This episode was being edited while I was getting ready to go to Comic-Con in San Diego, my first time exhibiting at that show since 2016 and the first time I have ever gone solo. As I was prepping, I got to thinking about starting this entire comics publishing venture 40 years ago and how it sort of started with my pointing at one person and saying, "Draw this for me!" That person was Mark Buck, a man who went on to excel in the world of Visual Effects while working at Industrial Light and Magic.

I got to thinking that if he had said no and decided he was not ready to draw a comic book, or unwilling to work on spec, the entire publishing venture might have collapsed right then and there, and we might not be sitting here today. So in this video, I reminisce about that humble origin story, the man who really made it all work, and what Mark became later in life. Samurai Penguin, Mark Buck, Dan Vado, SLG Publishing, Slave Labor Graphics, independent comics, indie comics, comic book history, comics publishing, independent publishing, 1980s comics, black and white comics boom, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, TMNT comics boom, comic book creators, alternative comics, small press comics, visual effects artist, VFX artist, Comic-Con International, San Diego Comic-Con, SLG 40th anniversary, publishing memoir, comics podcast