Magic Hat 21 Press

Goodbye 2011, Hello 2012

2011-12-28T10:57:00.000-08:00

I really have to do something with this blog and stop playing DC Universe Online SOOOO much! LOL!

In actuallity, I do have plans for this blog and it all starts with getting off my butt. It's just a list of ideas, but here are the plans for the Magic Hat 21 Press blog:

Type up and post my original stories
Post the scans of the cards I made for my characters
Offer new stories

...............and that is not all!

I have an idea for an article that i am working on that will require a little ebay hunting to make it come to fruition. Also, I will be planning on actually selling what original copies I have remaining of my zines as well as make some special edition versions that will include some much needed edits and revisions. I look forward to really getting back in to writing for 2012 as I honestly do miss it.

So with that said, I raise my glass of Guiness to you and wish you an awesome, prosperous, and wonderful New Year!!!

Part II Premiere This Friday

2011-09-21T09:32:00.001-07:00

First Cover Attempt

Blog Redesign and vintage Magic Hat 21 Collector Cards?

2011-08-05T17:35:00.000-07:00

Thought I would change my blog up a little and make a little announcement.

When I got all my zine stuff from my sister I forgot to check a pocket in the laptop bag that some of my writing was in. I recently was looking through the bag and opened the side pocket to find some cards I had created. One set was created by cutting up some old school folders and drawing pictures on the white side. The other set was drawn on bristol board that my mom got for me from Michael's. These are being scanned and will be posted in the coming week. So until then, here is a little sneak at the newly found packaging I made out of some college ruled lined paper.

Packaging art for Magic Hat 21 Crito Cards

YouTube Video and Update

2011-07-31T09:07:00.000-07:00

My second video, The Striker Z Way:The Art of Gadget Controlling. This one is Part 1 of my 2-part series on how to play as a Gadget Controller in DC UNIVERSE ONLINE and went live on Friday July 29, 2011. I had a lot of fun piecing all the game footage I shot together in to a cohesive, meaningful video that explained both through narration and visual how to play this character role. As far as the writing goes, the bug is starting to come back due to a contest I am running for my fellow Unlimited Knights league members, challenging them to write an origin story for their hero(es) or villain(s) they have created for the game. This prompted one of the league founders to promote creative writing with the addition of a "Members Stories" section.

It's Sunday and it's off to work I go. Thank you for returning and I will catch you later!

Let's Start This Back Up

2011-07-22T22:41:00.000-07:00

Well would you look at that. I have not touched this blog in almost a year. You can thank laziness and DC Universe Online for that. This blog is ready to come roaring back to the life. More on that later. But it feels good to be back!

I look forward to posting up the stories I wrote back in 1997 when I published my zine her in the Bay Area and this really stems from story sharing with a few of my fellow league members of the Unlimited Knights just last night. It got me thinking about writing again and how much I really do miss it. I have not written fiction in general in such a long time that the blank page is probably my greatest nemesis and my storytelling has become stagnant. But I would love to share these stories that I poured blood, sweat, and hours in to. I will be fixing those old stories, doing the usual grammatical editing and such, but still leave that young tone intact as that is what made them what they are.

I do want to take time and thank anyone who is still reading this blog, has found this due to some crazy Google or Yahoo search when you were looking for something completely opposite, found this as a link someone's site, or was told vie word of mouth to check this site out. I know it's not much, but I would like this to be another home not just for me, but for those of you seeking an escape for entertainment or to objectively listen to the voice and opinion of someone else. That's really my main goal. And if you do not agree with me then that is awesome because you, my friend , are human and an individual. So I end this post with a quote from E.E. Cummings, befitting the tone of this blog entry, and leave you with these words to think about today and tomorrow:

To be nobody but yourself in a world doing its best to make you
everybody else means to fight the hardest battle any human can ever
fight and never stop fighting.

The End of August

2010-08-28T13:56:00.000-07:00

I am enjoying my week-long vacation and, in a shear fit of boredom and complacency, decided that I was going to change the template on my blog. Today. About an hour ago. Yeah, it looks good now.

In some rather unimportant but exciting news, I got a new printer with a built in scanner, making it easier to scan cover art into Photoshop for coloring. In order to accurately display HP' wondrous work of technology, I had to clean my desk and remove items that I did not need and put up "inspirational objects" to get the creative juices going. My space is almost there, but not quite.

As far as the zine, I keep having writers block. Each time I attempt to commit something to paper the characters illicit to not cooperate. They either decide they either want to sit at home and watch television, play video games, go out to the movies, stuff their faces full of food, go to the gym, or stand there and stare at me like I am supposed to know what they want to do, like I know the story of their lives or something. People. Sheesh!

In all seriousness, I have created a template for the zine and have been mapping out the first 5 issues as far as a synopsis. Looking forward to when the creative juices start flowing and I find myself awake at three in the morning feverishly writing away as the morning sun creeps ever closer to peaking over the mountains and then realizing, "Oh, yeah, I have work in four hours." Great stuff.

As always, thank you to those of you following the blog, even if you have not registered as a follower because you think the guys at the water cooler are going to piss themselves silly when they find out. More info to come in the future and who knows, maybe I will start posting some stories.

Thank you and see ya soon!

Yeah, I am still alive,

2010-06-09T15:01:00.000-07:00

Well, if anyone is following this blog at all, it has been about 3 months since my last post. Personal life, work, and school decided to take over the steering wheel and so I have been preoccupied with meeting those needs. And yes, I confess, some of that has been succumbing to playing video games when I should be writing; that at least means I am human, right? When time is available, I have been working on some new storylines for some of my characters and fleshing out the new Magic hat 21 relaunch. As I may have alluded to in previous posts, I have been reading over all my old notes and seeing just how I can bring these stories in to the present.

I received a few emails pertaining to my February 2010 find of unsold zines and asking if I will be selling the copies I have or offering digital copies of them. It is something I have been thinking about and with the recent announcement that iPhone 4 will support iBook, offering digital versions does sound intriguing. I would also love to sell the copies I have, too. This is something I still need to think about. It's not like millions of people are clamoring to buy my work...not yet, that is.

So, I sound of this ninth day of June by saying I thank those of you still following this blog after three months of no posts and that more information will be on the once I have a better idea of where I am going.

Thank you and see ya soon!!

The Treasure Trove Has Been Found

2010-02-27T23:23:00.000-08:00

I got a call from my sister a few months back who told me she was holding hostage some of my writing and drawings. If I wanted them, I had to drive up north to Tuolumne and pick them up. I finally had a weekend off just recently, so the Misses and I headed on up. It was like Christmas when she showed me what she had.

She had the original art for the cover to Magic Hat 21 Origins #1, Magic Hat 21 Premier #3, and an unused cover for a zine that I had never written. On top of that, she had my proofs for every single zine I published, unpublished proofs, and she had something I totally had forgotten about: my print run list and some original unsold copies of Magic Hat 21 Premier #2, Magic hat 21 Premier #3, and the reprint issue of Magic Hat 21 #1 from 1998. What was even more amazing is that she had the proofs of my zines as well as some unpublished proofs that I had totally forgotten about. So instead of going back and editing the other posts in the Birth of Magic Hat 21 series, here is THE official print runs and publishing order:

Magic Hat 21 Premier #1 (June 1997)
Print run: 150
Official Story: I printed 100 copies and decided to give them out at the New Park Mall Sports Card and Collectibles show; see The Birth of Magic Hat 21 (Part 4 of 5) post. I printed an additional 50 copies, 4 of which were given to my grandparents, parents, nana, and my best friend David, and those are what I put up at Clay’s Comics, Crush Comics, Rasputin Records, and Treasures of the Youth after the show. The picture below is the newly discovered proof.

Magic Hat 21 Premier #2 (July 1997)
Print run:50
Official Story: The print run is just as I stated in The Birth of Magic Hat 21 (Part 4 of 5) post. In the pile of recently discovered unsold zines there are 14 copies, one of them the “special edition” version. The special edition was one issue out of the run where I would color the cover with art markers.

Magic Hat 21 Premier #3 (August 1997)
Print run: 30
Official Story: The print run is just as I stated in The Birth of Magic Hat 21 (Part 5 of 5) post. In the pile of recently discovered unsold zines there are 8 copies.

Magic Hat 21 Orignis #1 (September 1997)
Print run: 10
Official Story: The print run is just as I stated in The Birth of Magic Hat 21 (Part 5 of 5) post. In the pile of recently discovered unsold zines there is 1 copy.

Magic Hat 21 Origins #2 (October 1997)
Print run: Unpublished
Official Story: This never made it any farther than the proof stage. This issue was to introduce a character I called Decimator who lived in Dublin, Ca.

Vindicator #1 (October 1997)
Print run: Unpublished
Official Story: The recent discovery of this was jaw dropping. I totally forgot about this issue. I had commissioned a drawing from an artist I met in June of 1997 at the Newpark Mall Sports Card and Collectible show who was going to draw a cover for me of my characters, Vindicator. I had the proof all printed out and it was to be a send away issue. I wanted the readers who had every issue thus far to mail them to me and I would mail them back their issues along with this. Suffice it to say, the artist never came through so I never published this. (More on this issue and the character in a future post.)

Magic Hat 21 Premier #1 (1998 Reprint)
Print run: 20
Official Story: My recently discovered notes indicated that I printed 20 copies and only put them up at Crush Comics in Castro Valley, CA. In the pile of recently discovered unsold zines there are 2 copies, one stapled and the other unstapled.

Magic Hat 21 Premier #2 (1998 Reprint)
Print run: Unpublished
Official Story: This never made it any farther than the proof stage.

The Romandinasia (1997)
Print run: Unpublished
Official Story: This never made it any farther than the proof stage. This was my short story that I had originally wrote for the Castro Valley High School literary magazine, Logos, in 1994, but edited and reworked by a more mature author. (More on this in a future post)

So there you have it, the official list. Now I am planning on offering my unsold copies, but I have yet to make a definite decision on when and how I will be doing this. Right now I am still in the design phase of relaunching my zine, but more information on that will be coming in the later months. For those of you reading this blog, I want to thank you and encourage you to pass the word on to others to come check this little blog out. The next post could be about anything...so see ya soon!

New Post Coming Soon

2010-02-21T23:15:00.001-08:00

Just a heads up: the Editor-In-Chief is editing one of my posts and it will be posted shortly. Wait till you read this one!

Still Here...and a Few Words

2010-02-15T18:42:00.001-08:00

I just wanted to let everyone know that I am still going to post to the blog; some people thought I was done after Part 5 of The Birth of Magic Hat 21. I am in the process of working out future posts as I go back and look at my old stories and see just how I can rewrite them. I am bringing my sister Cola on board as my editor since she noticed some grammar and missing words in my other posts. She's a writer herself and is on her way to becoming an English teacher, so who better to have.

It's sort of late in the day and I just finished washing both mine and my wife's cars. So before I ramble off on an incoherent tangent about random thoughts that happen to pop into my brain, a tip of the hat to you.

The Birth of Magic Hat 21 (Part 5 of 5)

2010-02-08T13:53:00.000-08:00

I opened the fan letter and read it. Javier explained in his letter that he had picked up one of the free copies of Magic Hat 21 Premier #1 at Clay’s after reading through part of the Red Devil story while making a purchase at the register. I showed my mother and father the letter, both giving me the proverbial pat on the back. I was on a high from that point. I did not care if I sold out or sold one, there was one person out there who was hooked and wanted more. So I sat down at the word processor, grabbed my stack of 42 Modern Magic 2 and Magic Hat 21 issues I had written from 1990 to the present and thought: what the hell am I going to put in issue #3?

My list of upcoming issue I had put in the first two zines never explained what was to be in the third issue, just the conclusion to the Striker Z story and the end to the 3 part mini-series. I knew I was going to show off my mutant team M-X 2, but the story needed work. I talked to my best friend David, whom I had known since first grade and is not the toy guy I talked about in Part 4, about reworking my story and that I needed some new idea. He came up with the craziest thing I had ever heard, but it fit. I ran with it and wrote out a mini-prologue for the third issue of Magic Hat 21 Premier that would introduce M-X 2 to the world. During my rewrite of my older stuff, I had dropped the Wolverine thing and created a new roster of characters and a far better storyline. I decided to tone down the mini-prologue after reading it and just give enough information to sate people’s tastes and not give away the idea my friend David gave me. After the Striker Z story and the mini-prologue were done, in an instance of madness, I decided I would use my horrible artistic talent and draw a cover for that issue to make it jump off the stands.

I drew a total of five covers, going with the fifth cover I drew. My attempt at emulating a ‘60’s style of art was definitely in vain as my art sucked…..bad! I ended up putting the other four covers at the end of the issue for continuity purposes. Below are the original four cover drawings I drew on Bristol board along with the final published issue. As I write this sentence I am staring at these 12 year old drawings and laughing because these look like something a 10 year old draw, not a 20 year old.

First Cover Attempt

Second Cover Attempt

Third Cover Attempt

Fourth Cover Attempt

Final Cover Attempt

Published Issue of Magic Hat 21 Premier #3 (Aug. 1997)

I learned my lesson from the last issue, printing only 30 copies at Copymat, I dropped the new ones, hot off the press, at Clay’s with anticipation. Joel from Clay's called me the next day to inform me of all the misspellings and grammatical errors in that issue. I was furious with my editor (mom) and raced down there on my bicycle to pick all the copies up.I had to redo the entire issue and this time, THIS TIME, I decided I would be very conservative and printed only 15 copies.

I then set about working on Magic Hat Origins #1, the issue that would be the full introduction of M-X 2 and my best cover artwork to date. My father, who had assisted inking the cover to issue #3 of Magic Hat 21 Premier, assisted me with inks on this cover. I printed only 10 copies, coloring one of the covers in with Prisma markers. Below is the printed issue and the first covert art attempt.

First Cover Attempt

Final Cover Attempt

Actual Published Issue of MAgic Hat 21 Origins #1(Sept. 1997)

September 1997 would be the last time I would publish my zine as my parents divorced that year just prior to my birthday in December. I had to grow up overnight and bring my family together to find somewhere to move to so we could restart our lives. Immature as I was, we relocated to Castro Valley and I started working multiple jobs to help make ends meet. In March of the following year I set about reprinting all those issues again because we were given a computer by a friend of my mother's. I edited everything, drew a cover and printed a proof copy. This never saw the light of day. I printed only 20 copies and they were only available at Crush Comics in Castro Valley.Shortly thereafter, I stopped doing my zine all together. Life just throws you the ball and sometimes, you have to grab on tight to it with both hands and run like frick'n hell with it.

So that’s what I did and never looked back.

Published Magic Hat 21 Premier #1 REPRINT (Apr. 1998)

As inconsequential as these rantings of a writer describing his journey are, I thank you, the reader, for taking the little precious time you have out of your life to sit there and read this little five part introduction. A writer, by their very nature, continuously and impulsively writes. They hunger, crave, and long for putting words onto the empty page and someone else embracing them. I did not think I would be posting daily, but here I am. Who really knows what I will be doing here or how I will communicate with you next. But rest assured, this is not the last you will hear of Michael Phariss.

Not by a long shot!!

- End of The Birth of Magic Hat 21

The Birth of Magic Hat 21 (Part 4 of 5)

2010-02-07T08:34:00.000-08:00

At the time I had decided to write my zine I had started collecting and trading figures. Hasbro had relaunched their Star Wars line in 1995, McFarlane’s sport and action figures were flying off the toy shelves, Hot Wheels were getting more popular, and The Batman Animated toy line was feverishly being picked up by collectors. I had made friends with this one toy collector, David, who ran New Generation Toys. He would sell his stuff at shows or give his cards out at toy stores to people looking for certain figures. I had found out that there was to be a Sports Card and Collectibles show at Newpark Mall June 21 – 22, so I asked if he was going to sell there. He said he would, so I asked if I could help out and hand out some of my zines I was working on. He said sure. I was jazzed that my first zine was going to see the light of day.

So had 100 copies of issue #1 and I thought to myself, I need to get these babies out there. I went to Rasputin Records in San Leandro, who at the time were selling zines, and spoke to the manager Tom, Mike at Crush Comics in Castro Valley, Joel at Clay’s Comics in Hayward, and Scott at Treasures of Youth in Hayward to see if they would take a few copies and hand them out. After I gave some out to a few close friends, family members I went to that show with 50 copies of Magic Hat 21 Premier #1 and handed out every single last one over the two day period. That issue was the introduction of Red Devil. I had totally rewritten the storyline, which now involved a teacher in Dyste city who had decided to become a vigilante (how original) and clean up the city after the death of one of his students on a class field trip.

Whew… Take deep breath… and exhale. What a horrible run-on sentence.

After I had handed all of them out, I set to work on the second issue just waiting for the fan mail to start pouring in. Now mind you, I had called multiple comic shops in the months prior to writing these just to see what comic shop owners opinions were of the current crop, or crap, of comic books that were or were not selling and who the most popular writers were. I really tried to have stories that could stand up on their own because my zines....

...had no pictures.

The owner of Clay’s was already selling zines so I made a conscious decision to only sell them there thinking I would have a better chance with a $1.25 price tag than anywhere else. The second issue finished the Red Devil storyline and introduced the world to the character whose name in 2002 would don the front of a DC comic book: Striker Z!

The Power Company: Striker Z (Mar. 2002, Copyright DC Comics)

Published Issue of Magic Hat 21 Premier #2 (July. 1997)

FLASH FORWARD: The following year, in 1998, I went to WonderCon in Oakland, CA and handed some of my zines out to DC, Marvel, Image Comics, and indie press writers and editors in the hopes of landing a writing gig. I handed one of my zines to DC writer Denny O’Niel containing a story about Striker Z. In 2002, DC Comics published a comic book about a team called Power Company. But before the series came out, they published one-shots on each team member. One of those team members was named Striker Z. I found this out while working at the Metreon in San Francisco when I saw it advertised in Previews. Boy was I pissed. I contacted a few lawyers, but no one wanted to take my case. I had still been writing my stories about Striker Z and DC had the nerve to do this? To this day I will not buy any DC comic book because of that and look forward to the day where I can publicly prove I own Striker Z and get what is rightfully mine!

Okay, off the soap box now.

I printed 50 copies of issue #2 and I found out that I had some minor misspellings and printing errors. Only two or three copies sold of that issue and taught me a very important lesson: realistic printing run. I sat down to write issue #3 sort of depressed that I had not sold out, but a fan letter I received in the mail changed all of that and gave me hope that this could pick up.

(TO BE CONTINUED)

The Birth of Magic Hat 21 (Part 3 of 5)

2010-02-06T10:18:00.000-08:00

I do not know the date I created my mutant team since that issue I wrote is missing the cover, but it was sometime during my freshman year in high school in 1991 and during my drama class; that much, I remember. I had not written anything since leaving junior high, Avery was still writing his stuff and I had still been thinking about my mutant team and how to craft a story. I knew I wanted Wolverine to lead the team, but how they came together was the hard part. I spoke to Avery about his Team-X stories and he told me that in his “world” Professor X had died and Team-X actually brought about the world wide peace between the mutants and humans; he had that as the outcome of the series. So I thought I should put my team way into the future and have some mutants rise that want to rule the world.

Since most X-Men readers knew Wolverine aged slowly, I decided that he would be the team leader and created a bunch of other characters. So the storyline I created revolved Wolverine trying to reform an X-Men type group to go after these rogue mutants. The secondary storyline revolved around one of my characters being his brother and Wolverine eventually finding this out. For team members I first chose a character I drew back in seventh grade called Voltace. I then created a few other team members: Voltage, Glidwave, and Metamorph. I wrote a total of six issues and at Avery’s request to stay original, I dropped Wolverine out of the team around the fifth issue. This was a really hard series to write since I had five characters to deal with. I had never taken on something like this. I wrote a total of eight stories: six issues and two annuals.

After my freshman year I stopped writing these stories and really got in to short stories, especially horror. I put all my writing into a binder and put them away in a wooden chest I had in my room and sort of just forgot about them for a few years. I graduated high school in 1995 and off I went to community college to write for the college newspaper. I then decided to get a job instead of doing the college bit and sort of veered away from writing for awhile. Then, in early 1996, I found those old stories again and started reading them. I made a decision to rewrite everything, and started creating those little stapled issues all over again. I also decided to change the name of the company to Magic Hat 21; I chose 21 because it was the reverse of my old soccer jersey. At my job I befriended a couple co-workers who also wrote. We were talking one day and brought up those little stories I was rewriting and how they looked. Come to find out, I was writing what was called a zine and people were paying to read them.

I did not have a computer at the time so I researched what zines were at the library and asked local bookstore sellers so I could see what one looked like. I bought a few magazines that talked about zines and decided that right then there I was going to self publish. My mom had a Brother Word Processor and she told me I could use that to write and print my stories. I decided I would print one copy on the processor and then go to Copymat or Kinko’s to get them printed up.

My mom was my editor. She proof read the first issue and I made so many edits that my mom convinced me to just print the damn thing. When it was all said and done my mom took the dummy copy with her to work and over the course of two weeks printed up 100 copies for me. The first issue was going to be free now all I had to do was think how and where I was going to give these out.

(TO BE CONTINUED)

The Birth of Magic Hat 21 (Part 2 of 5)

2010-02-05T16:21:00.000-08:00

I looked at Avery and smiled. I went to my seat as class started and the first idea that popped into my brain was someone like Daredevil. Blame it on the Incredible Hulk "made for television" movie that had Daredevil in, but that is how I came up with Red Devil. I then unstapled the issue I wrote and stapled the new story into it. The sad thing is that a few years later I ripped that story out of the first issue and who knows where it went. After class I handed it to Avery for him to read. After school he met me out front and handed it back, telling me to create someone a little more original. I spent the next few days trying to come up with an original character. All I could think about were Marvel and DC characters. Then on October 19, 1990 I created Star Striker Z.

So here is this police officer, Joseph Arthur Glasperian, who is this cop that goes after mob type guys. He’s called in on his day off to a bust and ends up rescuing his girlfriend, who happens to be nurse, and at the end of the story she is gunned down before his eyes a la the Punisher type tragic storyline; except Sara lives. While writing Modern Magic 2, Issue #2, I also wrote another Red Devil story and again, a few year later, I removed that story, erased the cover and made it a Star Striker Z only story. I did that a lot later on trying to create some continuity, but I ended up losing some cool stories. So the next day, I bring this story to school so Avery can read it. He responds he likes the character, so I try writing another issue of my series solely focusing on Star Striker Z.

While writing that story I had become infatuated with Tales From The Crypt, so I wrote my first horror story: The Grim Reapers Tales of Terror. OOOOOOHHHH, so cheesy! The story was a retelling of the couple who go to make point. They park under a tree and the boyfriend has to leave because the car won’t start. He leaves and the girl is terrorized by an unseen force that keeps hitting the car. It is not until the police arrive to rescue her that she discovers all the thumping on the car is from her dead boyfriend handing from the tree above.

I then wrote up a list of other stories I was going to write for my company in the form of an update type book. I had stuff in there like The Punisher, Michelangelo from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Star Striker Z, Red Devil. I finished my Star Striker Z and Grim story on November 6, 1990 and had Avery read it. It was at this point he handed me a few of his issues he had been writing for his company he aptly named Modern Magic; this was because he was a far better writer than I and I looked up to him, plus it made it look like I was an offshoot branch, or the baby of the large parent company.

X-Men was at its peak. The X-tinction agenda story line was hot due to Chris Claremont's solid writing and Jim Lee and Rob Leifeld’s awesome artwork. In that stack of stories Avery handed me were ones about a team of mutants he created: Team-X. I knew right then and there that my next story would involve a team of mutants and have Wolverine as its leader.

(TO BE CONTINUED…)

The Birth of Magic Hat 21 (Part 1 of 5)

2010-02-04T09:27:00.000-08:00

Let me introduce myself.

Michael Phariss - Creator/Writer

My name is Michael Phariss and I have lived in the California Bay Area for most of my life. This blog is me getting with the technology program as well as making an attempt to restart my zine that I use to write during the late '90's. All stories have a beginning, so what better place to begin than during my 8th grade year of Junior High.

Specifically, October 16, 1990.

Like most kids into comics at the time, I was reading Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comics. I also was starting to discover other Independent books from publishers like Dark Horse and Now Comics. The Flash television show was my favorite and there was this kid in my class, Avery, that would write a story, create a generic looking comic cover, and staple them together. I would always catch him writing feverishly during science class and one day I asked him what he was doing. So he told me about this fictitious company of his and how he was writing his own stories and such, then handed me one of his stories to read.

The story was written in pen on college rule binder paper, stapled together next to each of the three holes. I read it and was impressed. I had always liked writing, it was something my teachers told me I was quite good at, but I never thought of doing for fun, on my own terms. I gave him his story back after class - yes, I read the entire 10 page story during class - and told him I would write my own.

I went home that evening and sat at my desk - I still have that desk - and decided to write a story about The Flash entitled "The Capture of The Drug Dealer" that takes place on, what else, October 16, 1990. In the story, The Flash chases down and captures a man known as The Drug Dealer. The story was written in pencil on 3 sheets of college ruled binder paper and then I added a front and back cover. I drew lighting bolt logo on the front, used a red ball point pen to write The Flash, and stared at my story and thought, " I need a name for my company." On my desk next to me were a copy of Voltron #1 by Modern comics and a book on magic card tricks. And thus was born: MODERN MAGIC 2!

Modern Magic 2 #1 (Oct. 16, 1990)

I went to school the next day, eager to show Avery my Flash story. He read it, smiled, and said something that change my life forever: "That was good, but why not make up your own original characters?"

(To Be Continued...)