Did I know Larry Young? Oh, yeah; I knew him. From back in the day, too. Before the TV stations. Before the movie studios. Before MoonVision™ even.
I met him, as the kids are wont to say these days, "back in the closing days of the Twentieth Century." Hell, I suppose one might even say I helped move the needle a bit, but me, I'm not so sure.
The thing you’ve got to understand about Larry is he was always looking for the angle. Some folks have just got that whole "charisma" thing down pat. And Larry was one of them. In another life he'd have been a politician, maybe, but something deflected him as a kid, I think. We never really talked about it, but my guess is it was Star Trek. I just have this picture of a ten-year old Larry, lying on his belly, bathed in the cathode rays, digging on those yeomen in those preposterously short mini-skirts, sailing through space, making a vow to himself that someday, somehow, he'd be the one on that bridge telling Yeomen Legs-Up-To-Here what to do.
What I'm trying to get at is that if the TV show had been on that had half-dressed, insanely-pretty women working for, say, a car dealership... well, the world would sure be a different place. But, no, it was space that caught his fancy.
"That will be me one day."
I think he said that a lot. And he pursued it, with all of his intensity and passion and, eventually, made that dream a reality.
So, anyway, he had a passion for fantastical fiction, born some early day, and that's how I met him.
See, I owned a comic book shop back then -- a good one too, I like to think; Comix Experience -- and Larry started shopping there. Always looking for the angle, like I said, he proceeded to charm the hell out of us. He'd buy us beer on New Comics Day, and generally be a jovial son of a bitch, and he asked us if we'd sell his fanzine, Planet Lar. Man, that was one amusing rag. Opinions, reviews, commentary on all sorts of pop-culture stuff. And it had these bitching acetate covers. It just stood out, y'know?
Well, anyway, it sure as hell impressed me, so I asked him to write/edit/produce our in-store newsletter. Maybe if I hadn't done that he would have done something else. Maybe not. But, I figure odds aren't so bad that I pushed the empire further along that natural path.
And thirty years later we have his favorite movies being projected on the moon. Like I said, who knew?
Larry ingratiated himself among the comics (haha) "industry," and the ascent of his power was, honestly, meteoric. A few years, and he's publishing his own comic. A few more and he's publishing an entire line. A couple more, and he's bought out Marvel (might be before your day, but a character named "Nick Fury" used to run S.H.I.E.L.D.), then the dominoes toppled faster and faster.
The Astronauts Cable Network (most weeks drawing a greater share than the five "public" networks, combined); the chain of hologram theaters; even the fashion industry was transformed by Larry's touch -- the whole BubbleDome-chic thing was Lar's baby.
I'll never forget the day he came to me and said "Join me, and we will rule the galaxy as father and son" (and, yes, he really did talk like that) -- I admit it, I could see which way the future was leaning. What other choice did I really have? Today, some 80% of the entertainment the world consumes is produced or controlled by some subsidiary or another of Larry's. Why do you think they call it Planet Lar, anyway?
Though, even I was surprised when he managed to get Star Wars included in basic elementary school curriculum.
He got what he wanted in the end. When mankind's first corporate spacejet crashed on the surface of Mars, Lar was right there on the bridge, with the all-female, all-mini-skirted crew bringing him cocktails.
While we miss our founder, we're still following his vision the best we can. When the first Mars colony opens early next year, Planet Lar will be waiting for them, with open arms, all of their entertainment needs ready to be fulfilled, our poly-neural entertainment net long built. And one day, maybe I'll even live to see it, we'll be Universe Lar.
This special limited printing, on old-fashion hardcopy, of Larry's earliest works, show the beginning seeds of the communications empire that took mankind to the stars. We've reissued it in hopes that, perhaps, your dreams will be inspired as much as his were. And if you, too, have that spark, that passion, that vision, Planet Lar will be waiting, with many fine employment opportunities for you.
Brian Hibbs
comixexperience.com
March 9, 2035
