My first sales as a freelance writer were to a magazine called Amazing Heroes. AH was published by Fantagraphics, and it catered to a mostly traditional superhero comics fanbase. This was in contrast with Fantagraphics' better-known publication The Comics Journal, which generally took a more cerebral approach in its celebrations of more artistically ambitious comics outside of the costume-strewn mainstream.
Me? I was a fanboy, and I loved superhero comic books. Writing about 'em for Amazing Heroes was a great way for me to break into freelancing.
I don't recall all of the specifics of my path to Amazing Heroes freelancerhood, but I think it was as simple as reading in the magazine that the editor was accepting submissions, and appropriate hijinks ensuing thereafter. It was 1984. I was a 24-year-old wannabe writer, four years out of college, working as an assistant manager at a late-night fast-food restaurant. I was trying to write, with little to no success. I submitted some pretty terrible proposals to DC Comics, attempted some pop journalism intended for either Creem or Trouser Press, and presumably poked at some non-starting short story notions. My writing career was getting nowhere, and not even getting there fast.
The idea of trying to write about comics may not have even occurred to me prior to learning of the opportunity in AH. It was a paying market, albeit a very modest one, and I was a less-than-choosy beggar. By whatever sequence of events--pitch? cold submission?--I wound up writing "The Call Of The Mockingbird," a history of the 1960s DC title The Secret Six, which was accepted by AH editor David W. Olbrich and published in Amazing Heroes # 58, cover dated November 1, 1984. The check cleared. It was a pittance, sure, but I was now officially a published, professional writer.
Meanwhile, I lost my fast-food job, but got a job working in a record store--upgrade! Seeking to be more than a one-hit wonder with Amazing Heroes, I quickly turned around to write and sell "When Worlds Collide!," a speculation about a shared DC-Marvel Comics superhero universe, which appeared in AH # 61 (December 15, 1984).
I didn't appear in AH again for a while after that. "Sweet Dreams Are Made Of This," an attempted history of the Sandman character created for DC by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, was rejected. My next AH sale was "Positive Energy," a history of the great Charlton Comics character E-Man, in AH # 88 (2/1/86). This was followed by "Up, Up And...Oh, Well," an article about comedy superheroes (AH # 92, 4/1/86).
Olbrich had left the magazine some time back, and the editor by now was future superstar comics writer Mark Waid. Waid bought my short blurb "The Camp Knight Returns," a collection of quotes about actor Adam West's evolution from never wanting to play Batman again to wishing he could return to the role for a then-upcoming major motion picture. My final AH sale was "Who's...Who?!," an A-Z of actual DC comics characters too obscure to receive entries in the company's official Who's Who In The DC Universe series. The piece appeared in AH # 109 (1/1/87), and it was very well received. DC's Robert Greenberger wrote a letter of appreciation, so...yeah! The original article was exhaustively re-typed for an appearance right here at Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do).
Alas, my Amazing Heroes affiliation ended there, though I didn't know it at the time. Waid had accepted my history of The Joker ("The 53rd Card In The Deck") to appear in an unspecified future issue, but it was trashed when his own stint with Fantagraphics came to an abrupt, unpleasant, pyrotechnic conclusion. I, collateral damage. The folks at Fantagraphics didn't know me, didn't know about the Joker piece I'd written, and couldn't get off the phone quickly enough when I called them to ask wha'ppen.
At least Fantagraphics wasn't my sole freelancing gig by then. I'd made a sale to Krause Publications' Comics Collector in 1985, when that magazine's editors Don and Maggie Thompson bought "Same Bat-Time, Same Bat-Channel," my retrospective of the 1966-68 Batman TV series and its effect on the character and the comics (Summer 1985). This entry point with Krause eventually led to the twenty years I spent freelancing for the company's music tabloid Goldmine.
Although my Amazing Heroes stint sputtered to a halt quickly and badly, it's where I got my start: my secret origin, who I am and how I came to be. From a history of The Secret Six to Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do), I still have a few amazing things I'd like to write about.
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