Hey boils and ghouls!

I was going through some old stories I wrote back in high school, and realized that, as much as I kept, I wish I was even more of a pack rat.  Back when I was a wee Pault Keeper, and as soon as I could put pen to paper, I remember making comic books.

It was a constant thing for me.  At first it was on printer paper (remember when you had to tear the sides off with all the holes that fed into the printer), then in notebooks, art books, whatever I could get my hands on.

As disturbing as this may be to some people, I remember being seven/eight years old and putting together a comic book inspired by Nightmare on Elm St. 3: The Dream Warriors.  It even had Freddy turn into that giant snake thing!  I remember a comic about surfers (who may have been ninjas…not sure), a ton about horror film villains, and of course super heroes.

The one I remember with the most fondness, though, was back in middle school.  It was called Innocent Blood (damned if I can remember why I called it that).  I made it on lined paper in my Trapper Keeper, and it was the only comic I made that I lasted more than two issues.  It was about ninjas (of course!) – one had cybernetic arms (CyberForce style), one wore a bandana Ninja Turtles Style, I think there was a Snake Eyes type guy…and…um…I think one had wings.  I don’t really remember.  I do remember that one was a rogue cyborg that the other three had to stop and, at the end of the first issues, almost everyone died.  In the second issue, they had to team up to battle their way out of Hell.  Not sure I ever finished the third issue, but of course it was more fighting.  The cover of the first issue was done to look like the cover of Eastman and Laird’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #1.

Of course, at some point, I realized I couldn’t draw worth a crap, but that I could write decent stories.  Still, I had friends  who could draw well, so we’d team up to create comic books – usually they never got very far, but man, it was a lot of fun.

I guess I never let go of that dream.  What you see at right is page 12 of a comic book I’ve started writing called The Siblings Scarington, about a trio of kids who find out that there’s an alternate world where monsters live, and they don’t believe in humans just like we don’t believe in them.  The artist is Agus Suherman, from Indonesia.  You can actually see a couple of designs for the comic at his website.

What about you, Mad Fans?  Did you put together comics as a kid?  How about now?  Still trying to live that dream?  Talkback below!