02/01/2024
Slightly Bent Comics #1 and #2 are black-and-white anthology comic books written and designed by Walt Jaschek, starring original, creator-owned characters. Top St. Louis comic artists supplied visuals. There's a set autographed by Walt here: https://ko-fi.com/s/e8e3a67bf5
This 2-issue, self-published series, was distributed by Diamond Comic Distributors to comic book stores across the United States in 1998. Walt Jaschek designed the Slightly Bent logo and the covers, and hired his talented friends to draw scripts for his creator-owned characters. Don Secrease served as art director on both books.
The comics feature the second and third print appearances of the original Mel Cool: Mall Cop, with art by Secrease. They also showcase the first appearances of Dude-Guy, with art by Craig Skaggs; Danger Dad, with art by Jaschek and Darren Goodheart; Corp Rut and Smirk du Jour with art by Tony Patti; Attorneys in Space, with art by Paul Daly; and Dang Gnats, a comic strip by Jaschek, who also wrote humorous editorials for both issues.
Reviews of these issues are on Steve’s Reads and on Flooby.
Says Walt: "The series was a fun experiment, a deep-dive immersion into self-publishing during the black-and-white comics boom, and a launch for characters and concepts bouncing around in my brain. It was also a nice, creative distraction from my day job writing funny radio commercials."
Approximately 800 copies of Slightly Bent Comics #1 were ordered by comic book stories, according to statistics from Diamond. Approximately 400 copies of issue #2 were ordered. These are the only copies of these two issues in circulation. Some issues are often spotted on eBay and other "back issue" platforms.
