90's SUCCESSES

In the '90s James' first work for Cult Press was a "Bonehead" 29-pager. He had been in communication with Cult Press for some time - they wanted to work with him, but James had become successful enough in other illustration ventures to be able to pick and choose, and was looking for a script with less colorful language.

In the spring of 1993 the comic-book anthology Wiindows, issue five, was released featuring a story called "Masterpiece in Bone," written by Mike Leonard and Illustrated by James E. Lyle. The editorial staff at Cult Press, publishers of that title, were so pleased with the results that half way through the issue they began hinting that they wanted to team Mike and James on another title, a continuing color series called "DoorMan."

Cult Press was only able to get one issue of DoorMan out before the company ran short of money and had to rethink its marketing strategy. Plans for a black and white "DoorMan" from Cult Press never happened.

Fortunately Mike and James were able to take the series to Caliber Comics where "DoorMan: Family Secrets" one through four were released in 1995. Also, a nine page story called "Stolen Years" appeared in the Caliber anthology, Negative Burn.

"We still get the occasional fan letter from somewhere in the world," said James. "We have fans in England, Israel and Australia. A couple of years ago we got very close to selling the concept as a TV series, and may still!" The DoorMan image on this page has never been published, but a collected DoorMan book is still in the works.

"DoorMan" history, for interested collectors, is as follows:

DoorMan Ashcan, from Cult Press, by Leonard and Lyle.

DoorMan number one, from Cult Press, by Leonard and Lyle with colors by Jahrome Youngker.

Caliber Comics 1995-96 Calendar, illustration by Lyle.

DoorMan Trading Card, from Caliber Comics, by Lyle and Youngker (Reproduced from the splash page of the Cult Press issue).

DoorMan: Family Secrets number one, from Caliber Comics, by Leonard and Lyle, with inks pages one through 17 by Rick Davis.

DoorMan: Family Secrets number two, from Caliber Comics, by Leonard and Lyle, with cover colors by Joel Merritt.

DoorMan: Family Secrets number three, from Caliber Comics, by Leonard and Lyle, with inks by Rick Davis and Mike Mikolajczyk.

DoorMan: Family Secrets number four, from Caliber Comics, by Leonard and Lyle, with inks by Rick Davis and Mike Mikolajczyk.

Negative Burn number 36, from Caliber Comics, by Leonard and Lyle with inks by Mike Mikolajczyk.

DoorMan T-shirt, from Caliber comics, by Lyle.

In 1995, Michael Sawyer put together a sample comic with several other creatives who used to be part of "Butch" Guice's studio when he lived in Asheville, North Carolina. Sawyer provided the script about a battered child and his mother. During the story the boy reads part of his favorite comic "Giant City".

"The idea, of course, was for each of us artists to showcase his own work," said James. "Besides me, the artists were Butch's brother Jeff Guice, Mike Mikolajczyk and Ken Mundy." The project fell into the "tier two" workload when everyone began receiving paying jobs elsewhere and, despite interest from several publishers, was never released.

The title character "Jimbo" was recently licensed for young boy's T-shirts by J.C. Penny and was given the new sobriquet "Ollie Orbit."

What's New:
AIR BRUSH
GALLERY
COMMISSIONS

'80s Alternative:
ESCAPE TO THE STARS
T.H.U.N.D.E.R.
THE LAST OF THE NEW WAVE RIDERS
FRIGHT NIGHT

Miscellany:
OTHER COMIC BOOK WORK
ERNIE GULDBECK TRIBUTE