Wednesday, August 27, 2008

"He gave up a job...": Chapter 4

When last we left you, Modi had "come to his senses..."

While I had practically given up on my future in the comics field, I was encouraged by the success of others. Particularly independents and black/African-American comic creators such as ANIA in Atlanta. Milestone's arrival in 93/94 blew my mind.

I came across a Web listing for Reggie Byer's "Kidz of the King" a Christian comic book, but I couldn't get a copy. Maybe a year later, I'm packing up after teaching a Church School class when our superintendent comes up to me and hands me a copy of the first issue asking, "Have you ever heard of this?" All my oohing and 'Oh my god'-ing got me quite a few amused stares.
The kicker? The book was published by UMI, which makes our church school materials, and one of my back-burner ideas had been to approach UMI about doing a comic!

It was '03 and the flame was rekindled. Two years later, the news of a full-fledged comic book college coming to Vermont added the starter fluid.