THWAK comic #1

As you can see from the initial covers we were going for the "far out psychedelic look". The cover to the right was a dummy used for promotional purposes prior to the final print which was done through Quebecor in Canada in late Spring of 2000. Incidentally most of my projects have been either printed through Quebecor (now LeBonFon) or the now (unfortunately) defunct Prenney Print & Litho, also in Canada.

The initial cover with its "floating" Skreech head was slowly morphed to the "toned down" - yeah right - cover on the left. Skreech still made an appearance but got bumped from the center spot in favor of "Cactus Swazye" (by artist Brad McGinty) the lead character in one of the two main stories. The other featured Edgar the lead character in the strip "Zounds" by Josh Latta & Morie Benjamin. At the time this strip was running in Insite magazine a local Atlanta magazine. The other 3 contributors to this initial issue included Buddy Finethy who served as editor with his "Possum Kingdom" strip, Anthony Owsley's "Commemorative Stamps" (later used as the back cover of the premiere magazine issue and my own work under the "Organized Chaos" title.

We certainly had fun putting the book together with the lions share of the layout being done by Brad McGinty and some touch up work happening at Magus Corp studios. Many copies were sold around town during various book signings at Borders, Media Play, Comic Conventions and a number of comic book stores. Initially another issue was in the works but I decided to shift the focus to a more satirical humor magazine. The "What Really Happened In Pompeii" 3 pager that appeared in the 1st magazine was one of the pieces that was slated to be in issue #2. I'll post more unused artwork in future posts.