On the surface, No Quarter, Kill All Masters may seem like a run-of-the-mill, brutal pirate story. But these are no ordinary pirates, and no ordinary comic book.
The proceeds will go to a research fund for rare types of cancer.
Combat Radio host Ethan Dettenmaier recently published a comic book with his daughter to support research into neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorders.
According to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, about 4,000 to 8,000 people in the United States have been diagnosed with the disease – and Dettenmaier’s daughter was diagnosed with the disease several years ago.
He said that fortunately his daughter, now 21, has insurance that covers the cost of treatment, but other children do not have access to such funds.
“Many children who get this disease have to spend half a million dollars on infusions, and they can’t afford the treatment if they don’t have insurance,” Dettenmaier said. “I thought, ‘These are the people we need to help.'”
Dettenmaier says the idea for the story came to him suddenly. He wrote the book in a week, which later became a comic.
It’s about a teacher who is drafted into a seemingly ruthless ship’s crew, whose members hide hearts of gold and come from all walks of life – with different cultures, different challenges and different skills.
“The theme of the book and the comic is how unlikely heroes emerge, and here the whole story comes down to one conclusion: through the humanity of the schoolteacher, all these brutal pirates give their plan a more human touch,” said Dettenmaier.
Dettenmaier said he worked on the story while his daughter Shawn served as producer and handled the printer and other technical details of the comic. Their publishing company, Venger Comics, was named after one of the ships in the story.
At first it was difficult to find an artist for the artworks because of a lack of money, said Dettenmaier. But by chance he found the artist Martina Matteucci, who loved pirates.
“I explained my situation to her and sent her an email from UCLA Medical Center, where I was basically living,” Dettenmaier said. “I said I was trying to do a comic book with my daughter and shared a little bit about what (Shawn) was going through. I don’t think (Matteucci) thought much about it at the time, but she did a really good job.”
Dettenmaier said he was inspired to make a comic because Shawn loved drawing her own comics. He also said that Shawn even hopes to run her own bookstore and cafe one day.
“She started designing one when she was at the doctor’s because she has a long-term treatment,” Dettenmaier said. “When she gets an infusion (in the hospital), she works on her comic.”
He said that because of the rarity of NMSOD, it was often difficult to emphasize the urgency of his daughter’s needs in the emergency room, so they partnered with the Guthy-Jackson Charitable Foundation, which, among other things, educates emergency room staff about the disease.
“Often we sit in the emergency room for six or eight hours and if they don’t find anything wrong with you, they say, ‘Okay, let’s take the guy with the splinter,'” Dettenmaier said. “I then say, ‘No, you don’t understand. It’s like a stroke. I know you don’t know what it is because it’s so rare.'”
Dettenmaier said he and Shawn are excited about releasing the remaining issues of the comic, which is scheduled to run for 30 issues.
His comic is available at several local comic shops, including Paper Heroes and Cruzin’ Thru Comics, where he will be signing copies on Saturday at 2 p.m.
For more information about Dettenmaier’s comic, visit his website at www.noquarterkillallmasters.com.
