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THE COPYBOOK TALES AFTERWORD Originally, another publisher was going to put out the collection of The Copybook Tales, and I was asked to write the Afterword. When Oni Press took it over, we cut it in order to make room for some new promotional comics. AND THEN, AFTERWARDS... So many questions. Will Jamie and Thatcher break into the biz? Will Mike Laine ever tell anyone what's going on? Will someone take gardening sheers to Mike Stone's hair? Will Bernie ever stop looking longingly at Jamie and just kiss the boy? What does J. stand for? Will there ever be an issue #7?!?! This is what we are faced with at the end of The Copybook Tales. Its abrupt ending, victim to whatever market fluctuation or desperate artistic strategy was occurring at the time, left The Copybook Tales arrested in its development. To quote a bad song currently getting airplay, our heroes, Jamie and Thatcher, are stuck in a moment they can't get out of. Theirs is a story without an ending. Or is it? You see, to me, even if they didn't plan it, J. Torres and Tim Levins, the creators of The Copybook Tales (and thus our true heroes), stopped their book at the perfect moment. They pulled a storytelling fast one. They halted their tale just as it was about to begin -- and it makes the reading all the more exciting! It's a technique I often use myself. I like to think of it in terms of having a character who is about to make a big revelation, he inhales, is about to speak -- * Lights out, curtain falls, end scene. As a reader, the story leaves you with whatever emotion the authors were conveying right then, allows you to hold it, and then write the ending yourself. It engages your brain more than the standard wrap-up. In the case of The Copybook Tales, it leaves the reader with a feeling of hope. Our last glimpse of Jamie and Thatcher is of them on the balcony, ready to hatch their plans, their whole future directly in front of them. In many ways, to go further would have been a letdown. Sure, we learn in the new story created for this volume that Masked Man & Sidekick eventually made it to the printed page, just as we knew it would, but would we really have benefited from seeing the journey in total? (And even here we are left with questions. Jamie is still broke, so obviously this is a real comics world. Then again, there is a poster for their comic book -- what independent publishing company would have paid for that? Nice fantasy, Torres!) Besides, if we really want to know what happened to Jamie and Thatcher, we only need step away from the fantasy characters and look at their real-life doppelgangers. Now, while I don't pretend to know where the fiction ends and the truth begins, I think there are some easily drawn parallels between the lives of the Copybook characters and the lives of the Copybook creators. If we are to use Torres and Levins as our example, then Jamie and Thatcher did several issues of their autobiographical comic, got a toehold in the industry, and then moved on to do the superhero book they planned to do all along (in the real life case, Siren, published by Image). They then each went on to become some of the most accomplished, though woefully under-appreciated, creators in their industry -- J. as the creator of Sidekicks, Monster Fighters, Inc., Love in Tights, and Alison Dare, Little Miss Adventures, Tim as the artist on Gotham Adventures for DC Comics. This, what you hold in your hands, is the collection of their first published work. Impressive debut, isn't it? The first issue came out in July, 1996, when they must have barely been able to drink, and yet the work is so good, has so much resonance, that some fans have been known to say that they don't know if the guys can ever do anything that will mean more to them. Scary thing is, they'd been working at it for a while before Slave Labor Graphics, the original publisher, picked it up. I remember seeing minicomic versions on Bob Schreck's desk at Dark Horse back when I was still green enough to keep asking, "How did I get here?" (as opposed to now, when the question is, "Where did my life go?"), much like Thatcher asks in the new story, "Can you believe all of this is happening?" Which brings me to another important point. The story of Jamie, J., Thatcher, and Tim is all of our stories. This isn't like other autobio comics where the creators are so freakishly bizarre, we have no idea how to relate at all (and for me, it's hard not to relate too much, sharing a name with a main character and all). This is the story of all comic book readers who have dreamed about stepping across to the other side of the table (a metaphor you will understand once you work your first convention). It's the story of our dreams to be more than just a fan. And thankfully for us, the boys made it. Not everyone does. Jamie and Thatcher very well might not have, but there is their poster in the window. And J. Torres and Tim Levins might also have faded into obscurity, except here is their book in your hands. And though it feels like the end of something, trust me -- it's only another beginning. Any more questions? Jamie
S. Rich Jamie S. Rich knows a thing or two about black-and-white comics and their creators, because he's the editor in chief of Oni Press, publisher of fine comic books, including J. Torres' Alison Dare. He also pretends to be a novelist, even taking the prank so far as to publish a book called Cut My Hair through Crazyfish/MJ-12.
(c)2002 Jamie S. Rich
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