A Bit Of History... (part two: Going Pro)

My earliest 'reading' memories are of comic books. Particualrly a green ink British reprint of The Fantastic Four - where they were fighting Dr Doom in his castle and he had traps rigged up for each individual, tailored to their specific powers - and an import copy of Shazam, purchased from a newsagents along Deal coast, back when comics could still be found on revolving racks in English newsagents.

Once I went to Skinners' School, in the early 80s, and met up with my old primary school chum Steve and his brother Pete, I got into comic collecting hardcore. Steve started me off, but then I was flying under my own steam. Even more than roleplaying games - another hobby we shared - American comic books helped define who I was in my own head.

In my first house, one wall of the spare room was floor-to-ceiling sagging shelves of alphabetised and catalogued comics; sadly most of which have now been sold (to continually feed my habit ... and free up space). Such organisation has long gone as well as my collection is now scattered through random packing boxes in Rachel's parents' spare room ... awaiting the day when we can afford to move out of her flat and into a house with room for all my stuff!

Comics drove my passion for creating HeroPress and within a year of the game launching, we had a score of players (including one in the States - again, remember, this is pre-Internet so we had to rely on snail-mail, which was very slow across The Pond). One of them sent the rule books etc into Computer + Video Games, a national glossy with a regular play-by-mail column, and we got a glowing review and the columist - Wayne - became a strong advocate of HeroPress.

Soon we had multiple game masters and more player as the HeroPress juggernaut thundered on. Then in 1991 one of my players told me he was involved in launching a glossy sci-fi/superhero mag called Fantazia and his colleagues were interested in 'adopting' the game. I explained that it was very labour-intensive and they'd never make any money out of it, but that didn't stop them.

HeroPress had a glamourous 'reboot', with new card-covered rule books and new gamesmasters and players, but quite quickly the people behind Fantazia and its gaming spin-off Gamesmaster, realised I had been right all along and we parted company amicably. Gamesmaster and Fantazia went belly-up soon after this - I don't think there was any connection, except that their fanboyish enthusiasm for their hobbies probably outweighed their business prowess.

So, the game was firmly back in my hands, but I had a so-called life by then and didn't really want the hassle of running of it all, so I handed over the reins to Mark (in Brighton) - at the time a househusband - with more brains and ideas than I would ever have. He took the ball and ran with it, eventually, I believe passing it on his friend Richard, who had been the gamesmaster of an 'outer space' campaign in my pre-Fantazia days.

After that ... I don't know, to be honest. I kinda lost touch with my beloved game for a while and hadn't given it much thought until last year when I realised it was a great source of pre-developed material for the Buffy-esque campaign setting I was developing in Wiki format, aka Knight City.

And that pretty much brings us up to date.