When Tiger’s Tale was regularly seeing print in the pages of Kung Fu Tai Chi and other magazines published by our parent company Tiger Claw, I was offered a sort of comic-special. I would have 10 pages and a pull-out-center-poster specifically for Tiger’s Tale. This comic-special would be included in an issue of our newer publication World of Martial Arts. The intent for this magazine was to offer broader coverage of martial arts in contrast to the focus on traditional Chinese Kung Fu in our main publication. The issue covered the (then) new MORTAL KOMBAT movie, and in it would feature a special Tiger’s Tale focused on the Asian or Long (龍) Dragon. That ten page story laid out the basic framing of what would become A TIGER’s TALE volume 1.
This issue included many career firsts beyond the unique comic publishing opportunity. They include my first business trip, my first actual visit to Los Angeles (I’d previously only driven through), my first encounter with a publicist and subsequent photo-shoot with a movie star.