|
Issue
1 of Megazeen came at a time of spiritual reawakening for Joseph Crossett
and me. Crossett had just wrapped up college, I had a few years as a
dad under my belt, and it had been 5 years since we wrapped up Cross
Press Comics Magazine #1. Though we had rarely been in contact over
the years, we were both separately getting the hunger for comics again.
As a fan of indy comics by the likes of James Kochalka, Crossett had
a more specific vision for this new anthology. He had also built up
a list of Christian cartoonists through Nate Butler’s old newsletter.
Just as he was trying to figure out how to put it together, he got a
phone call from me. I was trying to get back into comics- I had briefly
put feelers out for some work on indy mainstream comics, but I became
quickly convicted (reminded) that I had to do this God’s way.
Crossett is a visionary, a dreamer, an imagineer if I may borrow that
from the Disney people. He looks at the forest and admires how cool
the trees are, and finds some sort of hidden meaning in them that few
of us can fathom.
I am a manager. I see stuff that needs to get done and I do it. I see
the forest and consider how much paper I can get from them there trees,
and how many lumberjacks I’ll need to get the job done.
We
make a strange team.
Crossett wanted to distance himself from Cross Press, seeking to go
more raw and indy and less sci-fi and fantasy. He told me up front that,
for example, my work on Cross Press (Colossians) would probably not
have a place in this new comic. He sent me a few examples of some indy
comics so I could get the hang of it, and being that I was almost exclusively
a superhero kinda guy this was a good thing. I started to get it, but
I don’t think I got the hang of it until about issue 8.
Crossett did most of the recruiting for the first issue from the up-and-coming
cartoonist he knew of from Alpha-Omega and the Nate Butler circles.
He got Jesse Hamm to do our first cover (“draw a band wearing
cheesy angel wings” he said- this would remain the cover theme
for almost every issue going forward). He also allowed us to reprint
one of his “Comics to Bore and Confuse You” strips called
“Religious Fred.” We also got Aaron Trudgeon and Larry Blake
to reprint their “Christianman” Halloween tract (a la Jack
Chick). Monte Wilson subbed in an untitled strip at the last second.
Crossett had found Drew Pocza’s “Dude” in the net
and got him to do a new strip. Some guy named Craw the Mediocre (whose
work looked so amazing like Crossett’s that I guess Crossett decided
not to do a strip) kicked in a one-pager. I added two pages of a dream
sequence from Colossians that was just weird enough to fit in (but looking
back I cringe when I see it). Also, in the spirit of trying the indy
thing I created a pair of idiotic characters struggling with life issues
- and thus the first “Johnny Crouton and Hairball” saw the
light of day. Dave Quiggle, a t-shirt and skateboard artist, kicked
in a dragon pinup for the back cover.
Now, while that might seem like a lot - it was exactly 10 pages of comics
out of a 28-page book. But that was also part of Crossett’s vision,
that the book would also have comic and music reviews, news, editorials
and interviews. We devoted 4 pages to Axis Grafix, the brainchild new
company of Chuck Van Schaff with a bunch of very cool looking comics
that were due to come out very shortly. Never happened. By the way,
unbeknownst to us, Ben Avery had written the article which we pretty
much lifted off the net with Chuck’s permission. Crossett interviewed
Rob Schwager, a professional colorist, a believer, and one of our biggest
supporters ever since. He also interviewed Don Clark from the band Training
for Utopia, and reviewed several other albums and comics throughout
the book (most of which were VERY dated by then, but hey…).
We both did an editorial, but it was Crossett’s that became a
staple for the book. “The Poop” was born. “The Poop”
would take many forms over the years and be written by many different
contributors.
We printed 1000 copies through the Small Press Co-Op on newsprint and
split the cost between us. While the plan was to do the book in a nice
big comic format, we ended up doing a nice raw zine, and as it turned
out we liked it better this way (this would not change until issue 12).
Today, there’s a bare handful left of the original print.
As I looked back on this first issue, I’ve gotten beyond the simple
nitpicking of “wow, we could have done this better.” I’m
admiring the raw genius of a visionary, and admiring how much work Crossett
put into this book. His attitude and drive set the pace for the whole
series. While he was doing the book I created the website and the mechanisms
to sell it online. I didn’t even read the contents of the book
until it arrived on my doorstep in May 2002. And I liked it just fine.
Oh, buy it here
|
