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[narfstar]

What was your first published work?

[crashryan]

My first published professional work was in Bob Sidebottom's semi-underground, Barbarian Comics. The newspaper work came later; I drew Dallas and Star Trek for about two years in the 1980s.

[narfstar]

Barbarian Comics was one of the few Underground Comics that I ever bought in the seventies. Outside of the base they had some head shops. I remember going through the halls and rooms with black lights on the black light posters all over the walls. I was already a fan of Conan so Barbarian Comics and Barbarian Women and Barbarian Killer Comics were the few underground books that I ever bought.

[crashryan]

Yeah, Narf, I had a strip in Barbarian Women, too ( I did three stories in all for Bob Sidebottom). Absolutely gorgeous Nestor Redondo cover on BW. Two future Big Time Pros (which classification does not include me) started out in Bob's magazines: comic artist / animation director Will Meugniot and s-f cover painter Michael Whelan. Whelan wrote and drew a short strip in one issue. I don't remember which one. As far as I know that's the only comic work Whelan ever did.

[Kracalactaka]

this one crash?
http://www.comics.org/issue/264247/

and Star Trek?
https://www.amazon.com/Star-Trek-Newspaper-Library-American/dp/161377494X

https://www.amazon.com/Star-Trek-Newspaper-Strip-2/dp/1613777760/ref=pd_bxgy_14_img_2?ie=UTF8&refRID=XAQ6W697BQAYYWMABC69

(These  I need to buy)

[crashryan]

Yes, krac, that's the mag I meant. Nice cover, huh? I don't remember where Bob found the painting--I don't believe he owned it--but while he had it around the shop I risked ruining the thing by drooling all over it.

The IDW Star Trek books are nice productions. I'm thrilled to see Thomas Warkentin's work available to a wider audience. He both wrote and drew very well indeed. I started out pencilling the odd week to help him meet deadlines, then took over when Thomas decided to leave. By that time I was already drawing Dallas as well. Crazy.

I could go on and on about Thomas; he did great stuff though much of his output was animation designs which never saw print. Readers of the earliest Heavy Metal magazines will remember his "Soft Landing," a lovely painted strip which was adapted for the HM movie.

[K1ngcat]

Thanks for the reminder, crash! I also remember Brick Bradford and The Phantom, both of whose adventures I bought in collected "albums" when on holiday in Cornwall, where I also discovered the digest-sized "Mad" magazine reprints with superhero spoofs like Superduperman, Plastic Sam and Black & Blue Hawks.  Why I never saw any of them nearer home, I can't say!

It also reminds me that there was a fourth shop in my home town that sold comics, down one of the backstreets, they had Marvel comics in the days of mags like Amazing Adult Fantasy, before the superhero boom.

So you lived my dream, eh? I always wanted to be a comic book artist, but economics got in the way, and after two years of "training" I had to get a "proper job" so I could afford to pay the rent.   Sic transit gloria mundi and all that...

[Drahken]

I grew up in the 80s rather than the 60s, but there weren't any comic shops then either (at least not in my area). There was one periodicals shop in town, but it was mostly about magazines and only had a limited comics section.

Many of my comics came from flea markets and the like, I would look for someone with a box of loose comics for around 10 to 25 cents each and buy a bunch.
Another big source for me was a local family owned conveience store, they had a spinner rack full of coverless comics for 15 cents (later raised to 25). I thought it strange that a retail store would be selling apparently used comics, but they were cheap and I was broke, so I really didn't care. It wasn't until many years later that I learned of the shady practice of taking the covers off comics/magazines/novels, sending those back to the publisher and claiming the books were destroyed, just to turn around and sell them at a discounted price.
Then there was a periodicals store (something of a precursor to the dedicated comic shops) with a moderate selection of comics. I got quite a few new ones there, right at the time when comics were shifting from 75 cents to a dollar.
I also got quite a few in those deals where you get a bag of 3-5 overstock comics for a couple bucks, and a bunch of comics during a school carnival. I sucked at the games, but I did have a bunch of game tickets and knew a couple kids who loved to play the games and didn't care about the prizes, so I gave them tickets to play and they gave me the comics they won. I got a bunch of transformers comics that way, plus some archie, sectuars, and a few others.