Here’s one of those fun blog things I can now do! Publish the unpublished!

Behold! A remnant of The Big Book of Wild Women, the last of the great Big Books from DC’s Paradox Press! My unpublished two page story “Boadicea, The Warrior Queen”!

What happened to this book? Heck if I know! Sad, because I loved those Big Books. They were the best bathroom reading ever! Just a few pages per story, many of them funny as all heck (who can forget “Wacko Jacko”?) and oh, how we we all laughed! I did a number of these things, including stories about Ingrid Bergman, California governor Jerry Brown (original art a casualty of the 2006 summer flood), the story of Rapunzel, and a few others. I used to really look forward to these gigs. They were a treat for any cartoonist.

Not much funny to be found in the story of Boadicea, the Warrior Queen (of the Celtic Iceni tribe).

Notice how DC whited out the naughties. I drew “The Dying Gaul” complete with Dying Gaul bits in one panel, and now he is bitless. And in panel 2 of page 2, a tattooed priestess now has a tunic. Maybe they thought she was cold.

Hey, I think Heidi McDonald edited this! Hm? My guess is she would have kept the Gaul bits. I blame Mark Chiarello.

In the meantime, peruse these informative articles about the real Boadicea, she who almost kicked Roman butt and drove them to the sea, but appears to have been tactically and strategically challenged, and therefore ended up burning and looting until she got her butt kicked in return.

The site of her final battle is believed to rest under a Mcdonald’s restaurant.

The History Channel produced a very interesting documentary about Boadicea that airs periodically. Here is a direct link to a synopsis that will also note when the documentary will air in future. Check back for updates.

Boadicea has inspired many artists and musicians, and was the subject of this New Zealand rock opera that ran in Auckland.

While Michelle Breeze starred in this one woman production:

She was also the queen of a 1928 silent film, made for a feisty guest star on an episode of Xena Warrior Princess, and is rumored to be the subject of a new film project by Mel Gibson, but this article is years old, so not much word on where things stand with Mad Mel and his warrior queen. Hey, I loved Braveheart.

Boadicea rose to mythical stature in the Victorian era:

Alfred Lord Tennyson captured the power and terror wrought by Boadicea’s rage in this famous poem: (more…)

Here’s a hefty interview with me over at Newsarama. Conducted by Michael Lorah, who has had some lovely things to say about A Distant Soil over the years. Thanks for the nod, Michael!

I have very telling photos from one of the small press expos from the early 1990s. A mainstream creator who had tried self-publishing went with a bunch of the core self publishers to the show, thinking they were going to clean up sales-wise because they were this hot mainstream name. And there I was with James Owen and hanging with Jeff Smith and the self publishing gang. And people wanted Jeff Smith and Los Bros Hernandez and the like. They had no interest in the mainstream creator, who threw a tantrum, complained about being snubbed and began refusing to pose for photos. They kept turning their back to the camera every time someone tried to take a shot.

They just could not understand how their self-published effort wasn’t selling as well as their mainstream effort. And the answer is, Spider-Man’s sales aren’t your sales. That’s not your market, that’s Spider-Man’s market. Only a small percentage of the fans of Spider-Man are going to carry over to your personal projects. Bottom line: know your market.