Forgot Batman v Superman. Instead, here’s Attila the Hun vs. Pope Leo I.

Wait, what? From Batman to Pope Leo? And who even was this guy?

Before I jump into this story and why it’s inspired a new project, I wanted to talk a bit about the title of this series – Undiscovered Stories.

For those that know me, my motivation to start Lucha Comics was simple: I wanted to bring new stories to people like me. That’s it. All I know of comics was as a fan. I had no idea as to how comic books get published – after all, how hard could it be? Well, it didn’t take me long to find out that it’s really hard. It takes time, money, and a lot of heart. Even once you’ve found some great talents to work with and come up with a brand (which in itself is a chore!) then you need to really decide what kinds of stories you want to tell. Fortunately, I have friends like the talented B.J. Mendelson to remind me when I am thinking way too hard, because clearly, my thing is undiscovered stories. Whether it is a true biography of Macbeth, a Latino Superhero kids book, or something in between, Undiscovered Stories are what I love to dive into to. So, what does this have to do with Pope Leo?

Pope Leo I was a Roman aristocrat, the first Pope to be given the title of “the Great” and credited with developing the modern ideas of papal authority. His work led to the foundation of Jesus Christ being a hypostatic being – that is, both divine and human without confusion or division. This in itself is worthy of historical recognition, but there is something far more interesting about his 20 year reign in the middle of the 5th century.

Enter the antagonist of this story: Attila the Hun was running roughshod over Europe, conquering everything in his path. Ready to take Italy, Attila and his forces marched to the gates of the Vatican, ready to plunder and demand its complete and total surrender. Attila had already forced the Eastern Roman Empire to pay him a tithing of 700 pounds of gold a year, but the deal soon fell through the the Huns continued their vicious assaults on the Romans.

Attila and his forced made their way to the Vatican, where they would surely pillage one of the richest stores of treasure of perhaps any era. Even in 450AD, the wealth of the Catholic Church was staggering to say the least; countless priceless treasures would already be taking up residence within the walls of the Vatican. But perhaps most importantly (and easily overlooked) was the fact that the Church directly owned every one of its dioceses, paid zero tax worldwide on its revenues and assets, and even had its own armed forces. The Vatican’s combined wealth and influence in spheres of faith, government and even banking (google Knights Templar sometime) are unfathomable by today’s standards.

Surely, facing such an unprecedented threat – the Huns largely had free reign of the Eastern Roman Empire as few could stand up the them – the Vatican would deploy its entire armed forces, right?

As Attila was ready to storm the Vatican, Pope Leo walked out, alone and unarmed, where he spoke briefly to Atilla. The would be conqueror turned and left, never to return again – leaving Vatican City untouched.

Tune in next week for the Story of Macbeth: The Red King.

Want to support Lucha Comics & Undiscovered Stories? Check out Bitemark on kickstarter.

Special thanks to Matti Silver of Dark School, our resident occult and theological expert. I’d also like to give a shoutout to B.J. Mendelson, all around great guy and author of All Social Media is Bullshit.

I have loved comics for quite some time; for nearly 30 years I have been collecting them (mainly Batman, but I love my Punisher books amongst others). When my children arrived, I did take about a 5 year hiatus from reading them, but now I am back at it full force, and what a great time to be a fan! Marvel is doing some awesome stuff thanks to Jonathan Hickman, Matt Fraction, and a bunch of other talented individuals. I believe that DC has done amazing stuff with their New 52, although lately they do seem a bit greedy to me (52 covers for a B team JLA book?). Image is really kicking ass, and capturing a nice market share from the big two thanks to The Walking Dead, Saga, and some other really good titles. Apart from that, digital has exploded thanks to these guys, levelling the playing field for a lot of independents. I know find myself reading as many Monkeybrain titles as I do DC!

So, what does this really mean? It means that despite having a day job as a Project Manager, I know see that I finally have a chance to be a part of an industry that I have loved nearly as long as I have been alive. Using some of my professional experience in the business world, I have decided to launch Lucha Comics, my own digital publisher. I’m not expecting to get my hands on the next big thing and make millions, but I feel that the tools that the Internet offers us now can allow me to finally participate in the industry.

What? Yes, someone who could maybe write a comic book, and who cannot draw anything decent (and I mean anything) is launching a comic book publisher. I am lifelong fan, and am fascinated by the industry, so I figured, how hard can it be?

Well, like any new business or project, these things do take time and money. First, I decided that this new venture should be sustainable. That is, it should be able to pay for itself year after year, otherwise it would not be much of a business. So, what about start-up costs?

After speaking to my wife (who despite hating comic books and complaining that I spend too much money on them) it became clear that she was fully supportive, and probably would have used our family savings to help fund the kick off. While we could have afforded it, having 2 young children makes you think. That is when I decided that my comic books should sustain my dreams of launching a comic book publisher.  That’s when I went into the basement, started rifling through the longboxes, and picked which comics would be sold in order to fund the dream. I suppose that if one could pick a favourite child, the conversation would go like this: “sorry sweetie, but daddy can get a good price for you because you’re pretty popular right now”

Desire and the willingness to give up some pretty cool comics are not enough to launch a publisher; fortunately, I have had the privilege of coming across some very cool content, and I am hoping to work with some talented creators to bring it to all of you very soon. Who knows, this thing might just take off. I really hope that you’ll check back frequently, to see where this experiment goes.

Sincerely,
Rodolfo Martinez
Editor/Project Manager/One-man Show at Lucha Comics