70s Wild Stars

History of the Wild Stars -- The Seventies

In the Seventies I wrote a series of novels and forty-plus short stories that all shared a universe known as the Wild Stars.

Here's a picture of six of the novels. The typewriter technology and aging paper shows the medium in which all writing was done during the decade of our nation's Bi-Centennial.

These novels and short stories established the past, present, and future history of the Wild Stars, stretching far into the distant past and future. The longest of which, Moonshadow, is a 109,000 word origin of the mysterious character that the comics only refer to as the Ancient Warrior. Most of these novels were submitted to the various publishing houses of the day. I received a lot of encouragement, but was warned that my work was a little too edgy. Editors seemed to be in a constant state of flux, and when one would show an interest, they would be quickly replaced by another who had different tastes. Eventually, I kept writing purely for my own satisfaction. Or because of an obsessive compulsion. Call it what you will.

The Seventies' novel First Marker was the basis for the Wild Stars comics series, first published in 1984. Released in 1998 was a limited edition hardcover titled "Under the Wild Stars", that was partially a rewrite, but more of a combination of Prequel and Sequel, that sandwiched around the First Marker material from the Eighties' comics. Under the Wild Stars was the basis for the seven issues of Volume Three of the Wild Stars comics, published in 2001 and 2002.

The Wild Stars were actually first illustrated before the comic book, way back in the Seventies, when I released the self-published "Across the Distance" portfolio, with illustrations by both artist Bruce Conklin and myself (shown on the right side bottom of the page). Depicting various scenes from throughout the Wild Stars series of novels, each individual plate of Across the Distance was signed by the respective artist.

But the actual beginning of the Wild Stars started even before this.

My first published tale of the Wild Stars appeared in the January, 1972 issue of Eerie Magazine, from Warren.

Eerie Archives Volume 8 deluxe hardcover

This tale of a doomed human colony lost far out in distant space, Final Conqueror was run in the FanFare section, at the back of the book. But, thanks to chronology, it made the front of the book when reprinted in Dark Horse's deluxe hardcover collection, Eerie Archives Volume 8, released in August of 2011.

But these aren't the only appearances of the story.

An unedited version of Final Conqueror also ran in the second issue of the small press magazine titled Ecstasy Oblivion, in the Summer of 1977. I also contributed that issue's cover, as well as interior art (too mature to reproduce here), and a second story, a horror tale appropriately titled: "Hell on my Mind."

Volume 3 of Ecstasy Oblivion was released in Winter, 1978, with another pair of my illustrations, and another of my futuristic stories, a short-short story titled: "Judgement Day."

But the published work from the Seventies that I'm most proud of was my first self-published magazine in 1977, titled "The Multiversal Scribe -- Volume One."
(Back and Front covers shown below)

Professionally typeset and printed on glossy, coated stock, The Multiversal Scribe featured my work exclusively; a novelette and three short stories, along with numerous illustrations and the "Razor Edge" portfolio, plus the short-short titled "Cities of Man," where I took the rules of writing a colloquy, and reversed them. "Indeed" was a science-fiction story set in a future where TV ran reality shows 24 hours a day (remember, this was the 70s, when there were only 3 channels that shut down every night, and such a concept was considered unreal). Each story was a different genre, written in a different style. I also worked my art into several of the title pages. To complete this attempt at uniqueness, the Visual Editorial titled "Upon the Waste of Contemplation" is just that. I've had countless people describe the messages that they drew from this illustration, but it was just a bizarre picture, and they were really wasting their time.
More details can be found here.

After I'd moved to Arkansas, and was managing the Fast Print division of International Graphics, I produced the Across the Distance Portfolio mentioned earlier. I was able to do all the camera work myself, and supervised every stage of the production. It was great having all the tools of a print shop at my disposal.

On the first page of the History of the Wild Stars, you were met by an oceanfront landscape. That painting was done by my mother, Mary. I added the stars and logo. But you can see the painting unspoiled by copy on the inside of Wild Stars Volume 3 #3, where I ran it as a full color wraparound poster on the inside covers.

Unfortunately, by this time, she was no longer alive to see some of her many beautiful works being reproduced both in print, and here on this website.

However, in the Seventies, she did get to see and enjoy her Autumn Poems & the Hands of Time, in which I collected her art portfolio showing human hands as they age through the years, along with many of her poems. Mom had given some of her poems to a country western singer, whom she never heard back from. So, to comfort her concerns over creative theft, I produced a 90 copy edition to give her copyright protection. It was a labor a love for me, staying late after work to shoot and then hand-paint the negatives of her pencils. Back in the day, scanning was an expensive process that was reserved for four color seperations. All other printing was done from camera negatives, which were notoriously poor for reproducing pencils. More about that process in the next section.

While Autumn Poems and the Hands of Time sold out long ago, both the Multiversal Scribe and the Across the Distance portfolio are still currently available. Being a former journeyman printer and manager, I've always understood that the major cost of creating any publication is all in the setup, and after that; the cost is just the paper when you print extra. At this time, both The Multiversal Scribe magazine and the Across the Distance portfolio are still available through direct purchase at either of my two Comic Book specialty stores.

My prices are a lot cheaper than what you'll find online. Here's a link to an Amazon offering of The Multiversal Scribe for $57.

Collector's Edtition
3217 John F. Kennedy Blvd.
North Little Rock, AR 72216
501-791-4222

The Comic Book Store
9307 Treasure Hill
Little Rock, AR 72227
501-227-9777

So... if you're ever in the Little Rock, Arkansas area, stop by either store for the full selection of Wild Stars comics, portfolios, graphic novels and books.