My History in Comics, Part 10 – Fantagraphics and Critters

  

1986. Marvel and I had just parted ways, and Fantagraphics contacted me. Kim Thompson was putting together a funny animal comic and wanted Jack Bunny in it. He was also in negotiations to reprint Carl Barks’ Barney Bear, Benny Burro stories, but that fell through.

I really did not want to do independent comics work, but was grateful to have the opportunity to do anything for anybody.

Practice panels.

 

More practice panels.

I revamped Jack Bunny into his next stage of evolution, and did several inked practice panels. Kim liked it, so I did the “Arch-Rivals!” Jack Bunny story which was printed in Critters #6, December 1986 issue.

 

This time I wrote the story starting from the ending and working backwards. I thought it would make for a good continuing situation if Jack were in partnership with his own worst enemy.

And to complicate the character a bit, I recast Jack as a pyrotechnist. I bought George Plimpton's book on fireworks and subscribed to some fireworks newsletters. I almost answered one of the ads in one of the newsletters and almost applied to be an intern at a fireworks factory. I sometimes go overboard when researching things.

I was a bit late on the airbrush cover I did to go with the “Arch-Rivals!” story, and that cover didn't get printed until Critters #8, along with a reprint of “Rocket Rabbit!” Kim liked the airbrush cover enough to use it for in-house advertising on the back of other Fantagraphics magazines.

 

Unpublished cover art

 

For the next Jack Bunny story I was going to depart briefly from the new storyline and do a wild adventure story. I did the cover first this time, with the intention of basing the story on the cover. I plotted the whole thing out, developed the supporting characters, broke the plot down into panels, and was starting to do the art, but it just wasn't working for me somehow.

I came up with a new arrangement with Kim that any stories I did in the future I would do without deadlines, and the stories would not go on the printing schedule until I had the art done and sent in. That turned out to be a real mistake. As unpleasant as deadlines are, deadlines spur one into getting things done. By not having a set deadline, I never got around to getting that story done. Nor did I get any more stories done for Fantagraphics, and that was that.

I think one reason I wasn't able to get any more stories done and sent in was the fact that Critters was a black and white comic book for comic shop distribution. I was fixated on seeing my work in color on spinner racks in drugstores and supermarkets. Without the enthusiasm generated by newsstand distribution, my creativity did not want to kick in.

Kim asked for any old stuff I had that could be reprinted in Critters. I sent him “Super Santa!” which he put into Critters #11, and “Surfin' Neanderthals!” which he put into Critters #13. Also included in Critters #8 was the first-time publication of a Rodney Roadhawg story I had submitted to Petersen's Cartoons back in 1981. It was a rejected piece that editor Dennis Ellefson had sent back with the note, “I like what I see, but stay away from funny animals.” But I was too deep into funny animals to come up with anything that I thought Ellefson would use, so I didn't submit anything else there.

Fantagraphics paid me as much per page to reprint those fanzine stories from Surf City Comics & Stories as Marvel had paid me to draw Peter Porker. And, Fantagraphics paid double to use the airbrush cover.

 And in 1993, they arranged for “Super Santa!” to be reprinted in an Italian comic or magazine. I think it was because there were a lot of references to Carl Barks and Carl Barks stories in “Super Santa!”, and Carl Barks is, or was, very popular in Europe.

A funny incident in connection with Fantagraphics is that right after I agreed to do some work for them, I got a call from a convention organizer who was organizing a comic book convention in Cheyenne Wyoming. I think it was called something like Cheycon II. They offered to pay me to go out there, and provide me with a place to stay. I had never been to a comic book convention before, so I accepted. When I got out there, I learned that they thought I was an editor for Fantagraphics. Some gaming magazine I never heard of before or since had published in its news column that Mark Armstrong had signed on at Fantagraphics as a new editor. (Not everything you see in print is true, whether in newspapers, magazines, books, or the internet.)

I was appalled. I had visions of being charged with fraud, if not by the convention organizers, then by Fantagraphics. And throughout my time there at the convention, people were bringing me their portfolios, hoping to find work at Fantagraphics, hoping to find jobs and assignments I did not have to give out to people. At the time I realized that someday it would be considered a funny situation to be in, but it sure wasn't funny at the time.

Bob Conway was at the convention with a booth. He had a character he called Mr. Fly. As an experiment I wrote a Mr. Fly script for him. He illustrated it and sent it to Fantagraphics, which then printed it in Critters #23.

So my career in comics lasted just a few years, and involved just a handful of stories.

My most-reproduced piece of artwork I did in 1988. The pastor of my church at that time, Othal Hodson, requested that I draw a picture of the First Baptist Church of Waynesville, (The church building that is. The actual church consists of the church members, not the buildings.) That drawing has been screen-printed on t-shirts, embroidered on polo shirts, printed on plates and on mugs, and used on letterheads and business cards. But where it has been reproduced the most is on church bulletins at First Baptist most every Sunday from 1988 to this present day. As a rough estimate, I suppose that the FBCW “logo” has been reproduced between 200,000 to 500,000 times.

 I may get around to doing that unfinished Jack Bunny story from 1987. Since then I went back to college for awhile and took some creative writing courses, and am more prepared than I was back then to write long, continuing, complicated stories with multiple story lines.

But before then, I am going to try my hand at doing an online comic strip. Starting this Monday, I plan to post episodes of a continuity-style comic strip, with a continuing story like Dick Tracy and Little Orphan Annie had back in the days of golden-age newspaper strips.

Since I am using virtually free electrons and not actual newsprint, I am giving myself the luxury of doing large-size panels on a comic book scale, rather than the postage-stamp sized panels of modern newspaper strips. I cannot promise that it will be daily—I do have a regular 7:30-4:30 job that takes priority over things done for fun. I will have to do the strip before work in predawn hours, during my lunch hour, after hours by the light of the moon, and on weekends. But I will try to make the strip worth reading and following.

See you tomorrow.