I got the craziest email about an hour ago. I got an email from someone with the subject line AKA Outcast. That brought back some good memories. About 25 years ago I wrote a comic book called AKA Outcast. The book was supposed to be produced for a group starting out a publishing company (it was set up through CompuServe!) but their funding fell through and I decided to go ahead and self-publish the comic. I was able to publish it just before the 1988 San Diego Comicon. It was at the 1988 San Diego Comic Con when I had my first panel and signed my first autographs because of publishing that comic book. The comic sold a whopping 35 copies nationally plus maybe 20 through the local comic book shops in San Diego (sadly none of those shops exist anymore). Not blockbuster sales to be sure. I was disappointed but because of AKA Outcast I continued to write comics which got me into starting Chaotic Fringe, which got me interested in filmmaking and all of the endeavors I have done in the comics and film industry can be traced to that one book and the excitement of getting noticed at the San Diego Comicon. If it wasn’t for the production and selling of AKA Outcast, I don’t know if I would have learned and done all the things I have accomplished since then.

Around 2005 or so, I would occasionally run across an eBay auctions or the random online comic book shop like Mile High Comics that would list AKA Outcast for sale. Most of the time, the listing would be from a foreign source like the UK or Japan. This was strange to me since I never sold the comic overseas and, I as I wrote, it didn’t sell a lot of copies.

So I was happy and a bit shocked to receive this email.

Greetings - 
We haven't met, but I thought you would appreciate this little tale. I've been going through some comic books I've been carting around for 20-some years when I came across a copy of your book, A.K.A. Outcast. I've read it numerous times, but this time I looked up something about it and came across your blog and whatnot. The most interesting thing, perhaps, about the whole deal is that I actually purchased the comic used in a bookstore in Islamabad, Pakistan for 21 rupees around 1989. That book had some wings! It's now safely back in Portland, Oregon, having completed its round-the-world journey in 1991.
Cheers!
- Adrian

(Pub. Note: AKA Outcast #1 dated 1988, from my collection)
 
I wonder how it got into a Pakistan used bookstore in 1989??!! I’m curious how a book that sold less than 50 copies in the US arrived in the bookstore less than a year later halfway across the globe. Did someone buy it here and take it over there? There is probably an interesting story on how AKA Outcast arrived in that Pakistani used bookstore, especially considering it was the late 80s, but what I love about this story is the person who bought the comic book in 1989 read the comic a number of times and has held onto the book for almost 25 years through their travels! Definitely this is the coolest news I’ve heard in years! Fan mail 25 years in the making! That is just so freaking cool!!!!