Today we’d like to introduce you to Rick Molchan.
Rick, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
A little history about the name of our company and where we can from.
Resolute Bliss. Resolute means purposeful and determined while Bliss is defined as perfect happiness and joy. In the early 90s I was working multiple jobs – full time at the hospital pharmacy, weekend warrior for the military, consulting for businesses, working at a local comic book shop all while still going to college working on my Pre Law degree.
However, no experience was more fun at that time than working with comics which was my passion from when I was a little kid. I began helping out a friend at his comic book store. With very little time to do anything else while already working so many hours and studying, I still found time to work at the comic book store as much as I could. Working with comics brought back my excitement from being a kid. It was MY happy place. As a kid I couldn’t wait to read the next Silver Surfer especially after John Byrne did his one shot in 1982 which led me back to discovering all those Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, and John Buscema issues of the late 60s. Daredevil was my other favorite that I couldn’t wait for each month shipping from Mile High Comics in their little brown envelope folders. The dark vigilante that sought out justice for the average person whether in the court room or on the streets at night. I was on my way to law school and immediately identified with the character. Once Frank Miller got a hold of Daredevil he was elevated in my world as the greatest superhero. He couldn’t fly. He didn’t come from another planet. There weren’t multiple versions or corps of him. He was just a kid that had to overcome adversity (albeit with a little radioactivity) and fought for what he felt was right with a brutal form of justice. Superman and Batman may be legendary and iconic, but Marvel was king of the comic world at that time and had the formula for success.
Once I started at the comic book shop, there was another comic book shop owner down the street that opened my eyes to a whole other realm of comics. While the Cosmic Silver Surfer and Dark Daredevil were fighting villains, Ziggy (yes, the infamous Comics, Inc Ziggy and sometimes alluded to in private as a potential inspiration to the Simpsons The Comic Book guy), introduced me to stories that were deeper and different from the typical superhero genre. Yes, there were the Watchmen and Peter David’s the Hulk (one that explored the psychological aspects of the Hulk), but there were also stories like V for Vendetta (another Alan Moore title), Art Spiegelman’s Maus, Wrighton’s Swamp Thing, Cerebus by Dave Sim, Mister X by Dean Motter and graphic novels like Why I Hate Saturn by Kyle Baker and Hard Looks by Andrew Vachss. It was a great time for comics and reading. Ziggy helped me to realize the power of words and stories and that comics could be more than the stereotypical superhero.
It was then that I was inspired to publish my own comic. I had a story I wanted to tell. While saving the world and the infinite cosmos was my reading joy, I wanted to tell a darker story, one that caused people to think a little deeper to find the connections. Stories built from different levels. It wasn’t meant to sell millions of copies like a Youngblood or Spawn book, but it was a passion of mine to tell a story. From this passion – Dark Visions Publishing was born as well as my character Paradox. “In the beginning when the heavens and the earth were created, a race of Incessants were given birth. They were created within nature as the first form of duality. They were to have influence of all that transpires. Each Incessant has an opposing sibling to keep them in a form of check. If any Incessant was to join the opposing side, then the balance of power would be tipped and Armageddon would arrive.” While many thought it was very Sandman-ish (which would be a great compliment), it was really based on Armand from Vampire Lestat with a tale of Dante’s Inferno as the setting. A story of a being that wronged the one he loved and he went to hell to seek retribution (the Paradox of seeking forgiveness from the heavens makes one travel to hell).
My goal was to try to include as many people in the project as possible and build a wave of people doing something they loved. I waited months and turned down so many artists that came through the door until the most talented I guy I had ever met walked in – Eric Treadaway. To this day, I don’t know a greater talent and a guy that has a greater vision for art and design than Eric had and still has. We became fast friends, and complimented each other perfectly. Five issues of Paradox were released, an anthology called GASP (selling 40,000 copies), and Eric’s own book Alphabet all released under the Dark Visions umbrella. Each Paradox story had a back up story, and GASP was full of independent creators trying to gain more attention in the main stream. Sadly, because some creators were late getting their stories into us, GASP became late with pre orders approaching 40,000. At that time that meant stores could cancel their orders with no penalty because they thought the book was losing interest and sales wouldn’t occur. GASP was supposed to be all original stories but many creators failed to do that. The result was us getting stuck with a lot of GASPS, a huge bill and we simply couldn’t continue Dark Visions Publishing.
The comic book store soon closed afterwards due to some management issues, and I picked up a few extra hours at a comic book shop that was on the University of Tennessee campus. I was there long enough to help my cousin Brad get a job at the store, and his love for comics continued to grow. Over the next couple of years, he got into various independents and developed a love for the genre that never waned. I had moved on after not getting to finish my story. He soon had to grow up and pay bills as well and eventually left comics but he always kept a secret desire to get back into comics.
Fast forward 30 years, and Paradox started to get some mentions again. It was mentioned on a local comic podcast, I ran into people that knew I had published it and asked me to finish it, when they found out who I was I had a reader say it was the best story he read as a kid and would I please finish it, and then the biggest believer of them all – my cousin Brad. He pushed for it to come back and finish it up. An opportunity to reach closure and self-actualization. Brad was constantly pushing to get back into comics, go back to the comic book stores, and finding different ways of bringing Paradox back. With his Incessant insistence and meeting a few chance artists, I realized it was something I wanted to do. A chance for a determined happiness – Resolute Bliss.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
There are always struggles when you are striving to accomplish something important. Besides the obvious – time, life, and demands of humanity, the print industry has changed especially comics. Due to the advent of online video gaming, trading card games like Magic the Gathering and Pokemon, and so many other interests, kids have lost their desire to read. A whole generation learns of comic books not because they find their parents .25c comics in an old, moldy box and try to read them, but because they see a big movie like Avengers, the Hulk, the Amazing Spiderman, Superman, Batman, etc and discover that this character was based on a comic book. Moreover, whether it was Men In Black, The Watchmen, V for Vendetta, Guardians of the Galaxy, Dredd, Ghost in the Shell, American Splendor, Hellboy, Ghostworld, or Scott Pilgram vs. the World, these were all comic books as well that introduce audiences to new universes.
These were the challenges from a macro level, however, finding the right artist, dealing with controversies regarding AI, finding a balance with crowdfunding, and trying to release when the largest distribution company in the world for comics went bankrupt were huge new struggles!
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I have had a varied career. One of my first jobs was managing Park West Hospital Pharmacy which led me to work with one of the largest Medical Education Companies in the nation and being part of some of the biggest blockbuster product launches in US history to later starting my own Medical Education and Consulting Companies. I am now the Head of the Business Division for Roane State Community College, where I teach marketing, intro to business, scuba diving, and other business disciplines. Throughout all of that, in the background, I was able to serve in the US Army and Air National Guard for 22 years with a tour overseas for Operation Desert Shield/Desert Storm and Enduring Freedom.
What do you like and dislike about the city?
As someone who has travelled extensively, I feel I have a good grasp of how Knoxville differs from other cities. Knoxville has always been the “friendly/supportive” city. Whether it was because it was initially a small town or a college town, Knoxvillians have unique pride about their city. For example, when you meet a fellow Knoxvillian, the conversation always invariably goes to what high school you went to, who in your family lived on their road, or just the general need to find some other type of connection between two people meeting each other. Regarding support, when I first launched my comic, and I was doing a little traveling, I would meet someone in an airport, and Knoxvillians are everywhere! Every time I ran into someone, once they discovered I was from Knoxville and had written a comic book, they bought it. It didn’t matter whether they read comics or not, they were just supportive.
As for what I don’t like – the secret is out. People have discovered Knoxville and it will most likely evolve into a crazy, busy city where people will eventually lose that need to find a way of connecting with each other.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.ResoluteBliss.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/resoluteblisspublishing/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61553030985628&sk=about
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@resoluteblisspublishing
- Other: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/paradoxreckonings/paradox-reckonings
