Sharing My Story

The Origins of Valiant Efforts Part 2

These reservations stemmed from study of the publishing industry
and actual involvement (albeit from a non-profit status) in production
of publications. The actual long term success rate of independent
comics publishers is vanishingly small. One can probably count on
one hand the success of independent comics publishers in the print realm.
For every Teen Age Mutant Ninja Turtles and Elfquest your have dozens
and dozens perhaps hundreds of well intentioned but failed publishing
enterprises. Part of this has to do with under capitalization (under financing),
what distributors will actually take (and their cut of the cover price) and
the actual ability for the fledgling company to actual produce material in
a regular timely manner. It also has to do with the ever diminishing
market for comic books.

During the 1940s and 1950s comic books were a true mass market publishing
industry printing hundreds of thousands of copies (and selling) for any given
title. There was that much market for comic books during that period.
With the advent of television and later video games, special effects movies,
the Internet and other entertainment options the audience for comic books
became increasingly fragmented and diminished. Comics became increasingly
a niche market catering to specialized age, gender, and thematics categories.
Even by the mid-1980s much of this was evident even if some of these factors
(Internet) were still future. With the direct sales market (comic speciality shops)
becoming a major factor in comics publishing several new companies were
launched during that time (Pacific, First, Eclipse, Comico, Valiant/Acclaim)
being the most prominent. Most of these companies were well financed efforts
with a certain amount of business salve, acumen and experience behind them.
They weren't fanboys doing this out of their homes. Having said that each of
the above companies are now a footnote in American comic book history.

My initial proposal of doing a fanzine type of publication (even though the
heyday of fanzines was long past—though something called small press was
very popular at the time). However Ralph and Charles were not to be deterred
by doing a mere fanzine. They wanted to do real comic books. Even with these
reservations I got talked into becoming a third partner in these efforts. My
non-negotiable was that we do comics with Christian themes and characters.
Why do expressly secular material with a market already glutted with such
material? Also I was looking at it from an eternal perspective. In 1987
Jack I. Martin, a local Christian comics fan and artist. would throw in with
us for a time. Out first meeting with Ralph and Charles in December 1986
developed a multi-year partnership that from an informal company
(Valiant Comics—not the Jim Shooter entity) and produced several issues
of our flagship and only title Valiant Efforts.

These meetings were part business meeting (we had agendas and fairly
detailed meeting notes) trying to structure a viable publishing company
and part bull sessions and part story/plotting sessions. Both Ralph and
Charles were quite loquacious. They bantered story and plot ideas around
with high energy and enthusiasm that I usually thought were reserved for
devotees of professional sports like football or basketball. This liveliness was
in marked contrast to the critical nay saying that I had been exposed to and
endured in the Santa Monica comics shop just a few short years before.
These were fanboys expounding excitedly on their own projects and the
wonderful characters they had created and the great stories they were hoping
to generate for these characters. The atmosphere of those meetings were
charged and exhilarating. I often sat in quiet amazement and rapt attention
at this fantastic expenditure of creative hot air.

Labels: Elfquest, Jack I. Martin, Teen Age Mutant Ninja Turtles

Origins of Valiant Efforts Part 1

(Please see Campus Crusade part 38 - May 12, 2009 post of background to Valiant.)

One of the consequences of mailing out the first issue of
Valiant was receiving replies from interested individuals.
Most of these responses were in the form of letters. Early
on I received a phone call from a person in Southern
California who saw the Comics Buyer's Guide ad and
started receiving the issues. The phone calls were always
amiable and encouraging. These calls began on an infrequent
basis in 1984. By 1986 the caller who identified himself as
Ralph Miley moved to nearby Santa Fe Springs. Santa Fe Springs
is about 20 minutes by freeway southeast of Rosemead.
Ralph was a school teacher and recently married.
Ralph was one of the original members of Alpha-Omega when
it was formed in 1985. After two years of phone chats we decided
to meet in person and I visited him at his home on August 30, 1986.
Ralph is a delightful and out-spoken brother in the Lord and
this was the first meeting of many that occurred over the years.
Our first meeting (where I also met his lovely wife Desiree) was
one of talking about comics in general and possibly doing some
projects together.

The next time we met he brought another Christian comics
fan (and substitute teacher) with him named Charles Whitley.
Charles was a strong role playing game enthusiast and a
graduate of Point Loma Narazene College. Both Ralph and
Charles were intensely interested in producing comic books.
Ralph had met Charles at a comic book shop and their mutual
interest in making comics brought them together. Both were
filled with fire and vision about how good comics should be
done. They had past favorite series that loomed large in their
minds as the way comics should produced. However, most
of the then current professional offerings by Marvel or DC
didn't fit that standard. This type of attitude I've found is
hardly unusual but quite typical among older comics fans.
I have certainly have seen it in myself.

Perhaps the biggest obstacle for the older comics reader is
being able to lay aside these pre-conceived notions and
realize that while there is a huge amount of chaff being
produced at any given time in comics history there are also
examples of very good new material being produced. Among
many fan creatives there is a desire to show the world what
really good comics are like. For many it is difficult to separate
what is reality and what is delusion in terms of actually making
comics, marketing them and finding a sufficient audience to
continue producing them on a regular or even full-time basis.
Usually fan creators are disillusioned with the major publishing
houses and desire to go the independent route of self-expression.
When Ralph and Charles presented their desires to me I had
great reservations.

Labels: Charles Whitley, Comics Buyer's Guide, Point Loma Narazene College, Ralph Miley

Comics Fandom 1982 Part 2

So I came into the group with some expectations that were
perhaps 15 years out of date. Most of the fans, a group of from
6 to 8 people, were primarily interested in discussing the most
recent offerings of Marvel or DC Comics. Some felt personally
betrayed by editorial changes made, for example, by Jim Shooter
(then editor-in-chief) at Marvel Comics. Many meetings tended
to degenerate into boring roasting Jim Shooter sessions. Others
hearkening back to recent runs on specific comics that were
supposedly so much better than what was then being offered.

While I had experienced some fan negativity through the fanzines
of the 1960s it seemed as if the major emphasis of these discussions
was on fault finding with the major comic companies. Some of the
more loquacious members used the group as a platform for
pontificating about the perceived faults of the major publishers.
Comics history, constructive discussion and methods of normal
civil discourse seemed to be in short supply during many of the
meetings. Even though I hung in with the group for a long time
in hopes that I might steer the discussions in more positive directions
I eventually found my efforts were not bearing fruit.

Perhaps the most important thing to come out of this association
was some friendships that developed. One was with John Tigne,
a young artist, who later did some artwork on Charles Whitley's
Dragonstrike (in Valiant Efforts). John later went on to work for
several years as a background artist with Image Comics.
David Seidman, who worked as a comics editor with the
Los Angeles Times Syndicate and later with Claypool Comics,
was one of the more reasonable and well-spoken group members.
Perhaps out of this experience was the realization of the very
limited potential of being part of a secular group where there was
a lack of positive direction and common conversational civility.

Labels: Claypool Comics, David Seidman, John Tigne

Comic Fandom 1982

At the 1982 San Diego Comic Convention I picked up
a flier from the freebie table about something called
the Comic Arts Society that met weekly at the HiDeHo
Comics shop in Santa Monica, California. This was a
group of comics fans who got together to discuss comics.
Soon after getting settled in my new job at NCF I drove
to Santa Monica and found the comics shop (one of the
comic major stores in Southern California) and became
involved on a regular basis for probably two years.
(First date attended meeting was August 11, 1982 and
attended meetings through 1983 and into 1984).

My impressions of comic fans were largely shaped my
by interactions with fans in the 1960s and the fanzines
they produced. People like Jerry Bails who was a PhD
college professor who produced Alter Ego, Comics
Collector, The Comics Reader and the Alpha CAPA Apa
set a high standard. Others like Robert Jennings who
produced The Comics World with its lengthy, analytical
and well-thought out articles on old comics heroes,
Roy Thomas, a school teacher, and co-editor with Bails
on Alter Ego and later writer and editor at Marvel Comics
and DC Comics. Rick Weingroff in his Slam Bang and
Tint analyzed comics with an intellectual depth that
was rare but refreshing. Experienced adult fans like
Ronn Foss, Biljo White (a fireman), Howard Keltner,
Larry Herndon and Buddy Saunders and many others
also made important contributors to the hobby
of comic collecting. These people produced publications
that I respected and were very gracious in their exchanges
with other fans and readers. Early comic fandom had
a good spirited nature about it that was very refreshing.
My limited interaction with older Washington State fans
like Mike Robertson (I contributed to his fanzine
Concussion) in the late 1960s) also were cordial.

There were certainly many, many fanzines produced
during that time that were of minimal quality—
"crudzines" and there was a certain amount of carping
about unpopular editorial decisions by the major
publishers but still a gracious spirit prevailed in
most fanzines. Producing a fanzine was too much
work for it not to be an enjoyable labor of love.

Even though I started attending the San Diego
Comic Con in 1974 and thoroughly enjoyed it—
it was a different and perhaps less personal
experience than the 1960s fanzine scene. While
it was deeply satisfying to see and hear from the
writers and artists whose work you had admired
and enjoyed the experience was also very temporal
and fleeing. With a fanzine (or correspondence)
you had something you could keep and document
those early years. There was a potential paper trail
that didn't relay on rapidly fleeing memories.

Labels: Alter-Ego, Jerry Bails

This also lead to the first of a series of trips to the midwest
and eastern states. On each of these trips I used the
"Mennonite Your Way" system to help manage expenses.
This travel system had many Mennonite church members
opening their homes to travelers for overnight accommodations
at minimum expense. This proved to be a good way of meeting
some very nice people as well as making such a trip affordable
for one living on a modest salary. In late June and early July
1987 I traveled to Iowa. I flew to Minneapolis, Minnesota where
I visited Randall Van Meter for several days. We took a side
trip east along the southern shore of Lake Superior (Wisconsin)
and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Having never been to
the Great Lakes I found this experience fascinating. Lake
Superior is almost like a small sea. We went up the
Keweenaw Peninsula to the cooper mining area.

After this excursion I proceeded by rental car to Iowa.
I drove to New Hartford, Butler County (just west of
Waterloo and Cedar Falls). My father was born there
in 1902. The Ensign family moved there in 1854 from
upstate New York (my great grandfather, George
Washington Ensign was part of that family group).
My grandfather William Bradley Ensign with his family
moved from Iowa around 1904. They initially moved to
Missouri and by 1907 moved again to western Colorado
(Delta/Montrose). This was a very gratifying experience
as I visited the Oak Hill cemetery where ancestors and
other family members were buried. From there I went
to Guthrie Center (south west of Des Moines) and visited
with a distant cousin Burnette Bailey. My mother's side
of the family (the Holdens and Baileys) came from
Guthrie Center in around 1908 to western Colorado.
My grandfather Clem Holden was born in Guthrie Center
in 1881. This was also a rich time of seeing where some
of my ancestors had lived.

From there I traveled to Curryville, Missouri. Curryville
was where the Ensigns (and the birthplace of my late
Aunt Adeline) moved for several years after leaving Iowa.
Then I traveled to Ensign, Kansas a tiny town southwest
of Dodge City. I investigated the reason for the name and
found out it was named in honor of a distantly relation,
George Leonard Ensign (1852-1935), who was an early
town developer and businessman in that area. This was
the first of several trips with on of the primary objectives
was to research family history.

Labels: Curryville, Ensign, George Leonard Ensign, George Washington Ensign, Guthrie Center, IA, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, New Hartford, William Bradley Ensign