Continuing Visions of Lorelei, a 13-part artistic event that celebrates the recent publication of Lorelei: Sects and the City, a Mature Readers graphic novel that reintroduces The ’Warp’s first horror heroine.
“Hey, congratulations, man!” a friend of mine said back in 1994. “How’d you get Billy Tucci to put Lorelei in that comic?”
I looked at him like he was nuts. “What’re you talking about?”
“That Shi comic of his that just came out—Lorelei’s in it!”
I had absolutely no idea how that could have happened. I knew what Shi was—Tucci’s self-published, top-selling bad-girl comic about a modern-day female Japanese warrior—but as far as I could remember I’d never crossed paths with the guy. So I was pretty sure my buddy was mistaken; no way could Lori be popping up in a Shi comic, certainly not without a heads-up from Tucci. Still, I figured it wouldn’t kill me to drop by Forbidden Planet and look into it.
Turned out “that Shi comic” was Shi/Cyblade: The Battle for Independents, the second half of a crossover with Top Cow Comics in which Tucci and Top Cow president/artist Mark Silvestri were making a major push to promote indie publishers to mainstream comics fans (part 1 was titled Cyblade/Shi). Seemed like an admirable idea, but as I thumbed through the issue I didn’t see any evidence of my girl making her full-color debut. Then I hit the two-page center spread:
Yup. There was Lori, in the middle of a charge by indie characters against the big, bad mainstream corporations. Looking at it now, that spread’s like a gigantic “where are they now?” of indie comics. The only characters I still recognize, other than Shi and Cyblade, are: my friend Richard C. White’s Troubleshooters Inc. werewolf, Nightstalker, in the upper-left corner; Greg Hyland’s Lethargic Lad riding Stephen R. Bissette’s T. rex from Tyrant; Jim Lee’s Grifter in front of them; David Mack’s Kabuki (standing to the right of the motorcycle); and Jeff Smith’s Fone Bone.
Well, my immediate impression was that it was kinda neat, but I was puzzled why no one had ever contacted me. I guess in their enthusiasm to spread the word about indie comics, Tucci and Silvestri just went ahead and put in characters they liked. (I have a feeling I wasn’t the only creator surprised by their character’s appearance in the comic.) Didn’t really matter to me—I appreciated the nod, and it was nice seeing Lori in a full-color comic for the first time.
So now all these years later, I have just one question left to ask:
“Hey, Tucci, where are my royalties?” 😀
