"Da Hell Was This?" - A Creepsville Mystery

Over the years I have encountered a great number of people who enjoyed reading Creepsville and had questions about it, including elements in the stories, about creating comics, publishing and other things. There are also questions here and there regarding oddball things that appeared in those comics that command an answer.

One such item is this odd advertisement that appears in the first issue. The ad hypes an upcoming series of books based on the Creepsville comic, no doubt intended for younger readers, that would feature the children of the comics' teen characters years later.

So, you may ask, was I intending on doing these books? No. Honestly, I didn't know about them. The publisher, Steve Smith, was employed by another publisher who did teen novels. Steve thought there was potential in that market for these books. Maybe there was.

This was a time when the Teenage Ninja Mutant Turtles were hot stuff, with their licensed images everywhere. Steve was hoping to catch that same lightning in a bottle with Creepsville, but it was too
early and, without me, was not going to happen.

I seem to recall that the two names on the project were real people working in the teen books market, and they hadn't been asked to do any work on it yet. Thank goodness. I never met them. Nothing against them.

As a strong supporter of creator owned comics rights, I was underwhelmed. Steve and I discussed it and, it never happened (thank goodness). Unfortunately, the first issue went out with the ad that had been created to hype a series. Steve's heart was in the right place, and this brand new venture for the two of us working together publishing Creepsville included a few bumps we hadn't expected... but nothing harmful.

To see Steve at his best, check out his upcoming Alaxis Press graphic novel, The Leaning Girl by Francois Schuiten and Benoit Peeters. The book is gorgeous! Click on this link [http://www.theobscurecities.com/]!

-- F Kurtz