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Jim Nastics' 25th Anniversary
May 3, 2009 marks the 25th anniversary of Jim Nastics comics. Who is Jim Nastics? How does Beanman Comics fit in to all this? Well here is the story!
Jim Nastics began as a character Bill created for his comic book friend Alan Larsen to work on. You see, Alan liked Beanman. He liked him a lot! In fact, so much that Bill and Kimball were kind of being driven crazy by Alan drawing his own Beanman stories and creating some fabulous silkscreen prints with Beanman in them. ( The art of Alan Larsen will be featured soon on our website). Bill thought, if only he an Alan had their own character to write and draw stories for. Bill started thinking and he came up with the idea of Jim Nastics. In this way Beanman indirectly brought about the creation of Jim Nastics comics. Jim Nastics was an Olympic athlete and involved cold war shenanigans at the 1984 Olympic Games. Jim was kind of an updated version of Captain America, with a secret serum invented by secret government scientists that gave him super bouncing and acrobatic powers. Alan and Bill spent many hours (pre-internet) talking on the phone and preparing the first issue of Jim Nastics Comics. It was to be unveiled at the May 3, 1984 Portsmouth Comic Con. Here is where the story really gets weird. That day, on the other side of the convention floor, another self-published black and white comic book was being unveiled. Just a little thing called "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #1" You see Peter Laird and Kevin Eastman, the Turtles creators were also from Dover, New Hampshire and had also picked the small Portsmouth Convention to roll out their newest comic creation. Most of us know what happened to their creation...but what about poor Jim Nastics? Jim Nastics #1 did okay and made Alan a few dollars. Alan fronted most of the money to publish the black and white comic. Jim Nastics #2 came out sometime later and did less well. Jim Nastics #3 was prepared, but never printed. Old copies of Jim Nastics are kicking around on the Internet, trying to be sold by folks here and there. A lesson that no matter how small or bad a publication is, it will probably remain in existence somewhere and that someone will probably be trying to sell it for a buck on eBay. When ever I see a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comic, however, I always think about Jim Nastics and my own personal 'What if things had been different' story.
Happy 25th anniversary Jim Nastics!
-Bill Mitchell, May 3, 2009
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Organic Tales staring Beanman. Organic Tales is a fantasy comic strip about a teenager who inherits a strange suit from outer space to become the superhero Beanman. Beanman was created in 1976 by William Mitchell and Kimball Thorpe. All material © William Mitchell and Kimball Thorpe. All rights reserved.