Match to Flame 241

Emboldened by my success, when that story arc ended, I didn’t want to shutter the small comic book “company” that I had become, so I came up with a way to continue the comic book story thread that would deepen my exploration of bygone days, and allow me to come up with more comic book covers. My characters Darin, an artist, and Pete, a writer, became my vehicles to dive more deeply into the past as I’d imagine them working in the comic book sweatshops of the Depression era. For some new comic book heroes, I once more went back to my own roots to strip-mine all of the other comic book characters and teams that I had created in the fifth grade, such as the Amazing Mr. Sponge, the Lunar Cadets, the Black Ghost, Charlie and Chuck, Moon Mile Meek, the Arizona Ranger, Jupiter Moon, and Jim Volk Private Eye (apparently the fifth grade was one of my more creative years). As for the artists to create those covers, I went further back in time, all the way back to the maestros who were creating the comic books I was reading during that golden fifth grade era. One artist who held pride of place in my memory was Joe Giella, the super man who inked the pages of The Flash. Those who are familiar with these intros know that The Flash was the book that spun my head around and launched me into my dreams of what my future might be. When I talked with Joe and gave him my deadline, he said, “I’m here for you,” and I told him, “Joe, you’ve been here for me for a long time.” As amazing as it was to work with Joe Giella, I also had a cover drawn by Alan Bellman, who had worked with Stan Lee at Timely Comics during the dawn of superheroes—before I was even born! I actually got to ink that cover! It was like being present at the Creation. Inspired by all of this, I even traveled back to the dawn of my own creations and brought my teenage Funky cast forward through time to meet their adult selves. By journey’s end with this thread, I felt I had unlocked some of the secrets of those phantoms of my youth, and perhaps even those of a phantom (very close to me) I hadn’t intended. More on that last thing there in just a bit. Peering into the future, as I can because I’m already in it, all of these stunning covers would eventually be auctioned off for the benefit of the Lisa’s Legacy Fund for Cancer Research at Cleveland’s University Hospitals.

From The Complete Funky Winkerbean Volume 15