Slightly Bent #1 & #2: Comic Humor, 90s-Style

This two-issue, humor anthology comic book series, created by writer Walt Jaschek and friends, tried to "make superheroes funny again," showcasing original characters like Mel Cool and Danger Dad.

The covers of Slightly Bent Comics #1 and #2. Logo design and layouts by Walt Jaschek, art by Craig Skaggs, Don Secrease and Tony Patti.

The Slightly Bent backstory

Slightly Bent Comics, a 2-issue, black-and-white comic book mini-series, was self-published as Slightly Bent Entertainment, and was offered by Diamond Comics to comic book stores across the United States in 1998. Editor and designer Walt Jaschek wrote all both issues, and hired his talented friends to draw scripts for their new, creator-owned comic characters. Don Secrease served as art director on both books.

The comics feature the second and third comic book appearances of the original Mel Cool: Mall Cop, with art by Secrease. (“This first mall cop in pop culture pre-dated Paul Blart by decades.” - Walt)

The issues also showcase the first appearances of Dude-Guy, later recreated as Earth Dude, with art by Craig Skaggs; Danger Dad, with art by Jaschek and Darren Goodheart; Corp Rut and Smirk du Jour with art by Tony Patti; Attorneys in Space, with art by Paul Daly; and Dang Gnats!, a comic strip by Jaschek, who also wrote humorous editorials for both issues.

Here also is a one-minute video tour of Slightly Bent Comics, courtesy a YouTube short:

Says Walt: "The series was a fun experiment, a deep-dive immersion into self-publishing during the black-and-white comics boom, and a launch for original characters and concepts bouncing around in my brain. It was also a nice, creative distraction from my day job writing funny radio commercials. The collaborations with such great artists were, well, cosmic. In a slightly bent way.”

In a 2024 photo, Slightly Bent Comics writer/editor Walt Jaschek looks back on issue #1 as if he remembers none of it. But he does.

Approximately 800 copies of Slightly Bent Comics #1 were ordered by comic book stories, according to statistics from Diamond Comics Distributors. Approximately 400 copies of issue #2 were ordered. These are the only copies of these two issues in circulation. Some issues are often spotted on eBay and other "back issue" platforms.

Buy a set of Slightly Bent Comics #1 and #2 on eBay from the books’ writer Walt Jaschek, autographed by Walt on the inside cover of #2.

A closer look at Slightly Bent Comics

Here are photos by Walt of select pages and spreads from the two issues. The characters and pages are © copyright 1997-2025 Walt Jaschek and the respective artists, as noted in the captions.

Slightly Bent Comics #1: inside front cover, with art of “Editor Walt at Work” by Rick Burchett; and the contents page, design by Walt.

The two opening pages of Dude-Guy, Earth’s Best Pal, the lead feature of Slightly Bent Comics, with art by Craig Skaggs. This is the introduction to the story, “Upstream of Consciousness,” and opens with a real “all things are connected” quote from Chief Seattle.

Smirk du Jour (“smile of the day”) panel cartoons, with art by Tony Patti. Keep scrolling to see a video close-up of these toons.

The opening two pages to the Mel Cool: Mall Cop story, “The Mystery of the Missing Morons.” Art by Don Secrease. Inside Massive Mall’s 100-screen Movie Plex, our hero Dweez Dweezman is annoyed by said morons.

Page 2 and 3 of Mel Cool: Mall Cop, re-introducing him (from previous comic appearances) on the splash panel. Mel has his feet up (see “security” embossed on his shoes) and is drinking coffee right out of the pot with a curly straw.

The end of first part of the 2-part “Missing Morons” story is a cliff-hanger, teasing issue #2, followed by a line-up of Mel Cool’s many mall adversaries. The reader is invited to guess which baddie is behind Mel’s capture.

A double-page spread of THOSE DANG GNATS! comic strips by Walt Jaschek. This minimalist comic about “two outspoken insects with two much time on their wings” has a long run on the internet; this is a collection of some of the gags.

A two-page preview of Recycled Man, the Karma-inducing anti-hero, with art by Paul Daly. The finished, color Recycled Man comic was later made available as a print comic and digital download.

A Danger Dad one-page comic strip by Walt, followed by his editorial, “What I Believe.” Writes Walt in his lists of beliefs: “I believe putting together a comic book with great artists who are also great friends is so much fun, it should be more heavily taxed. (Note to the IRS: this is what we in the business call a quote ‘joke’ unquote.)”

The back covers to Slightly Bent Comics #1 and #2. Art by Craig Skaggs (Dude Guy painting, left) and Don Secrease (Mel Cool mixed media art.)

From Slightly Bent Comics #2: Attorneys in Space. Art by Paul Daly. Says the opening caption: “They face new frontiers! New horizons! And new opportunities for litigation! They are… Attorneys in Space! And they bill by the light hour.”

Corp Rut. With art by Tony Patti. A masterful spread of corporate claustrophobia by this St. Louis illustrator, achieving a high level of comic detail. (Click and zoom on page 2.)

Danger Dad makes his second appearance, with art by Darren Goodheart. There’s also a Slightly Bent Bullpen Bulletins page, with art by Craig Skaggs of the Dude and Mel Cool trading snacks.

Part 2 of Dude-Guy, “Reality Cross-Fade,” introduces femme fatale Big-Hair Babs.

Slightly Bent Comics #2 features another editorial by Walt, “What I Don’t Believe,” this time contrasting “What I Believe,” his editorial in the first issue. He begins: “I don’t believe I caught your name. I’m Walt.”

Video: a closer look at Smirk Du Jour

Here is a video close-up look at the panel cartoons from Slightly Bent Comics #1, with art by Tony Patti.

Slightly Bent Comics review

Shortly after publication in 1998, Slightly Bent Comics got a nice review on the comic review website Steve’s Reads. The review reads in part:

“This is a 40-page anthology comic all written by one person but drawn by several different artists. It has several features, including one called "Smirk Du Jour" that's simply two pages of single panel cartoons, but there are two primary stories that take up 16 and 14 pages, respectively.

The first story, ‘Dude-Guy, Earth's Best Pal," is a superhero spoof with an interesting twist I don't want to give away. It ends with a cliffhanger, with Dude-Guy in the clutches of super-villainess Big-Hair Babs (Debutante of All Darkness). Babs' current employer, the Zomboid King, breaks the fourth wall and tells us "Coming up in Part 2: Big-Hair Babs says 'Bye-Bye' to Dude-Guy - then destroys him!" Since there's only one more issue, he may even be telling the truth! Dude-Guy is drawn in a very nice cartoony style by Craig Skaggs.

"Mel Cool: Mall Cop" also ends in a cliff-hanger to be concluded in the second and final issue of this microminiseries. Mel is investigating the disappearance of two morons from Massive Mall's 100-screen movie-plex. In the end of part one, he is captured, and we are assured on the last page there are clues planted in the story that we can use to figure out which of Mel's foes is responsible. A helpful montage of his foes is presented, as if to "remind" us of Mel's "regular" foes. Don Secrease does the art here, and it's a skillful blend of styles, with most of the characters having a round, cartoony softness that contrasts nicely with the hard edges and more "realistic" depiction of Mel.

This collection of enjoyable nonsense is brought to you by Slightly Bent Entertainment, which I believe is Writer/Editor Walt Jaschek himself. How did he come up with the name? A one-page, three-panel strip on the inside front cover gives us a clue:

First panel: A man with dark hair, glasses and a mustache (presumably Jaschek) is sitting at a computer, furiously typing away, thinking, "Man! This stuff is bent! Truly bent! Totally bent!

Second panel: He sits back, examining what he's written, and nervously waving a pencil back and forth with his fingers.

Third Panel: Head in hands, he leans forward again, thinking, "OK. Well, it's slightly bent."

The address listed in the indicia is St. Louis, Missouri, which is also where I live, and yes, I originally bought this comic primarily because it was done by local guys (at least one of the artists, Don Secrease, is also a St. Louisan, and I suspect they all are). However, I'm not such a hometown booster that I'd do a column on it if I didn't genuine like it. I wasn't too impressed by "Those Dang Gnats!" or the cartoons in "Smirk Du Jour," but the main stories were hilarious, and the "Danger Dad" and "Attorneys in Space" shorts were also pretty good (I especially liked Paul Daly's art on the latter, echoing the old EC science fiction comics). I'm thinking seriously about ordering a "Danger Dad" T-shirt.”

And there’s even more to the review, which you can read here. Thank you very much, Steve’s Reads!

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P.S. Video bonus! Here’s a longer, video deep-dive into Slightly Bent Comics lead character Dude-Guy, and how he is now becoming… Earth Dude!