The year of our Lord, 2005, was a weird year. Star Wars Episode III was released. Daniel Powter had a “Bad Day,” and 50-Cent went to the “Candy Shop.” In Western Nebraska, two comic book nerds, Christopher Lawton and Mathew D. Rhys, decided that they were tired of trying to convince other comic book companies to publish their stories. Instead, they decided to publish their own. After all, how hard could it be? Keep in mind that they made both this observation and decision at two or three in the morning, at an all-night diner, after many, many cups of coffee. Plus, as previously stated, 2005 was a weird time.
We called our new company Ideal Comics, and our philosophy was simple: we wanted to make the types of comic books we grew up reading. We cut our teeth on Denny O’Neil’s Batman and Chris Claremont’s X-Men, and as we started reading older stories from the 60s and 70s, we fell in love with how those stories contributed to the rich history we were enjoying every month. Characters did not exist in a vacuum. Their choices affected their world, and the changes in their world affected them. Modern stories referred back to stories from 10, 20, even 30 years ago, and if you wanted to know more about that story, you had to go dig that issue out of the long boxes. It. Was. Awesome.
Unfortunately, in recent years, this style of story has fallen to the wayside. While there remains a type of continuity in modern comics, many editors and creators play fast and loose with it, leading to some of this rich history being ignored and sometimes forgotten. We think this is really sad, and we don’t believe we’re alone in that.
We believe that a lot of comic book fans miss these classic stories, and that’s why we think a company like Ideal Comics is so important. We love the rich worlds created by those classic stories, and right now, modern comics don’t seem to want to offer that. Now, we aren’t bitter about the industry, and we don’t go online to whine and moan about Marvel and DC “ruining” our hobby. We still buy, and collect, and read, and love comics. We just think that there is also a place in this modern era for the kinds of stories, and the kinds of worlds, we fell in love with as kids. And we believe that Ideal Comics can fit that place nicely.