Tuesday, September 16, 2008

"Barbaric Fantasy" cover

Back in college, I did my first self-published black and white comic book titled "Barbaric Fantasy". I was heavily into the "Conan" comics being published by Marvel at the time, and this was an unabashed "homage" to them. I had it printed and side-stapled (500 copies, if memory serves) at the campus print shop for not much money, and tried to sell them at a table set up in the Campus Center. I think I may have sold fifty in all over several days.



This is the cover to that book. It's one of my favorite drawings from that period of my life. -- PL

14 comments:

~ tOkKa said...

-->> O my god !!

.. this is circa the early to mid - 70s ??

>v<

Dinoff said...

Wow!

Creepy, yet very cool cover!

If you have any copies left, are you going to post the comic on your blog? Or perhaps in a section of ninjaturtles.com? It would be very interesting to see!


Awesome art, as usual!

Ectopaul said...

Wow that's cool. I don't think I would have the self confidence to sell a self published comic on my college campus. If you only sold 50, what happened to the other 450?

Bookgal said...

This has such a cool old Zine look to it!

Alkunkunka said...

Looks interesting. have you ever thought about publishing it out there?

Alkunkunka said...

It kind of reminds of the Clockwork Orange poster.

PL said...

"~ tokka said...
-->> O my god !!

.. this is circa the early to mid - 70s ??

>v<"

It was while I was at UMass, between 1972 and 1976. -- PL

Capital Chay said...

So, where are the remaining copies?

Eric said...

Hello!

I'm Mike Melle's son and we actually have a copy of this comic. Still in plastic I believe. We also have a few Barbaric Fantasy mini comics. Great stuff!

PL said...

"Eric said...
Hello!

I'm Mike Melle's son and we actually have a copy of this comic. Still in plastic I believe. We also have a few Barbaric Fantasy mini comics. Great stuff!"

Eric, please say hi to your dad for me. In a curious coincidence, just this past week I was going through some stuff from my days at UMass, where I first met your father, and found a drawing pad with a quick sketch of his head in profile. I hope Mike is still doing art. -- PL

~ tOkKa said...

-->> aww, how nice. ..

Don said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Don said...

I have made the purchase off a dealer who claims you had given him this book personally. Is it possible you could authenticate it for me?

Eric said...

Hello,

My Dad, Mike, is most definitely still doing art. He has a show at the Clark Art Institute this spring and here's his website: http://www.scarecrowgarden.com/ hope all is well.

Eric