Posted in: Comics | Tagged: Central Coast Comic Con, Dave Hamann, George Wassil, Michael Burkhofer, Oh Hell

Oh Hell… The Things You Find In Ventura

Published Mon, 09 Sep 2013 11:30:51 -0500

As I attended the Central Coast Comic Con this weekend, I was setting up my table when my neighbor George Wassil introduced himself. He apologized to me in advance saying that I will quickly tire of his sales pitch during the weekend. George never got annoying with his pitch, he was very nice about it, didn't try to yell across the room at people… he just spoke to the people who were in front of his table. I do remember the opening of the pitch though…

"The parents are fed up and they're sending the kids to boarding school. But what they don't realize is that the boarding school is in hell… and its pass/fail."

My first thought was that my parents would have found that to be a selling point… Talking with George over the day I found out he is retired and decided to do a comics as he had "the bug" to do it. He said he is using his kids inheritance to pay for the printing. Five kids by the way… all girls. He told me about the youngest who is 14 and plays the double bass in jazz groups. You can see the pride he has for her as he talks about her.

I was really enjoying hanging out with George… and then he handed me his comic. I was a little hesitant to open it. First time comic guy, older, self publishing. I've seen some bad comics at conventions. But I opened it up and was floored.

Oh Hell is a great book. One I would have picked up if I had just found it sitting on the shelf in the comic shop… and I would be amazed that it didn't have an Image, IDW or Boom Studios logo. The art team of Dave Hamann and Michael Birkhofer are going to be poached by the first editor that sees them. There is not a single aspect in this book that isn't high professional level quality. That includes a very cool story. Seems raising 5 daughters makes you pretty damn good at writing about a teenaged girl being sent to boarding school.

They have the first issue on-line, so go see it for yourself. And don't be surprised if you see a publisher scoop in and grab this title… I know I would.