CABAL is dedicated to promoted comic books and related arenas but is more importantly dedicated to promoting student artwork and efforts as well as to providing students with published material to show prospective employers.

Originally established as the Comics-Arts-Based Artists League, CABAL (now Comics-Arts-Based Advancement League, so as to include non-artists as it always had anyway) was all started in Wasyl Palijczuk's Life Drawing class in the Spring of 1996. Four students were brought together by Prof. Palijczuk for having similar interests. These students were Joe Flemming, Mike Cummings, Cory Hagan, and Mike Puskar. The latter had been doing comics for the school newspaper, The Phoenix , but had always found it as an unsuitable avenue; so, he readily jumped at the chance to start a comics club, with the others backing him up.

Ready to go through all the red tape, Puskar decided that CABAL would be a good name for a comic group for two reasons: a] it had a militaristic sense, all the more appropriate for stereotypical comics; and b] it also meant a literary, artistic, or theatrical group, which this club would be.

Following up over the summer, Puskar discovered that Hagan would not be returning to Western Maryland, making it all the more difficult to have help. Yet, he and the others managed, and held meetings.

Cummings hadn't the time to do a full-fledged story, so it was up to Flemming and Puskar to handle the final product. Flemming's story, however, was not ready at the already-overdue press time, so Puskar's "Green Terror" story, based on his rendition of the school spirit, had the book to itself. (Flemming's story, B/W , will appear on this site at a later date.)

The books went like hotcakes, and the new year was at hand.

Flemming, however, had graduated, and Cummings was still unable to contribute; so, Puskar had to build a whole new team- and that he did. Returning students Rich Suchoski and "Juba" Siquiera jumped aboard, and freshmen Anne Butler, Bill Benoit, and Ariel Denham gladly joined.

All helped a great deal behind-the-scenes, but Benoit transferred after the first semester, so his story was lost to the group. In the end, only stories by Puskar and Butler made the cut.