About Mystery Island Publications
Providing Great Comics
Since 1998
Mystery Island Publications began in the summer of 1998 when Bradley Mason Hamlin teamed with Lucy Helvete (in Sacramento, California) to publish independent/underground books of punk rock poetry.
Meanwhile, Brad was creating a team of super weird friends to join his Intoxicated Detective in an existential journey of all the cool things many of us grew up with: beach party fun, cool toys & collectibles, comic books, hot rods, monsters, music, root beer floats, secret agents, skateboarding, super heroes, & surfin’.
1999 saw the grand opening of the Mystery Island retail store, specializing in all the fun stuff mentioned above. After a few years of serving the public face to face it was time to go online where Mystery Island could interface with a much larger audience.
In April of 2002, Mystery Island Publications began publishing some of the greatest writers and artists from all over the world. Did you know music journalism is a big part of the success of Mystery Island’s popularity?
In April of 2002, Mystery Island Publications began publishing some of the greatest writers and artists from all over the world. Did you know music journalism is a big part of the success of Mystery Island’s popularity?
They’ve interviewed hall of famer Eric Burdon of the Animals, Cherie Currie of the Runaways, Peter Noone of Herman’s Hermits, Henry Rollins of Black Flag, Billy Hinsche of Dino, Desi, & Billy (and the Beach Boys) as well many other great musicians from all aspects of popular music.
However, the team just wasn’t complete until artist Mort Todd came onboard in 2006 to draw the debut comic of Lucy Hell, Devilgirl! Devilgirl is, of course, modeled after our very favorite in-house model, Lucy Helvete – editrix of the century.
In the years that followed, the Mystery Island team produced a graphic novel collection (featuring Devilgirl & friends) and an ongoing weird mystery series (Intoxicated Detective Digest) called the greatest crime series since the days of Dashiell Hammett, Mickey Spillane, and Raymond Chandler.
Currently, Mystery Island is excited to announce the relaunch and grand re-opening of MYSTERYISLAND.NET (Summer 2022). The fun has truly just begun.
Our Mission
Mystery Island’s mission is to create the greatest character franchise of the 21st century for entertainment in animation, books, comic books, films, and television.
Bradley Mason Hamlin
Bradley Mason Hamlin is “California’s poet.” American writer, veteran of the United States Navy, and alumni of the University of California, where Pulitzer-prize-winning author, Gary Snyder, dubbed Hamlin “The Road Warrior of Poetry!”
In childhood, Hamlin was a talented magician, skateboarder, skier, surfer, and prolific reader of comic books. He went on to work in the psychiatric field until he realized he was a writer. While working on music journalism, he sang (if you could call it that) and wrote songs for a punk band called The Lizards. Segueing from the screaming, he became a punk rock poet and opened a comic book, music, and collectibles shop called House of Monkey. He now owns and operates Mystery Island Publications with Lucy Helvete. Together, with Art Director – Mort Todd, they produce original content designed for multi-media distribution.
Hamlin was born in Los Angeles and currently lives in Sacramento, California with his beautiful wife, kids, and wild cats. His latest book of poems, Shakespeare for Sluts, is forthcoming (Summer 2022).
Lucy Helvete
Lucy Helvete is a journalist, editor, painter, and Chief of Staff for Mystery Island Publications. She oversees all projects and approves them for publication. She graduated with a Master’s Degree in Education from the University of the Pacific and is the inspiration for Mystery Island’s most popular character: Lucy Hell, Devilgirl. Playboy magazine tried to recruit her, but she turned them down. She was also selected as a contestant for the gameshow, Wheel of Fortune, but decided not to appear so she could help mentor children at a Jewish orphanage in West Los Angeles.
Helvete can read, write, and speak French. She enjoys driving her Mercedes (sometimes too fast), loves the beach, high quality cabernet, Italian music, and spicy spaghetti dinners.
Mort Todd
Mort Todd is a writer, illustrator, editor, publisher, animator and filmmaker. He was Editor-in-Chief of the infamous Cracked magazine, where he started Monsters Attack! (recently collected) and launched a line of music related graphic novels along with a record label at Marvel Comics called Marvel Music.
His first ‘pro’ job was writing Superman for editor Julius Schwartz. He freelanced for a majority of publishers and has collaborated with such comics legends as John Severin, Steve Ditko, Don Martin, Alex Toth, Gene Colan, Dan Clowes, Peter Bagge, Neil Gaiman and many more. He has produced music for film, directed TV commercials and rock videos, and drew plenty of album covers. One original piece of art, from the Back from the Grave garage punk series, is on permanent display at Cornell University.
He has collaborated with Bradley Mason Hamlin at Mystery Island for years, and is having a lot of fun doing it!
Mort has a small publishing company putting out a wide variety of genre comics, many inspired by Charlton Comics with new work by some of the original creators. Another title is Sadistik, an Italian photo comic from the 1960s about a diabolical super-criminal, which Mort translates and publishes.
