Zombie Boy

Back in my junior year of high school I created a fantasy comic strip, Finn Bannerstone for my high school newspaper. At the time I was enamored with all things Tolkien, Ralph Bakshi’s The Lord of the Rings had just come out in theaters and Rankin/Bass’ The Hobbit had aired on television, much to my joy. Finn Bannerstone was my contribution to the world of fantasy, a character based physically on my geography teacher (beard and all), and pulled from my imagination which at the time was saturated in sorcery and fantasy. I’ve always loved sorcerous tales, so of course I had to include a soul-eating sword called Succubus! Here is a page from the May 26, 1978 issue of the school newspaper, Panther’s Tale, featuring the conclusion of a Bannerstone story. The original art has long since vanished so I had to scan this from the actual published page, so there is a lot of line loss, but it’s fun to revisit after all these years!