In 1989 DC Comics tried to grow out of the long underwear.

In 1988, Jeanette Kahn hired Mark Nevelow from the fashion industry to start a new line, Piranha Press. Nevelow had a mission statement to do diverse material. The DC office was weirded out as Nevelow commissioned a group of projects that ranged from science fiction, mystery to odd ball unclassifiable work. To the office fanboys wasn’t doing wasn’t comics.

DC’s editorial staff had said ” Badger doesn’t draw comics”

I had just finished Martian Manhunter and Masque for Dark Horse. A more perceptive person then myself would have seen my interests in abstract art, politics and weirder comics did not fit the tastes of any editorial staff at the companies in those days. While I grew up on Kirby, Adams, Frazetta and Windsor Smith I had kept looking at more art and was paying attention to Jim McMullen , Henri Mattisse, Jose Munoz and Richard Diebenkorn. Them ain’t “real” funny book artists.

But my work did fit Mark Nevelo’s wider definition of comics. He offered me a four issue , full color, series with Gerard Jones, despite the crappy contracts it was hard to say no.

DC hated “adult” comics

It’s a short and ironic story but the Score led DC Comics to make it’s first and only strike for “truth justice and the American way. Which I’ll cover eventually. In the end Gerry and I ended up with ownership of the Score, it’s the work of youngsters and I’m putting it up on the web recognizing it’s work of our youth. So check back Modays Wednesdays and Fridays for new pages.

And it’s still a learning tool

I’m going to use it as an excuse to learn php and WordPress beyond the basic interface. I’ll also be playing with the art in Flash with Actionscript as a way to explore interface, drawing and storytelling