Mark Waid may be a famous writer, but he doesn’t live in New York City or Hollywood. His home is Muncie, Ind., where he and his partner Christina Blanch own Aw Yeah Comics downtown.
Waid has influenced countless people in his 30 years of work, even if they don’t know it.
He has written stories for almost every superhero one could think of — from Superman to Daredevil — and received prestigious honors such as Eisner Awards while doing so.
He’s starting a new series starring Black Widow, one of the main heroes in “Avengers: Age of Ultron.”
Growing up in Alabama, Waid fell in love with comics while reading them as a small child.
”Truthfully, I never really considered anything else [as a career],” he said.
He worked at industry trade publications right out of college, was hired as an editor of DC Comics in 1987 and left in 1989 to strike out as a freelance writer.
“I’ve lived a charmed life ever since,” he said.
He added that many people still don’t understand that he doesn’t draw the pictures for the comics he writes. There’s a lot of collaboration and teamwork involved in making a comic book, he said.
He was working as a freelancer in Los Angeles when he met Blanch in 2010 at C2-E2, a pop culture and comic book convention in Chicago.
Blanch and Waid began dating soon after, and Waid eventually moved to Blanch’s town of Muncie.
“[Waid] is amazing,” Blanch said. “He is my partner in business and life and my best friend. He is the smartest person I have ever met. And the nicest.”
She said she loves everything about comics. She used them to teach her son to read, and they soon became an important part of her life. Blanch said that science fiction and fantasy like "Star Wars" have inspired her. She writes her own original series called “The Damnation of Charlie Wormwood,” which is published by Dynamite Entertainment.
Living in the same house as writers and business partners could be challenging for some couples, but they manage to make it work. Waid and Blanch have their own office spaces for their writing.
“I tend to write when she's at the store, and she tends to write in the evenings,” Waid said. "Honestly, we don't bounce ideas around much. We probably should and have a good time when we do, but there's also something to be said about letting together time be nonwork-related.”
Waid said he’s not great at budgeting and day-to-day comic shop duties. Blanch and the store’s co-manager, Kyle Roberts, are the ones who do most of the “heavy lifting" and run the shop every day, Waid said.
He’s glad to have people working at the store that can do what he can’t. He wanted Muncie to have a store that he liked.
Waid and Blanch stay in Muncie partly because Blanch is working on her doctorate and has a teenage daughter finishing high school.
Beyond that, Blanch and Waid appreciate the community.
“We have no plans to surrender the store even after [Blanch] gets her degree. Retailing's in our blood now,” Waid said.
Waid said living in Muncie has helped him with story ideas, especially with his Archie comics — another one of his creative ventures.
“There's not a whole lot of difference between Riverdale and Muncie, as I see it,” he said.
Owning a store has taught Waid a lot about being a comic creator, he said. He now realizes how many other books are out there vying for the reader’s attention.
“You can never have an off month; you’ve always got be bringing your A game,” he said.
Waid launched an online comic website, Thrillbent, in 2012. He received some criticism for his move, he said. Critics were worried that digital comics would kill off the print industry, but Waid predicted the opposite.
So far, he has been right — at least from what he sees.
Blanch and Waid said digital comics encourage people to come into shops like Aw Yeah Comics where they can ask for suggestions and build relationships with the owners and other readers.
They also bring in other comic writers and artists to sign their work for fans at the store. This helps the creator promote their work and gives customers an opportunity to meet them, they said.
Many years later, and Waid is still influenced by the childhood comics that got him hooked.
“Superman's always been my key inspiration, first and foremost. I've always been elevated by the message he preaches — that putting others first is its own reward,” Waid said.
Blanch said Waid teared up once while speaking to a crowd about a Superman story that really touched him.
“What'd I'd like for readers to get from my stories is a sense of hope and optimism,” Waid said.
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