Your mother always told you there were two sides to every story. Now the Mauro brothers will tell you exactly what those two sides are-in explicit, lurid detail.
Joseph Mauro, 28, and Paul Mauro, 30, both of Northport, Long Island, N.Y., created the He Said/She Said line of comics to tell the Amy Fisher story in comic book form-as if three made-for-TV movies, two books and countless news stories weren’t enough.
Read the comic from the front and you get Amy’s story, with dialogue and action gleaned from court transcripts, TV interviews and news reports. Flip the comic over and you get the same story, this time told from Joey Buttafuoco’s point of view.
The comic book, released in March, was so popular that in June the brothers released the second in the series-this one about Woody Allen and Mia Farrow. A third comic-on either Mike Tyson and Desiree Washington, Charles and Diana, or Burt Reynolds and Loni Anderson-will come out later this month.
“We put the Fisher and Buttafuoco story into the format He Said/She Said because we couldn’t decide whose story to write, because we didn’t know who was telling the truth,” said Joseph Mauro in a phone interview.
“We said, `Well, we just can’t pick arbitrarily, so let’s present both sides of the story.’ This is the world’s first tabloid comic. It presents the hot stories of the day, the stories that the tabloid papers are reporting on.”
The comics do read like a graphic version of the National Enquirer or the New York Post. They stick to the facts when presenting the two sides of the story, drawing from trial transcripts and news reports. But in the center section, the mud flies, with references to Buttafuoco as “evolution gone awry” and Fisher as “inevitable MTV byproduct.”
“We got an unbelievable amount of responses from the comics,” Mauro said.
“Eric Niberg, Amy Fisher’s attorney, hated it. He called it `a piece of sleaze.’ Joey Buttafuoco (reportedly) was thrilled with it. Even though we took a lot of swipes at him, he found it `very humorous.”‘
In fact, Mauro added, until recently Buttafuoco would autograph copies, which made the value rise.
Although reaction in general was positive, some women have complained that the first comic is too biased toward Buttafuoco.
“I’m no great fan of Joey Buttafuoco at all,” Mauro said. “We set out to write the book with taking no point of view at all, presenting both sides of the story. In researching it, and looking at it objectively, we had no other choice than to slant the story toward him, because the facts say that the only thing that Joey Buttafuoco could possibly be guilty of is sleeping with an underage girl.
“Whereas Amy Fisher has admitted to attempting murder. . . . So we had no other choice but to slant it somewhat toward the Joey Buttafuoco side.”
Some have accused the brothers of exploitation, which they vehemently deny. “Once they, including the victim, Mary Jo, had sold their rights for profit, I think they’re fair game,” Mauro said.
“In the case of Woody Allen and Mia Farrow, we did our best to make sure that the children were not portrayed in anything other than completely innocent fashion and tried to put most of the blame . . . on Woody Allen and Mia Farrow both.”
It started with Sex Maniacs
The sensationalistic comics are now considered collectibles. Only 70,000 of each comic were printed; another 5,000 of the Amy/Joey comic were released with trading cards. Although the cover price is $3 ($5 for the trading card edition), some retailers have been charging as much as $10 or $20.
The Mauro brothers-Joseph is a lawyer, Paul was a college English professor-confessed that until last year, they had absolutely no experience in the comic book/trading card field. They became involved last summer when a neighboring county passed a law prohibiting the sale of cards featuring such unsavory characters as serial killers to minors.
Joseph Mauro, who was then in law school, said he believed the law was “blatantly unconstitutional.” So he and his brother formed a company called First Amendment Publishing and created Sex Maniac trading cards (which feature such notorious figures as Jimmy Swaggart, Nero and Wilt Chamberlain) for the sole purpose of fighting the law. (The Nassau County Civil Liberties Union is suing the county on behalf of First Amendment Publishing; the case is still in litigation.)
“And what happened from there, completely without any planning or anything, the company took off,” said Joseph Mauro, who is also an attorney for First Amendment Publishing.
Many people called in suggesting Amy Fisher trading cards, but the Mauros thought the story would make a better comic book.
They were right. The Amy/Joey comic has sold in the U.S., Canada and England. According to Mauro, stores in countries such as Japan, Italy, Holland, Mexico and Spain are now inquiring about the Woody/Mia comic.
“We just signed an agreement to have it distributed into 40 countries, including Indonesia, Singapore, Lebanon and Luxembourg,” said Mauro, who’s considering printing special foreign editions.
Chicago comic book stores say the Amy/Joey books have done well, but haven’t sold as many as in Amy and Joey’s hometown.
“My first shipment of 30 sold out in about a day and a half,” said Kurt Gelhausen, manager and co-owner of Chicago Comics. “I had people waiting for that one. They all wanted the Amy Fisher comic.”
Although the Moondog’s chain of comic book stores sold the comics, owner Gary Colabuono refused to put them on display.
“I feel the comic art form is being misused with books of this sort,” Colabuono said. “I didn’t want to add to the idea of comic books being used to further the ambitions of publishers who are just looking to cash in and make a buck on these people and their problems.”
`What the readers want’
But Colabuono said he believes the concept had potential. “The He Said/She Said series could actually be campy and informative, it could raise questions and be provocative in a positive way that doesn’t look so slimy,” he said.
“In defense of this guy, I will say that it’s hard for me to distinguish between his comic and a made-for-TV movie. . . . He’s just providing what the readers want.”
Gelhausen takes a lighter view. “I find them interesting; I think they’re humorous,” he said.
“I don’t know what the appeal is about the story itself to get such attention. I didn’t realize it had such universal appeal. I guess it’s good American sleaze.”
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For more information about He Said/She Said comics, call First Amendment Publishing at 516-754-4683.
