Back in 2021, writer Jim Cheff shared ‘The Seekers and the Lost’ with us. A beautifully-illustrated fantasy strip, it had been included in Armageddon, the ambitious comic that the 13-year-old Jim created in 1971. Growing up in smalltown Michigan, young Jim was heavily influenced by the tail end of the 1960s counter-culture, a giddy world of “head shops” and otherworldly fiction.

Splendidly, Jim now talks us through the second story from Armageddon. Entitled ‘Silent Warrior of Doom’, it’s an elaborate tale of swords and sorcery with its roots firmly planted in the wave of High Fantasy novels that became an integral part of the psychedelic revolution. As Jim’s story proves, buried deep inside the psyche of every mystical, tie-dye hippie was a chainmail-clad barbarian brandishing a blood-stained broadsword.

Over to you, Jim…

“‘Silent Warrior of Doom’ was the lead story in Armageddon, my first real attempt at making a comic book. My intention was that each issue of Armageddon would have two stories: one heroic fantasy and one science fiction.

Looking for a juicy, ten-dollar word to use as a title, I settled on Armageddon. Unfortunately I had only ever seen the word in print, and I remember consistently pronouncing it as ‘ar-MEG-a-don’. No one ever corrected my error, so in my mind, the title of my little magazine will always be pronounced that way.

By 1971, I had fallen heavily under the spell of Robert E. Howard and Frank Frazetta. The influence of the Lancer paperback editions of the Conan series, with the Frazetta covers, were certainly the driver behind the creation of ‘Silent Warrior of Doom’.

I was introduced to those paperbacks in a rather romantic way. The sixties were over, but gusts of its lingering influence had blown into River Rouge, the city just outside Detroit where I grew up. There was a microscopic used bookstore run by a pretty hippie girl between my school and my house, and I used to visit it after school. She sold paperbacks at a dime apiece, and most of them were fantasy and science fiction. She was a fan, and she talked with me about her favorites, and made recommendations. I’d read them quickly, and come back in to talk about them as soon as I’d finished.

The bookstore failed quickly. It may be due to the crush I had on the proprietor, but I don’t remember anyone else ever being in the store but the Pretty Hippie Girl and me. At any rate, when she closed the shop down, she gave me a whole box of unsold fantasy and science fiction books for free. Most of the Conan series was in the box.

On the second page of ‘Silent Warrior of Doom’ there is the unforgettable line ‘Who be you to command me, Ancient One?’ I actually had the gall to try this line on my mother once. It was not well received.

My mother, though, was a key player in the making of Armageddon. I will always remember her collating the copied pages with me once it was finished, gamely placing the ordered pages on top of each other, as we circled the table on which we’d laid them out.

I’ve hung on to those pages for a little over fifty years now. They remind me of a special time of discovery and inspiration. I can see the echoes of my first anatomy books in the pages where the skeletal warrior appears, books I’d gotten when I first decided to learn how to draw. It’s nice to be reminded of that, the Pretty Hippie Girl and the books I loved as a boy, and, of course, my mom.

My latest book, completed last year, is a graphic novel called Lawrence the Tiger. It can be found here: batasstudio.etsy.com. It can also be found at 96th of October, a quarterly online magazine of fantastic tales that I contribute stories and art to: 96thofoctober.com.”

Thanks Jim! Felt Trips is a collaborative effort. If anyone wants to contribute their own childhood drawings from the era, I would be utterly delighted – please drop me a line using the “Contact” link at the top of the page. A good quality scan would be perfect, but – if not – then a clear photo of your artwork, lying flat, is fine. And maybe a few words of explanation, too: when the drawings were done, how old you were, what inspired you to tackle those particular subjects? Thanks so much.

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