Nothing sparks more interest than a controversial novel that was canceled because it crossed several lines in its publishing history. What is real, what is not, and what is just a straight-up genius PR campaign (which some people won’t even understand after reading the entire story) has led to a debate that breeds myths and laughably exaggerated narratives based on unreliable ” fact”.
this is a story Pep Sheppardof maroon boy Published in the 1940s, this comic tells the story of a boy detective who solves some of the most gruesome cases depicted in serial art at the time. Shelter Comics An agreement has been reached with the Pep Shepard Estate to bring the Maroon Kid back to life.
Here’s the story of the comic and its strange creator, as conveyed via Vault’s own press release. You can decide if this is true or fiction (or just another bad PR exercise).
Vault is pleased to announce that they have acquired the licensing rights to Kid Maroon, the legendary boys’ detective comic from the 1940s, created and drawn by the bizarre comics genius Pep Shepard.
The fascinating history of Chestnut Kid and his creator Pep Shepard is one of the legends of comics. While the details are often disputed, one thing is certain: The Maroon Kid is one of the most influential cartoon characters of all time, inspiring underground and independent comics for decades.
Pep Shepard began his cartooning career in Pittsburgh as an apprentice to newspaper comic strip legend Irvin Batch, during the final years of Batch’s famous “How ‘Bout That?” Featured in several Sunday comics. But once “How About It?” was canceled (after an apocryphal “Let’s poison Tommy” story), Shepard found himself unemployed and enlisted in the Merchant Marines. In ’39 Pep was dishonorably discharged for public drunkenness, leaving him out of service and out of work for the duration of the war. Shepard soon found himself working in the printing press of The Baltimore Companion in the early 1940s. In the hours before Morning Edition ends, Pep begins to develop a child detective character loosely inspired by his memories of his younger brother Alva, but also by his growing resentment of government services, master city planning, and the city in general. inspiration.
Soon after, Shepard was named an assistant in the comedy department of The Companion, working under Hal Faucher and Matthias Lieb on such forgettable hits as “Morning Corn” and “Both Meat.” work.
During this period in 1944, Shepard first began working on the exploratory art and sketches that would eventually become the most famous (and infamous) comic strip associated with his name, The Maroon Boys.
Finally, in 1948, Fulcher and Lieb’s partnership ended when Fulcher (accidentally) shot Lieb in the face during a card game, and Shepard’s comic strip, The Maroon Kid, received emergency approval, The comic draws on Shepard’s nihilistic view of a failed father (two sons, Grover and Tris, born in ’45 and ’46 respectively) and his desire to prove that the Slingshot is wrong (or right) ) has the obsessive need to have a potentially lethal weapon in his hands.
Shepard introduced a series of iconic villains during his six-month run, including Jackass, Ratfink (then printed as Ratfink), Crap Cop (then printed as Crap Cop), Eggman, Wu Dee Gonk, Freddy Flames, and other lesser-known villains. Perhaps the most famous of these is a character created to reflect Pep himself – Billy Beans, a hapless but innocent orphan who sees the world in an almost blissful way, just as Pep longs to became so, despite his growing addiction to codeine.
“Kid Maroon” plays every day. Responsible for writing, drawing, and lettering (and proofreading), Pep worked at the drawing board six days a week, further neglecting his family, who later felt that, given his predilection for art, it would be of no use to him in the long run. It’s better for them. All told, this non-stop production produced a total of 216 Kid Maroon strips printed on The Baltimore Companion from the spring to the fall of 1948.
“The Maroon Child” became a hit, although at the time it was largely ignored by a wide audience – aside from readers who complained about its depiction of violence. This perception was made worse when Shepard kept detailed anatomy books at his desk to ensure that the injuries to the organs, viscera, and musculature shown were correctly depicted.
The backlash and lack of wider attention led Shepard to quickly become disillusioned with the work. Fortunes took a turn for the worse when an explosion occurred at the Coke factory next to the Companion printing press. Coke’s damage to the main archive of printed works and the subsequent fire meant that almost all of Shepard’s printed works were destroyed. Only 12 printed strips remain.
But Shepard retained his original art. His wife had begged him to sell the originals, but he did not do so because he did not expect they would make much money due to the rise of comics laws and public backlash against the press. Ultimately, Shepard is believed to have buried all of his original panels in a field in South Dakota at an unknown location somewhere around 1951 or 1952.
It is understood that one or two fragments of a Baltimore Companion Kid Maroon strip sold for as much as $275,000 at a recent auction. In 2006, the intact (albeit stained and burned) strip was auctioned for $1.4 million. Unauthorized digital scans of the article can be found online. There is no original art. A map of the artwork’s burial site is believed to be stored in a safe in Livingston, Montana, but this has not been confirmed.
It is believed that Pep Shepard died from exposure somewhere in northern New Mexico (possibly near Taos) in the early 1970s, but this has not been confirmed.
Vault will announce more information about Kid Maroon products later this month.
