From around 1995 to 1998, I self-published a comic book titled Innocent Bystander. Six issues were published in that time period, along with a trade paperback, Is This The Way to Fiction? The Collected Innocent Bystander vol. 1, which collected issues 1-4 of the comics. In 1998, I teamed up with Rich Koslowski, of The 3 Geeks fame, to publish a comic book called Geeksville, which featured both Rich's and my work. That publication was eventually picked up by Image Comics, during one of their "let's throw as many comics against the wall as possible and see what sticks" periods. Geeksville lasted seven issues in that incarnation, for a total of ten issues including our original three issues.
Once I stopped self-publishing, the bloom was off the rose, so to speak, and I lost interest. Around the same time as the Image gig, I started working full-time for Comic-Con International: San Diego, as their Director of Programming. Almost a dozen years later, I'm still with them, but now as their Director of Print and Publications, writing, editing, and designing most of their publications including Comic-Con Annual, the Comic-Con International Souvenir Book, and Quick Guide, the WonderCon and APE Program Books, and other publications that go to professionals and exhibitors, plus providing the bulk of the content for the official Comic-Con website. While I'm still involved with the comics world--on a daily basis--the urge to write and draw comics has pretty much left me.
Still, there are those six or so issues of IB, which I dearly loved--and went broke--doing. Here they are in all their semi-glory. I still have some issues left (#3, the Marx Bros. issue is sadly all gone...it was my best-selling issue). If you're interested in ordering copies, please e-mail me.
INNOCENT BYSTANDER Ashcan--Presentation to publishers (1993)
Before I decided to self-publish, I produced this little (5.5" wide x 8.5" tall) "ashcan," a term used in comics to denote a test book. In the old days of comics, the major publishers would create these small publications to copyright a title, and the ashcans themselves were quite rare, usually only showing up in the publisher's files. This is rare, too...it's the only one I have left. I created about 25 or so of them to take to Comic-Con in San Diego in 1993, to give to prospective publishers. I failed miserably. When I came home, I decided to self-publish, but it took me another two years to actually get enough material together to do a book.
INNOCENT BYSTANDER #1 (1995)
There is nothing like self-publishing a book for the very first time. You do all this work, send it away to a printer (in my case, to the far-off, exotic locale of Texas) and wait for it to come back. One night, I came home from work, and there it was: 10 or so heavy boxes sitting on my front porch. I dragged them inside, opened one, and cried. It took me to the age of 40 to finally do this, and I suppose, in some strange way, it was my "mid-life crisis." But it was worth every penny, even though ultimately I spent way too much money doing it.
This first issue contains stories on my summer vacations in Atlantic City, the time I met two of the Three Stooges (Moe and Larry), some Chrismas memories, "Tales from the Tube," my true TV stories, and the first little doodlings about my cats, Stan and Ollie.
INNOCENT BYSTANDER #2 (1996)
I learned at least a little from my first venture into self-publishing. The first thing I did for issue #2 was to upgrade the paper. The first issue was printed on traditional comic book newsprint, and it was pretty crappy. Even today, 15 years or so after its printing, the paper is more light tan than white. So #2 looked better out of the gate. I kept my rambling format, jumping from subject to subject, including Buster Keaton, my own adaptation of Joan Osbourne's "What If God Was One of Us," a series of one-page stories centered around the title "I Don't Want to Grow Up!," also the cover feature, and more Stan and Ollie cat stuff. I added a letter column and continued my own writing on the obilgatory text page.
INNOCENT BYSTANDER #3 (1996)
I guess this is my breakthrough issue. I devoted an entire issue to the Marx Brothers, and got a whole lot of press and pretty much sold out of my entire print-run of 3,000 copies. More of an illustrated fanzine than comics, this issue portrayed my undying love for the Brothers Marx, especially Groucho. It includes biographies, film reviews, a fictional story, and "Everything I Need to Know I Learned from Groucho Marx." It was the first book from which one person bought all the original art. (I wish I still had it, to be honest.)
INNOCENT BYSTANDER #4 (1997)
The all cats, all the time issue, another really good seller for me, especially locally. For some reason a comics shop in the Oakland area of Pittsburgh kept selling out of this comic...at last count, they had sold over 60 copies. Must have been the poster in the window. This one is filled with all cat comics, little vignettes of my life with Stan and Ollie, my two brother cats that I got in 1985 (and left this mortal coil in 1998 and 2002, respectively).
INNOCENT BYSTANDER #5 (1998)
1998 was the year I was going to do this publishing thing right or quit. Turned out to be the latter. I produced three books that year, plus a little catalog to give away at conventions (see below). This first issue, which debuted in the spring in time for my backyard con, Pittsburgh Comicon, featured my first long-form story and was the only issue of IB that was 32 pages. It's the story of my first date, for my 8th grade junior high dance, my love of comics, and my weird friend. In some ways it's my best issue.
INNOCENT BYSTANDER WORLD TOUR CATALOGUE (1998)
I designed and printed this little 8-page wonder to be a giveaway for my convention appearances in 1998. I quit my TV designer job in March of that year and decided to give the comics thing a whirl, before getting a "real job" and getting on with my life. I did a new strip for the color back cover (the appropriately titled "Con Men"), and an official "tour badge" that was the front cover, featuring Stan and Ollie conquering the world. I went to four conventions over a 6-month period: Pittsburgh Comicon, WizardWorld Chicago (actually in beautiful downtown Rosemont, IL), Comic-Con International: San Diego, and Small Press Expo (SPX) in Bethesda, MD. I was met with underwhelming, if nice, responses and I did get to meet some fans of the book. But I realized sitting at a convention table and selling my book to the masses was not my cup of tea. Introverts don't do well with that type of thing.
THE COLLECTED INNOCENT BYSTANDER vol. 1: Is This the Way to Fiction? (1998)
My second publication of 1998 debuted in time for Wizard World Chicago (formerly the Chicago Comicon). It was a 112-page trade paperback compilation of the first four issues of IB, arranged by subject matter, and minus the letter and editorial pages. It also featured an introduction by Mark Evanier, something I badgered and cajoled out of him (these days I know Mark much better from working with him at Comic-Con, but I still have to badger him at times; cajole, not so much). I sold out of these (the print-run was only 1,000 copies) and I buy them when I come across them at comics shops these days, because for a while I didn't even have a copy for myself!
INNOCENT BYSTANDER #6 (1998)
My final issue debuted in time for the San Diego Comic-Con. It was a back-to-basics book, with an assortment of stories once again, featuring one of my personal faves, "I Am Joe's Stomach," a tale of my grandparents, plus more cat stuff, a sequel of sorts to my Atlantic City story in issue #1, and more. I didn't quite know this was my last issue, but in the tradition of 1960s comics, six issues seemed like a good run to figure out if this was going to work for me. It wasn't. But I wasn't done yet. Ahead of me--just down the road--lie Geeksville.
Click here to read about the next step in Innocent Bystander's history: The Geeksville books!
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