The year: 1993. The event: Comic Con International. The place: San Diego Comic Con.
SDCC. I walked the floor interviewing with every comic book company. Showing my humble portfolio to all editors great and small. For three days I anxiously waited on lines for hours and when it was my turn to show my wares, opened my book and hoped the bored-and-hung-over reviewer would awake from his stupor and look up at me wide-eyed as if he’d just made a great discovery, and offer me a job on the spot.
The problem was that no one was interested in me. From the “Big Two” all the way down to the smallest of publishers, they all turned me down. Every. Single. One. Of. Them.
All except one very inspiring and gregarious young gentleman from New Jersey sitting at his six-foot table in the Small Press section. I had never met Brian Pulido before, or heard of his creations, but his set-up, like Brian himself, was very impressive. But that’s not what set Brian apart from all the other comic creators, publishers, and editors I had met during that weekend. Brian spoke to me like a human being. Though he had just started out in comics a few years earlier and was set to hit the big time, Brian found the time to look over my portfolio and gave pointers. And then, amid much conversation about our shared experiences living in New York City, graciously offered me a pin-up, one that eventually found its way into the original Lady Death Swimsuit Special.
And that was pretty much how it all started.
From that day forward, nothing has never been the same. As you know, Brian Pulido and Lady Death created an entirely new genre, Bad Girl comics. One that had roots in the “good girl” art of comics Golden Age, but now with a defiance, where the female protagonists were longer the hapless victim, but rather the hero, or in Lady Death and Shi’s cases, the “anti-hero”. A female force of nature that leads rather than follows, who rules over her domain, her universe and, much to our delight, ours as well.
Brian and I have had our creations share many platforms with one another. From magazines to merchandise, crossovers (including our latest with Jimmy Palmiotti and Amanda Conner, The Deadly Trio) to covers and even the Overstreet Price Guide… and we are just beginning.
Many pretenders to the throne have come and gone, but to this day, our originals thrive.
And continue to rule, in Crusade Comics’ current Kickstarter campaign Shi: Gatecrasher and Coffin Comics’ Lady Death: Savage Reign #1 launching this Thursday, February 6, 2025.
