About
The Barbed Rose
The Barbed Rose is an adult-oriented sci-fi comic book anthology, created in 1991 and modeled in the vein of Heavy Metal Magazine — the iconic American fantasy and science fiction publication known for its illustrated narratives from the 1970s and 1980s.
The concept emerged from a lifelong passion for illustrated science fiction. By early 1991, I was in my early 20s, married, and raising two children — and chose to pursue the project without a fully developed business plan, driven entirely by my creative conviction.
To gauge market viability, I contacted major comic book distributors directly. After several rejections, Capital City Distribution — the second-largest comic book distributor in the United States at the time — responded with interest. That response transformed an untested idea into a publishable reality. The Barbed Rose launched with distributor backing secured.
A Family Affair
I launched The Barbed Rose with ambition that far outpaced my skills. I was an aspiring artist who had never drawn a comic book page. I didn’t understand narrative art or sequential storytelling. My drawings were splash illustrations — single characters, no story. My anatomy was rough, and I knew it. But I had something that technical skill can’t replace: I wanted it badly enough to figure it out.
My oldest brother Dave was the artist in the family. He had been drawing and sculpting in clay for as long as I can remember — and like me, he had spent years submitting comic ideas to Marvel and other publishers. We had stacks of rejection letters between us. By 1991, Dave had evolved into serious clay modeling, and Heavy Metal Magazine had always celebrated mixed mediums. His story concepts were complex and layered in ways mine weren’t yet. I asked him to join me. He didn’t just say yes — he hired a photographer to capture his clay sculptures for his stories and personally funded the printing of our first issue.
Our youngest brother Matt was finishing his first year of college. He had always been the writer among us, so we brought him in too. Matt contributed several fully written stories that Dave and I illustrated. He also generated character and concept ideas he never finished — and I built some of those into stories of my own, drew them, and put them in the book. The Barbed Rose was, at its core, a family project built on shared obsession and a lot of improvisation.
Our 15 Minutes Of Fame
Of the 2,500 copies we printed for Issue 1, Capitol City Distribution — the second-largest comic book distributor in the United States at the time — purchased 2,000. Orders for Issues 2 and 3 reached into the tens of thousands before we ever published them.
The Barbed Rose debuted in September 1991. Within weeks, comic book retailers across Upstate New York were taking notice. We received multiple invitations to do in-store signings at local comic shops — opportunities we saw as a direct path to building readership and momentum. Two local newspapers covered us. Reporters came to my home, photographed Dave and me on the front lawn, and ran our story. Matt was away at college and missed the shoot.
We completed two signings. Both exceeded our expectations. We met aspiring artists, talked openly about the anthology model, and began recruiting creators who could grow the book beyond just the three of us. Expanding the creative community around The Barbed Rose had always been part of the vision.
Then life intervened. I wasn’t ready — creatively or personally — to sustain the workload of two more issues. Dave and I had accumulated real creative differences by then. We had pages ready for Issues 2 and 3, but we made the decision together to stop. Issue 1 was the beginning and the end of our first run.
The Dream That Wouldn't Leave Me Alone
I moved on and built a career in technology and marketing. I hold several patents for technology processes in freight transportation — work I’m proud of. But the unfinished comic dream stayed with me in a way nothing else did.
I had always wanted to attend the Joe Kubert School of Cartoon and Graphic Art in Dover, New Jersey — the premier institution for comic book art training in North America. In the early days, we couldn’t afford it. Later, life filled every available hour. I never went.
What I did instead was build my own curriculum. I purchased Emma Kubert’s online comic art course. I completed multiple Proko courses, including the full Marvel Comics drawing program. I enrolled in live online study sessions directly through the Kubert School. I invested seriously in understanding what I didn’t know in 1991 — anatomy, sequential storytelling, narrative pacing, and visual structure.
I am still learning. I have a fully plotted creative universe documented in notes and Google Docs — multiple series, interlocking storylines, original characters, and a world-building framework I’ve been developing for years. I don’t know yet exactly how it will materialize. What I know is that I’m more prepared now than I have ever been.
Surprise: A Cult Classic?
In December 2025, I received an unexpected message from a Grammy Award-winning record producer. He told me that 1980s and 1990s independent comic publishers were experiencing a genuine cultural resurgence — and that The Barbed Rose had been specifically identified as part of that conversation.
He explained that his Grammy win came from assembling and publishing collections of music. Now he was working to do something parallel with independent comics. He had been tracking the revival closely.
What he shared next stopped me cold. The team at Power Comics — a YouTube channel dedicated to comic book analysis and collecting — had spent nearly two hours going page by page through one story in our anthology. That story was mine: Scream Boarders. The producer was honest with me upfront — not all of the commentary was positive. But he was clear that even the criticism came wrapped in genuine appreciation for the work.
You can watch the full Power Comics review here: Power Comics — The Barbed Rose
What Comes Next?
This site exists because the original goal of The Barbed Rose was never just about us — it was about giving aspiring comic creators a platform and a community. I haven’t let go of that goal.
I plan to introduce you to artists, writers, and creators I’ve met on this journey. I’m continuing to develop my craft. A new comic may be coming — built on everything I’ve learned since 1991. And I hope to do here what we set out to do with the book: make room for other people who are still figuring it out, just like I was.
If that’s you — you’re in the right place.