My name is Mark A. Lester. I make up stories. I draw stuff. I’m nicer than I look. I can eat standing up. I’m probably smarter than you. I’m not as tall as I think. I write stuff. I can count to ten. I don’t like math. I don’t believe what others believe. I am obsessed with things most people don’t think about. I don’t care what people think. I don’t smile much. That’s not true. I like to laugh. Usually at you. I have a terrible memory. I prefer old movies. I prefer books over people. No one is honest. Not even with themselves. I think I’m normal. I think I’m the only one. People are strange. I’m nicer than you think. Someone is reading this. I only want to try. I don’t care if anyone cares. That’s a good thing. No one cares. Nothing matters. I know how to lie. Life is fake. I like dreaming. I can sleep laying down. I’m not funny. I think I am. I don’t know anyone like me. I creep people out. I don’t play well with others. I don’t eat fast food. I like fast food. I like being around people who are passionate about something. Anything. I prefer being alone. There are a lot of artists better than me. I don’t really care. I don’t wish on stars. I love old radio dramas. I don’t listen to much music. I think Sean Connery made the best 007. I don’t care for phones. I like to sleep. I am a very spiritual person. I don’t agree with anyone about anything. I think I’m right. I never yell. I hate drama. I can’t cook. I like pulp magazines. I think I would have been better off if I were born fifty years earlier. I’d be dead now if I was. I still wish I was. I like science fiction. I think it’s more true than “real life”. I don’t care for material things. That’s good. I have nothing. I never leave. I’ve been left before. I didn’t like it. I don’t lie. I won’t tell you what I don’t want you to know. I have a sarcastic sense of humor. I think I’m funny. I’m a romantic. I’m usually alone. I want to live forever. I think I will. I live the life I choose. I make no apologies. People come to me. I know your secrets. I keep secrets. Most people think I’m strange. They’re right. I am a loner. People think I’m the life of the party. I have no idea why. I’m arrogant, thoughtful, kind, smart and decent. And it really doesn’t matter.
I was always been a far bigger fan of pulp magazines and comic strips than comic books growing up. Which is not to say that I didn’t love a good comic, although my favorite comic book characters always seemed to have their own personal roots in pulps and strips. Go figure.
Little Nemo, Lil Abner, Joe Palooka, Alley Oop, Buck Rogers, Flash Gordon, Tarzan, Dick Tracy, Calvin … The Spirit … Doc Savage, The Shadow, The Avenger, Tarzan (again), Buck Rogers (again), Conan, Nick Carter … and on to Sam Spade, Phillip Marlow etc.
Although I came along just about fifty years too late, I loved these characters and the wide range of generas and satire they represented. The humor, action, adventure and mystery have always held a great appeal to me, as well as the freedom to mix and match. The only requirement was to entertain. There was a great deal of versatility in these various artistic areas. Comic books, on the other hand, seemed to be doing only one thing; superheroes. They did it well, but it seemed to me as I was growing up, that this was ALL they did. I loved superheroes but superheroes were not all I loved. So I looked into the past … The golden age heroes. Characters like Adam Strange, Jonah Hex, Sgt. Rock, Two-Gun Kid etc. caught my attention. THIS was the kind of work that appealed to me. The kind of work I wanted to do. Unfortunately, it was also the kind of work that people just didn’t do any longer.
I began drawing around the age of four. I never drew pictures of Superman or Spider-Man and I never dreamt of drawing for Marvel or DC Comics. I wanted to draw my own stuff, for my own company. Even at four. I have no idea why. It’s the whole fine artist vs commercial artist thing, I guess. It may also be one of the many reasons for my somewhat lack of commercial success when it comes to art. Maybe? Perhaps?
I sold my first professional piece at twelve. A cartoon I sold to a car modeling magazine for six dollars. From there the work, while never exceptionally plentiful, never really stopped either.
I opened an art studio in the late nineties along side my brothers Ken and Rich. Together we worked on just about everything that has anything to do with art and / or the web. Our site, named after our studio, Five-Star.com has been online for more than a decade. My first web strip, “The Paperboy” made it’s debut around 1993, making it one of the first web strips created.
My art work and writing has appeared professionally in various newspapers, books, magazines and comics around the world over the past few decades including, but not limited to; Ripp Off Press, Calibre Press, Big Bang Comics, Day One Comics, After Dark, Liquid Magazine, Manga Quake, Dime Store Press, as well as work published through my own company, Five Star Comics. In addition to print, my work as appeared on dozens of different web sites as artist, writer and / or designer. I’ve done cartooning, comic strips and comic books, book illustrations, designed merchandise as well as story boarding, advertising and programming.
The single project I am most well known for is “The Lost Book” and a character named Morgan Stone. A well named book if ever there was one. I enjoyed a minor bit of success with a second web strip I did called, “Altered Ego”. A strip about a struggling, slightly arrogant artist. Not wholly un-autobiographical.
A friend once described me as “The most famous person no one has ever heard of.” Not the most unreasonable assessment but truthfully, I think he was just being kind.
