This article by Tony Caputo appeared in the NOW Newsflash section of all other NOW comics, in their respective April 1992 issue's promoting the then upcoming "Mind Games" mini-series. It is reprinted here with Tony's permission.

It was during the fall of 1985 that I first met Marc Hansen. A sales representative who worked for an art studio was ranting and raving about some cartoonist who worked for them. She knew I was publishing a fanzine called Fangraphix at the time, and that I was looking for talent. I was skeptical at first, but decided to interview Marc anyway. He walked in armed with a portfolio. His work was laid out in a very professional manner, and it was comprised of pages and pages of the best cartooning I'd ever seen.

A two page comic strip grabbed my attention. It was all I needed to see. At that time it was called RALPH SNARF. Later, Marc changed the name at the request of Kitchen Sink Press due to their SNARF comic book. RALPH SNART appeared in Fangrapix #3, and had a cover feature on issue 4, which, as it turns out, was the last issue. In the spring of 1986, NOW comics was born, and I wanted to publish RALPH SNART in its own mini-series. The comic was priced at a dollar, and each issue sold only 17,000 copies. I remember re-packaging the first issue for all the distributors myself. NOW comics was so very tiny then.

We now ship more than three semi-trucks full of product all over the world each month, and I'm happy to say that RALPH SNART ADVENTURES continues to be one of the titles in the NOW lineup. RALPH SNART has been highly acclaimed by much of the industry. it's a humor comic that is actually funny. It chronicles the wacky adventures of an accountant who went crazy and is locked up in the Montgomery Home for the Really Insane. Ralph, although strapped in a strait jacket, has the mind-power to project himself into any wierd and wild adventure imaginable. Ralph has been in a fight with the devil. He's been stuck in a role playing game, and has gone on a road trip to California with a six-foot-tall lizard. He's been a comic book artist in 1954, and has actually quit the comic book character business to become a syndicated newspaper cartoon strip. This man has been around.

It's a comic book to pick up, read, and enjoy. But a fair warning that I give everyone is that it only takes one issue to make you a fan for life. Thirty-nine issue's later, it's an addiction to the funny bone. And it's one of the few good addictions around. A three issue mini-series begins in March with FREE trading cards polybagged with the comics. These trading cards are only available with the comics and are part of a set of fifty which will be released later this summer. The direct market version of RALPH SNART ADVENTURES #1 will contain the code-rejected Comics Code satire! Be sure to catch Ralph in all his various editions!

- Tony Caputo
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