'Mr. Beat'.
In the 1970s, Chris became a Marvel Comics junkie and a huge Spider-man groupie. He poured all of his energy and focus into becoming a comics professional. During the 1980s, Yambar established Manna Underground Press and published an international underground paper called The Activist - Radical Truth Through Art, Music And Social Commentary. In 1994 Yambar and Gary A. Smith founded Substance Comics. The little two- man company produced three 64-page issues of Substance Quarterly, but the science fiction and fantasy title died before its first birthday due to the national collapse of the comic book direct market distributor network that year.
The year 1994 also marked the birth of one of the most popular characters in independent comics. The character was created as a single panel gag cartoon by Yambar at The Beat Coffeehouse in Youngstown, Ohio. The character was then put on coffee mugs and T-shirts by Two Funn, a business Chris and ad specialist, Marianne Earnest, formed to take advantage of the exploding national interest in the coffeehouse scene. When Two Fun dissolved a few years later, Yambar regained his character rights, gave the little beatnik a name, a limited-edition ashcan comic, and took the show on the road. In early 1997 the first Moordam Comics issue of Mr. Beat Adventures hit comic shelves across America... and promptly sold out! It was a trend that he would have to get used to. Yambar once collaborated with Scott Roberts and wrote scripts for 'The Simpsons' comics, published under Matt Groening's Bongo Comics imprint. He also wrote scripts for 'SpongeBob Squarepants' comics, based on Stephen Hillenburg's character of the same name.
In 2002 two new Yambar properties appeared. The first was 'Spells', the story of 3 little witch sisters which he co-created with artist Levi Krause. The second new bundle of joy is 'El Mucho Grande- Wrestler For Hire', created by Yambar, with art by George Broderick, Jr. and inks by Ken Wheaton.
In 2003 Yambar scripted 'Edison's Frankenstein 1910' (Comic Library International, 2003), drawn by Robb Bihun. The graphic novel is based on the very first 'Frankenstein' film adaptation, from 1910. On 23 February 2020 Yambar also dusted off Richard F. Outcault's classic newspaper comic 'The Yellow Kid' with a new comic book series. 'The Yellow Kid' had been discontinued for over 125 years, but in a new narrative, drawn by Randy Bish, the character is brought to the 21st century as a result of a magician's trick gone wrong. The new stories of 'The Yellow Kid' were combined with reprints of Outcault's classic gags, published as 'Hully Gee, It's the Yellow Kid' (Moordam Comics, 2020).
In 2021, Chris Yambar died at age 59.
'Mr. Beat'.