THE

 ROAD  TO  APOCALYPSE  COMICS.  

TIME  LINE:  

1986  

PEI  COMICS  BEGINS.  

For  every  intellectual  property,  comic  book  “universe”,  movie  franchise  etc.,  which  is  marketed  and  
promoted  publicly  on  a  massive  scale,  there  exists  comparable  similar  works  known  only  to  their  
creators  and  to  those  within  earshot.  This  is  the  story  of  the  development  of  one  such  line  of  comics  
never  published,  or  at  least  not  in  the  way  they  were  intended.  

In  1986  The  Death  Merchants  was  written  on  green  lined  printer  paper  with  sprockets;  it’s  a  near  future  
story  best  described  as  a  cross  between  a  precocious  Lethal  Weapon  and  2000AD/Judge  Dredd,  to  be  
drawn  in  the  style  of  Jerry  Paris  and  his  Bug  Hunters.  “Melissa  Prokaid”  was  very  loosely  influenced  by  
the  afore-­‐mentioned  series.  These  teenage  fantasies  would  go  on  to  develop  into  the  series  of  
properties  described  below.  

1987  

Anabiotics  or  Anabioids?  

At  some  point  between  ‘86  and  ‘87  The  Dispersers  were  first  imagined.  Think  of  how  it  feels  to  have  an  
idea  -­‐  which  is  absolutely  certain  to  guarantee  success.  It’s  a  feeling  that  doesn’t  come  around  very  
often;  at  this  time  it  was  profound.  This  is  what  my  associate  and  I  felt  about  the  very  first  anabiotic  
heroes/villains.    

The  story  was  based  on  Hammer  House  of  Horror  flicks,  an  Amazing  Stories  episode,  a  popular  video  
game,  and  scenes  from  The  Raiders  of  the  Lost  Ark.  The  idea  required  an  origin  story  for  what  came  to  
be  known  as  “Defects”  –  the  equivalent  of  2000AD’s  “muties”  or  the  mutants  from  the  X-Men  universe.  
It  required  a  city  for  destruction.  Thus  the  city  of  Chicago  became  known  as  The  Bad  Zone;  Zero  
Systems  Inc.  was  born  and  with  it  an  entire  universe  of  spectacular  stories  to  come,  of  which  the  story  of  
a  select  group  of  “contaminates”  was  the  zenith.  

1988  

Journey  into  The  Bad  Zone  

The  exploits  of  John  Beimheim,  The  Terrence  Brothers,  Carl  Septien,  Dan  Eason,  Arlene.  P,  Rochelle  
Fox  (a  cross  between  Jessica  Rabbit  and  Rachael  from  Blade  Runner),  Wendy  Blanch,  etc.  –  names  
which  mean  nothing  to  you  the  reader  but,  are  essential  to  the  previous  entry  –  came  into  being  in  a  
tale  yet  untold.  The  original,  drawn  on  A4  paper,  has  been  lost,  although  before  that  happened  it  was  at  
least  appreciated  by  a  fellow  counselor  at  a  summer  camp  in  Wisconsin.  

He  had  gone  through  my  things  and  he  commended  the  work  he’d  stumbled  upon  there,  stating  it  
made  him  want  more.  

1988  -­‐  1989  

The  Dispersers  Vol.  1  

Two  characters  from  The  Death  Merchants  were  retrofitted  to  appear  in  an  initial  attempt  to  draw  this  
comic.  A  Brian  Bolland,  Dave  Gibbons,  D.C.  Comics  graphic  novel  style  was  adopted.  PEI  Comics  
universe  became  a  single  narrative.  Again  the  original  artwork  drawn  on  A4  sheets  was  lost  when  a  PVC  
 bin-­‐liner  containing  these  and  pre-­‐PEI  efforts  (namely  Arcturus  –  The  Fall  of  Trell)  was  at  some  point  
(apparently)  thrown  out  with  the  trash!  

1990  -­‐  1991  

The  Dispersers  Vol.  2  

The  story  was  rewritten  in  a  proper  comic  book  format  and  almost  100  comic  pages  were  drawn,  some  
of  which  were  very  professional  for  a  rank  amateur  like  myself.  Richard  Darial  was  introduced  and  
killed  off.  Extensive  research  went  into  the  creation  of  this  story,  and  eventually  it  will  be  retold.  

1991  –  1992  

The  1990s  Comics  Boom  

In  the  summer  of  ’91  I  was  properly  introduced  to  the  world  of  Marvel’s  X-­‐Men  and  the  Image  Comics  
explosion,  in  particular  a  scratchy  style  of  artwork,  which  portrayed  human  anatomy  like  none  before  it.  
So  impressed  was  I  with  the  style  that  it  permanently  affected  my  drawings.  Of  course  we  are  talking  
about  the  inimitable  Jim  Lee.  In  many  ways  he  is  responsible  for  much  of  what  follows;  he  quite  literally  
transformed  the  comic  book  industry.    

Learning  how  to  draw  properly  was  an  essential  attempt  to  try  to  keep  up.  This  artist  devised  a  way  to  
do  the  simple  thing:  to  draw  everything  as  correctly  as  possible.  How  to  Draw  Comics  The  Marvel  Way  
was  my  favorite  book  at  that  moment.    

Lee  had  already  left  Marvel  Comics  by  this  time  and  so  delving  into  back-­‐issues  was  necessary  to  pick  up  
on  what  was  missed.  Something  had  to  be  done;  those  Chris  Claremont  yarns  were  so  well  written  and  
drawn  that  they  had  to  be  emulated;  it  was  the  same  for  almost  every  other  artist.  For  a  while  nothing  
but  Jim  Lee  clone  art  graced  comic  book  pages.    

Figure  1.  X-­‐Factor  Team  Cipher  1992  panel  art  

 There  were  other  great  artists  around  at  the  time  whose  books  I  followed.  One  of  them  was  the  Larry  
Stroman  /  Peter  David  effort:  X-­‐Factor.  Marvel  UK  was  looking  for  artists  to  help  sell  British  comics  to  
the  US  market,  and  when  I  saw  how  dire  most  of  their  efforts  were,  the  temptation  to  create  a  comic  
book  for  Marvel  UK  was  impossible  to  resist  and  thus  X-­‐Factor:  Team  Cipher  was  born  in  late  1991,  a  

Figure  2.  A  page  from  the  1992-­‐93  Proposal

...rudimentary  script  written,  and  a  proposal  developed  and  executed  in  the  summer  of  ’92  and  spring  
of  ‘93.  In  those  days  the  Internet  as  we  know  it  was  yet  to  arrive.  Computers  were  still  clunky  and  used  
primitive  media.  Dot  matrix  printers  were  all  the  rage.  There  was  no  widespread  use  of  Photoshop,  and  
no  easy  digital  process  for  coloring  comic  artwork  (at  home)  and  so  everything  done  was  in  black  and  
white,  pencils  and  then  inks.  

1992  -­‐1993  

Marvel  UK  Genesis  ‘92  

Once  school  was  out  for  the  year  it  was  homeward  bound  to  work  on  a  ten-­‐page  proposal  for  Marvel  
UK.  There  had  been  a  talent  search  of  some  kind  or  a  competition  somewhere,  either  in  the  pages  of  
Overkill  or  in  one  of  the  Marvel  UK  titles.  Or  perhaps  there  was  no  competition  and  it  was  merely  a  
notice  about  sending  submissions,  something  about  being  onto  the  good  ones  in  a  shot.    

Figure  3.  An  announcement  in  Overkill  Magazine  

Issue#  5  June  1992
 Figure  4 .  Early  '93  image  from  the  proposal  

Assuming  most  artists  (rightly  or  wrongly)  believe  they  have  what  it  takes,  there  was  no  exception  here.  
Without  a  doubt  the  work  was  good  enough  at  the  very  least  to  garner  attention.    

Of  the  Marvel  UK  titles  Motormouth  drawn  by  Gary  Frank,  happened  to  be  my  favorite.  

Apart  from  perhaps  Liam  Sharpe’s  Death’s  Head  II  the  rest  were  
lackluster.  

The  stories  themselves  weren’t  that  hot  and  it  seemed  that  Andy  
Lanning  or  Dan  Abnett  wrote  every  other  title.  

Now  while  I  might  have  thought  my  stuff  was  great,  it  was  mostly  pin  
up  work  without  decent  backgrounds.  When  you  draw  comics  you  
need  to  enjoy  an  unbroken  period  of  production  in  order  to  develop  
the  required  level  of  expertise  and  a  personal  style.    

Most  newcomers  and  first  timers  fall  at  this  first  hurdle  because  they’re  
not  yet  seasoned  enough  to  be  drawing  sequential  pages  
professionally.    

This  may  have  been  the  case  in  my  case,  and  certainly  was  so  for  the  
majority  of  the  artists  chosen  to  work  on  Marvel  UK  titles,  whose  art  
was  clearly  subpar,  even  compared  to  my  own  efforts.    

To  get  a  foot  in  the  door  a  demonstration  of  sequential  art  was  
required,  and  that’s  if  you  met  the  other  criteria  of  being  able  to  fit  in  
as  one  of  the  team.  

 How  do  you  display  sequential  art  in  a  ten-­‐page  proposal  without  
giving  away  too  much?  You  offer  a  problem  and  a  solution,  showcasing  
both  as  a  series  character  “bios”  drawn  in  a  sequential  art  style.  That’s  
what  was  done.  
Figure  5 .  Motormouth  
 The  Proposal  

By  early  1993  the  ten-page  proposal  was  completed  and  sent  via  recorded  delivery  to  the  Marvel  
UK  offices  in  Arundel  Street.  In  spite  of  multiple  telephone  conversations  with  the  office ...  

... no  response  was  forthcoming  for  some  time  after  this,  and  so  the  proposal  was  recopied  and  taken  
there  personally.  It  wasn’t  so  much  that  we  were  convinced  the  art  was  great  and  we  should  be  given  
books  to  draw.  It  was  the  story  we  had.  No.  Actually  it  was  the  other  way  around.  We  thought  the  art  
was  good  enough.  In  fact  the  story  was  a  throwaway  idea  created  in  jest  as  a  way  to  graft  our  own,  
personal,  native  stories  into  the  Marvel  universe  without  upsetting  the  applecart.  We  wanted  to  create  
X-­‐Men  who  were  as  fleshed  out  with  back-­‐stories  as  the  originals,  and  who  could  match  if  not  exceed  
them  in  abilities,  and  who  would  seem  to  have  been  there  the  whole  the  time.  The  story  was  indeed  
vastly  superior  to  anything  Marvel  UK  was  offering  at  the  time.  It  was  absolutely  begging  to  get  made  
and  offered  to  an  American  audience.    
The  proposal  posed  a  question;  whoever  read  it  would  require  an  answer  and  it  was  that  hook  we  hoped  
would  get  the  attention  we  wanted.    
Alas  it  didn’t  seem  to  work.  There  was  no  official  or  unofficial  response  from  them.  The  person  who  
physically  delivered  the  2nd  proposal  reported  they  accepted  the  package.  He  said  nothing  more  than  
this.  Perhaps  -­‐  after  all  -­‐  the  artwork  just  wasn’t  good  enough.  
Figure  6.  Last  Page  of  The  1992  Proposal
 1993  –  1994  
The  Cipher-­‐Men:  The  Beginning  of  a  New  Way  
And  so  it  was  that  X-­‐Factor:  Team  Cipher  was  never  green-­‐lighted,  or  even  heard  about  by  anyone  apart  
from  its  creator,  apart  from  his  associate,  apart  from  probably  a  receptionist,  and  possibly  heard  of  by  
Paul  Neary  Editor  in  Chief  of  Marvel  UK  at  the  time,  by  his  superiors  Mark  Gruenwald  (deceased),  or  
Tom  De  Falco.  They  would  have  been  approached  with  the  idea  if  it  had  gotten  that  far,  and  they  would  
be  the  ones  to  decide  ultimately  to  allow  such  an  addition  to  the  roster  of  Marvel  titles.  Hell,  even  Stan  
Lee  was  aware  of  what  was  going  on  behind  the  scenes.  He  even  personally  mentioned  Marvel  UK  titles  
in  the  works  at  the  time  -­‐  even  one  of  which  never  saw  the  light  of  day.    

Figure  2  Stan  Lee  discussing  Marvel  UK  in  1992

There’s  readily  available  information  on  all  of  those  titles  with  the  exception  of  Gene  Machine,  which  
might  be  the  extremely  poor  offering  called  Gene  Dogs,  or  maybe  something  else  entirely.  It  seems  Gene  
Machine  was  filed  with  an  “abandoned”  US  federal  trademark  registration  (alongside  something  called  
Model  Soldiers)  on  March  19th  1993,  out  of  London  WC2R  3DX  which  is  the  Temple  district.  Duh  –  of  
course!!!  Arundel  House!!  Then  again  GENE  D.O.G.S.  is  also  registered  on  May  24th  1993,  months  later,  
so  let’s  assume  Gene  Machine  to  be  a  completely  separate  entity.  I  digress  here,  but  there  was  also  a  
character  called  G-Force  –  common  enough  name; I  think  created  by  John  Freeman,  a  group  editor  
under  Paul  Neary.  I  think  they  were  going  to  do  a  full  book,  or  4 issue story  arc,  but  they  cancelled  it.  
Interesting  concept,  especially  the  thing  about  “force  bubbles.”  
Anyway…  Team  Cipher?  Yes.  At  that  point  it  was  decided  they  should  lose  all  affiliation  with  Marvel  UK,  
and  so  all  references  to  S.H.I.E.L.D.,  MysTech,  Death’s  Head  II,  various  X-­‐Men  and  sundry  characters  
were  removed  and  replaced  either  with  existing  PEI  characters  or  new  ones  invented  for  the  story.  As  
disappointing  as it  was  to  relinquish  the  probably  unrealistic  dream  of  working  with  Marvel  Comics,  
the  story  had  become  something  memorable  and  so  the  notion  of  self publishing  came  to  the  fore.  At  
first  the  whole  thing  was  renamed  The  Ciphers,  but  that  doesn’t  sound  so  great.  The  artwork  changed  
to  remove  all  traces  of  the  Marvel  universe,  including  the  S.H.I.E.L.D.  costumes.    

Figure  7.  First  A ttempt  to  Color  using  Photoshop  in  1995-­‐6
 The  scripts  were  expanded  to  12  issues  instead  of  the  4  originally  written,  and  of  that  Issues  1  and  4  
were  completed,  the  rest  exist  in  various  states  ranging  from  almost  completed  (2,  and  3)  to  part  
completed  (5,6,7)  to  the  rest  being  in  outline  form.  At  some  point  in  1994  serious  work  on  this  project  
ceased  and  it  wouldn’t  be  resumed  properly  until  an  attempt  to  animate  what  became  The  Cipher  Men  
in  2002.  

1999-­‐2003  
A  curious  thing  
happened…

Full Version Available Only

to Patrons  

2008  
The  Return  of  the  Cipher-­‐Men  
Now,  we  won’t  discuss  the  attempt  to  turn  The  Cipher-­‐Men  into  a  3D  animated  series  proposal  because  
obviously  it  didn’t  pan  out.  Out  of  that  came  some  nice  themes  and  pieces  by  Little  Kitchen  Music.  

Between  1996-­‐7  (the  last  time  any  Cipher-­‐Men  related  images  were  drawn)  and  2008  -­‐-­‐  the  Internet  
became  a  thing.  It  began  to  be  possible  to  make  and  distribute  comics  without  using  the  traditional  
outlets,  and  so  The  Cipher-­‐Men  was  brought  out  of  retirement.    
A  new  script  was  written:  PEI  Comics  Volume  2.  It  was  a  bit  …  reactionary,  and  probably  not  what  was  
called  for.  There  were  some  decent  embellishments  to  the  story  and  it  took  things  in  a  novel  direction.  
The  one  good  thing  to  come  out  of  it  was  some  nice  artwork.  It  was  never  completed  or  published…  in  
the  way  originally  intended.  

2013-­‐2018  
PEI  Comics  Online  
In  these  years  PEI  Comics  served  the  community  online.  Many  projects  were  realized  for  first  time  
writers  who  needed  decent  art  to  embellish  their  ideas,  but  this  was  not  all-­‐smooth  sailing.  Working  
almost  full  time  doing  freelance  illustration  and  comic  book  art  (as  a  paid  hobby)  is  not  something  to  
be  recommended.    
It  is  sometimes  difficult  to  make  ends  meet,  keep  a  roof  over  one’s  head  and  food  on  the  table,  or  even  
think  to  upgrade  equipment  or  lifestyle,  and  even  more  so  to  find  decent  and  flexible  collaborators  of  
the  kind  necessary  to  succeed  in  both  yours  and  their  endeavors.    
This  is  even  more  of  a  test  when  faced  with  eccentric  or  even  mentally  challenged  individuals  with  
abnormal  levels  of  unjustified  self-­‐esteem.  It  was  only  such  individuals  who  undervalued  efforts  and  
sought  to  destroy  reputations,  especially  those  using  third  party  platforms  to  recruit  cheap  talent.  
Still,  on  balance  the  majority  of  clients  were  decent,  understanding,  patient,  generous  and  consistent,  
and  so  they  were  rewarded  with  a  value  for  money  service,  which  produced  some  notable  pieces  of  art  
over  the  years.    
 2018  
Apocalypse  Comics  
And  so  we  reach  the  …  beginning  of  our  journey.  
Every  person  who  signs  up  as  a  patron  will  be  enabling  PEI  Comics  to  become  a  reality,  and  one  which  
will  bring  to  the  world  something  very  special  indeed.  
Thanks  for  listening.