Cartoons!

In 1999 and 2000, I tried to get some use out of the duo-shade material I had left over after creating the unpublished version of Wild Stars Volume 3 #1, and drew up a few cartoons:

In retrospect, the politcal cartoon about the Presidential sex scandal with an intern by the former Governor of Arkansas is now in poor taste, after the events of 9-1-1. But this cartoon has a Wild Stars connection. Check the background of the Artomique invasion of the First Nations in Volume 3 #1, and you'll see somthing familiar. And, speaking of 9-1-1, interior artist Dave Simons was an eye-witness to this tragic event. In Wild Stars Volume 3 #3, there is a full page dedicated to Dave's memoir of living through this event that traumatized, and later galvanized the nation!

The scuba diving joke is one I've told customers for years. Being a certified Master Diver, I've had shark encounters on over half my dives. Of course, it should also be pointed out that I tend to dive during feeding frenzies and in places with names like Shark Alley, Shark Grotto, Shark Junction, and... well, you get the point. The scrabble cartoon was one I'd carried in pencil for years. But, once I drew it up and started submitting it, the next thing you know, I see the gag used in the trailer for a movie that I can't remember the name of. It must have bombed.

To the right is a design I did for a shirt patch. And, no... this isn't the actual State Bird of Arkansas. But it should be. The Air Force's fleet of C-130 Transport planes are based at the Little Rock Air Force base, and can be seen constantly flying training missions around the capital city. My last house was located close to one of their air strips, and they'd fly over all the time. It made for a free air show. The only problem was that whenever I was outside swimming in the pool and the then-President would visit town, suddenly I'd have Air Force One's jet engines screaming a hundred feet over my head. Water magnifies noise.
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Prototype Graphic Novels

When I opened my first comic book specialty store in 1982, I immediately looked for retail niches that had been overlooked, where consumer demand was not being filled. Pictured below is a set of Prototype Graphic Novels, containing mini-series from 1982 through 1985, that I repackaged for resale in my store.

Pictured above; Crisis on Infinite Earths, Green Arrow Green Lantern, Warlock, Ronin, New Gods, The Life of Captain Marvel, Deadman, and the Shadow of the Batman. Except for the original DC Crisis and Frank Miller's Ronin, all these collections were made up of early Eighties quality reprint mini-series.

Careful not to do anything that would approach copyright infringement, I consulted an attorney before making these. His advice; since I regularly repackage comics by placing them in plastic bags, then this repackaging would not be infringement -- as long as I didn't advertise them for sale outside my store. After all, this was not exactly a new concept, since over the years fans and publishers themselves had often bound up favorite runs of comic books.

Just to be on the safe side, in the mid-Eighties I took the set pictured above with me to a publisher's conference with retailers, hosted by Capitol City Distribution, in Madison, Wisconsin. The response by representatives of both Marvel and DC was the same as what my attorney had said. Not a problem.

I then tried to convince them that there was a strong demand for graphic novels, but didn't get a positive response. Publishers were just starting to experiment with the reprinting of classic comics material, and the concept that there might be demand for bound reprints was something they weren't ready to consider. Not yet.

Then, a few years later DC did a limited edition hardcover of Frank Miller's the Dark Knight Returns, followed by a trade paperback edition. That success was repeated with the release of Alan Moore's Watchmen trade paperback. Both The Dark Knight Returns and the Watchmen remain in print today, and graphic novels have become the fastest growing area of comic book sales. There is no longer a need to repackage for the local market.

These long-ago sold out prototype graphic novels, and the limited edition Wild Stars hardcovers pictured on this site, were all bound by J & B Quality Book Bindery in Little Rock, Arkansas.