The Jack Magic Comic Book

“Aren’t you going to leave someone behind to watch him?” Hodges asked.
“Why?” Shokwurk replied. “Is he going to free himself at the last minute?”
Hodges glanced at Jack. “That’s what the hero does in the comic books.”
“Then it’s a good thing that this isn’t a comic book. Let’s go.”
- Jack Magic: Believe Your Eyes

Matthew Pak at VA ComicCon March 3, 2018

As detailed in the History section of this website, Jack Magic, after many twists and turns and changes was supposed to be a comic book series. Modern technology had caught up in the early 2000s so that it was feasible to self-publish an honest-to-gosh full color professionally printed and stapled comic book. So after many years of planning I thought I was ready. I knew that I wanted to do a test issue first, just feel my way through a single story standalone and then launch into the main storyline.

There is brief alcohol and tobacco use (I think just one character in the first book lights a cigar using magic). There is innuendo used in (hopefully) a humorous way. There are folks from diverse backgrounds and religions, some of the characters have an alternate lifestyle, but there is no lecturing or scolding of the readers. Different kinds of people just exist, the way they just existed on classic Star Trek. There are some dark and tragic events that might be disturbing to some readers such as violence, discussions of cancer, decapitations, threats of torture, loss of life and the "off-camera" death of an unborn child. As always, adults, guardians and caretakers should use their discretion and have the final say.

All in all I guess you could say that Jack Magic is as violent as the Star Wars but not quite as violent as Indiana Jones.

THE SAGA SORT OF SOMEWHAT MAYBE BEGINS

Looking back now I'm not very happy with it. I relied too heavily on photo reference so the entire work resembles a fumetti (a popular form of comics that originated in Italy and uses photos rather than drawings for illustrating a story) . But there was a reason for that. You see, my devious plan was to send the finished book to the G4 cable network for review, and I had based all the characters appearances (except for Jack and Alex) on personalities and performers from ZDTV/TechTV/G4techTV/G4. Okay, why? Well, I really enjoyed those networks, they were (at the time) cutting edge, informative and funny...but also relatively obscure. The characters from Jack Magic already existed for DECADES before ZDTV and G4 launched (1998 and 2002 respectively) so it was simple to adapt. There's a precedent , lots of comic book characters were inspired by or based on real people. C.C. Beck designed the original Captain Marvel on Fred MacMurray. Jack Kirby used Jack Palance for Darkseid. Steve Bissette based John Constantine on Sting. One of my favorite artists from when I was a teenager, Paul Gulacy, put so many celebrity look-alikes in his work: Marlon Brando, James Coburn, Bruce Lee, Humphrey Bogart, the examples go on and on. So was I deliberately trying to butter up the G4 folks to get some publicity? The answers is yes. Hopefully they would be flattered. Hopefully they would not sue me or slap me with a cease and desist.
So what happened? Unfortunately G4 went belly up in 2012. I was too late to impress anybody there. Although I have been in touch with a few of the network's personalities over the years and they were fine with my "tributes."

I should mention that this first comic book story is completely out of continuity with the official Jack Magic series, although there are at least three "Easter Eggs" that hint at what I was planning for where the story was going to go right from the very beginning. I will detail them in on the Secrets page sometime in the future.
You can read the entire comic book or download it as a PDF at this link right here.

THE SAGA HITS A WALL

And then things fell apart. It was simply impossible for me to continue holding down a full time job as well as be a caretaker for my mother. I did proceed to create what are called "ashcan comics" following the numbering system after the first issue.
An ashcan comic refers to a special, limited-run comic book produced by publishers for a specific purpose related to intellectual property rights. I had trademarked the name JACK MAGIC® back in 2002 and I was required every so many years to "defend" my property and prove it was being used and not abandoned. My last update was in 2018 when I did a small run of a new issue 4. It was a short story, again out of main continuity, where Jack and Alex run into Professor Whut, a parody of Dr. Who. Instead of traveling in a TARDIS made to look like a vintage police call box, Professor Whut travels in a vintage Fotomat booth. The story was light and silly and inconsequential, but served the purpose for the trademark. I could have just gone on self-publishing short little Jack Magic adventures every now and again but I had a really big story I wanted to tell before I died, so I knew I had to switch over to writing novels instead of drawing comics.
In 2019 I started the first draft of Jack Magic: Believe Your Eyes in pure text format. And I am delighted in how it turned out so far. Am I through with comics? No, I would love to publish Jack and other creations of mine in comic book form again some day. In fact, I would be open to collaborating with other artists and writers in expanding this world.

JACK MAGIC: BELIEVE YOUR EYES DOUBLE TAKE

A comparison of the first page of the unfinished comic book for Jack Magic: Believe Your Eyes and the first few pages of the 2023 novel

“Oh, my goodness, where do I begin?”
Her name was not really Mia, but it was Mia for now. She stared lovingly through the glass case that housed the fresh baked donuts. Her smiling face and long red curly hair were reflected over the multi-colored pastries, creating the visual illusion that she herself was a creature made from donuts and crullers and eclairs, and that amused her.
“I wish I could take you all home with me,” she sighed. “Wait.”
She tapped her glitter nail polished finger against the glass next to a donut that had thick green frosting and a single bold zig zag of white icing. “That one, please.”
The woman behind the counter plucked it from the case with a gloved hand and gently placed it into a wax paper bag. Mia handed over payment and the woman rang up the purchase on an old-style cash register that had a mechanical bell. It dinged loudly and Mia laughed.
“Another angel got his wings,” the cashier chuckled.
“That’s right,” Mia agreed. “Keep the change.”
We live in a world of miracles and wonder, Mia thought to herself.
She walked away from the counter, passing a young Asian girl talking to someone on her smart phone. The girl was absent mindedly fidgeting with her chain necklace as she spoke to the person on the other end. She appeared to be happy, almost blushing, and she was oblivious to everyone else in the coffee shop.
A world where the sighs and whispers of lovers can be shared across great distances, even continents.
Mia passed a young man reheating his food in a microwave oven.
Where exotic meals that would have been the envy of ancient emperors can be purchased and ready to eat in mere seconds, twenty-four hours a day.
Another young man sat at a table nearby, his cup of coffee ignored, growing cold, frowning as he glared at the screen of his computer laptop, reading something that he disagreed with. Then his demeanor changed, and he grinned and began excitedly typing out what he thought was the perfect reply.
Where the silent words of disenfranchised citizens can unite unto a roar that can shake the halls of higher government.
Mia pushed through the front door of the coffee shop, making a bell overhead ring.
Another angel.
She glanced over and noticed the bright neon sign for the Virginia Lottery glowing in the store’s window.
Where an ordinary penny scratched across a piece of cardboard can be transformed into a fortune to rival the wealth of King Solomon.
Mia walked out onto the busy sidewalk facing West Cary Street in the middle of Carytown. Above in the distant sky she could see something moving across the clouds. Was it a plane? A helicopter? Something else? Too far away to tell.
Where the laws of gravity are often mere suggestions instead of hard-set rules.
As she walked Mia unwrapped her donut and sank her teeth into it, savoring the soft sweet goodness.
We live in a world of miracles and wonder.
She took another bite.
Magic is everywhere, if you only know where to look.
She stopped at a telephone pole that was covered by hundreds of old rusted tiny bits of metal wire from years, if not decades, of posters being crudely stapled into the wood. The newest poster on it featured the image of a man with half his face covered by shadow. Printed above it was the name JACK MAGIC.

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