In 1990, I became the racing writer for the Charleston News and Courier, and the next year I got a call from a comic-book company in Toronto, Canada. They were doing two lines of NASCAR comics, and they needed help.
I learned later that they were slow in paying their writers. They'd read my stuff in Winston Cup Scene, and they tracked me down to the News and Courier.I was flattered at first, but I got over that.
My first book for them, about Davey Allison, was sadly my best book. I learned that I was pretty good at writing visually, and they told me they only had to swap frames once in the whole comic (apparently, that's usually pretty common).
I didn't have any problem getting Davey on the phone, but I did have an interesting exchange with Bobby Allison. I called and was told that Bobby wasn't there. I told him that I believed he WAS Bobby, and he finally admitted he was. Then I had a decent interview with him.
(I later had a good relationship with both men, and, 26 years later, I'm still saddened by the loss of Davey.)
My second comic was about Ernie Irvan. It was technically better than the first, but I just didn't feel as good about it. The biggest problem with this comic was the color of the No. 4 Kodak Chevrolet. The comic-book company had a hard time getting it to please Kodak (it seemed a reasonable request to me).
My third comic was on David Pearson (see the comic above). I couldn't talk to David (we weren't that close yet), and he always would turn a question back on you. "Well, what do you think?" he'd ask reporters he didn't know that well.
Jim Hunter, who was then the president of Darlington Raceway, had written a book about Pearson, so I contacted the track. They had a copy, so track publicist Russell Branham did something epic; he faxed me a copy of every page in the book.
It was a special, above-and-beyond-the-call-of-duty effort in 1992, and it's important to me now, 27 years later.
The Pearson book turned out well; the only thing missing, of course, was quotes from David. A few years later, I'd have been able to get them.
My last comic book was supposed to have been about Geoff Bodine, but Geoff never signed the release to have it done (the aggravating thing was that I'd already started it). I suggested we do Geoff's brother, Brett, instead, but they said they'd think it over.
A month later, they called and said they'd had a brilliant idea; they wanted me to do a comic on Brett. I said it was a great idea.
The nice thing is that I'd written a good bit about Brett when he drove for Hoss Ellington in the late 1980s. So I had no trouble getting him on the phone. That comic sold the fewest of the four, but in a way I liked it best. It had historical significance; it was accurate, and it had some humor. And it flowed easily.
I tried to write two more comic scripts - Michael Waltrip and Neil Bonnett - but they didn't work out. That's a story for another day.
Overall, I enjoyed writing for this company. Sadly, it didn't stay in business that long.
Oh, one other thing: The News and Courier became the Post and Courier shortly after this.
If you're wondering, I did get paid for all four comics. I had trouble with other companies later, but I never had a bit of trouble with this company.
By the way, I always wanted to do a comic on Dale Earnhardt; never got the chance.
EMAIL: tgilli52@gmail.com TWITTER: EDITORatWORK
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