Thoughts on the first printing of the first issue of my first comic.

The rain is just pouring down right now.

So, as you've seen from the photo, I picked up my copies of THE YOUNG OFFENDERS the other day.

A nice thing about the printing job we got, was that it was done by a local organization, right in the heart of East Vancovuer, where the story takes place. The guys even recognized some of Peter's buildings. If you know East Van, you know where you're at.

Interestingly, on the way over to the printers, I saw these 4 kids. They were sitting out on the steps in front of a closed down business, and they were smoking crack. 4 kids, between the ages of about 15 and 19, sitting outside on the side of the road, on a nice Friday morning, smoking crack.

I really wanted to go back and give them copies of the book, saying that they were a big part of what we were writing about, but... I left them to their smoking. They'd been giving me the junkyard-dog eyes anyway.

Yeah, the rain is pouring down right now. It smells GREAT!

You ever have somebody you don't like do something nice for you? Sucks, huh? Puts you in a weird morally compromising position.

Anyway, though I'm not entirely satisfied with the means of obtaining it, I have managed, for the first time in about 10 years, to get my hands and eyeballs on the comic book poster which massively inspired The Young Offenders, and me.

It's a poster by Darick Robertson, and it's of The New Warriors. The New Warriors were a mid-90's comic about kid's with superpowers, in the Marvel universe.

The image of these strange kids standing in a dark alley, filled with strange powers and youthful anger, has been in my mind for years. The poster's called “All They Want To Do Is Change The World.”

The poster came to me in the mail, the same day I got home with the printings of The Young Offenders. Having the book, and the inspiration for the book, showing up on the same day? It was a nice feeling. A powerful feeling. A feeling like something is happening.

No headphones during action sequences, dammit!

OK, so page 3, and one of my first/favorite references. I never get tired of explaining this, I guess because I'm an enormous geek.



In this panel, The Spaz is listening to, and singing along with, a song performed by Mos Def & The Roots. The song is called “Double Trouble,” and is a reference to the duo Double Trouble, who were a part of the Funky Four Plus One.

All of these things, from Mos Def, through the Roots, on to the Funky Four Plus One, are awesome. Purely awesome. I was introduced to the Funky Four Plus One through the movie WILD STYLE!

But there's more to it than that. Isn't there always? The lines themselves are from RUN-DMC's song, “King of Rock.”

Let the Poppers pop,
And the Breakers break.

Now me, I take that as, “Let that pop music shit burst, and let the makers of real music take over.” I could be wrong – It's just an interpretation. But it's my interpretation.

It's funny – If you listen to Mos & The Roots on the song, it's not a very up-beat ass-kicking tune. It's a very “laid back and feeling groovy” sort of song. Not the sort of thing you might want to be rocking on your headphones if you're about to jump into a giant fight with riot control cops. But that's The Spaz. He takes it easy. He smiles. He has fun. Hell, he's so fast he's untouchable and strong enough to bounce back from just about anything.

Double Trouble was one of the first tunes that really inspired The Young Offenders. I was listening to it a lot when I was first coming up with the characters, long before I met Peter. One of the best bits, not what Spaz quotes, is when you get toward the chorus...

“Either stand tall or just sit the fuck down!”

Yeah.



To me, that's what The Young Offenders are all about.