MY HEROES #3: AARON WARNER

My heroes section continues with one of Adam’s personal comic heroes: AARON WARNER!

It was 1994. I was publishing my first works in a college anthology book called CAPA. All I could do was this superhero book called “DARKNESS.” (Note: this is a few years before Mark Sylvestri’s book by the same name) I was finding the superhero genre to be limiting as far as what I wanted to write. It really had no direction and I was just basically copying everything I could read about.

I hit my first convention in 1995. I was walking by this table and up walked Aaron Warner. He slapped a sticker on my chest and said, “here, now you are a walking billboard. Come here and let me show you my work!” Now this bold move might have turned some people off, but I leaned in for a listen. He showed me a collection of his comic strips called “THE ADVENTURES OF AARON.” A comic strip about him, his parents, his lack of a life and those around him who judge him accordingly. Gym socks come alive to eat him, big piles of laundry that hide old prom dates, and much more. I laughed and enjoyed his pitch as he read along some of the funnier parts to me.

For me, I was forever changed. I realized that comics can go beyond simple superheroes. They can be about everyday life. I can recall the moment as clear as day and I do believe that in my head, that was the day Mortin, Lucas and the Pleasant Life gang were conceived, only to be birthed out a year later with “AMAZING BUD,” the long lost “pilot” to what was to become “PLEASANT LIFE.”

Aaron is quite a personality. He’s still active today. Freelancing, doing a new comic strip (A COLLEGE GIRL NAMED JOE), but for me, he’ll always be remembered for ADVENTURES OF AARON.

When you meet people, you never know how much you might impact or change them as a result of what you say. I was changed the day I met him. He unearthed in me the desire to tell the kind of story that I wanted to tell. He helped me realize my true calling when it came to my work.

I hope one day to track him down and shake his hand. I want to thank him for making me who I am today. He is just plain greatness.

Long Live Aaron, and lets home the gym socks didn’t win the fight!

T