Kontinuing With the Kaptain

I know that I said I was done talking about it, but I ain't. I am still working on putting together  

the collection of my "Kaptain Keen & Kompany" comic book stories. The image at left of the good Kaptain (which will not be in the collection), pretty much sums up how the whole process of putting a book together feels to me.

First off, in order to keep the cost of the book down, I am eliminating the "bonus features" from the book. There  were too many, and most of them looked crappy and amateurish. The book is better off without them. For those of you looking forward to that stuff  though, I promise I will post most, if not all of it here on the blog.

As it stands now, the big selling point of the collection will be the all-new Kaptain Keen story that frames the book. The plot line was actually suggested by a reader of this blog. Fret not, he will be credited for his contribution in the book. The story, as it stands now in my frantic notebook doodles, makes me smile, so I hope that in the unlikely event anyone  actually buys this book, they will not be disappointed.

By the way, the book will be called "The Komplete Kaptain Keen". My best-est buddy and co-conspirator on the book, Gary Fields, thinks that that is the best title, and since he, more than anyone else is responsible for it's existance (you can read all  about it in the book's  intro), we're going with that. 

Now I just have to finish the thing!

Happy Gary Day!

As if there wasn't enough to celebrate at this festive time of year, cartoon fans around the world are celebrating (or should be) the anniversary of the day uber-cartoonist and my best bestest pal Gary Fields popped into the world!

If you are unfamiliar with Gary's work, you should hop on over and check out his seldom-updated blog. He really is  a fabulous cartoonist, and our occasional collaborations are some of the highlights of what some might laughingly refer to as my "career".

You might expect that I would end this entry with some embarrassingly amusing anecdote about Gary. Although I have plenty, I will not. He is a family man, after all.

Let's just say, Happiest of Happys, ol' buddy!

BTW, the picture above is from when Gary and I (he's on the left) had a lot more hair,  and fewer responsibilities!

The Keenest Kaptain

In my last post, I mentioned a comic book I created, "Kaptain Keen & Kompany". Since I can be sure that nobody reading this ever saw this comic book, I thought I'd tell you about it.

Kaptain Keen was a character I made up in art school. He was a pretty typically goofy superhero. Not very inspired (Hey! I was eighteen). For his teenage sidekick, I paired him up with Mooseboy. I got to like to drawing these characters, and my friends seemed to enjoy them, especially Mooseboy. After art school graduation, I sort of forgot about The Kaptain and Mooseboy, as I was busy starting out on my "career". As some of you may recall from my previous posts, my "career" at the time consisted of drawing caricatures of tourists in a retail setting. 

Then, in the mid-eighties, 2 guys self published a black & white comic book called "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles". Maybe you've heard of it?

It was somewhat successful. Suddenly a whole bunch of small publishers became interested in publishing black & white comics, and the doors were flung wide open for a bunch of  would-be cartoonists to get their work published.  One day my good pal and fellow cartoonist Gary Fields called and asked if I wanted to collaborate on a comic book together and shop it around to publishers. He  already had a superhero character, "Super Swine", so we thought that pairing him up with Kaptain Keen would be a good idea, with each of us drawing half the book with our own characters. (I don't recall who came up with the title, but I think it was Gary, so if he got tired of drawing the same character all the time he could create a new one and we wouldn't have to change the title. Of course, this meant I was stuck drawing KK forever.) We made up

a proposal and sent it out to a bunch of publishers. Actually, Gary did most of the leg work, but I supported him all the way!

We were thrilled some time later when we heard from a publisher who was interested in publishing our comic book! We went right to work and a few months later, "Kaptain Keen & Kompany" #1 appeared in comic shops! We were so delighted. I was convinced we had "made it" and that the sky was the limit for my characters. I could just see them on their own TV show or movie, and their likeness on everything from toys to Happy Meal boxes. I was even more excited when a TV production company optioned the characters. I excitedly waited for the money truck to start pulling up on a regular basis.

My hopes were dashed when, after 5 issues, our book was cancelled. It seems there were too many publishers putting out books, hoping to cash in on the TMNT craze. There was a glut in the market and our poor little comic got lost in the shuffle. Oh, yeah, the TV producers decided not to make a show out of the book either.

We were disappointed, to say the least. I do have to say, however, that doing the book was one of the best times in my life, and the whole experience was a blast. I still find myself doodling the Kaptain & Mooseboy, but their time is past, and I'm afraid we'll never see them in print again.

If this exciting tale makes you wish you hadn't missed out on the fun, never fear. Dozens of online sellers have issues available for  purchase that, in a tribute to the book's popularity, are selling for a fraction of what they sold for twenty years ago!

Another Blast From the Past!

With nothing new on my mind to post about today, I thought we could take a trip down memory lane, and show you all an example of my "art" from the long-since past. I do this to offer inspiration to all you young and old wanna-be ink slingers out there, so that, no matter how good you think your drawing is, there is always room for improvement.

The illustration at left is a full page splash from issue #1 of "Kaptain Keen & Kompany", a comic book published by Vortex Comics in the mid-eighties, written and drawn by me and my bestest pal and uber-talent Gary Fields. (We each had our own characters by the way, Gary wasn't responsible for this piece.)

The book lasted 5 glorious issues, and by then the public had spoken, and it was cancelled.

At the time I did this drawing, I was pretty pleased with it, but when I look at it now, I cringe. The big dinosaur thingy looks good, but when you look at it now, you can see that that figure was pretty much all I was interested in drawing. Don't the other figures and backrounds look a but "rushed" to you? They do to me.

However, looking back at your old work with a critical eye isn't a bad thing. As an "artist" you should always be trying to do better and learn from your mistakes. If you're pleased with something you did twenty years ago (or even a week ago), maybe you haven't evolved too much. This is probably true of a lotta things in life.

So, little artist, while I am not pleased with this drawing now, the 25 year-old that did it in me is. I'm sure that in any of the work I do today that pleases me, I will be critical of in the future (maybe as soon as tomorrow). So take heart.

That's my chunk of wisdom for today. Next time, back to the usual nonsense.