The first issue was a crude four page, 8 ½ x 11, photocopied publication. Only 200 copies were produced and all of them had some combination of signatures on them. I seem to recall that only the creator copies, the original 6, along with the copies that Jesse Metcalf of PARK NOSTALGIA and Ellen Lynch of THE ANNEX, were the only ones to have all six signatures on them. But remember: this was in the heyday of autographed, variants and gimmicks. The first issue featured a lengthy editorial by me, explaining my back-story and the reasons for the ‘zine in the first place on page 1. Page 2 was a full page of news, gathered from various sources. The big stories that month? Valiant was gearing up for Chaos Effect, DC was lining up a full-on DCU/Milestone crossover, preparing for ZERO HOUR, introducing Paradox Press, launching the KNIGHTSEND storyline in the Bat titles and we were all still mourning the passing of Jack “King” Kirby.
Page 3 was a feature on the Malibu Universe with title by title breakdowns. The last page featured twin commentaries from Chris Serpa and myself where we bemoaned the over-indulgence of the continuing cross company crossovers. We finished off with a review of MARVELS and thank you for reading and a begging for submissions. Cover price was a whole quarter and Jesse gave them away, after paying cover price for the stack of books. In addition, at a quarter an issue, I still lost money. Nevertheless, my wife supported my desire to publish and we managed to make it work into our household budget.
Actual production was done the only way I knew: the hard way. I would type an article to a certain column width and then calculate how many spaces needed to be added to each column to make it format properly. We weren’t using software-it was old fashioned calculate, cut and paste. And it was time consuming. But I had been doing it for the Bay Colony Historical Modelers publication BAY VIEWS and for my local Sears’ BEAR FACTS publication.
The first issue wasn’t totally without controversy as one comic fan actually complained that us charging $.25 for 4 pages when WIZARD was only $3.95 was ludicrous. That person also complained about us thinking we were bigger than we were by signing and numbering the issue. Again-it was a gimmick, folks!
Issue #2 was a bigger success as it featured the cover art of the very talented Todd Jordan, who quickly found himself working his way into the group. It was a six pager now and still only a quarter, which meant it became a bigger loss. By issue #3, we were complaining that Marvel was issuing their X-books in two formats: $1.50 for “standard and $1.95 for “premium”, glossy stock versions. Unfortunately, the standard editions were shipping two weeks after the Premium versions. Therefore, if you wanted to stay up to date, you were shelling out that extra coin. Of course, we all with we could go back to the days of $1.50 comics.
With the launch of issue #6, our Halloween issue, we had upped the count to 8 pages, switched to a three column format and shrunk the text size, meaning readers were getting the equivalent of 12 pages now. It also featured colored variant copies with front and back covers by Todd Jordan, who now found his name on the masthead. K. G. Palmer came on as a semi-regular contributor and he approached comics like Hunter S. Thompson, his admitted literary hero, approached politics. It also featured a price increase to $.35 an issue.
We continued to create controversy and draw in readers, leading to many discussions in the comic shops who distributed us, including Comics Route in Manchester, Vermont, Comikazi in Dartmouth, Fantasy Comics and Collector’s Heaven in Swansea. Month after month and the money kept rolling out as the added price and page count didn’t do much to stop the black ink bleeding.
Issue #8 was our first ever Christmas issue and featured a double page cover with caricatures
Issue #12 was a gamble and an expensive one., as it jumped to $1.25 and included Todd’s 12-page mini-comic, UNKLE S.A.M.M. It was also out first issue to be branded 18+. To say this caused controversy would be a gross understatement. Some of our loyal retailers refused to carry it and we were forced to bag all copies. At the same time, I had gotten to meet Steve Souza: the editor and publisher of the great local book TAPESTRY. We discussed going to the gathering of the Independents in Manchester Vermont in July. With issue #13, featuring a wonderful Death cover by Mark Allen, the price jumped again to $.40.
Issue #15 featured a scathing editorial by and a resulted in a parting with Todd Jordan. Todd went off on just about the entire staff and blasted me specifically, constantly referring to me as GOD. Seems GOD, being the editor, publisher, and the guy putting his money into it (with the exception of the UNKLE S.A.M.M. book, which we SPLIT THE COST OF), Todd had a problem with me making those decisions of what went into an issue. His biggest beef, except for having my first computer and being able to bring this thing to a more professional level, was about not hyping a potential interview with LADY DEATH’ Brian Pulido and Steven Hughes. But, since that interview hadn’t even been conducted, I wasn’t about to discuss it in print. So, I put in some filler piece regarding NEW MAGIC cards, because that was a hot thing. Just not important to Todd who bashed me for one very long page. I had thought about not running it but realized that would be a disservice to the readers. His other big gripe was the coverage of the S.O.I. tour that “no one cared about”. So I took my beating, as did the rest of the staff. In the end, a cordial “thanks for the contributions” and “good luck on future endeavors” was my final response, which I’m sure pissed him off that much more. I returned his artwork to the comic shop, especially those pieces that I believe were direct swipes from other art, but I can never prove it.
And thus ended the era of Jordan.
Issue #16 jumped to 16 pages with no price increase as it covered the Alternative Comics Expo in Vermont-you know: that thing no one cared about. My wonderful wife Joan, Mike Keane, his brother Matt, and I, made the trek and rubbed elbows with some of the best in Independent comics, highlighted by getting to hang with Dave Sim and Gerhard. But we also got to meet other creators, including some I still keep in touch with, including Mark Bode, Mark Oakley, Dave Zapanta, Jimmy Gownley, Steve Bissette, Dave Lapham and more. To say it changed my life would be an understatement. Hanging out in a circle with some of the coolest creators, smoking Mother Nature together, and watching a jam sketch get produced was mind blowing.
With issue #17, the interviews began. Yeah: I knew we needed to up our game and knew that it would take that thing called the INTERNET to get there. I contacted D.G. Chichester, who was best known for his work on DAREDEVIL and the ELEKTRA mini-series. It was a long phone interview that Mike Keane and I conducted, which meant one expensive long distance phone call to New York. This would become one of the first of the cost increases to us as the Internet back then was so much a month for so many minutes-kind of like data streaming on cell phones today. My Internet bills, as I tried to contact creators, set up interviews and search the news group for news, just kept piling up, sometimes as much as $100 a month.
For me, the highlights of this time period are multi-faceted. While we were still covering the industry, giving out news and reviews, we were knee deep in creator interviews. Next up was STRANGERS IN PARADISE’ Terry Moore, complete with a Moor cover With issue #19, we added STAPLES to the book and continued to load up with interviews including Scott Berwanger of Anubis, BC Boyer of Hilly Rose, legendary writer John Ostrander, Michael Cohen of Stranger Attractors and, my favorite(and most expensive), the late Barry Blair. Baoh gave us an original piece of art for our cover (yes-I still have a greatly treasure it) and was a friend until his untimely death in January of 2010. In addition, yes: I still miss his wit and wisdom and his overall aura. There have been days in the bast few years that I hit an emotional wall and wish he were within reach just to cheer me up.
Pretty heavy emotions for someone I only had the pleasure to physically meet once.
And that leads to a story about how Steve Souza convinced me to put on a show.
After Sim’s Spirit of Independence tour and Steve and Andre Salles from TAPESTRY has survive the Vermont show, Steve reached out to me and convinced me that we could do the same thing here. It would be a fund raiser for the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund and we could get all these Indy creators to send us table money, set up at the show, meet the fans and we’d all have a real good time. Heck: we could even get the various companies and creators to send us stuff to auction off. Crazy idea, but it might work. And that’s when we went into high gear-sending emails, writing letters, inviting creators to come to beautiful Westport, Massachusetts and sell their stuff. Months and months of time and energy, phone calls, Internet hype and more went into this project, which was to be held on May 18th, 1996 at a banquet facility called White’s of Westport. Admission was set for $3.00 for adults, free for children under 12. Initially, it was going to be called M.A.L.E. for the Massachusetts Alternative Literary Exposition, but one of the creators, it may have been Barry Windsor Smith, suggested it would be sexist that way. So it quickly became the (First Ever) Massachusetts Alternative Literary Exposition or (F.E.)M.A.L.E.
The first hint of something involving the CBLDF was in the November 1995 issue of THE PODIUM with the actual event being first hyped in December. The first guest list appeared in February, listing Dave Sim, Michael Cohen, Mitch Waxman, David Mack and Brain Michael Bendis as confirmed guests. As the months went by, the list grew: Barry Blair, Richard Pini, Joe Zabel Gary McClusky, Jimmy Gownley, Greg Hyland, Mike Wolfer, and many more. There were relative newcomers like Joe Chiappetta, Jessica Abel, Glenn Chadbourne, and Carla ‘Speed’ McNeil, in her first ever show. We were receiving all kinds of items for the auction including original scripts, original artwork, signed posters, rare comics and more. We even had Barry Windsor Smith say he was going to attend, just so he could be with Dave Sim. This was bound to be the best show ever!
And then the bombs started dropping.
Barry Windsor Smith contacted me a week before the show to inform me that the time table for being driven from New York to Westport didn’t work and he would arrive an hour after the show ended (the show was scheduled for 8-2:30 with an auction following). Then the crew from Visual Assault Comics bailed, but sent us some auction material. Dan Chichester realized his schedule didn’t work so he was out and so was Karl Waller. Less than a week before the show, Brian Michael Bendis called to say that he had to go to Los Angeles for a possible movie deal and he wouldn’t make it. And that meant David Mack was out too. And then we lost Chapter 3 Studios, Joe Zabel, Louis Small Jr., Steve Blevins, Ron Garney, Doug Baron, and Dave McGill. The last to fall was Mike Wolfer.
But we had a fair attendance the day of the show, after a pre-show dinner the night before that many of the creators attended on their own dime (except for the crew from ANGRY YOUTH COMICS who chewed and screwed. And they eventually got a publishing gig through Fantagraphics).Me-I got to have a beer with Dave Sim on his 40th birthday and talk about his divorce. If you’re a comic guy, that’s the kind of inside information you always wanted to hear about. But the show was fairly well attended, with Dave Sim being the biggest draw and his sketching raised a bountiful amount of money for the cause.After the show, the auction was held and that was a lot of fun is not funny. The highlight of the auction was an original SHAZAM illustration done specifically for the show by Jerry Ordway that sold for over $100, with original ELFQUEST pages going next at $75 each. The moment that made the entire room, and me roll with laughter was when I held up a PLATINUM EDITION copy of SUPERMAN #75 which, at the time, had been valued at $400.
It was bought by one of the bus boys at White’s for an opening bid of $10.00.
In all, over 50 items were auctioned off and, when the final tally for the weekend was over, $1200 was raised at the auction with another $400 raised by Dave Sim’s sketches. Despite the fact that Steve, Joe Branco, and Dave Smith, along with Bobby Oliveira, who was helping with the P.R. end prior to the gig, wanted another show to come off, it never did (although DC sent some nice “swag” which ended up in my collection in case we ever do decide to do this again). I was done: this one had just taken too much out of me emotionally and financially.
So, it was back to THE PODIUM and continuing to find my place with it. What WAS cool, even though it WAS costly, was having so many professionals on my mailing list, including Barry Blair, Terry Moore and Dave Sim. With Joe Branco banging out most of the covers, with some exceptions featuring Glenn Chadbourne, Jerry Ordway, Rob Walton, Jimmy Gownley, Mario Miranda, Craig Shepard and Mitch Waxman, we plodded along, moving to $.55 in July of 1996 and then to $.60 two months later. But it was the last price increase, as it held the line at $.60 until the final printed issue in December of 1999. We also began publishing fiction, mostly by Nate Machado, and serialized comic strips from the likes of Dave Smith and Eric Lebow. We also started taking in advertising, just to try to staunch the flow of monetary blood I was pouring out.
Featured interviews included Rob Walton, Jerry Ordway, Mario Miranda, Paul Pope, James D. Hudnall, Len Mihalovich, Donna Barr, Jimmy Gownley, Dave Gibbons, Carla McNeil, Gary McCluskey, Terry West, Oscar Stern, Joe Chiappetta, Bryan Talbot, and Aaron Lopresti.
With the Internet and computer graphics and all, the publication took on a classier look and got away from the "rag" I had always thought it to be. I could design covers using PhotoShop and scan in panels from comics that were being reviewed. By this time, it was a lot of news, both regarding comics and films and a lot of reviews and I was pretty much handling all of it. The core members had gotten real jobs and that meant most of our communication was with occasional phone calls or emails. The last monthly issue was issue #60, in April of 1999. I had published for five years straight and NEVER missed a deadline, which, for me, was always the first new comics day of the month (it used to be Fridays and then, I believe sometime after the Diamond takeover of Capitol City), Wednesdays.
NEVER MISSED ONE OF MY SELF-IMPOSED DEADLINES.
In December, I put out an all-review issue called the Y4C SPECIAL (for Year For Comics). It was a take on the Y2K crisis and I even left it open that, if Y2K happened, it’s been a nice ride. My editorial tagline was always “Keep reading, keep dreaming” and this one was no exception, with one addition: “Keep reading, keep dreaming and support your local comic shop”.
Well things have changed a lot in 17 and a half years since that last issue ended. Digital was touted as the wave of the future, the Internet is a much more crowded place, and creators are easier to find. Comic shows happen somewhere in the world every single weekend in a year. Geeks and nerds are proud of their culture now and not shunned as weirdos (mostly). Superhero movies are big bucks and so are television shows. I could never have DREAMED that this many muscle-bound heroes would be all over the big and small screen and that Cosplaying would be a huge thing. Finding out comic news back then involved news groups and rumors, some leaked news from publishers and GOD BLESS HARRY KNOWLES!!! Now, news sites like NEWSARAMA and BLEEDING COOL update daily…sometimes hourly!
THE PODIUM came back to life a few years ago and is a BLOG. I mostly stick to reviewing the DCU line and what I find as interesting first issues when I gather enough of them. I don’t have a real deadline, but I still shoot for getting the blogs up by the middle of a given month. Every now and then I review a movie or some cult movies or just write free form…because I can. I don’t have a lot of readers and kind of miss the days of sending out the printed copies, as much as a pain and expense as it was, and especially getting feedback and kudos from the creative community.
And what happened to the plank owners and some of those folks from the earliest of days? Mike Keane is happily married with three children and a principal for an architectural firm. We usually bump into each other, literally, at the Rhode Island Comic Con every year. Mark Lopes is still a close friend, and we see each other and speak often. Joe Branco is happily married and we occasionally speak online. Same is true with John Turn. Wayne Quackenbush continues to run THE ANNEX, which he purchased in 1998 from Ellen Lynch, whom I believe works in the medical field. Jesse Metcalf, who owned PARK NOSTALGIA, so the business to STILLPOINT COMICS and moved to Arizona in 1997. Brian Troia who worked with me at the shop is dead. Russ Dougherty, who often helped me clean up graphics, is an award winning videographer. Rob Walton has just relaunched RAGMOP again and I’m thrilled! Eric Anctil and I see each other once a month or so, usually on the nights of Indy Wrestling shows or WWE PPV’s. Barry Blair has passed away. Carla McNeil still makes great comics as do many of the afore mentioned creators.
I have not spoken to Chris Serpa or Jay Carreiro in many, many years and hope they are living fruitful lives. I haven’t spoken to Todd Jordan since before the “rant letter” over 20 years ago. I hope he has truly found peace.
Me-I do what I do while I can now that I am happily retired. With my wonderful wife still by my side, two kids, two guinea pigs, two soon to be THREE dogs, home construction and all, I live each day the best I can with my illness. I am also blessed to be a member of Altered Reality Entertainment, where I act as the Lead Photographer. They are the folks responsible for the Rhode Island Comic Con, TerrorCon, South Coast Toy Show, ComiConn, Colorado Springs Comic Con and, I’m sure, more to come. It has given me the chance to hit the road with my Art Director Joe Goulart (WE ARE JOE SQUARED!!!) and the crew and have a blast while working my butt off. I have been so lucky to meet comic greats, celebs, and musicians and develop another family in my life.
Gotta go now: time to work on this month’s DC Blog. Don’t want to totally hose my deadline!
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