On the Square Comics is the brainchild of lifelong comics fans Jay Taylor, Mike Frangione, Hector Williams and Sean Wooden. Growing up in the late 70s and early 80s, Jay fell in love with the amazing stories in Marvel and DC comics specifically the artistry of such industry giants as Kane, Adams, Byrne and Buscema. Further nurtured by sic-fi and fantasy novels by Eddings, Howard and Burrough, he soon began creating stories and characters of his own.

Shortly afterward he met a kindred spirit in neighborhood friend Mike Frangione. Mike was also a huge fan of comics and had a massive collection of silver age Marvel and DC books. It wasn’t long before their neighborhood hijinks became fodder for their first comics; the adventures of Chuck, Maki and Sluggo may still see the light of day (though they might need to carry an NC-17 rating!) Eventually college in the form of a journalism program came calling for Mike. A few years younger Jay continued to work on his artwork with a goal of going to art school.

While attending high school, Jay met Sean Wooden and the gorilla who would become Hector Williams. The three of them bonded over a sad devotion to Doc Samson and role playing games. They soon conceived of an entire universe entirely populated by ripoff super strong characters. Thankfully the adventures of the Crusader,Axis Ubermensch and Red Mercury never saw the light of day and they each headed off to their respective universities. Jay found himself studying Finance at Drexel University and put the drawing pencil down for a time.

Jobs and family took center stage for all of them, but they remained friends and would occasionally talk about their desire to produce comics. Notable false starts would produce pages of unlettered artwork in 2001 and again in 2011, some of which can be found in the gallery. Finally in 2011, Jay made a commitment to get focused and start working on the project. He pursued a number of courses at Comics Experience to further hone his craft. Mike and Jay began production on their first issue of Centralia in December 2013 and in January of 2014, Hector and Jay debuted Opposing Forces. In June of 2014 Sean got in on the act with his story Utopia Broken.

On May 14th, the first issue of Centralia was released. The issue is available at selected comic shops in the Greater Philadelphia area and also in the online store. We are looking forward to also making the book available at some upcoming shows in the area. And later this summer look for the debut of the first issue of Opposing Forces and Utopia Broken.