Malibu Comics Secret Origin (part 4)

In the first part of this “series” I talked about the state of the comic industry that Malibu was born into. In the second part I talked about my personal path prior to the birth of Malibu. In the third part, I talked about 1986, the year that Malibu was born and some of the things that came together at Sunrise Distribution that would be instrumental in Malibu’s success.

Kevin Nowlan's cover to one of the first AH issues that Tom and I worked on together. (issue #35: featuring The Inferior Five)

In part four, I’m going to talk mostly about Tom Mason. I’d met Tom the first day I worked at Fantagraphics Books. I had been hired to be the managing editor of Amazing Heroes magazine. That first day on the job in Connecticut, I was introduced to Tom, who was the art director for Amazing Heroes. We worked together closely. We became friends in Connecticut and when Fantagraphics Books move to Sourthern  California, both Tom and I were along for the ride (and keeping our jobs).

STARTIN’ FROM SCRATCH WITHOUT ANY SCRATCH

Malibu Comics Secret Origins (part two)

In this post, I’m going to begin to go over my personal path to becoming Publisher of Malibu Comics. Maybe others will be able to relate to my personal travails, we’ll see. But first (as they say in the trade) some housekeeping.

This is a good time to remind all readers (and there seems to be a bunch more now than there were a few weeks ago) that Funny Book Fanatic has a standing offer for readers to ask me questions.  I call it “ASK THE DWO” and in the past I’ve managed to answer some interesting questions about: comic characters with fur, the Comics Code Authority and Dale Keown’s work at Aircel Comics. If you want some tips about what you might ask me, check out the Background page.

There are also a lot of activities for fanatics visiting here, especially if you page down, reading all the cool stuff in the right hand sidebar.

     • Click the VOTE FOR ME button just above my lovely picture (by artist Matt Busch).  ——–>

Year-end interview with ComicNews.info

Before I get to the meat of the post today, let me take a brief, but unavoidable digression. 

Go ahead, click on the picture and you’ll see what it is and what it has to do with being a funny book fanatic. Go ahead. Click away. I’ll wait until you see it. I’ve got no comment here, except to say a quick “thank you” to fellow fanatic and good guy John Nee (until recently a VP at DC Comics) for pointing this out through Facebook. You may as well click on it if you haven’t already, I’m not going to spoil the surprise in this text. But feel free to comment below … is this one of the signs of the apocalypse? All I can think is … WHY?

The “origin” story of The Jack Kirby Comics Industry Awards

The germ of the idea wasn’t mine. But I’m here to accept my portion of the blame. I made a lot of mistakes. I was wrong. 

The Jack Kirby Comics Industry Awards was a child born of outrage. It started in early 1985 somewhere in Agoura Hills, California on a regular (or as regular as they ever got) work day at Fantagraphics Books. The Comic Buyer’s Guide Fan Awards were the subject of the discussion.

Before we can get to the outrage, the creation, the betrayal, the diplomacy or my wrong-doing, we need to set-up the scene on this little melodrama.