CHRIS YAMBAR grew up in an environment filled with
sugary
cereal premiums, SOAKY bath toys, SINCLAIR dinosaurs, TV’s BANANA
SPLITS, FUNNY FACE drink mix, STICKER FUN books, and, of course, COMIC
BOOKS.
His first introduction to comic books came in the form of bribes from
his father who used them to keep CHRIS remotely still during haircuts,
which he received from a ‘weekend barber’ who cut hair in the side
window of G.C.MURPHY’S, a local five and dime department store in
Youngstown, Ohio. The comic book rack was conveniently located next to
the clipping stall and provided a colorful array of eye candy for
anyone under 4' tall.
The very first comic book that CHRIS ever read was CASPER THE FRIENDLY
GHOST. This was soon followed by TARZAN, BATMAN, and the infamous HOT
STUFF. It may have been CASPER that got him hooked, but it was HOT
STUFF (the little devil kid) that made him realize that there was a
perceived ‘dark side’ to the artform.
“When my mom saw HOT STUFF, she immediately grabbed it out of my hands
and tore it to pieces,” YAMBAR laughs. “She was a SHREDDER ! I remember
her talking about it with my dad and hearing him say, ‘But the little
devil’s wearing a diaper! How dangerous can he be?!’ Right then and
there I had a clear understanding that 12 cents could get you into a
whole heap of trouble - if you bought the right thing! So as I got
older, I continued to do so!”
YAMBAR’s love for comics carried him throughout his school days and
even led him to start his first ‘company’ in the 6th grade.
“We called it YAMBAR COMICS and drew every issue by hand on notebook
paper, carefully trimming off the spiral-cut edges so we’d look
professional,” YAMBAR explains. “ I would write the stories and make up
the characters while another classmate drew the panels and another
stapled the pages and sold them during class. For awhile there we even
hand-tinted the pages with watercolors. I had ‘lifetime’ contracts and
everything! At the end of the year we took all the money we’d made and
spent it on ice cream bars which we ate until we were sick. Sadly, the
‘company’ folded due to summer vacation and by 7th grade it was ancient
history.” In 2005, a copy of one of these handmade comics,
‘MAD BOMBER’S COMICS FAIR’, sold for $296.56 on E-Bay. (To read more on this
story click here.)
During the 1970s, CHRIS became a MARVEL COMICS junkie and a huge
SPIDER-MAN groupie. He poured all of his energy and focus into becoming
a comics professional. Every day after school he spent hours upon hours
writing, drawing, and reading books about the history of the comics
medium and the printing business. It was his ‘not so secret’ obsession
- one that his father, a machinist in the steel industry, did not
understand or agree with. His father’s violent disapproval drove a
painful wedge between father and son that proved to be a sore spot for
decades. It wasn’t until the late 1990s that the two were able to find
a common ground again. “My father came from a generation that lived by
the program created for them without questioning it. They went into the
service straight out of school (which many of them did not finish), got
married and started a family as soon as they got out, and disappeared
into the mills with a metal lunch box until they emerged 30-40 years
later. They were spent, bruised, and goalless. Any dreams they may have
had before going into the mills were extracted long before they ever
got out. I was not about to let that happen to me... and told him so.
While I appreciated the work ethic these people had adopted, I did not
want to lose the goals that I had in my heart. It was very difficult
and even painful at times, but it was a price I was willing to pay to
be true to myself.”
During the last two years of high school, CHRIS enrolled at the
MAHONING COUNTY JOINT VOCATIONAL SCHOOL’s commercial art program. There
his eyes were opened to the possibilities of hands-on mass production
and a lifetime career in the arts.
“Suddenly, everything I had ever hoped for and read about was possible.
Vocational School provided the missing puzzle pieces in my education. I
realized for the first time, in a concrete way, that I could do
anything if I understood how things worked. I will forever be thankful
for the education and endurance of my two instructors, AL LUCENTE and
GEORGE CUMMINGS. I wouldn’t have the opportunities that I have today if
it weren’t for their insight and the opportunities I had at the MCJVS.”
Upon graduating in 1979, CHRIS was accepted into several art schools,
including the JOE KUBERT SCHOOL OF CARTOON AND GRAPHIC ART but found he
was unable to attend any of them because there wasn’t enough money
available to do so, even with limited financial aid. This propelled the
artist deeper into the commercial art field where he freelanced until
taking on the identity of a pop artist in 1987.
During the 1980s, YAMBAR established MANNA UNDERGROUND PRESS and
published an international underground paper called THE ACTIVIST -
Radical Truth Through Art, Music And Social Commentary. MUP also
published a progressive arts tabloid called REBEL GRAPHICS. Together
the publications had a steady reader base in 13 countries. The 1980s
also yielded GRAPHIC GRAPHIX, which published two 64-page anthology
issues of SAFE COMIX . The first issue included work by YAMBAR, IVAR
TORGRIMSON, BOB COX, and other Christian artists. It also printed a
controversial story by underground cartoonist ROBERT CRUMB. This fact
alone caused the book to be shunned by some folks in the popular
Reagan- era religious right and sought after by hardcore comic
collectors. Printing controversial comic work was the norm for YAMBAR,
who was getting used to rocking the boat with uptight fundamentalist
believers with his own characters, DOODY AND DITTO (an outspoken frog
and a cosmic guitar pic), in the pages of each issue of THE ACTIVIST.
In 1994 YAMBAR and GARY A. SMITH founded SUBSTANCE
COMICS. The
little two- man company produced three 64-page issues of SUBSTANCE
QUARTERLY, but the science fiction and fantasy title died before its
first birthday due to the national collapse of the comic book direct
market distributor network that year. It was this collapse that ushered
in the darkest period in modern comics history. Nothing this bad had
happened to American comics since the WERTHAM pre-Comics Code period in
the 1950s.
1994 also marked the birth of one of the most popular characters in
independent comics. The character was created as a single panel gag
cartoon by YAMBAR at THE BEAT COFFEEHOUSE in Youngstown, Ohio. The
character was then put on coffee mugs and T-shirts by TWO FUN, a
business CHRIS and ad specialist, MARIANNE EARNEST, formed to take
advantage of the exploding national interest in the coffeehouse scene.
But fads are often fickle. When TWO FUN dissolved a few years later,
YAMBAR regained his character rights, gave the little beatnik a name, a
limited-edition ashcan comic, and took the show on the road. And in
early 1997 the first MOORDAM COMICS issue of MR. BEAT ADVENTURES hit
comic shelves across America... and promptly sold out! It was trend
that he would have to get used to. (For more Mr. Beat historical
information click here.)
MOORDAM COMICS set the stage for the emergence of some of the most
memorable cult favorite comics, and YAMBAR attracted some of the best
humor talents in the business. The core of the MOORDAM family included
YAMBAR (MR.BEAT & BAMBEANO BOY), GEORGE BRODERICK, JR.(COURAGEOUS
MAN ADVENTURES), LEVI KRAUSE (LEVI’S WORLD), and CAYETANO GARZA (MAGIC
INKWELL COMIC STRIP THEATER). Other ‘extended family members’ included
appearances from creators and their characters like BILL MORRISON
(ROSWELL - LITTLE GREEN MAN), SCOTT ROBERTS (PATTY CAKE), ART BALTAZAR
(CRAYBABY ADVENTURES & GYRO-MAN), MIKE BOCIANOWSKI (CHUCK - THE
UGLY AMERICAN), KEN WHEATON (BURGER BOMB), HAROLD BUCHHOLZ (APATHY CAT
& SUBURBAN SPACE PETS), DOUG BARON (SUGAR RAY FINHEAD), FRANCO
AURELIANI (WEIRDSVILLE), STEVE STEGELIN (BOONDOGGLE), KEVIN THOMAS (SPY
GIRLS), and RICHARD PINI (who loaned CHRIS his cast from ELFQUEST so
they could run amok with MR.BEAT). In addition to the flagship titles
by the ‘core members,’ MOORDAM COMICS published a few softbound trades
like CERTIFIED COOL, MOORDAM CHRISTMAS COMICS and the legendary COMICS
ARE DEAD ! Some of these trade editions were co-published under the
short lived SLAP HAPPY imprint.
The company morphed into COMIC LIBRARY
INTERNATIONAL
in late 1999 when
Diamond Distributors began pulling the rug out from beneath many small
independent imprints. It was all a numbers game now...so YAMBAR turned
the publisher hat over to BRODERICK and the two co-published 10
softbound COMIC LIBRARY INTERNATIONAL anthologies and 26 collected
SOLO-VISIONS titles. The average page count for a CLI book was 152
pages. CHRIS and GEORGE not only beat the distributor’s dollars and
cents point spread, they kept themselves and other creators alive and
in the public eye where they had a fighting chance for success and a
company platform to stand on.
In 2006, Yambar and Broderick, Jr. decided that the original model for
Comic Library International had more than served its purpose. Together
they had helped empower many independent creators with the knowledge
and ability to self-publish while at the same time encouraging them to
promote themselves smarter and more professionally. That year, Comic
Library International changed its name to CLI 2.0 and began to solely
publish and promote Yambar and Broderick’s many creator- owned
intellectual properties and those co-created with others, including
Levi Krause, Layne Toth, and EDISON’S FRANKENSTEIN 1910 artist Robb
Bihun.
(For a
full listing of COMIC LIBRARY
INTERNATIONAL books,
creators, and the new CLI 2.0 direction simply click here)
To illustrate the importance of MOORDAM COMICS , COMIC
LIBRARY
INTERNATIONAL, and the creators whose work appeared there, one has
only
to look at the 2001 BIG AMEBA NETWORK INDI-COMIC AWARDS statistics. The
awards were based on actual ballots filled out by fans of independent
comics and were presented at the CAPTAIN BLUE HEN COMICS-hosted ACME
SHOW held in Newark, Delaware. YAMBAR took the lion’s share by placing
21 times in 29 categories and winning 8 TOP HONORS, including: BEST
WRITER, BEST CHARACTER (MR.BEAT), BEST PUBLISHER (MOORDAM COMICS), BEST
ONE-SHOT (COMICS ARE DEAD!), BEST SEASONAL COMIC (MOORDAM CHRISTMAS
COMICS), and BEST COMIC ANTHOLOGY (COMIC LIBRARY INTERNATIONAL) an
award he shared with BRODERICK. GEORGE took 9 awards, including BEST
PENCILER, while LEVI KRAUSE gathered 3 awards, including BEST MANGA
STYLED CHARACTER and SCOTT ROBERTS took TOP HONORS for BEST ALL AGES
GIRL CHARACTER for PATTY CAKE. When the dust settled, more than half of
the awards went to MOORDAM and CLI creators. We rest our case.
It should also be mentioned that YAMBAR was instrumental in pulling
together the first independent comic anthologies in 1997 entitled
RAMPAGE with the second being entitled SON OF RAMPAGE in 1998. He
co-created the title with BRIAN CLOPPER and HAROLD BUCHHOLZ. “All I
could see was a whole bunch of creative loners that were in need of
some solidarity. I always believed that networking and collaboration
yielded the best of opportunities. We all needed to get some
recognition for our efforts and we sure got it - for all of us! RAMPAGE
set the stage for a great ‘independent community.’ I was proud to have
been a part of it!”
Chris painted covers, wrote scripts, and published the manic ITSI KITSI
- HAPPY ADVENTURE CAT #1 and the 2 FUN FLIPBOOK under the short-lived
FUNNY BOOK INSTITUTE (FBI) logo in 2000. He has also contributed
stories and
art to many other companies, including YOUNG AMERICAN COMICS, TEACHER'S
DISCOVERY, BLINDWOLF, COMICOSLEY, SHANDA FANTASY
ARTS, SLAP HAPPY, BEHEMOTH BOOKS, NEW CREATION PUBLICATIONS, WARP
GRAPHICS, CUSTOM COMICS OF AMERICA, CRYPTIC PRESS, AIRWAVE COMICS /
ENTERTAINMENT, SSS COMICS, BONGO COMICS, AMAZE INK / SLG PUBLICATIONS,
CBLDF, AIT PLANET LAR, and HARPER COLLINS BOOKS. .
In MORRISON’s EISNER-nominated title, ROSWELL - LITTLE GREEN MAN # 5,
the name “YAMBAR” was given to an alien underwater space creature who
actually eats the main character but later barfs him up again so that
the series can continue. YAMBAR’s name again surfaces in SIMPSONS
COMICS #39 where he was grouped with a list of powerful, mythological
monsters during a courtroom hearing on censorship. But it was the third
BONGO COMICS association that proved to be the charm!
“I’ve always loved the SIMPSONS since day one, so when the people at
BONGO COMICS called and asked me to write for their new all-ages BART
SIMPSON COMICS title, I jumped at the chance!”
It was a marriage made in Springfield! When the first issue rolled off
the presses in 2000 and he found himself with the lead story, CHRIS
was more than excited! Since then, he has written numerous stories for
BONGO COMICS and has contributed to nearly every title the company
produces including RADIOACTIVE MAN, THE SIMPSONS COMICS,
BART SIMPSON’S TREE HOUSE OF HORROR and, of course, BART SIMPSON
COMICS. He has even been included in the 2002 SIMPSONS MANIA card set
where his painted Ralphy Wiggum card can be found in the Bart Gallery
subset!
Being an invited writer for THE SIMPSONS comic line has opened many
doors for Yambar to speak in schools and on college campuses and to do
special work for charities around the world, but it has closed other
doors that he didn’t expect. After returning home from a week-long
business trip in California in 2002, CHRIS found out that some people
in his church, where he worked as an Associate Pastor had rallied to
have him removed from his position because of his work with those
“disgusting SIMPSONS people.” It seems that a few of them didn’t like
the SIMPSONS Interactive Church Scene on his desk featuring all of the
characters in the service with hands and “Good Books” lifted skyward to
God. They also had problems with the AIDS AWARENESS paintings on this
website, too ( Please feel free to enjoy them in our PAINTING GALLERY
section!). What was he thinking?!! CHRIS resigned right then and there.
“I never thought that some people could be so petty and judgmental,”
YAMBAR states. “It’s weird to see how many bridges have been built as a
result of my working with these characters and the open lines of
communication it has afforded me to spread a bit of goodwill to
absolute strangers. It’s weirder yet to see other people who should
understand the value in all of this trying to set those bridges on
fire. I guess sometimes truth is dumber than fiction!”
YAMBAR soon after began to be asked to contribute his scripts to the
new I DREAM OF JEANNIE title from AIRWAVE COMICS and to the 40th
anniversary comic adaptation of NBC-TV’s animated holiday classic
MISTER MAGOO’S CHRISTMAS CAROL, where he penned the added “behind the
scenes” and “after the show”skits. He even got to write the official
recipe for RAZZLEBERRY DRESSING with GERALD McBOING BOING and his mom!
It looks like there’s no end in sight for YAMBAR’s comic book career...
And that’s a cliff hanger that we don’t mind ending on! See you in the
funny pages!