WELCOME EVERYONE, TO…

ARMAGEDDONQUEST THE WEBCOMIC

My name is Dave Baxter – some may know me (not likely, but maybe) from my lengthy 4-year stint as a reviewer at Broken Frontier, or briefly at Comics Bulletin.  Possibly as the writer of the KILLING THE GRIZZLY series of articles over at the SEPTAGON STUDIOS NEWS BLOG.  Or if you’re in the biz we may have crosed paths (or sabers) while I was wearing the dunce cap of Online Marketing Director for STUDIO 407 or, most recently, as Deputy Director of the brand new ROBOT COMICS.  In all these roles, I am and have always been a comics fan first, a professional second.  I think that’s why it was my destiny to forever do more.  First it was reviews.  Then it was “Inter-Reviews”.  Then it was educational articles, promotion, and ultimately publication for the creators I adore. Ronald Russel Roach – otherwise known as “3R” – is one of my very, very favorites.  Even better, I damn well KNOW none of you even know who the hell I’m talking about.

Oh, my.  But you are in for a treat.

You can read (or possibly have already read) Ron’s own introduction to this webcomic right up above, where starting tomorrow the actual comic will be, to give you an idea of where this comic came from, where it’s been, and what the heck it’s doing now on your precious identity-forming internet.  It’s here because it needs to be.  Because I promise you that you’ll thank me when this is over.  Sirius publisher Robb Horan put it best in his Introduction to the 1997 SIRIUS edition of the work:

I welcome those of you lucky enough to be discovering AQ for the first time.  In 1993 there were just two issues available, covering about 160 pages of the story.  The print runs were humble and the book was very hard to find.  I was jealous of Starhead for publishing such an important new comic.  I lusted after it.  Like Tazio, this selfish motive inspired me into action, that I could not stop until I was satisfied.  It was difficult to believe that Ron’s story truly spanned over 800 pages, as advertised in those comics.  I had to see it.  I had to read it.  Within the second issue from Starhead was a message from Ron urging for support of the series to come from those that really wanted to see it keep coming out.  I was completely hooked by what I had read so far: I needed to see more.  I had to have it.  I had a lust to read AQ.

So I sent a letter off to Ron Roach at the address in the comic, not a little curious that this English speaking, American published, underground comix diety was located somewhere int he very unfamiliar land of Denmark.  I seethed with curiosity and expectation, wondering if my offer to help would be greeted with confusion or scorn.  As it turned out, judging from the book in your hands [the Sirius edition --Dave B.], things worked out for the best.  Ron’s friend Michael Dowers at Starhead was supportive of Sirius’ offer to publish the entire AQ saga, as was the creator himself.  And I got to read AQ!

Believe the hype.  You have never, ever seen a comic like AQ. I have been into comics for (gulp!) 20 years.  They were my first obsession.  Reading and collecting comics offered me more than just incredible worlds and information you didn’t learn at school.  Comics became a constantly renewable source of business opportunities for me.  Yet in all my reading and in all my retailing and publishing, I have never, ever seen a comic like AQ.  There it was, naked on my desk, all the way from Denmark.  It was true.  Ron had written and drawn more than 850 pages.  And I was going to publish it.  Once more, I lusted after AQ.

–ROBB HORAN

From his Introduction to the 1997 SIRIUS Edition of AQ, Volume 2

Robb Horan published AQ in three separate volumes of approximately 300 pages each.  I found them bundled together for a discount price in my local comic book shop when I was in either 8th or 9th grade (my memory becomes hazy when turning on that detail).  We took a family car ride not long after, which lasted 16 hours. This was the weekend after I purchased the whole of AQ, never having heard of it, not having any clue as to what the story was or was about, where it came from, who “Ronald Russel Roach” was, not none of it.  I read the whole thing in about 17 hours.  I was a single chapter away from the finale when the family car ride prematurely came to an end and I was told I had to put the comic down and “go be social”.  That nearly killed me.  Robb Horan was right to tell you to believe the hype.  There has never, ever been a comic like AQ. I have never, ever read anything so epic in a single sitting, let alone a mother-lovin’ 16-hour sitting.  I don’t even think I peed that whole car trip, I was simply that engrossed!  And I was hardly what anyone would call “social” after that blasted car ride – I finished AQ while hunched in a far corner and after I sat around daydreaming in an AQ-induced stupor for long hours after.  My family be damned.  And I happen to quite like and even get along with my family.

A lot of time went by (I certainly wasn’t in Horan’s position at the tender age of – what?  13? 14?), and there at last came a day where my personal slow slide to becoming embedded within the comics industry brought me to a point where I was helping creators get published, promote their work, and succeed within a (truly!) tricky industry.  Just ask Ron – twice published and never wholly, fully, honestly had he broken in with the comics crowd or fandom in general.  But much like Robb Horan, I was initially intimidated by Ron’s location – DENMARK?!?  Yup.  He’s still there.  Still a fantastic, friendly, hyper-creative bastard with a heart of gold.  His response to my offer to bring his epic masterpiece to modern audiences was met with only the subtlest hint of hesitancies.  Once he found out I was not a horrible jerk, con man, or complete and utter flake (or, hell, maybe he thinks I’m all those things and just doesn’t care), we began to put up this site you see before you in record time.

So here we are, and by DAMN you are some lucky sum’sa bitches to be diving in and discovering this comic for the first time.  It blew my mind, my MIND, and I have never been the same again.  It ruined many other so-called “masterpiece” comics for me.  Because they simply do not compare or even come close.  AQ is in a league of its own, playing in its own ballpark, riding horses of vastly different colors, etc. etc.

Look for new print editions of the whole work to become available shortly, as we progress.  Plus you’ll be able to purchase downloadable PDFs for a single dollar, and we’ll even be formatting and releasing the work onto iPhones, Google Android devices, and the Amazon Kindle in the near future.  Updates on the webcomic will be TWO FULL PAGES, EVERY SINGLE DAY.  Meaning it’ll take roughly 1 and 1/2 Years to post the whole 850+ page epic which took Ron over a decade to create. Hope you stick around for the whole thing.

Please leave lots of comments – we adore communication with readers, and indeed look forward to it.  Half the fun of a webcomic in the interaction, so interact!   Now get ready for a reading experience I promise you’ll remember for the rest of your life.  NO ONE reads this sucker and walks away unscathed.  NO ONE.

–Dave Baxter, from this introduction right here

Deputy Director, ROBOT COMICS

Online Marketing Manager, STUDIO 407

KILLING THE GRIZZLY creator and columnist

Creator/Co-Writer, GILLIAN’S HEART