Old photos
I came across this old photo the other day. It's of me and Pete Mullins and was taken by Randy Stradley at a Sydney convention fourteen years ago in 1993, around the the time Pete started working with me regularly. 
Pete had been picking up a few art jobs around the place including drawing a few books for Revolutionary comics such as this one:
The Revolutionary story is more interesting than any of their actual books, and you can find the short version here and here. Even shorter, Publisher Todd Loren put out unofficial biographies of famous individuals and rock bands and got sued every which way by the likes of Bon Jovi and Motley Crue.
I remember quite well the day Pete came round and said he thought he was going to have trouble getting paid for a certain job, perhaps the one above. And I said, give me the details and we'll see what we can do, as I liked to pass myself off as somebody who knew a thing or two. He said 'my publisher just got murdered.'
I had no answer.
Even the FBI had no answers: In June 1992, at the age of 32, Loren was found stabbed to death in his San Diego condo. The case remains unsolved, although some people suspect spree killer Andrew Cunanan. The FBI later investigated and ruled out Cunanan's involvement.
Here's another cover by Pete. This one is dated Sept 1993.
Lots more by me and Pete under the label Bacchus.
Labels: comic books 2, my pals
posted by Eddie Campbell at
19:00
3 Comments:
Was Mr Mullins aware of Loren's rep before he did the work for him?
From the thankfully few Revolutionary Comics I saw, it would seem his work was better by several magnitudes than that by other contributors....why doesn't he have a blog of his own?
B Smith
My only experience with Mr. Loren was when I was a retailer. I'd direct ordered some books from him--can't recall which ones--but I got this ENORMOUS case sent to me and opened it up and it was packed with stuff I hadn't ordered, including T-shirts with various comic book logos. No sooner had I opened the box than the phone rang and it was Mr. Loren asking me to send the stuff back, that there'd been a mistake (the stuff was worth about one hundred times what I'd ordered and paid for). He was all but begging me to send it back, apparently expecting me to be a total asshole and keep it.
That's the only time I ever spoke to him. I'd heard that he had really pissed off a lot of people. I doubt it was anything approaching a random killing. It had all the earmarks of a hit, strong message included. It's not every day a publisher is whacked with a butcher knife.
(Yes, I sent back the accidentally mailed stuff.)
Oooh, it makes me larf! Pete's hair hasn't been that dark for years now... He reminisces fondly of his days (well, years) working with you. At least you didn't cark it on him. :)
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