From 2000, to 2004, I published a few of my own comics and had them distributed worldwide through Diamond, as did most comics back then. DC, Marvel, the mid level publishers like Image and Dark horse and the independents like me. This was also before the floodgates opened and everyone and and their mothers were printing comics, as it got more affordable. Also before web comics really took off.
I did humor, drama, sci-fi, the bizarre, a few years later, I’d touched upon horror, romance, adult, you name it.
But the one I was recently thinking about was “I Was a Superhero Survivor!” It was the very first humor comic built around the concept of a tv reality show. I had a transport plane circling thousands of feet above New York packed with contestants, who were to jump out of the plane –without parachutes– but in doing so, each would pass through a machine that would give each of them a superpower. It was a rather Jack Kirby looking device (look him up, kids), complete with “Kirby Krackle” (again) and was even called the “Kirby E.S.Q.”. As they emerged, falling from the plane, they’d have to use their powers to save themselves.
What the host and producers didn’t know was that a super villain called the Eel (Lee spelled backwards—“No one creates superheroes without my input!” — a loving jab at Stan.) was on board too, and had tampered with the machine to give the vast majority of the contestants really useless powers while they fell to their death. Very unhelpful abilities like “can turn into glass”, “gains nerves of a chicken” or “can sleep through anything”.
Suffice to say only five made it through alive so the show went on, as the Eel kept trying to sabotage it.
There were challenges and competitions, such as “Saving your girlfriend from a fall off a bridge and NOT snapping her neck.” But as the game went on and we lost more competitors to ineptitude, we ended up having the last man standing face off against a dozen super villains. This was really the height of the production for me because I got to create 12 rather funny but useless villains, whose names told of their abilities and I got to design them, etc. Plus, the hero of the piece (Squid-Lord) got to take them apart. Amongst this instant rogues gallery (unimaginable fun creating these guys) was Lava-Thumb, Fat Fold, The Atomic Crumb, The Furry Quadriplegic, the Janitor, Floating Death, The Adhesive Wallflower, the Copterteer, The Last River-dancer, the Immortal Mime, Drill Instructor—but my favorite was The Sentient Nut.
The Nut was just that, the kind of nut that you would fit with a bolt and a washer, with that interior tread, etc, only it stood up on its edge, was six feet tall, had a black eye at the top, communicated telepathically and could also control minds. I just love this guy. One day, I will have to do something with this. Having him orchestrating events at insane levels. Or even very small victories like revenge on the UPS guy. Something! He’s just too hilariously bizarre NOT to. Oh, sure, you think it’s funny Rick, but will anyone else?
Oh, I have no idea. Probably not but I’m used to it.
The Sentient Nut. Because….you know.
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