Presenting the untold tale of how Johnny and Jetpack Press came to be! Now some of this information is pretty exciting, so hold on to your seats! In the winter of 2002, Matt Talbot was putting on a demonstration at NH comic shop, The Paperback Bazaar, on computer coloring for comics. Only one person showed up--which technically should have made the demonstration a disaster, had that person not been Rich Woodall. The two hit it off and started working on various small comic projects together. Shortly thereafter, Rich and Matt found out about an upcoming local comic convention in Boston, and decided to pool their talents to put together a comic for the show. The duo figured that between them both, they had about enough talent to equal one good comic creator, so they might as well try to get something done. They decided to use Rich's character, Johnny Raygun, and produced 150 copies of a 16 page "Johnny Raygun: One Shot" comic. The con was a success, as the book sold out, and fans and pros alike told Rich and Matt that they'd like to see more Johnny stories. "Team Raygun" (as we'll call them) liked the idea, but lacked any sort of common or business sense which would enable them to self-publish a book. Luckily, their good friend Ralph DiBernardo came up with a devilish plan. Though Ralph lacked common sense (ie. starting up a self-publishing comic enterprise), he did not lack business sense. Ralph saw something in these two young chaps, but after Rich and Matt both turned down his advances, he offered to publish their book (or any other junk they might throw at him). And thus was born Jetpack Press!
