Listening to President Elect Barack Obama talk about his desire to change the way politics work in this country, I began thinking about my first encounter with comic writer/artist Walter Simonson.
Obama says (and I believe him) that he wants to change to the past political strategies of division and fear mongering with a civil discussion, a sense of civic duty and a lot of common sense. (Okay, I’m paraphrasing a bit.) How this relates to Walter Simonson will be revealed, but first a little background.
By fall of 1983, I was working for Fantagraphics Books, serving as the managing editor of a black-and-white fan magazine called Amazing Heroes. It was my second job after graduating from UW-La Crosse in December 1982. I had moved from Wisconsin to Connecticut to take the job. As some of you may remember, Fantagraphics Books is the home of The Comics Journal.