My name's Ryan Valentine. I discovered this website through an ad in IDW's Haunted Horror anthology. I'm really thrilled that a site like this exists. There are a few decent compilations of public domain comic books from the pre-code era, but there's still a large quantity of material that's either super-expensive or impossible to find.
The first thing I looked up were some Simon/Kirby issues of Black Magic. I'm continually amazed by the vivacity of Joe Simon and Jack Kirby. Although they're justifiably lauded for their superhero stories, they seem to be able to apply that kinetic energy to just about any genre in comicdom.
I'm looking forward to checking out a ton of other stuff on here. I was really impressed by Lou Fine's artwork for a Flame story collected in a Fantagraphics volume and I'd really like to see more of him. I also have a deep appreciation for the manic grotesquerie of Basil Wolverton and I've been reassured that there's plenty of that here. I'm also keen to read more of Jack Cole's work in general (and his Daredevil stuff in particular).
And, well, there's a ton of stuff on here that I'm curious about. I'm sure that I'll stumble across plenty of happy accidents as well.
Most of the other introductory pieces have a bit of personal info, so I think I should toss a little bit of that in there as well...
I'm an amateur comics artist and part-time columnist for one of those comics websites. I have several paid articles under my belt and I've even had a few pages published in a couple of small-press anthologies.
I also maintain an ongoing webcomic and I've featured several public domain heroes as supporting characters in my stories. Fantomah showed up in my maiden arc and I also put The Claw into a tale about comic book racism (He was the king of "The Island of Misfit Supervillains", a haven for bad guys who are considered too insensitive to be used in modern adventure fiction). I'd throw out a link, but I don't know if that would count as spam.
Anyways, I'm really grateful to all the folks who have been scanning this material and making it available for public consumption. It has made my tablet a much more interesting device.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to get back to a Jack Kirby comic about cat people (I'm hoping against hope that it ends with someone putting out fire with gasoline).
