Brady Wentworth needed an artist for his new Charlie and Chuck book. Coy Dockett, a local freelance artist in Cleveland, needed a job. When Coy showed up at the Batom Comics offices in the Eaton Building with his portfolio, Brady couldn’t understand why Coy had been let go by the local greeting card company at which he’d worked. The work Brady was looking at showed talent, was professional and would be a perfect match for the new “kitchen characters” of his fourteen-year-old phenom Mitchell Knox. Brady hired Coy on the spot and even provided him a workspace in what would soon become known with more than a little irony as the Batty Batom Bullpen.
Coy showed up for work promptly at nine o’clock the next morning. He was ushered by Brady to a drawing board in a corner of the large room. A blank sheet of bristol board drawing paper awaited him on that drawing board along with page one of the first Charlie and Chuck script. An hour later when Brady strolled by to check on Coy’s progress, the page of bristol board was still pristine in its blankness. Brady chalked it up to a bout of cold feet and resolved to check in again after lunch. He wasn’t worried. After all, he’d seen the man’s portfolio and what he was capable of. When he returned after lunch, he found Coy still staring at the blank page. Brady’s bile slowly began to rise. For crying out loud he thought, Mitchell Knox’s scripts had even included sketches of how the story should flow artistically! How hard can this be? In his frustration he grabbed a pencil from the taboret next to the drawing board and said, “Put the damn villain here!” making a mark on the paper as he raged at the dumbstruck artist. Coy looked at the line for a moment and then picked up an eraser and removed the it. Then he took the pencil from his irate editor and replaced it with a more elegant line that began to give form to the cover’s villain. Thus Brady and Coy gave birth to an ice breaking ploy that would become a daily routine for as long as Coy worked there. And Batom Comic’s third new entry into the comic book field was born.
