I’ve read a lot of interviews with comic book creators over
the years. Interviews probably make up a good chunk of my education. Most comic
book artists mention that they made their own comic book as kids. I’ve always
felt a little insecure in my abilities because I can’t say that I’ve got many
childhood comics book under my belt. I was the type of kid that copied other
comic book artists, drew nice pin-ups of super-heroes, and creating my own
characters. I never really drew sequential panels. I never was compelled to
staple folded paper in half and fill up the pages with stories. I drew one
comic in fourth grade for a creative writing assignment. It was/is barely two
pages worth of content. Hopefully I can share it someday.
Having been exposed to superheroes from an early age, I have
always considered myself a fan. I started really getting into comic books
around fourth grade. I would buy and trade Uncanny X-men, Classic X-men,
Amazing Spider-man, G.I. Joe and Batman comics. I probably became an official addict
during the time of the “Batman: A Death in Family” series coupled with bat
mania sweeping the nation. Tim Burton’s
Batman had a profound impact on me. This was back in the days when you would
have to wait years for the VHS release. So the following when CBS aired the
first commercial for The Flash, I was hooked. The commercial showcased the
superheroic antics and bombastic score mixed with big-budget special effects and
would be broadcasted for free(!) into my living room.
Following the premier of the first episode, for whatever
reason, I HAD to adapt it into book form. Every superhero t-shirt, underoo,
wash cloth, action figure, blanket, movie, and comic book had led to this
point. The Flash TV show was the tipping point. The dam broke. Watching that premier
charged me with this creative impulse to make a book. This is probably the
closest thing to a childhood comic I have.
I HAD to make it a reality, but I couldn’t do it alone.
I went to school with my mom for nine years. We lived in the
Astoria Park school zone, but my mom taught at Kate Sullivan since I was two.
Pretty much my whole life. By the fall of 1990, I was attending next door
neighbor Cobb Middle School. Kate Sullivan started at around 8:30ish and Cobb
started the day around 9:10ish. I had time to kill in the mornings before my school
started. ALL of the aforementioned could be said for the Stephens brothers. Their
mom had known my mom for years. They taught together. Both Stephens brothers
attended Cobb. Rather than doing homework, we decided to spend our mornings
working on this Flash book. Somehow I did manage to get homework done (I
considered myself a “decent” student.) A school education paled in comparison
to a Flash education. A lot of the writing consisted of me dictating the story
to older brother Chuck (he was the best typist by this point.) I really just
wanted to draw ( at least 93% of the time.) Sometimes Kevin Stafford would drop
by my mom’s classroom in the morning to help. I don’t really remember in what
capacity, but I thought adding another name to the credits gave the project
some extra heft.
Looking at the book now, I can’t help but see it as an artifact
of its time.
The book was written in the back corner of my mom’s
classroom on her Apple II. The title page needed something special. Enter:
Printshop (Pro/Deluxe?)
There’s a really funny youtube video that walks you through
the program here. You can see that we used it to great effect: fancy borders,
and a “three-dimensional” “Flash Font” for the title.
The word processing
program that we used didn’t have spell
check. It didn’t have much of anything. The font choices were limited to “bold”
“underlined” “italic” and “shadow.” I’m pretty sure you could change the type
size from small, to medium, and large. The pages were printed on a noisy dot
matrix printer. All four edges of the paper are rough from the perforation
tears. Back then, the noise from the printer was the sound of victory. The
machine applauded a job well done. Nowadays it’s just irritating and abrasive.
Creating this Flash book was personal milestone.
It is fitting that this month marks the twenty-fifth anniversary of the first
Flash TV series. October 2015 also represents another milestone and uncharted
territory for fans of any Flash T.V. series…the debut of a second season!
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