Comic Series
Sundry Comix
Da Boids
Nora Talbot
Larry Lagoon's
Fanzine Blues
Larry Lagoon's
Comic Dreams
Larry Lagoon's
Funny Pages
Suzy
by Richard O'Brien &
Bob Vojtko
Low Budget Funnies
by Bob Vojtko
Samurai Nun
by Bob Vojtko
Stovepipe
by Joe Wehrle, Jr.
Simon and Ronald are aspiring comic book creators and avid collectors. Simon is the artist, and Ronald is the writer of their creative team. Both are dedicated fans of the Wonder Person series. It's published by the Leading Comics company, where they dream of working one day on their own series.
The local drug store was the closest outlet for comics in my neighborhood. The new issues came out on every Tuesday and Thursday. The comics were displayed on a spinner rack just to the left (off panel) of the magazine rack shown in the above strip.
The above episode was inspired by a real event from the life of Steven Grant. He was upset with the behavior of a character in a long-running Marvel comic book series. I can't recall which one, but he was so disgusted he actually returned one of their famous No-Prize Awards along with a letter denouncing their new storyline. Unlike this comic strip with Ronald Moss, they actually returned the No-Prize and encouraged him to continue reading Marvel comics.
I was one of many comic book fans that aspired to creating comics professionally, so I spent many hours at the drawing board. Initially I was mainly interested in superheros, but I soon developed an appreciation for comic strips, pulp magazines, underground comix, and eventually began publishing my own mini comix as a part of the newave comix movement.
Every comic fan spends their share of time at the post office. The above comic strip shows a guy sending letters to Pompton Plains. This was a reference to mini comix creator and cartoonist, George Erling, who self-published the wonderful Yikes! newave comix - and happened to live in Pompton Plains.
In 1978, the daily mail delivery was a major event in the life of a comic collector. Fanzines like Gordon Love's Rocket Blast's Comic Collector (RBCC) and later, Alan Light's Comic Buyer's Guide, were the key fandom advertising venues. Comic fans poured through listings of 6 pt. type to uncover back issue bargains and learn of the latest, can't-miss fanzines. Of course, once you sent in an order every day was agony waiting for an envelope or package to arrive.
Another buddy of mine during my early days in comic book fandom was Haran White. We often went to the local drug stores to pick up the latest issues of Marvel and DC comics. It was always exciting to see the new comic book cover illustrations. The second comic strip on this page is based on a real dream Haran had one night. He really couldn't remember any of the details of the covers - bummer.
Backstory
The Simon Smith and Ronald Moss comic strip was based on my early days in comics fandom. One of my buddies in high school was Steven Grant. He once told me he was considering writing under the pseudonym Donald Ross. So I twisted the name around and came up with Ronald Moss.
Steven went on to write comics professionally. He's authored hundreds of titles including Whisper, The Punisher, Pat Novack for Hire, RoboCop - and of course, the popular Permanent Damage column at Comic Book Resources.
The first four comic strips in this series were done in 1978. If I remember correctly, they were published in The Buyer's Guide. The final batch of six were done in 1980 for the Funny Paper mini comix. Clay Geerdes ran one in an issue of his underground and newave comix newsletter Comix World next to a plug for Funny Paper.