It would’ve been so cool to create something that Dark Horse or Vertigo may have published, but with a real twist of reality, but unfortunately, by then, it was David Husman (silent partner) calling the shots and they wasn’t going to listen to this young punk. After all, I didn’t know anything about publishing comics.

I remember when Bernie Berkin called me at home and asked me if I thought a Mr. T comic book would work. I told him “sure, only if Mr. T comes with it.”

Although the creative aspect of the book was a horrific, suicidal adventure, Mr. T & the T-Force #1 sold over 300,000 copies – mostly on the newsstand. By the fifth or so issue, before NOW and I divorced in 1994, it was down to about 8,000 in the direct market and 50,000 on the newsstand. That’s what happens when you decide to ignore your audience.

I would like to point out one very important aspect of Mr. T & the T-Force and Mr. T.

In 1993, when Mr. T & the T-Force was released, and Mr. T was on his 17 city “T-Tour,” US comic book sales reached its highest point in the last 25 years, and I personally believe Mr. T had a lot to do with it. No, not Mr. T & the T-Force, but Mr. T promoting his comic book – HOLDING his comic book – on Entertainment Tonight, BET, New York Times, New York Daily News, Chicago Tribune, etc, etc. He was everywhere, all over the world, and I still have many of the media clippings from that time to prove it (part of the reference I used for my comic book white paper). Too bad the editorial direction wasn’t as exciting.

Movie stars today talk about “comic book movies” and “comic book characters” but how many of them are seen in the press HOLDING a comic book?

Here’s the HTML-less address :
http://yeoldecomicblogge.blogspot.com/2006/06/mr-t-vs-ninjas.html

best. line. ever.

I don’t think I’ve ever wanted to trawl through ebay for an entire comics run as much as I do right now. That’s just seven shades of awesome.

And it’s SO awesome, that nobody has yet resorted to saying anything about jibber-jabber or pitying the fo-

…oh.

I love how half of the cover is made up of his jewelry shining with the power of a thousand suns. His bling is the source of his power, kids. If you had seventy-three separate chains around your neck, you could smash sedans into oblivion too.

Mr. T may be one of the few real-life celebrities who’s actually appeared in more than one comic company’s book. Wasn’t there a Marvel book based on his Saturday-morning show? And I’m pretty sure there was an A-Team book at one point for amonth or two, as well.

Now I gotta know, so a quick peek at the GCD and in addition to the one from Now Comics we have…

This one from last year…
http://www.comics.org/series.lasso?SeriesID=18730

And the A-Team–
http://www.comics.org/series.lasso?SeriesID=2857

Hmp. I was sure the Saturday-morning cartoon one with Mr. T driving the busload of kids around having adventures was a Star Comic at one point. Oh well.

The T-Force was kind of like Alec Baldwin’s network of people he’d saved in The Shadow. Mr. T would give people a Dick Tracy-style wrist communicator and randomly call them to have them do things for him. Find a crack baby in the dumpster? Call the nurse at the clinic down the street. Need your van repainted for an undercover mission? Call the kids you busted for grafitti two months ago.

So what is the “T-Force,” exactly? I always thought it’d be a band of spunky teenage sidekicks, but I hear it’s really Mr. T’s “super-powers.”

Anyway, it’s all true. My uncle was a ninja and Mr. T punched his spine right out of his body and then ate a motorcycle. For fun.