On Monday, March 29th I met up with Pittsburgh's own Wayne Wise at Phantom of the Attic Comics. It was a slow morning at the shop, so I took my time to ask Wise about his storied past in the world of comics. Wayne Wise is an active member of the Pittsburgh independent comics community. A self described grizzled veteran of the comics convention circuit and author of the comic Grey Legacy, Wise currently teaches a course at Chatham University on Comics History, illustrates strips for the Chatham Communique and works at Phantom of the Attic Comics on Craig Street. Simply put, Mr. Wise has his feet deep in the world of comics.
Wayne Wise and Grey Legacy
Wayne grew up 50 miles away from Pittsburgh, reading comics off of spinner racks. It wasn't until 1981 that the world of comics really presented itself to Wise. His visit to PittCon '81 at Duquesne University was the day of revelation. After that he and his friends made regular trips to Pittsburgh, their cultural mecca. These trips would entail trips to Eides Comics downtown, Phantom of the Attic Comics in Oakland and Jim's Records in Bloomfield(now Paul's CDs).
Throughout the 80s Wise wrote and drew with his soon to be best friend and Grey Legacy Collaborator, Fred Wheaton. It was then that they started developing the Grey Legacy universe. Grey Legacy is a science fiction webcomic that originally made its way into the world as a print publication. It was published in minicomics, anthologies and as its own book in 1992 thanks to a Xeric Grant, a grant dedicated to helping comic creators self-publish their work. Interestingly, Grey Legacy was amongst the first four comics to win the Xeric Grant. Wayne and Wheaton's visual style in Grey Legacy is like a well mixed cocktail of Dave Sim's Cerebus and Jaime and Gilbert Hernandez's Love and Rockets. The ink work uses hard blacks that usher in detail through the negative space on the rest of the page.
The comics environment from which Grey Legacy originated plays an important backdrop to the development of the series and the universe. From the get go, Wise and Wheaton had been working together on their own self published minicomics. There was a huge underground of self-published mini-comics that was, by today's internet standards, hard to learn about or track down. It was a bonafide underground. The two of them started doing comic strips for a music/humor 'zine called The Plain Brown Wrapper. This was sold in local music stores and comic shops, but mostly through mail order. Through this the two of them learned of the existence of Factsheet Five, a review magazine for 'zines and mini-comics. Anyone could send their book in and get a listing and a review, and hopefully, as a result, some mail order business. It was a physical directory and map to the many hubs of creativity of the 80s and 90s underground. Wise and Wheaton sent copies of the original Grey Legacy, as well as some of their other mini-comics like Buggly the Inbred Bear, Dumpy Geeks at the Mall, and Boo Boo Chute and sold a few copies and traded many more. In retrospect, more important than the sales, the two found supportive underground network of other people who were self-publishing. It was at this point in time that the two wanted to get more exposure.
In their search for exposure, Wise and Wheaton experienced the 1986 a black and white comics explosion. This explosion in the black and white comics market was partially due to the rise of Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird's independently created Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series and Dave Sim's Cerebus. When asked about the explosion, Wise recalls, "At that time, anyone in America that could hold a pencil was publishing, and we were one of them". In the hulluballo of the explosion, everyone thought they could make big money creating black and white franchises similar to that of Laird and Eastman's Turtles.
The explosion of 1986 became the implosion of 1987, because the material printed was simply not selling. It was in this shifting climate that Wise and Wheaton began exploring the world of extensive publication. In this exploration, Wise and Wheaton finally carved out with brush and ink the framework of the Grey Legacy universe for all to see. Unfortunately, in the crash that happened amongst printing houses in '87, the publication that was going to print a story revolving around a character named Shadowlock never saw the light of day. Despite the heartbreak of not seeing his comic make it to print, Wise is glad that not many folks saw that story. Grey Legacy simply wasn't ready yet.
In the limbo that ensued after the lack of publication, Wise and Wheaton convened and thought seriously about their story. The two realized that the story that they wanted to tell did not start with Shadowlock, the young man, it began 40 years earlier i with Greylock, Shadowlock's father. Wise and Wheaton had already been telling stories in their universe for a while, but it was in 1987 that they finally had a long arching story that they wanted to tell. It was to be a long narrative in the epic vein of Dave Sim's Cerebus. Soon after, the two were contacted by the small anthology book, Wavemakers, with an invitation to write a story for one of their issues. Wise and Wheaton put together a nine page story revolving around a character named Brix. In the grand scheme of things, she would be Shadowlock's mother. This story ended up appearing alongside the work of the likes of Wayno and Harvey Pekar.
It was shortly after the publishing of the short Brix Story that Wise and Wheaton learned of the Xeric grant. Within a day, they had a letter in the mail with their application and lo and behold, they got the grant. Thanks to this grant, they published a huge run of magazine style issues of the first Grey Legacy. It entered the world to good reviews and the future seemed bright for Grey Legacy, but unfortunately, as occurs often in the world of indie comics to even the most ambitious creators, life got in the way of the stories.
Wise and Wheaton have worked on Grey Legacy and other comics projects off and on over the past 10 years, but the epic Wise and Wheaton stories have been on hiatus. Hopefully, the two can find a way to get some more Grey Legacy publications into the world.
If you would like get your hands some copies of the original works, stop by Phantom of the Attic Comics at 411 South Craig Street. Additionally, if you would like to read Wise and Wheaton's stories, please visit http://www.drunkduck.com/Grey_Legacy/. And if you're ever interested in learning more about the world of comics, stop by the shop on Craig Street and look for the friendly man with a wiry red beard. That'd be Wise, the man who'll be sure to steer you well.
Note: All Images Pencilled By Fred Wheaton and Inked by Wayne Wise
Great piece! Wayne rules!!!
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