Biscuits and Tenderfoot for Breakfast

Spurred by my fascination with science fiction, I learned to read earlier than most. My father, a laborer, understood education’s power and encouraged my voracious appetite for words by supplying copies of Starlin’s Warlock and The Phantom Stranger and purchasing any pulp paperback I wanted, age-appropriateness be damned. On the rare occasion, I was approached by a member of the perfumed sex as a teen, the vast vocabulary lent to me by reading a steady diet of Blatty, Brooks, King, and Clarke failed me in spectacular ways. Words didn’t fail me when I experienced my first brush with publication when Marvel printed my short story/ letter in issue number forty of ROM: Spaceknight. The letter didn’t score me phone numbers, but I was able to hold my head a little higher. My favorite comic had recognized my work.

Since then, I’ve obtained four degrees, two of those include advanced degrees in writing, and have worked as a professor and administrator in higher education for eighteen years. I’ve published in several venues and serve as the editor of a peer-reviewed journal, The Learning Assistance Review. Thanks to Tidal Wave Comics, I was able to realize my dream of writing comic books, and have been trusted with their largest, licensed character, Bettie Page. I’ve written sanctioned comic books for politicians like Elizabeth Warren, musicians, and actors. I’ve written custom comics for production companies and a famous actor. My first published comic, Tribute: Christopher Reeve, was supported by the Reeve Foundation. It was an honor that has left me wanting more.

My background as a writer likely differs from most who work as editors of western-themed magazines such

as Saddlebag Dispatches, but it is a role I believe I’ve been training for since I was a shy kid who devoured every comic he found on the spinner rack at his local Piggly Wiggly. As an academic, I’m used to deadlines and required to publish. What better way to meet this mandate than by embracing one of the mediums I love most?

Every decision, good or bad, sane or crazy, you have ever made has brought you to where you are right now, this second. You are the sum of every experience, every joy, every sadness, every heartbreak, every make-out session, everything. You’ve heard the cliché, “Life is what happens when you’re making other plans,” right? I’d like to modify that some.

I say, “Life is what happens when you’re making other plans and you’re smart and open-minded enough to take full advantage of the experiences offered.” The simple answer to this question is that I couldn’t pass up an opportunity to join this publication.

Like every creative person, I’m looking for “my

tribe” of like-minded people to talk about writing. As I’ve matured (a debatable descriptor for someone who writes comic books and graphic novels, but I digress), I’ve recognized both the need for advocating for a genre that is beloved by fans, embraced by adventure-lovers, and universally recognized as a powerful medium for telling stories unique to the American experience.

Thank you for reading this short essay, Saddlebag Dispatches, and all of the superior work published through Oghma Creative Media’s various imprints. I look forward to riding with you through the fictional and nonfictional stories that create an exciting tapestry that is the American West.

Yippee-ki-yay, Michael Frizell Editor-in-Chief