-----IT ALL STARTED IN 1992 when, one hot summer day, a bored Jaimel Hemphill said to himself: "I could do that." And so he did. Calling his creations BAM! comics, Jaimel drew entire comics in sketchbooks and showed them to his classmates. As word got around that some guy was drawing comics, other kids wanted in on the fun; thus was laid the foundation of what would become National Press Comics.

------NPC as it is now started out as Arcane Comics, a partnership formed of five classmates that loved comic books: Jaimel Hemphill, Stephen Donaldson, Kevin Kendrick, Harold Lowe, and Ledon Mason. Each person signed on and agreed to be a one-man comic, writing and drawing their own ideas. Although only in high school at the time, all knew that in order to achieve the level of success they wanted, they could not be satisfied with staying at the independent level. The young men spent the rest of their high school education acquiring knowledge in the field of publishing, each sharpening his artistic skills, as well as studying creative writing. In 1995 and 1996, the group graduated from Hayward High School and started the process of preparing for the big show. With the additions of Abdoual Edmond, Dave Young, Jon Long, Kahari Williams, and the return of longtime friend Javier Gonzalez, the partnership grew to ten. Under the leadership of Jaimel and Davon Ward, then Executive Editor, Arcane made its debut at Wondercon 1998. Armed with only black and white mini-posters printed at Kinko's, pin-on buttons, and whole lot of attitude, Arcane shone brilliantly at Wondercon, appearing in newsprint and on the internet. But as with all things, the thrill of success had its downside...-----

-----As Arcane progressed, there were bumps in the road -- questions like: whose comic would be published first? Where would the financial support come from? Most importantly, how would everyone, especially the non-artists, get paid? Most of these questions were answered in Arcane's partnership agreement, but not all of the partners were satisfied with the answers. Everyone agreed one person should take charge, but no one could come to a consensus as to whom that person should be.The failure to complete a mainstream book weighed heavily on the company as a whole, and when another company surfaced with the name "Arcane," it seemed as if the idea of a comic book company had amounted to a pipe dream. The company started to fracture. By 1999, Jon Long, Javier Gonzales, and Harold Lowe had decided to pursue other interests. Davon Ward also decided to take his leave of Arcane; his last official act as Executive Editor was to assist Jaimel Hemphill in drawing up a new partnership agreement, with a new company name...

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