Back in 1984, my good friend Steve Craft and I put out a coupla issues of a very obscure black & white comic book called… OBSCURE! The first issue was a collection of our own quirky stuff; the second issue had more of us plus contributions from the likes of Gary Panter, S. Clay Wilson, the Pizz, Mary Fleener and a host of others. The first issue saw the beginning of DANGERWORLD, a series of strips that told the tales of various characters that lived in a world "where the streets were paved with broken glass"!
The first issue was "printed" at our local Kinko's copy machines. The cover had so much black in it that we would only be able to reproduce a half dozen or so before the machine would run outta toner and we would move onto another machine. After depleting all the available copiers in that store, we'd grab our prints and artboards and rush over to the next Kinko's on the other side of Long Beach State. We repeated this process enough times to get about 80 copies together and head down to the San Diego Comic-Con, which at that time was still held in a hotel ballroom. It was a very different event at that time… I think I could count the number of females in attendance on one hand! Before we could make it home on the train, we spent all the profits on some real shitty San Diego hash! Seemed like a good idea at the time. But we ended up selling what was left of that investment and eventually making even more money. The entrepreneurial spirit was alive and well!
The second issue was printed on an actual printing machine that a co-worker had in his garage, so we printed up a shit-load of 'em and sold those and went into a 2nd printing (some of which I still have)! With the profits burning a hole in my pocket, I was quickly bought my first VHS player… I thought I had really made the big time!
The original DANGERWORLD was a buncha short stories about an actual place with that infamous name. It was more like a sadistic amusement park where you probably wouldn't come out alive… or worse!
There were various characters that had some kinda connection to it, however slim, and one that has survived is Matchead (match-head in the story below). In this incarnation, he is dead and is only kept alive by the alien demon that is hiding in his hand. As the story progressed, Matchead would slowly decompose. When I finally went to write the latest version, I needed a sympathetic character in the story and a rotting corpse didn't seem to work, so Matchead became the lovable scamp we know today (of course this was all before the latest zombie craze, so maybe he shoulda stayed dead!).
I was beginning to think that I would never get the latest version done as, quite a few times, I would see ideas and plots I planned on using show up in the latest summer blockbuster (dinosaurs running loose in a park? Aaaaargh!) I finally figured out that I just had to plow forward, get it done and to hell with what was out there! And with issue #3 just hitting the stands, that seems to be working!
Sihm Sahla Bihm!
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| OBSCURE #1: The Xerox-killing first issue! |
The first issue was "printed" at our local Kinko's copy machines. The cover had so much black in it that we would only be able to reproduce a half dozen or so before the machine would run outta toner and we would move onto another machine. After depleting all the available copiers in that store, we'd grab our prints and artboards and rush over to the next Kinko's on the other side of Long Beach State. We repeated this process enough times to get about 80 copies together and head down to the San Diego Comic-Con, which at that time was still held in a hotel ballroom. It was a very different event at that time… I think I could count the number of females in attendance on one hand! Before we could make it home on the train, we spent all the profits on some real shitty San Diego hash! Seemed like a good idea at the time. But we ended up selling what was left of that investment and eventually making even more money. The entrepreneurial spirit was alive and well!
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| OBSCURE #1 1/2: More Fun Than A Poke In The Eye With A Sharp Stick! |
The second issue was printed on an actual printing machine that a co-worker had in his garage, so we printed up a shit-load of 'em and sold those and went into a 2nd printing (some of which I still have)! With the profits burning a hole in my pocket, I was quickly bought my first VHS player… I thought I had really made the big time!
The original DANGERWORLD was a buncha short stories about an actual place with that infamous name. It was more like a sadistic amusement park where you probably wouldn't come out alive… or worse!
There were various characters that had some kinda connection to it, however slim, and one that has survived is Matchead (match-head in the story below). In this incarnation, he is dead and is only kept alive by the alien demon that is hiding in his hand. As the story progressed, Matchead would slowly decompose. When I finally went to write the latest version, I needed a sympathetic character in the story and a rotting corpse didn't seem to work, so Matchead became the lovable scamp we know today (of course this was all before the latest zombie craze, so maybe he shoulda stayed dead!).
I was beginning to think that I would never get the latest version done as, quite a few times, I would see ideas and plots I planned on using show up in the latest summer blockbuster (dinosaurs running loose in a park? Aaaaargh!) I finally figured out that I just had to plow forward, get it done and to hell with what was out there! And with issue #3 just hitting the stands, that seems to be working!
Sihm Sahla Bihm!
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| Amazons & Capt. Bongo! |
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| DANGERWORLD Center Spread |
Thanks for sharing your humble beginnings with us mere mortals. Congrats to you.
ReplyDeleteOh dear sir, the pleasure is all mine. If I can help just one young artist (or, as in your case, old guy) attain their dream of abject poverty and obscurity, then my work here is done!
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