics publishing as you could get and still be in the country, so the fact that I actually did get involved in the industry is remarkable. A volunteer job with the fledgling San Diego Comic-Con led to a column in Comics Buyer’s Guide, and those two credentials landed me a job at [retailer] Pacific Comics, who was at that time expanding from one comics shop to two. One thing led to another, and almost before I knew what was going on, Pacific launched into their initial foray into direct-sales distribution, opening the door for others to compete with Phil Seuling in wholesaling comic books to the newly forming network of specialty comic-book stores. Although it seems hard to imagine today, one of the big problems comic-book stores had in those days was getting a reliable supply of new comic books. Distribution of comics, as with other dated periodicals, was controlled by the newsstand wholesaler network. Sometimes the principals were pretty shady characters. To these companies, comics were a nuisance business. The distributors seldom kept track of the titles, let alone the issue number, and did not care much about the condition of the books. The price point of comics, deemed to have an audience solely of children, had been kept low for decades. Cover prices had not kept pace with those of other magazines, so comics were hardly worth carrying for either distributor or retailer. Often, new titles were not even put out for sale, but pulped or sold out the back door without ever leaving the warehouse.

Phil Seuling, an energetic dealer and entrepreneur from Brooklyn, had approached the New York publishers with an offer: he would buy and sell comic books on a non-returnable basis and serve these collector shops. The publishers had nothing to lose, and Seuling could be described as persuasive; the direct-sales market was born. Shops had a steady supply source, and fans knew that these stores would have all the new comics on a weekly basis. The entire market’s output was paltry by today’s standards, but then as now the comic-book readers were loyal and enthusiastic. A number of related items also became viable by utilizing this emerging distribution channel: fanzines, limited-edition prints, and fantasy-art portfolios all found a wider audience among true fans. Pacific, who had by then shed their retail stores and back-issue mail-order businesses in favor of distributing, got active in this area. They began publishing limited-edition portfolios of fantasy art and comic-related art. Generally consisting of six to ten individual illustration plates in an illustrated folder, signed and numbered by the artist, these joined the comic books as part of the product mix. It wasn’t long before the owners of Pacific Comics, Bill and Steve Schanes, had an epiphany: they could publish their own comic books and plug into this new distribution network. Work conditions for comics creators were oppressive; talents like Jack Kirby and Neal Adams had quit comic books and sought other commercial-art venues, but the Schanes brothers thought that if they gave these creators ownership of their work, and paid on a royalty basis, they could entice them into creating new books for Pacific. That began a dynamic little adventure. In retrospect, it was akin to being strapped onto a skyrocket. But it was us passengers, 1980s Independents Issue •

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Double Feature Pacific Presents #1 (Oct. 1982), premiering Dave Stevens’ Rocketeer and Steve Ditko’s Missing Man. The Rocketeer TM & © The Rocketeer Trust. The Missing Man TM & © Steve Ditko.

ramping up on all sorts of equipment, and expanding warehouse and editorial space. Pacific Comics was reaching a new level of finance and cash flow that called for a grasp of accounting expertise and business-planning skill that we didn’t always have. As comic shops continued to grow, new product lines were tried on the distribution side: role-playing games, the pewter figures that accessorized them, science fiction and fantasy paperbacks, imports of Japanese animethemed art books. I even once bought a slew of electric Frisbees, and we tried to wholesale them to the retailers. Some of them worked and several did not. I am personally still mystified as to why those dang Frisbees never found their audience—they were really cool. But distributors of any sort survive on very thin profit margins, and as unsold merchandise began to accumulate on a large scale, the cash flow tightened, becoming negative. It became harder and harder to separate the inflow and outflow of money. Revenue from distribution sometimes went to pay for printing; publishing money went somewhere, I suppose. Marvel and DC were not happy to see a specialty distributor of theirs use the revenue generated from distribution of their books to finance a competing comics line, often using their best talents to do so. As soon as the distribution side fell behind on payments, they were quick to tighten the screws and cut off the supply of new titles. A comics distributor does not last long without the new books. At the same time, several other upstart publishers came forward, all embracing some version of the basic Pacific Comics model, at least as far as creative talent compensation is concerned. This was the advent of Eclipse, First Comics, Capital City, and several others. Simultaneously, Marvel started to aggressively publish high-priced reprints of many of their most in-demand backlist series, for example The X-Men, which further diluted the sales for independents like Pacific. If these market forces were leading to a collapse at Pacific Comics, you wouldn’t know it from the number of great artists and writers knocking on the doors. I might get to work with a venerated old-timer like Gray Morrow or John Severin. Wow. Or have a chat with Alex Toth or Will Eisner. The latter two conversations did not result in publishing projects with Pacific, but did open the door to a personal relationship that I was able to expand upon, to my immense satisfaction. At the same time, it was thrilling to meet and give an initial opportunity to several then-unknown talents who fulfilled their potential and became greats themselves. These, I think, are perhaps my most treasured memories of the Pacific Comics days. I had the opportunity to meet and give early work to artists like Paul Chadwick, who I had approached interested in his fantasy painting work, never suspecting he had always wanted to do comics. I had seen his cover art at a science-fiction convention in Arizona. I couldn’t find the artist anywhere, so I stuck a business card behind one of the paintings with a message to call me scribbled on the back. 48 • BACK ISSUE • 1980s Independents Issue

He did, and later drove down from Los Angeles to San Diego to meet. He had a number of proposals. I was reluctant to hand a whole title over to a new talent, even one as polished as this, so I suggested he do art for a new series written and inked by others. The thought was that this would help establish Chadwick in comics, and he could follow up with his own book. He agreed. The project we came up with was titled Salimba. Character and script were by the late Steve Perry, best known today for his writing on ThunderCats animated television shows and comics. We had several wide-ranging conversations on the details, which by the way was the first time in my adult life I found myself seriously examining the finer points of zombie gorillas. I wanted to engaged a top inking talent of the day, the consummate pro Tom Palmer. For me, it was the most extensive editorial coordination I had engaged in, and I tried to become a bridge between the writer, penciler, inker, and letterer. Although that creative bridge was a mite rickety, this work was completed, intended for Pacific Presents. It failed to see print under the Pacific imprint, but finally saw the light of day as a book published by Steve Schanes’ post-Pacific imprint Blackthorne. I recall a small convention in Los Angeles, where a tall fellow with a HUGE portfolio asked to present it at the end of what for me had been a long afternoon behind a dealer’s table in a hotel function room. The bigger and fatter the portfolio, the less impressive the work, right? Grumpily, I agreed to take a look, expecting some bad Conan art or similar, and was instead rewarded with my first exposure to Geof Darrow. After I picked my jaw up off the floor, I asked if we could please publish something. Anything. We got the first installment of Bourbon Thret. Or getting a call at the office from some British chap visiting the area, who insisted he had something for us we would like, and winding up with Brendan McCarthy and Freakwave. All of us meeting a young artist at a Comic-Con, being dazzled and offering immediate work, and sadly finding Marvel had beat us to him. Bruce Jones got him to squeeze in a two-pager for the upcoming ThreeDimensional Alien Worlds, so Pacific can still claim publishing the first widely read Art Adams story. I could go on, but I’m sure you will get the idea. Like all skyrocket trajectories, arc of Pacific Comics went fast, and landed with both a long fizzle and a loud thud. But my, did it ever burn hot and bright; and those dazzling sparks it made were every color of the rainbow. Everyone went “oooohhh.” While short-lived, it is fair to say that Pacific Comics changed the comic-book industry forever. Many of the elements they introduced: creator ownership, royalty payments, more considered packaging, direct-sales distribution— these were not present before in comics, but are still with us today. Pacific had a rather hopeful tagline on logos on many of the first books: “For the NEW Era in Comics.” Do you know what? It was. DAVID SCROGGY is currently the vice president of product development at Dark Horse Comics in Milwaukie, Oregon.

Alex

By almost any measure, 1986 was a landmark year in the comics industry. Led by comic books like Cerebus and Love and Rockets and alternative comics publishers such as Fantagraphics and Kitchen Sink, a black-andwhite comics revolution had been building gradually throughout the 1980s. This growth led to a veritable black-and-white boom after Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was published in 1984. Even the “Big Two” publishers— Marvel and DC—were trying to adapt to a marketplace that had been dramatically changed by the direct-market sales model. Marvel’s Epic imprint, launched in 1982, allowed creators to experiment with nontraditional, mature stories beyond the confines of superheroes. DC began hiring British talent to revitalize some of its obscure properties (Swamp Thing) and create original content (Camelot 3000) before letting established writers and artists experiment with new ideas (Ronin) and completely remake their superhero universe (Crisis on Infinite Earths). All of these developments came to a head in 1986— a pivotal year that saw the publication of Batman: Boney The Dark Knight Returns, Watchmen, The Man of Steel, Marvel’s New Universe imprint, the Superman epic Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?, and new Alan Moore Miracleman stories from Eclipse. Nineteeneighty-six wasn’t just a banner year for superhero comics, though. It was the year that Pantheon published the first collection of Art Spiegelman’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Maus. And it was also the year that publisher Mike Richardson founded Dark Horse Comics and launched the anthology series Dark Horse Presents. The breakout feature of DHP, Paul Chadwick’s “Concrete,” presented the story of a former political speechwriter who finds himself trapped in a huge, stone body imbued with superhuman abilities. The premise makes “Concrete” sound like a superhero story—a black-and-white twist on the Fantastic Four’s Ben Grimm—but it was actually a character study about a man trying to figure out who he was and how he fit into a world full of new possibilities. It was a book paul chadwick about quiet moments and ordinary Photo by Joshin Yamada. problems and contemplation. It tackled social issues such as conservation, overpopulation, and celebrity. At a time when new genres were being created and existing genres were being dramatically reimagined, Concrete still managed to stand out as an important book very much in and of its time. Although Chadwick is best known for his work on Concrete, he got his professional start as a storyboard illustrator. After graduating from Art Center College of Design in California, Chadwick did storyboard work on projects such as Strange Brew, Pee-wee’s Big Adventure, and Ewoks: The Battle for Endor. In 1985, he was hired by Marvel to illustrate writer Archie Goodwin’s brief run on Dazzler. When Chadwick started working in the comics industry, he began to tease out and develop an original concept of his own.

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Every comics fan worth his salt knows that superhero, war, romance, Western, and horror comics were popular during the ’50s. But there is one genre most forget: the reader-participation comic. Reader-participation comics ran and credited reader designs within their pages. Atlas Comics (formerly Timely, later Marvel) alone produced the reader-participation series Miss America, My Girl Pearl, and My Friend Irma, as well as Patsy Walker and Millie the Model and their many spin-off titles during the ’50s and ’60s.

KEEN(E) BEGINNING The queen of reader participation resided at Archie Comics, however. Katy Keene was a wonderful comic that followed the adventures of its pinup model/movie-starlet heroine while publishing reader designs of every possibility. Clothes, cars, homes, and even spaceships all appeared within the pages of Katy Keene. Unlike the Atlas comics, which tended to remain unchanging, Katy Keene documented every fad that came along, from sack dresses to MAD Magazine. Even Katy’s look changed through the years. She began looking like Hedy Lamarr and ended looking more like Audrey Hepburn. During a phase in the ’50s, she more than resembled real-life pinup queen Bettie Page. (Coincidence? I prefer to think not.) Sadly, Katy Keene’s career didn’t last forever. After appearing in nearly every title published by Archie Comics, and starring in many spin-off books, the Katy Keene feature was canceled. Fortunately, this was not the end of the story. Enter Craig Leavitt. Craig Leavitt was one of the many contributors to Katy Keene who refused to let go of his heroine. In the early ’80s, he began to reach out to fellow Katy Keene fans and he publicized Katy’s cause. Thanks to Leavitt, articles appeared in newspapers and magazines. Katy bits began to appear regularly in cat yronwode’s Fit to Print column. Leavitt even managed to get Katy Keene cover-featured on the 14th edition of Robert M. Overstreet’s The Comic Book Price Guide in 1984. After all the attention, Katy Keene was revived by Archie Comics. Leavitt’s accomplishments didn’t end there, however. He published Katy Keene fanzines and even hosted Katy Con 1, a birthday celebration for Katy Keene’s creator, Bill Woggon. Present along with the birthday boy were [DC Comics’ “human encyclopedia”] E. Nelson Bridwell (who was, believe it or not, a Katy Keene contributor), Barb Rausch (another Katy Keene contributor and future Bill Woggon collaborator for Vicky Valentine), and John S. Lucas, the man who would draw Katy’s adventures in the ’80s. Also present were Spider-Woman’s Steve Leialoha and underground comix legend Trina Robbins. As Robbins explains, “I read Katy Keene as a girl, and I loved it, but I never sent in designs, because I didn’t realize Bill Woggon redrew all the designs. I thought they were printed exactly as drawn by the contributors, and I Trina robbins knew I could never be as good as them. I was delighted when the Katy Keene movement started and she was revived! Bill Woggon was such a sweet guy! And out of that revival grew my friendship with Barb Rausch, now sorely missed.” (Rausch died in 2001.)

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Chuck Alligood

MISTY-EYED MEMORIES Something about the event must have stuck with Robbins, because a few short years later she produced her own reader-participation comic for Marvel’s Star Comics line: Meet Misty. Meet Misty #1 (Dec. 1985) introduced the adventures of teenager Misty, her friends, her dad, and her Aunt Millie. Of particular interest was Aunt Millie, better known as Millie Collins. Yes, Aunt Millie was Atlas and Marvel Comics’ Millie the Model, no longer a glamour girl, but now a rather dowdy maternal figure. “This was when Jim Shooter was still editor-in-chief of Marvel Comics,” explains Robbins. “Luckily, Jim had actually started at Marvel as a writer for Millie the Model, so he ‘got’ what I was The real star of Meet Misty was Robbins trying to do and gave me a sixherself, however. She had been drawing ns. Robbi Trina TM & © issue miniseries.” underground comix for years, but her sleek Of course, as previously mentioned, Aunt Millie style was far better suited for a children’s comic. Her wasn’t the only cast member of Meet Misty. There was writing adjusted to appeal to a Star Comics reader: sweet, the title heroine, a perky blonde who was pursuing a warm, and yet very smart. In 1985, Trina told The career in show business; Shirelle, an African-American Comics Buyers’ Guide that Meet Misty showed Robbins girl who clearly showed the most sense of them all; her calling. Anyone who read the book had to agree. punk rocker Spike; and Darlene, a spoiled rich girl who So went the plot of one story from issue #5 (Aug. bore a striking resemblance to Lucy Ricardo. [Editor’s 1986): Misty and Darlene accidently exchanged shorts note: For a look at Marvel’s Star Comics imprint, come while dressing for gym class. Naturally, neither girl’s back in two issues for BACK ISSUE #77.] shorts fit the other, which led each one to conclude 1980s Independents Issue •

Paper Doll Two pieces of Bill Woggon original art, courtesy of Heritage Comics Auctions: (top left) from 1960’s Katy Keene Pin-Up Parade #10, and (top right) the Comic Book Price Guide cover art, signed to Bob Overstreet. (bottom) From San Diego Comic-Con 1982, Katy Keene creator Bill Woggon (at left) with Comics Buyer’s Guide’s Alan Light. Photo courtesy of Alan Light. Katy Keene TM & © Archie Comics.

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Comic books have taken Hollywood by storm as of late, especially characters from Marvel and DC Comics. But since the 1980s, studios and networks have taken a serious look at independent comics as a source of material for film and television, both for the adult audience as well as the youth audience. A recent example is Image Comics’ The Walking Dead, which began modestly enough as a comic, but quickly built a loyal following and has now become one of the most successful independent comic books of all time—and a highly rated cable television show on AMC. Perhaps the biggest success story of a small, independent comic going mainstream and turning not only into a reliable hit, but a huge phenomenon, is Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, which is as close to being the model of the American success story as one can get. Starting in 1984 as a black-and-white comic and steadily building a strong following, Turtles became an entertainment and licensing phenomenon that is still going strong today. Here are a few independent comics from the 1980s that successfully made the leap from comic books to film or television…

BUCKY O’HARE First Appearance: Echo of Futurepast #1 (1984, Continuity Associates) The co-creation of Larry Hama, Michael Golden, and Neal Adams, “funny animal” rabbit/space explorer Bucky O’Hare was originally seen in the first six issues of Continuity Associates’ Echo of Futurepast anthology. A 1986 Bucky O’Hare graphic novel from Continuity reprinting the Echo stories caught the attention of toy developer and production company Abrams Gentile Entertainment. After some initial development by Abrams Gentile, with a lot of input from Neal Adams and his staff, the collaborators approached Sunbow Productions, then a very successful children’s television production company (and a subsidiary of advertising agency Griffin-Bacal). Sunbow was known as the programming arm of shows connected to Hasbro Toys, such as G.I. Joe and Transformers. Since Griffin-Bacal was also Hasbro’s advertising agency at the time, Sunbow and Abrams/Gentile brought in Hasbro on the deal for a toy line based on Bucky. In September 1991, Bucky O’Hare and The Toad Wars was launched in syndication. Produced by Sunbow and French animation house IDDH, with Abrams/Gentile and Continuity as co-producers, one season of 13 episodes was released. Jason Michas provided the voice of Bucky O’Hare. Despite the proud efforts of all involved, the show never did become a big hit, but it at least got some attention, both domestically on television and internationally, and gave Continuity the distinction of being able to boast that a property that they created from scratch made it to television. 68 • BACK ISSUE • 1980s Independents Issue

Stuart Fischer

CADILLACS AND DINOSAURS First Appearance: Xenozoic Tales #1 (Feb. 1987, Kitchen Sink Press) Cadillacs and Dinosaurs, the creation of writer/ artist Mark Schulz, employs the out-of-time/out-ofplace concept (not unlike Marvel’s Howard the Duck)—and nothing is as out-of-time or as out-ofplace as a hip, young fellow driving around in a bright-colored Cadillac in the Prehistoric era, surrounded by dinosaurs and cave people! Schultz’s mature concept was not really meant for children, although interestingly, it was that audience that Cadillacs and Dinosaurs eventually found itself entertaining. Steven E. deSousa, a major motion picture producer and writer best known for the Die Hard movies, saw great potential in Schultz’s comic book and developed it as a TV show. Produced by animation studio Nelvana, then a major supplier of television cartoons, Cadillacs and Dinosaurs, the animated series, ran from September 18, 1993 to March 11, 1994 on the CBS Saturday morning schedule, with a total of 13 episodes created. The show was loyal to Mark Schultz’s concept and was nicely animated. Main characters Jack Tenrac and Hannah Dundee, sort of an Adam and Eve caught in a post-apocalyptic world they never made, were voiced by David Keeley and Susan Roman. Despite wild adventures and the presence of dinosaurs, the show did not last very long. Cadillacs and Dinosaurs did enjoy a period of popularity in comics in the early to mid-1990s, with Schultz’s Kitchen Sink material eventually being published, in color, by Marvel’s Epic imprint. In 1994, Topps Comics published nine issues of Cadillacs and Dinosaurs with story and art by a variety of creators.

Modern Masters (top) Mimi LaFloo, from the Bucky O’Hare cast, by Michael Golden. Courtesy of Anthony Snyder. (bottom) A signed-and-numbered Cadillacs and Dinosaurs print by Mark Schultz. Courtesy of Heritage. Bucky O’Hare TM & © Continuity Associates. Cadillacs and Dinosaurs TM & © Mark Schultz.

FISH POLICE First Appearance: Fish Police #1 (June 1985, Fishwrap Productions) One of the most original and intelligent comic-book creations of the 1980s, Fish Police was self-published by cartoonist Steve Moncuse’s Fishwrap Productions. The hero of this offbeat comic was Inspector Gil, a determined detective embarking upon mysteries reminiscent of 1940s noir movies. In 1989 or 1990, Fish Police caught the attention of Batfilm Productions, the production company that produced the Batman motion pictures beginning in 1989 and continuing to this day in 1980s Independents Issue •

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