October 31
- Happy Belated Halloween, I guess. I can't say that it
was very good for me. Too many tricks, not enough treats. Most
disconcerting? The once mighty WOMPuter crashed again, right in the middle
of downloading a Fallfire
art contest entry. Now, I'm trying to squeak by with a fan on the unit as
I quickly type this entry. Let's get to it while I can. So, here's
the final "Forbidden" WOMP
Character of The Day - Me! A couple of days ago,
O.F.O.WOMP Nathan DeHoff touched upon
this a few days ago in a comment about the October 28th entry. Recalling
his own youthful, perhaps now "forbidden" characters, he said -
Yeah, I can get really
nostalgic thinking back on some of my old creations, and there are probably some
of them that I can still use. I did bring back the planet of Kravoo (which I
created back in fifth or sixth grade) for a college writing exercise. I think
the most embarrassing aspect of a lot of my old stories is that I kept using
myself as a character, which I now think is generally not a good
idea.
Over and over again, I have,
even when planning to avoid the situation, used myself as a character in my
comics. I appeared in virtually every version of comic book that I've ever
created. Sometimes, like in The Adventures of
Monkey #1, I'll merely drop in for a
Hitchcockian cameo. At other times, like within my childhood Monkey
comics, or in my much more recent 24 Hour Comic, Continuity Crisis,
I'm a main character. Heck, I'm even listed in my own Encyclopidia of John Mundt's Cartoon Characters and
Names. Well, that's gotta
stop. I have to move away and on. Of course, "John," the little boy
who befriends Monkey (as well as singlehandedly protects Monkey's entire
Universe), will still be a character, but he won't be "me," necessarily.
He'll be more of an idealized "me," complete with no given last name. No,
I'm forbidding myself from drawing...uh, myself. The "real" me. Not
that every version of me that I've drawn hasn't been idealized in some
way. Well, almost all of them were. There was, of course, the
critical self-portrait I drew of myself as Jabba The Mundt (and even
he had better hair than I really
do). Then, last month, I was doodling around, drawing little portraits of some
of the non-forbidden WOMP characters, including The King of Doom. For
those of you who never read TKOD's origin story in the wrestler-themed special
issue of O.F.O.WOMP
Geoff Hamerlinck's Minty
Comic, he is basically a fat,
balding brute who disguises his supervillainy behind a popular professional
wrestling career. Anyhoo, when I finished his little drawing the other
day, something about it looked...I don't know, just odd, somehow. Then it
hit me. I grabbed a pen, drew a pair of glasses and greasy combed-back
hair on him, and, ta-da;
a perfect self-portrait! Yes, worse than turning into my Dad (as I often worried I
might...no offense, Dad), I've actually turned into one of my own vile villain
characters! ACK! I am The King of
Doom! Is art imitating
life? Is life imitating art? Actually, it's probably both.
Most artists are, at least a little, their own models. I suppose that it
shouldn't surprise me that some of my characters bear some actual resemblance to
me. Back in my Joe Kubert School days, I learned that I could easily see
the faces of my classmates in the faces of their characters. So, it makes
sense to drop myself as an active character, because I am already infused into
every single character I draw, from Albaric to The Zit....oh, wait. Those
guys are "forbidden" now. Or are
they? OK, I'll let you all in on a secret; I'm working on a new short
story which will - ugh - feature as many of this month's "forbidden" characters
as possible. CRAZY! Still, it's proving to be fun...I just hope I
get the chance to post it before the WOMPuter crashes aga
October 30
- Again, I am posting this entry deep into the day after it
purports to be. It really is because of the Fallfire art contest stuff.
Thankfully, there are now (eleven hours before the deadline) at least forty
entries, with promise of more to come. Success! Anyhoo, let's get to
what was supposed to be the 30th's "Forbidden" WOMP
Character of The Day - Batman! Yep, that Batman, DC Comics' avenger of
the night. As you may or may not know, I was so engrossed in the character
of Batman when I was a little kid that I thought that there was a fairly decent
possibility that I might grow up to be
Batman. Bruce Wayne's becowled alter ego was the end all and be all of
everything. I had Batman pajamas, bed linens, curtains, socks, shirts,
shoes, posters, books, backpacks, records, action figures, toys, beach towels,
slippers, comics, and more. And I drew Batman everywhere. He was even Monkey's
best friend - and
Vice-President! I created many little
comics featuring the caped crusader. In my comics, Batman was even able to
rehabilitate all of his classic foes, like The Penguin and Catwoman, except The
Joker. Back in those days, The Joker was the only villain that, as far as
I knew, had killed anyone, so I saw him as irredeemable. Anyhoo, even
though I knew, of course, that Batman was not my character per se, I wasn't
aware that copyrights would prevent me from telling my own Batman stories.
This isn't as naive as it sounds, either. I was under the impression that
DC's Batman comics were merely the best stories being told about the "public
domain" character. Back then, reruns of the campy, crappy, classic Batman
TV show were prevalent, and they clearly had nothing to do with the character as
he was being used at the time. So, I thought that I was just drawing my
version of Batman's adventures. Then I found out what "copyright" really
meant. I was nearly heartbroken. I say "nearly" because A) I
imagined that I would then soon be hired by DC to bring my particular
thirteen-year-old vision of Batman to their comics, and B) no one in the larger
world would ever know what I had been drawing anyway. Years later, though,
when I began to convert Monkey and his world from childhood scribbles to
adulthood ideas font, I came face to face with my blatant misuse of one of DC's
most cherished, and tightly guarded, copyrights. How could I retell those
vintage stories without one of the principle characters? I eventually
imagined the amalgamated character of Ferrex to fill in for the need for a
troubled crimefighter in Monkey storylines. Strangely, this also helped
reaffirm Monkey as the title's main protagonist. With Batman (and
Superman, and Mr. Spock, and Spider-Man, etc.) in Monkey's life, I had really
only told stories where he was "one of the gang" (even if inexplicably referred
to as that gang's leader). Without any other supertypes sharing the
spotlight, Monkey became more fully formed. In a way, Monkey absorbed some
of Batman's characteristics. So, DC's
Batman may now be "forbidden," but the spirit of my childhood Batman still lives
on!
October 29
- Yes, yes. I'm coming, just give me a second.
I've been fairly swamped with...oops. Please excuse me for a moment.
There's a knock at the door...
Well, perfectly on cue, that
was another Fallfire
art contest submission being dropped off (this one something between a poem and
a short story). I was going to say that Fallfire is consuming a great deal of
my time as it winds down to the deadline. Even though it's now nearly
4:00PM on the 30th, I only just now finally have a moment or two to post the
story behind the 29th's "Forbidden" WOMP
Character of The Day - The Knight! Another of my...uh,
hold that thought. There's another knock at the door. I'll be right
back...
OK, this is getting
ridiculous. It's now already well after 6:30PM on the 30th. Why am I
even pretending that this entry has anything to do with the 29th?
Ugh! Not to beat a dead horse, but let me just say that this Fallfire thing is a lot more work than
I originally imagined. Now, where was I? Oh, yes; The Knight!
This is another of my uninspired names for what was actually a fairly
interesting character. Even more interesting is how he came into
being. Back to my high school days we go for this story. I can no
longer remember what class I was taking when The Knight came to me, but I do
know that it was deadly boring. It may even have been Mr. "G-Man"
Gilbertson's Algebra class. Basically, as my mind drifted from the tedium
of the classroom, I imagined what it would be like if I was able to communicate
with someone through time via written notes and letters. This premise was
very similar to that recent Sandra Bullock/Keanu Reeves movie, wherein a magic
mailbox allowed people living in the same house, but years apart, to write back
and forth to each other, except that my take on it came two decades
earlier. I envisioned a Medieval time, where spells and curses held as
much, or more, regard than science or organized religion. What if there
were once a man, perhaps a knight,
who was dealt an injustice so unspeakable and devastating that it could only be
rectified by powers beyond those of mere mortals? What if he wrote an
at-wits-end appeal to whomever -
God, the devil, wood sprites; just whomever - as a desperate plea for
help? And what if I, a high school kid a thousand years later and a
thousand miles away, found that note inexplicably taped to the underside of my
desk? In a fit of creativity (or mental imbalance), I wrote out such a
note. In it, the "author" told of a wizard who had imbued a unscrupulous
knight with undefeatable magical prowess, all in a bid to conquer the "author's"
lands and take his bride. I decided that this "author" would be too
ashamed to reveal his name, choosing instead to sign his letter as merely "The
Knight." Once the letter was completed, I folded it neatly, used a bit of
tape peeled from one of my bookcovers to attach it to the underside of my desk's
seat, then left for my next class, all the while anticipating the next day's
class, when I would "find" the mysterious missive. Crazy? Yes,
perhaps, but I must once again emphasize just how freakin' boring this class
was. Anyhoo, the next day came, and I could hardly wait to "discover" this
"letter lost in time" (peculiarly written in blue EraserMate pen ink on white
college-ruled notebook paper). I reached under the seat and...NO
LETTER! I checked again, and then once more. Nope, it was
gone. Then it occurred to me that the desks might get shuffled at night
when janitors waxed the floor or whatever. Surreptitiously, I eyed the,
ahem, bottoms of the seats of
several of the pretty girls nearby (I skipped looking at the seats of the
guys. I already had enough to worry about). "Ugh!" I thought,
"The cleaning crew must have checked under the seat for gum, found the note, and
tossed it. Oh, well." A couple of days passed, when I just happened
to check under the seat again...and there it
was! Only slightly surprised
by this, I cheerfully opened the letter, expecting to begin my psychotic, yet
harmless, diversion from the boring, boring class. Imagine my shock, then,
when I discovered instead a response to
The Knight's original letter! Worse, the mysterious respondent purported
to be the very mystically-enhanced knight who opposed The Knight in the first
place! What the...?! The new message was gloating in tone, very well
written, and signed by "The Black Knight." Stunned, but intrigued, I
quickly realized that a very bizarre battle of wits was about to begin. I
wrote back...er, I mean The Knight
wrote back an angry retort, complete with indignant rage and plenty of "thees"
and "thous." Over the course of several weeks, the anonymous
letter-writing war waged. Other characters even joined in. My
favorite, Phineas Kilter, was, like Othello's Iago, a two-faced schemer who
was clearly fomenting the feud for his own gain. As the time wore on, so
did my interest. I couldn't imagine how to end this odd penpal
arrangement, but I was getting bored with what was supposed to keep me from
getting bored. Then, The Black Knight resolved everything himself.
In an amazing piece of ingeniousness, he was able to destroy the evil wizard,
restore The Knight's lands and wife, and redeem The Black Knight, all in the
course of one brilliant letter. Someday, I may post as much of all this
correspondence as I still have (you know I don't throw anything away, right?),
but not anytime soon. I was so embarrassed that I hadn't had the brains to
solve the situation that I was shamed into retiring The Knight right then and
there. Today, he is still forbidden (although I did at least consider
telling his story back in about 1987 or so, before I fixated on Monkey), but
that's not the unresolved mystery of
the story, is it? Just who was The Black Knight? Back in the day,
all efforts to discover his identity were unfruitful. Eventually, I gave
up, still stinging from having been bested at my own game. And that was
that...until my disastrous high school reunion five years later. That was
a terrible class reunion, reason enough to never attend another for as long as I
live. Still, I did find out, rather off-handedly, that The Black Knight
was a classmate named David Todd. Briefly sitting next to him at the bar,
he, in an attempt to make small talk, said something like "Remember that time
when you wrote those letters to me as The Knight? That was fun." And
just how did Dave discover who The Knight
was? I guess he was better at that, too.
October 28
- Well, I'm back...I think. After being down for over
twenty-four hours, the WOMPuter seems to be...fine? Maybe? It is a
little slow, but it's working well, and without the groaning and squealing of
the recent past. Ugh; computers! I'll never understand those boxes
of sparks and glowing things. And the time off from The Internet couldn't
have come at a worse time. Not only am I wrapping up "Forbidden" WOMP
Character Month here in the WOMP-Blog, but my Fallfire art contest is ending in a
few days, and most of the submissions are sent to me on-line! Toward that
end, I want to beg you (yes, YOU!)
to submit a Fallfire
entry. It's not too late! Really! And the top two prizes have
doubled! Second Place now earns
$100.00, and First Place now garners a whopping $200.00! So, dig down
deep, find something "fallfire" within yourself (and within the next two days or
so!) and send it in. OK, now back to the realm of the forbidden.
Let's catch up, shall we? Let's start with what should have been the
"Forbidden" WOMP Character of October 26
- G-Man! No, he wasn't a
government agent (although, now that I think about it, he might have
been...hmmm). G-Man was the "affectionate" nickname that popular opinion
bestowed upon my high school Algebra teacher, Mr. Gilbertson. He wasn't a
despised teacher, but he wasn't an "all-star," either. Mr. Gilbertson had
a good sense of humor, but not always about himself. He was "famous" for
his unchanging over-sweater (a hideous throwback to the 1970's that featured a
macrame design of a hunter and hunting dog), and his droning, monotonous
voice. Many a student was literally hypnotized into a deep, restful sleep
by that monotone-baritone, so much so that his voice was almost like a
superpower. Hey! That's how I got the idea to draw G-Man Comics. By day, Mr. Gilbertson
was the most boring teacher to ever explain a cosign, but, whenever trouble was
afoot (or ameter, when teaching in metric), he transformed into G-Man, Defender
of the Doomed! As G-Man, he wore an obviously Superman-inspired costume,
complete with stylized "G" on his chest. He had the ability to fly, graph,
carry the integer, and paralyze opponents with his patented
sleeper-hold-voice. Actually, G-Man mostly appeared in funny posters and
such. I only completed two full issues of G-Man Comics. In one, he tangled
with Pi, the Infinite Constant
(Pi looked a bit like Ace of the Royal Flush Gang, except that he had a squiggly
monobrow over two elongated black eyes - the symbol for pi). In another,
he made pie out of Gord, The Killer Squash...a character that I have retained in The World of Monkey (even
Pi might make a comeback some day as well). The two comics were
photocopied and distributed liberally amongst my fellow Juniors, causing quite a
sensation for a few days. Then Mr. Gilbertson read them. After
getting over the initial shock, I think that he was actually flattered!
The stories weren't too hard on him (except about that sweater), so it's not
like I really had anything to worry about anyway. Even so, G-Man is now
forbidden because he, as well as his now retired namesake, are best left to fond
memories of high school life from years ago. Now, on to the "Forbidden" WOMP Character of October 27
- Anti-Matter Man! Fans of classic DC comics will recognize this name (as
might fans of the original Lost In
Space TV show). The
twelve-year-old me, however, was positive that the name was entirely new.
"How brilliant I am!" I thought. "A man made out of anti-matter!
It's genius!" Anti-Matter Man (my
Anti-Matter Man) was easy to draw, too. He was basically a silhouette,
sprinkled with white specks. At first, he was an energy-blasting villain
without a hero to fight (strangely, he never tangled with Monkey).
Eventually, and inexplicably, he became a character in a humorous comic
strip! I thought that it would be interesting to read a daily strip
featuring the misanthropic misadventures of a bad guy instead of another generic
hero. Still not a bad idea, I suppose, but not with Anti-Matter Man.
Even if I hadn't soon discovered that several, several other Anti-Matter Men
(DC's being chief antagonist in a classic early JLA/JSA team-up) were already
out there, I would have dropped my A-MM anyway. Like October 10th's
Erlingston, I eventually figured out that his expressionless face was not made
for close-ups...at least not as a main character. Finally, here's your
"Forbidden" WOMP Character of October 28
- Madame Malignitas! Ugh. What a name...and this one wasn't the
character's "street name." She really was "Madame Malignitas." She's
another one of my "big boss" villains, designed to tussle with the globetrotting
finders, inc. folks. Malignitas was a
crazy-wealthy Greek heiress, who controlled the only other business that was
similar to finders,
except that hers was unscrupulous. For example, where the finders might research, Malignitas
Associates might torture. In appearance, she resembled an older, extremely
cold Jackie Onassis (part inspiration for the character). She was always
dressed in the most expensive, yet conservative, stark fashions, and came
complete with incredibly narrow sunglasses and - ugh - one of those long
Penguin-style cigarette holders. Oopah. Well, as I continue to
develop finders.
inc., Madame Malignitas will
probably get a retooling, starting with the name. Until then, she, too, is
forbidden. See ya tomorrow (maybe?).
October 26
- Quickly...the WOMPuter is dying! Really! This
may be my last post for a bit. Wish me luck!
October 25
- "Forbidden" WOMP
Character of The Day - Albaric, the Elf Lord! Again, here's a character with some copyright
troubles. In 1989 or 1990, it was Eric Gillitzer, then a very youthful
O.F.O.WOMP, who first drew this warrior
elf character. Let me try to remember how this all happened (keep in mind
that my memory is not, well...kept in mind). Eric may have been just
thirteen or fourteen years old at the time, but he was a very good artist with a
lot of imagination. I can't remember exactly why, but I showed him that
his drawing, with a few tiny tweaks, could be a viable comics "character."
I redrew the character, pointing out some of his costume features as I did,
while asking "What's this?" As Eric answered, imagining reasons for the
elf's silver headband, unusual sword, and so forth, he began to form a backstory
wherein Albaric was an embittered, deposed elf royal. I'm also pretty sure
that I came up with Albaric's name, which was a variation of Eric's own.
From there, Albaric briefly folded into The World of Monkey. Again, I
don't remember how. I do
know that it has always been my intention that other creators be able to add to
the Monkeyverse. That Eric, first Official Friend of
WOMP, should do so...well, it just
makes sense. A short while later, Albaric, as drawn by Erik Larsen, graced
the very first WOMP trading cards. Unfortunately, at the same time, both
Eric and I realized that there were many other similar characters in the comic
book world. There were all sorts of elf lords, the elves of Elfquest, and, of course, the elves of
Lord of The Rings. Almost as soon as his "life" began, Albaric was dead in
the water. Now, even though Eric and I could probably come up with not
only some sort of amicable copyright agreement, but an interesting story as
well, I fear that the lonely lord of the elvish realms is doomed to obscurity as
he wanders in exile through a barbaric, forbidden land forever. In fact,
let me do this; I hereby relinquish all
claims to the character of Albaric (the Elf Lord), to Eric
Gillitzer. There. Now he's
Eric's "forbidden"
character!
October 24
- "Forbidden" WOMP
Character of The Day - Mr. Big! No, I didn't invent the
character from the famous HBO series, but my Mr. Big does look a
bit like Chris Noth with a more
conservative hairstyle. Dating from about 1990, Mr. Big was intended to be
another finders,
inc. villain. Basically, he
was a ginormous Republican. Wearing natty 1940's attire, he sort of
resembled a doughier "SHAZAM" Captain Marvel, except that he was always
scowling. I envisioned him as the last angry conservative, upset that
society was moving ahead, leaving him and his outdated, often oppressively
backward, belief-system behind. Then everything went nuts. For the
last fifteen years or so, we've all been living in Mr. Big's world.
There's not much fun in imagining Mr. Big's "traditional values" villainy when
similar real-life Right Wing nightmares are daily committing worse. Maybe
I should create a liberal
villain (Mz. Little?), as an interesting counterpoint to current politics.
Of course, things may be changing yet again. I guess the lesson, then, is
that characters created to speak to a current political or social condition do
not age well. Plus, the name "Mr. Big" is now forbidden anyway because
people will assume that he is the guy who dates Carrie
Bradshaw!
October 23
- "Forbidden" WOMP
Character of The Day - Dippy the Dinosaur! As a kid, I was torn between two different comics dreams;
should I draw comic books or
comic strips? I was a fan of both, and enthusiastically drew each.
To me, though, there was a world of difference between the two. Comic
books are more like movies, with plot and character development. Comic
strips are like breakdowns of a stand-up comedian's routine, with just one
laugh-line revealed per day. As such, strips can allow for character
development, but only over the course of years...and only in cases of
success. Usually, however, the characters in strips are broad, static, and
quickly grasped. There is more to it than that, of course, but it is still
basically true even now. Often, when I'm in a strange city for a
convention or something, I'll pick up the local newspaper and turn to the comics
section. Invariably, there are several strips inside which I've never even
heard of, but I can still read and enjoy them. That's one of the hallmarks
of a good strip. How much back-story is needed to understand Snoopy?
Toward that end, I "invented" Dippy the Dinosaur when I was about eight years
old. I say "invented" in quotes like that because all that Dippy ever
became was a drawing of a Bronto-esque creature that I then called Dippy the
Dinosaur. He was intended to be a comic strip character, and that's about
as deep as I ever delved into the matter. Was he a talking dinosaur?
Mm...maybe. Did he have a cast of crazy friends? Uh, sure, I
guess. Did he live in the present, or the past, or on another planet, or
travel through time, or have adventures, or tell jokes, or what? Well, I never gave it
any thought. In fact, after a few months, I stopped thinking about Dippy
at all...but that's not why he is now "forbidden." Dippy did make a
"farewell" appearance in my Encyclopidia
character encyclopedia. Placing his "bio" in the book when I was about
twelve, I saw, even then, that Dippy needed some "updating." In my first
ever attempt at rehabilitating an old character, I re-imagined him thusly -
Dippy the Dinosaur
- was preserved for
centuries in a glacier - is missing link from dinosaurs to humans now on side of
good.
And, in that...ugh..just
horrendous, awful
"updating," Dippy took "centuries" of steps backwards, becoming the "missing
link" between viable characters with potential, and disastrous childhood
creations that are now "forbidden." Still, Dippy helped point out to me
that I may not be suited for drawing comic strips. Or comic books.
Or anything, ever again. Ugh.
October 22
- "Forbidden" WOMP
Character of The Day - Mothballs! Enough with the heavy
stuff. While yesterday's unfortunate character had every reason to become forbidden,
Mothballs has only one; his name. What do you imagine when you hear the
name "Mothballs?" Not a talking elephant, I'd wager, but that's what
Mothballs was. Based on a vintage hand-puppet that I got from a "great
aunt" (who, I later discovered, was actually just an elderly friend of my
parents), Mothballs got his name from his overpowering smell. An amiable,
childlike character, Mothballs was generally used more to narrate a story than
to be featured within it. Who knows why? Years later, when I was
looking to revamp my childhood creations, I gave Mothballs a "good goin' over,"
and had worked him into a fairly decent "updated" character before I came to a
roadblock. I realized that I just couldn't divorce Mothballs from his
name. With a different name, he seemed like just another cartoon animal,
but with the name, he was too
out-of-sync with the other reworked WOMP characters. In the end, Mothballs
became "forbidden" because I just could not translate him to what I was
intending to do. Even so, I may still find a way to use him...perhaps as
one of Dan's favorite toys. In fact, I've already done this with one of my
other otherwise forbidden childhood toy-characters. Dan's teddy bear,
Pookers, is actually based directly on my own early toy, except that mine was
named Ted E. Bear (of course). Hmm. For that matter, there are two
elephants shown on page four of The Adventures of
Monkey #1 which are virtual clones
of Mothballs. Since one is a kid elephant character, maybe he actually
is Mothballs! Maybe.
I'll have to do some more thinking about that.
October 21
- Well, my friends, the time has come for me to expose one of
my greatest shames. Seriously. In the following entry, I will
discuss my most embarrassing, most disagreeable, most utterly disgraceful childhood creation. I'd
like to say that this character, created when I was about eleven, was merely
reflective of the times in which I lived, but those "times" would have been
around 1976, not 1876. I hope you won't think less of me as you read about the
Forbidden WOMP Character of The Day - Bingo-Bongo Lingo-Longo
Zingo-Zongo Dingo-Franklin. Back on the 16th, I
told you about how influential old Warner Brothers cartoons were for me when I
was a kid. Unfortunately, part of that influence came from the occasional
racial stereotypes that cropped up in about half of them (those particular
cartoons are no longer shown, but Warner was by no means the only animation
studio to use such ethnic characters). Yes, Bingo was an offensive
stereotype of an "African native." It's just so...inexplicable. Even
though I grew up in a small, predominantly white community, I knew people of color. As a
little kid, I even hung out primarily around African-American students when
visiting Campion Jesuit High School, where my Mom was the School Nurse.
Still, I won't try to justify myself by listing "my black friends." That
would be...I don't know, just wrong...but I can
tell you categorically that I never, never, never made the connection back then
that Bingo might be offensive to them, or to just about anyone else who might
see him. He wasn't even my only character of African heritage.
Powerhouse, created during that same
period, was an African American architect who was "infected" with a military
battlesuit that then took the form of various architectural elements. So,
how could I come up with Bingo? I guess that I was just that ignorant and
impressionable. After all, I saw similar characters on TV all the
time. Bingo wasn't meant to
be insulting or shocking. He was just another stock character that I
lifted from someone else. I thought that if Bob Clampett did it, then I
could too. Even so, it wasn't long before I realized the seriousness of
what I'd done. Wracked with preteen guilt, I literally erased Bingo from
everything in which he'd appeared....almost. Unfortunately, one single
drawing of Bingo survives, illustrating his Encyclopidia of John Mundt's Cartoon Characters and
Names entry. Yep, there he
is, on the same page as Birilla. In his face I see...well, I see all sorts
of things. He is depicted smiling slightly, eyes wide with amazement, as
if to ask me "Really? Are you really
drawing me as some sort of minstrel-show character? You know it's the
1970's, right?" Still, I guess the lesson was learned eventually.
That says something about me, I guess. Even though I was a kid, I saw the
error of my ways, and tried to take appropriate actions to rectify the problem
(and, frankly, to hide any evidence that Bingo had ever existed in the first
place). For contrast, I should point out that it would be several more
years before the old cartoons with offensive ethnic stereotypes ceased airing on
TV. Still, I really, really
feel like I have to say this; what I did back then is unforgivable, but, for it,
I am so very sorry. To everyone, especially those of African ancestry, I
offer my most sincere, heartfelt apologies. Also, I hope that I haven't
offended anyone just by talking about this. Such discussions are
emotionally charged, yes, but can also be useful or even important, don't you
think? I'm definitely not proud of having created Bingo, but, if telling
his story helps someone else deal with a similar situation, then my
embarrassment was worth it.
October 20
- "Forbidden" WOMP
Character of The Day - I.T. (the Invincible Thing)! Hey, I was just one letter away from having Steven
Spielberg over a barrel! My I.T.
came into being, and then faded from favor, nearly a decade before Spielberg's
E.T. hit the silver screen.
Of course, I would have had problems enforcing my copyright anyway because I.T.
was just my imaginings of the further adventures of Cousin It from The Addams Family. Yep, I stole the character outright, inventing a backstory
and continued storyline wherein I.T., it was revealed, was actually an immortal
visitor from outer space. Of course. Look; I didn't understand how
copyrights and such worked. As far as I knew, Cousin It was just another
"public domain" fictional character from the past, like Paul Bunyan or King
Arthur. Even though Cousin It had been on television just a bit over ten
years before I began to reimagine the character as I.T., it seemed like ancient
history to my young mind. I mean, c'mon; The Addams Family
was in black and white, for cryin' out loud! Well, needless to say, I
eventually learned that I.T., like all plagiarism, was "forbidden." Still,
stealing another person's character was not my worst youthful
transgression. No...not by a long shot. Tomorrow's childhood
character comes from the darkest, most shocking depths of what is
"forbidden." And, even in light of how uncomfortable it makes me to
acknowledge the situation, I'm still going to talk about it.
*GULP*
October 19
- "Forbidden" WOMP
Character of The Day - The Zit! In about 1990, I really
wanted to develop a comics "universe" that could, and should, stand apart from
Monkey's "kid friendly" world. Not that I was planning to draw slasher
comics or anything, but I felt like I should have a stable of not just
characters, but storylines, in several different genres that could then be
shopped around to various publishers (why put all my eggs in one basket?
OOPS...that's exactly what I did anyway. Oh, well...). Long-time
WOMP-Blog readers may remember my finders,
inc., characters (as described
just about a year ago now), who were part of this intended expansion. Not
only did I imagine the three main relic-hunting protagonists, but several
supporting characters as well. The Zit was meant to be a smarmy crime lord
with an expensive art collection and terrible acne. Much like "Bugsy"
Siegel, he'd hate his all-too-descriptive street name, preferring instead to be
called Mr. Ng. Sadly (or tellingly?), The Zit is my only Chinese American
character. So, why is he now "forbidden?" In short, because he's
just too one-dimensional and generic. He's one of literally dozens of such
"big boss" characters that I created to spar with the finders, each representing
what I thought were woefully underrepresented ethnicities or nationalities
(including a Panamanian, a Pole, a Croat, and a Creole!). Several more of
The Zit's United-Colors-of-Benneton ilk will grace these entries over the next
few days, each more painfully awful than the last. I think that the
biggest problem with these characters is that I really know nothing more about
the heads of criminal empires than I've seen of them in gangster movies and
James Bond films. My caricatured finders villains are better suited to
face Dick Tracy than adventuresome antiques dealers. So, I will probably
retool Mr. Ng someday. Maybe he'll even still be called "The Zit," but I
doubt it. One thing is for sure; I'll have to do some real research before
then.
October 18
- "Forbidden" WOMP
Character of The Day - Mr. Hermit! This one was just...oh,
I don't know. Naive, maybe? Sad? Let me try to make sense of
Mr. Hermit for you (and for me, while I'm at it). First, I can not stress
enough that I grew up in the 1970's. Just affix that to your thoughts as
you consider how a kid might have imagined some of these "forbidden"
characters. OK, anyway; Mr. Hermit. Well, he was inspired by a handmade puppet purchased at a
church craft bazaar. I didn't really want it, need it, nor even
like it, but I bought it. I
guess I've always been a sucker for the "pity purchase." Even today, I
can't look into the face of someone set up at a comics con lest I am compelled
to buy at least something
from them (although I have been pleasantly surprised by my "pity purchases" more
often than not). The mouthless hand-puppet was made of shaggy yellow fake
fur, and was clearly meant to resemble a Muppet, probably Oscar The Grouch
specifically. In his stupid, furry, forlorn face, I saw the embodiment of pity. I felt so guilty that
I didn't love him, that I loved him for it. Does that even make
sense? When I drew his exploits, I imagined Mr. Hermit as a supreme loner,
an unkempt outsider living in a cave or squatting in some woodland shanty.
He eschewed society, bitterly proclaiming Humanity's many faults...all the while
dying inside for want of a little human contact. He was, in the end, a
cautionary character...a projection of myself as I imagined I might
become. I felt like that loner, that pitiful shaggy grouch, and "Humanity"
did very little to convince me otherwise. In Mr. Hermit, though, I grasped
the conundrum of shunning that which I craved, and imagined the sad
results. It seemed obvious, then, that finding a way to deal with the
worst of society was the only way to experience any of the best of
society. All this from a terrible, terrible
childhood cartoon character. Cheaper than therapy, I suppose. Still,
once I'd had my own little breakthrough with Mr. Hermit, I had no desire to
continue to draw him. Years later, when they caught the Unabomber, I saw
Mr. Hermit's face once again in the grisly reality of Ted Kaczynski. Some
small part of me said "That could have been me." Even though Mr. Hermit is
now "forbidden," what he taught me may have made him one of my most important
characters.
October 17
- "Forbidden" WOMP
Character of The Day - Mechanical Hero of Otto Fastwind (always inexplicably
abbreviated to M.H.O.T.F.)! What can I say?
Not only was I a strange kid, I was also, apparently, crazy. Worse, as you
may have noticed over the last few days, I had very little concern for spelling
and English Grammar (in spite of my assertion on the 15th that "English was
always my best subject"). As I've been looking back to those "glory days,"
and posting my reminiscences of them, that's proving to be a deadly combination
for my over-inflated ego. It's been difficult to face some of the
unfortunate realities of my childhood comics, even though I know that I was just
a kid when I created them. I was expecting a bit of embarrassment (in
fact, some extremely uncomfortable embarrassment in cases yet to be discussed),
but characters like M.H.O.T.F. (a grinning cyclopean robot who looked like a
cross between Tik-Tok of Oz and Commander Alien) have been so hard for the
"2007-me" to describe because I'm so far removed from the "1977-me" who thought
them up. They are "my" characters, but only because I've inherited them
from my preteen self. I think that one of the reasons that they have
become "forbidden" is that I can no longer truly relate to them.
Strangely, my older characters, like Monkey and family, have more stoutly stood
the test of time (and my own test of acceptability). I think that is due
to two factors. First, they grew up with me. I don't really remember
a time when I didn't have Monkey in my life (I was six years old when I began
drawing his adventures, after all), much like how I don't remember not having my
little sister in my life. Later characters seem more like school friends
who may have been close to me back then, but not so much since graduating.
Second, those oldest characters were so simple and without intended subtext of
any sort that they were like blank slates. In recent years, I've been able
to fill in those blanks with a more experienced hand. Still, I can't help
but consider not only that the actions of that "more experienced hand" were,
themselves, from almost two decades ago now (and therefor possibly just as
embarrassing upon modern review), but that rehabilitating some of my dozens of
"forbidden" characters may be both a great challenge and a lot of
fun!
October 16
- "Forbidden" WOMP
Character of The Day - Jaw! For as much as I
continually talk about how superhero comic books influenced me when I was a kid,
classic Warner Brothers cartoons may actually have been my greatest early
influence. In the beginning, Monkey was little more than my version of
Bugs Bunny. Heck, I even stole the "Esquire" addendum to my name right off
of Bugs Bunny's mailbox! I suppose that it should come as no surprise,
then, that many of my now "forbidden" characters would more appropriately be
cast in a 1940's cartoon than a 2000's comic book. My childhood character
Jaw is a prime example. Although clearly spun off from the classic 1975
film Jaws, my Jaw was a sharkified
caricature of actor Edward G. Robinson! As I look at old drawings of Jaw
now, I'm surprised to see that it's a pretty good likeness of the famous
Hollywood heavy, too. Still, he was an awkward character to utilize.
Did he live exclusively in the water, or could he also operate on land?
Could he walk, then, or just sort of "float?" And just why did he look
like a deceased gangster-portrayer in the first place? As near as I can
tell, my whole motivation for creating Jaw was to be able to use Robinson's
classic speech pattern, see? You mugs gotta understand, see? Jaw was
a lot of fun to write, a lot of
fun, see? Myeah, myeah. Still, the character is too out-of-date for even
me to use now. To
paraphrase the great Robinson's line from Little Caesar, “Mother of Mercy, is this the end of Jaw?”
October 15
- "Forbidden" WOMP
Character of The Day - Commander Alien! So, here's what happened. I was in the Seventh Grade,
and I had a teacher, Mr. Bollig, who gave me extra credit for any comic books
that I drew. How cool is that? So, I was drawing comics and
imagining characters pretty much all day (not much has changed since then, I
guess). During this period, even though I was a kid, most of the
back-story behind Monkey was invented as I really tried to push his character
past my own expectations. What had started as stories of a joke-telling
little monkey became pretty much what he is today; the superhero sock-monkey
President of the Earth. Most of the character's growth came purely from
the impetus to top myself and to impress my teacher. My standard method of
creating a comic back then was to have a basic concept, fold some over-sized
paper into 8.5 x 11 inch "tabloids," then start drawing the cover, working my
way from front to back without any real game plan. That was fun, as it
felt a bit like I was experiencing the story as it happened, but it's not the
best way to work (especially funny to me now are the hyperbolic covers which
generally had very little to do with the subsequent story). Commander
Alien, a helmeted cyclops with an oddly shaped metallic body, came into being
for one of these extra credit comics. With two large pieces of paper
folded into a blank eight-page comic, I started with a cover showing a gigantic
rip-off of a Star
Wars Stormtrooper who was toppling
skyscrapers while comparatively tiny heroes tried, in vain, to stop him.
The starburst caption read "THE WORLD IS BEING
DESTROYED AND NO ONE CAN STOP IT!!" Inside, I set up the
story thusly (keep in mind that I then referred to my pantheon of characters as
"The Little People," a term which, itself, is now also "forbidden") -
Panel
One - Scene - various
superheroes, including Monkey, and other colorful characters are gathered
informally
TEXT
ONE DAY THE LITTLE PEOPLE
MEETED...
Panel
Two - Scene - close-ups of
concerned characters turning toward large public address system
TEXT
WHEN OVER THE
LOUDSPEAKER...
LOUDSPEAKER
RED ALERT, RED
ALERT! ALIEN INVADERS, ALIEN INVADERS!
Panel
Three - Scene - spaceships
depositing large, alien, mechanical components on an open field
TEXT
MEANWHILE.
COMMANDER ALIEN
(concealed in one of the spaceships)
THIS IS A GOOD SPOT TO
BUILD IT!
Panel
Four - Scene - determined
heroes rushing off together
MONKEY (from off
panel)
THIS IS MONKEY; TO ARMS,
MEN!
Panel
Five - Scene - using
projection beams, spaceships begin assembling an 80-foot-tall figure from
components
COMMANDER ALIEN
(concealed in one of the spaceships)
JUST A FEW MORE PANELS
AND WE'LL BE FINISHED WITH
IT!
Panel
Six - Scene - Monkey flying
forcefully toward the reader, energy burst pattern behind him
MONKEY
AND IT'S JUST AN AWFUL
SHAME YOU'LL NEVER FINISH (TSK-TSK-TSK).
From there, I went on to draw
three and a half pages of superheroes fighting spaceships and the
Pseudotrooper. It was a crazy melee, a free-for-all! Quite proud of
myself, I informed Mr. Bollig that another masterpiece was near
completion. He surprised me by saying "I tell you what. If you can
complete it by class tomorrow, I'll guarantee you an 'A' on your next English
test!" Now, I assume that he was pretty confident that I'd either 1) get
an "A" on that test anyway (English was always my best subject), or 2) never
finish the comic in time, but, no matter how crazy his challenge may seem to me
today, back then it became my very first deadline! When I got home from
school that day, I immediately grabbed the comic, ready to wrap up the battle,
only to discover that my Mom had thrown away the
center pages! AACK! Although
the cover, first page, and remaining two blank pages were still in my desk, the
nearly finished center section, which was the bulk of my work, had been
foolishly left on the breakfast counter. Mom was tired of me leaving my
stuff all over, and had often threatened to throw away anything that I left
where it didn't belong, especially in the kitchen. I was beside myself
with shock, rage, and panic (typical "deadline crunch" emotions). How was
I going to redraw all of that action? It had taken me days to do
before...but...hmm. Maybe...maybe I could somehow abbreviate the story,
completing it on the remaining two pages! I needed a plan. The
remaining story had Monkey flying toward the aliens as he spouted a
thinly-veiled threat. How could I develop the subsequent fight, resolve
it, and wrap up everything in just two pages? Well, what if the aliens
could not fight back, or the Stupidtrooper wasn't completed? Or, what if
the aliens didn't really want to fight in the first place? Ah-ha!
So, over the course of the evening (my first deadline all-nighter) I completed
the story of Alien Commander's attempt to give to the people of Earth, as a
gesture of friendship, a large stormtrooperesque statue with the word "Peace"
across its chest. The next day, I wearily handed in the completed
comic. Mr. Bollig loved it! "You really tricked me with that
ending. I didn't see it coming!" So, even though I had teased that
"THE WORLD IS BEING DESTROYED AND NO ONE CAN STOP
IT," it turned out to be a case
of mistaken motives...and of discovering the joy of giving a story an unexpected
twist! Since that day, Commander Alien has been off-limits, due mostly to
the "one-off" nature of his original appearance.
October 14
- "Forbidden" WOMP
Character of The Day - Mr. Squish! This one is a little
different. Mr. Squish was my earliest attempt at gonzo cartooning.
It would work like this; in the pages of a publicly used book, like school
dictionary or church hymnal, I would place the cut-out image of a tiny,
obviously squished, man. Tee hee! Oh, imagine the look on someone's
face when he or she opened the encyclopedia and a flattened little man, with
crushed glasses and a shocked, vacant expression, would fall out! Ha
Ha! Ha. Hmm. OK, so this was just so stupid. I don't
remember anymore whether I really thought that such a thing would, even
momentarily, shock anyone, or just thought that someone would get a kick out of
the idea, but, either way, it was stupid. And did I really think, in a community as
small as mine, that such an act would be anonymous? Who else
would have placed Mr. Squish in those books? The Cartoon Fairy?
Well, this was about as close to graffiti as I ever came, so I suppose that it
was overlooked as a harmless prank...if not that I had merely forgotten to
remove my hand-drawn bookmark after reading a book. Sigh.
October 13
- "Forbidden" WOMP
Character of The Day - Butch! By now, you may even
see a pattern to some of these "forbidden" comics characters. Most, like
Butch (a generic, over-sized, buzz-cut school bully), were created when I was
about twelve or thirteen. These were my first stabs at creating characters
from scratch. Older characters, like Monkey, were imaginings based on
something else that came first. Butch and gang represent my first thoughts
that I might really, really create my own comics some day. I didn't know
anything about conceiving a character (and still don't, really), so the sky was
the limit. All I had to do was overcome the feeling that anything that I
did wasn't as "real" as what others did. For some reason, it seemed like
other peoples' characters sprang to life fully formed, while mine seemed just
empty, somehow. Somehow, I
found a way to just jump over this psychological hurdle, but with help from
another kind of "something else that came first." I have since learned a
little about how to create enough space in a character's story to allow myself
to grow with him or her, but, at the time, I settled on re-imagining established
character stereotypes with a "John Mundt" twist. Butch, for example, was
not much more than a copy of a stock player from any number of nationally
published comics, just drawn and written by me. Other than the poor
quality of my artwork, the biggest difference, then, between Butch and any other
previous thug or henchman was my burgeoning sense of humor. When I look at
my childhood comics today, I can see that I really wanted to tell funny stories
more than straight adventure stories. Butch, Old Man Meriwether,
Erlingston, and even Jimmy Carter were always props in elaborate comical
situations, with action-filled plots and exaggerated acting that mirror short
movies from the Silent Film Era. The problem was, and is, that these
characters didn't survive the transition to "Sound." Once I started
getting a better idea of how character creation worked, Butch and his ilk
followed Kalla Pasha and Ben Turpin into the fading, flickering past.
October 12
- "Forbidden" WOMP
Character of The Day - T.C. Mouse! Not every story behind
these characters is a funny examination of how stupid I am. Some
characters, like tonight's, have very emotional reasons for being
"forbidden." Back in about 1986 or 1987, I was asked to create a character
for my church newsletter. The "catch" was that the character was to be
named T.C. (short for "The Church") Mouse, and his exploits were to be penned by
a mysterious ghost writer. The concept was that no-one, not even me,
should know who the "spy" pretending to be T.C. was, so that he - or she - could anonymously report on
funny little personal stories overheard from the congregation. OK.
Easy enough. So, I designed a sweet little chap with big mousy ears, a
sheepish smile, and an oversized long-sleeved shirt with the initials "T.C."
written on it. To get the ball rolling, I drew a handful of "stock" images
(T.C. with a big pencil, T.C. peeking out from a mouse-hole, etc.). It
wasn't long afterwards that I got a nice thank you...from T.C. himself.
Yes, a cartoon character, one which I co-created, was writing to me. That
was...interesting. Over the next year or two, T.C. sent me many more
thanks and suggestions for illustrations, until, little by little, T.C. Mouse
scampered off into history. All the while, I truly had no idea who "T.C."
was! Years later, I learned that he had been "voiced" by a woman named Pat
Hauer. I must admit that I wasn't too surprised. Pat, and her
husband Kurt, have been some of my biggest supporters for years...or
had been. Pat passed away
about two weeks ago, just as I was wrapping up Crusty Bunker Month. I
learned about her death by accident, all because I happened to offer a rare
Snoopy print for auction on eBay. Pat was a thoughtful, fun-loving person
who loved the Peanuts comic strip. In fact,
Snoopy was practically Pat's spirit guide. Anyway, about the time I was
selling the print, I happened to see Pat's daughter, Maggie, while I was at the
dread "real" job. "I've been thinking about your Mom..." I began, ready to
chit-chat about Snoopy. A bemused co-worker asked Maggie "Is that a good
thing?" Maggie simply said "My Mom just passed away." I felt
terrible for my suddenly mortified co-worker, but worse for Maggie. I
offered my condolences (as best I could...I was at work), and just said that
I missed Pat. And I still do. For twenty years, we've been writing
back and forth to each other. She may have been a busy wife, mother,
grandmother, and perhaps even a great-grandmother more recently, but she always
found time to think about me. Here's a sample message from a letter she
mailed earlier this year, when Pat sent me a newspaper article about
sock-monkeys;
3-25-07
Dear
John,
The enclosed was a
feature in today's Chicago Tribune - and I thought you'd like to add it to your
collection.
Today's thought; "Half
the world is composed of people who have something to say and can't, and the
other half who have nothing to say and keep saying it." - Robert
Frost
Fondly,
Pat
Hauer
Other than perfectly
describing The WOMP-Blog (the epitome of "have nothing to say and keep saying
it"), Pat's note shows that she kept me in her thoughts, just as she now lives
on in mine. Out of respect, her T.C. Mouse has become a "forbidden"
character. Like Snoopy, T.C. left this Earth with his creator. I
think Pat would appreciate that.
October 11 -
"Forbidden" WOMP Character of The Day - Dredlokt! This character is from
more recent years...which doesn't mean that it is any less stupid than those I
created when I was a kid. First imagined in about 1998, Dredlokt came to
me the way that many of my characters do; as an out-of-the-blue drawing.
Basically, he was a tech-armored, Iron-Man-like figure with built-in dreadlocks
coming from his helmet. Honoring the ages-old tradition of changing a few
letters in a descriptive word to "create" a name, I first came up with Dreadlok,
but removed the "a" and added the "t" to better differentiate him from Marvel's
Deathlok. And that's it. Before I could even begin to imagine a back
story, I looked at the character and thought "Oh, wait...this is stupid." That's hard to do,
especially without the advantage of much hindsight. Whenever, and however,
I begin to imagine a new character, it's a bit like projecting a future for a
newborn child. It's a boy? Maybe he'll be a football star, or a
neurosurgeon, or an armored superhero with dreadlocks. It's difficult to
give up on those projections, and almost impossible to do so when you're first
imagining them. Still, Dredlokt stunk so bad that even I could smell
it. I may find a way to revitalize him some day, but, for now, he is
"forbidden." Ok, now it's -
None Like It
Hot - WOMP's
2007 FallCon Report
Part Three
- Somehow, we made it through Saturday, crazy high temperatures and
all. By the end of the day, literally sick and tired from dehydration, we
had a revelation. We had sold a few pieces of artwork, a couple of comics,
and a signed copy of The Collected Short
Stories of L.Frank Baum (that to O.F.O.WOMP Derek Anderson, who, by the
way, also finally decided on his prize for winning The WOMP-Blog's "Guess The
Mystery Theme" contest, namely an original drawing of the three founding members
of The Legion of Super-Heroes). And that seemed good enough. What
remained, like individual copies of The Adventures of
Monkey, Oziana, and some small art pieces,
requires a bit of "hand selling" to prospective customers. Because of the
heat, no-one really wanted to stand in the same place long enough to hear a
sales pitch, and, because of the low price-points of the items (most in the two
dollar range), we'd have to sell a LOT to make it financially worth just sitting
so long in one spot ourselves. We made a decision, a tough one, to just
pack up and gift our Sunday spot to one of the three "next-door" artists sharing
a table meant for two. Yep, for the first time ever, I bailed. I
just couldn't take it. I love that show, and those people, but I just
couldn't put myself, nonetheless my long-suffering wife, through that kind of
miserable heat again. Still, we resolved to return the next day to see our
friends and to tour the convention looking for bargains. So, come Sunday,
that's what we did. After a night spent recuperating in a hotel room with
the air conditioner set on 67 degrees, we ventured back into the Inferno.
As we did, it marked the first time ever
that my wife and I have together wandered through a comic book convention.
EVER! It's official; I've turned The WOMP Staff into a nerd. As we
schlepped, it was she who would grab my arm and say "Ooh, look! Star Wars
Christmas ornaments!" and "Why is Darth Vader so short, and the
Stormtrooper 'protecting him' so tall? Shouldn't that be the other way
around?" We talked to the people at the Vault Comic Mailers table (a side
note to Vault's friendly Vice President, Michael Turek; we really, really did just flat-out forget to
pick up some mailers before we left. SORRY! Look for our order
at vaultcomicmailers.com
soon), got some Star Wars toys (and, yes, ornaments), snagged a few
reduced-price graphic novels (Torpedo, Elric, and, um...others I guess I can't
recall right now), stocked up on some artist materials, and bought an absolutely
awesome J'onn
J'onzz DC Direct Deluxe action
figure (for just $15.00...the steal
of the show!). We also made a point
of seeing Katie Cook,
of whom we have both become big fans. I can feel it in my fan-guts; Mz.
Cook is going to "explode" soon, having just added to her creds as an official
artist for Star
Wars and Lord of The Rings
with artwork and hand-drawn "Artist Sketch Card" premium inserts for
Rittenhouse's DC Comics trading cards and Topps' Heroes cards! She also has
some sort of super-secret project in the works that threatens to make "Katie
Cook" a household name! At FallCon, Katie had all sorts of nifty things
for sale, the niftiest of which may have been trading-card sized paintings for
just $5.00 each. One such painting, of Yoda, called to us, so we had to add it to
our Katie Cook collection. At the other end of the same aisle (if not the
other end of the spectrum) was comic book artist Gordon Purcell, who was selling
from his stacks and stacks of inked comics work. The price, three pages
for twenty-five bucks, was too good to pass up, so we fished out three that had
some resonance with us. Two, which came from an educational comic about
the writing of the U.S. Constitution, featured beautiful portraits of early
Presidents, and a third page, from The Young Indiana Jones
Chronicles #7, featured not just an
elderly Indy/Harrison Ford, but an ancillary character who was clearly modeled
on Mr. Purcell himself. After making our rounds as consumers, we made sure
that we checked in one last time with O.F.O.WOMPs
Chad and Lee Corrie (of Aspirations
Media), and with Maxxximum Madcap
(of Funny Bone Productions). Then, our arms burdened with piles of cool things, and
our clothes drenched with sweat, we hit the road, arriving back at WOMP H.Q. at
about the time we normally get out of the Twin Cities. I hope that, in
light of my admission that we bailed on Sunday, we are still invited back next
year, but, if not, maybe we'll actually just show up as fans! See
ya!
October 10
- "Forbidden" WOMP
Character of The Day - Erlingston Codstric Nerdman, the Third! Ugh! Again
with the stupid name?! At least this one was intended to be somewhat
stupid. This is another character created at about the same time as Old
Man Meriwether. The concept for Erlingston came from watching televised
reports of some sort of trial. Looking back now, I think that the trial
must have been about something pretty awful because the witness had a blue oval
"blotch" digitally placed over his/her face, but I was more focused on the
blotch than the testimony. For some reason, I identified with it. I
imagined a nerdly character (perhaps like myself?) who, in spite of a peculiar
and pedigreed name, was so blorkingly anonymous that his face was perpetually
blotched-out whenever depicted. The readers would never know what he
looked like, so they might more easily identify with him. Not a terrible
idea, I suppose, but, after a couple of years trying to find ways to tell
stories with close-ups of a frame-filling blotch, I saw the problem with
Erlingston as plainly as the nose on my blotch. Still, of my "forbidden"
characters, he is among those who might somehow still make a comeback.
We'll see. Now, here's -
None Like It
Hot - WOMP's
2007 FallCon Report
Part Two -
After a few, sweaty hours, I finally gave in to my fanboy urges.
Temporarily leaving Dorothy (The WOMP Staff...my wife...remember?) to watch the
lonely WOMP table for a few minutes, I struck off to see what I could see.
I hit a handful of retailers' booths, but I found that I couldn't stand in any
one place for too long, or the sweat would again start to flow. Someone an
aisle over from the WOMP table had an air-temperature reader on their
cellphone. While I was walking past, they announced that it read
"eighty-three degrees!" YOWZA! Unfortunately, this meant that I just couldn't
dig in to longboxes in search of Crusty Bunker inked books, as I had
planned. Undaunted, I instead sought out inker, and FallCon guest, Josef
Rubinstein, himself one of the founding
Crusty Bunkers! I found him busily signing a stack of comics. As I
patiently waited for him to finish so that I could talk to him, I nearly passed
out from the heat...but I was determined not to sweat! Finally, I had my
chance to shake his hand and tell him about the WOMP-Blog's Crusty Bunker
Month. He was very surprised, and a bit confused, by this, but he was also
very forthcoming. "Ah, you should have talked to me! I could have
told you all kinds of stories!" He went on to quickly give me the
following Crusty Bunker insights -
- He was thirteen years old
when he started as both Wally Wood's assistant and a Crusty Bunker.
THIRTEEN! I was drawing Erlingston Codstric
Nerdman, the Third, when I was thirteen.
UGH! Worse, this means that he, my favorite comics inker, is only about
five years older than I am!
- He was personally
responsible for convincing legendary Jeff Jones to help out as a Crusty Bunker
(who could resist an insistent thirteen-year-old?).
- He described how the Bunkers
worked by talking about a particular collaboration (here paraphrased); "Frank
Brunner had drawn Doctor Strange, and Neal Adams would ink a face, maybe, while
I was doing the design on the edge of the cape. Then Neal would get to a
hand and say 'I'm not touching that,' letting someone else, like Frank or Ralph
Reese, tackle it." While describing this, Mr. Rubinstein made animated
gestures, suggesting some of the energetic chaos of the event.
- He "retired" from The Crusty
Bunkers when he finally struck off as a freelancer...at the age of
SEVENTEEN!
I left Mr. Rubinstein with my
sincere thanks and a promise to send to him a link to my month-long Crusty
Bunker blatherfest (oops...still gotta do that). From one of my long-time
favorites to one of my newest, my FallCon report continues tomorrow with
information about a superstar of the future. See ya!
October 9 - First, here's the "Forbidden" WOMP
Character of The Day - President James Earl "Jimmy" Carter,
Jr.! Yes, that Jimmy Carter. When I
was a little kid, I was unusually politically active. My teachers were
convinced that I would become a political cartoonist. I knew, and drew,
not only the President, Vice-President, Congressmen, and so forth, but all
members of the Cabinet, and even all rival candidates. When Jimmy Carter
took the Oath of Office, I was in the Fourth Grade, and, already, I was
lampooning him in cartoons. More so than any other public figure,
President Carter seemed to daily find his way into my childhood scribbles.
Looking at those drawings now, I am surprised that I ever felt like I supported
him (which I did...for a time...and now do again). He was, in fact, a
great inspiration to me back then, although that didn't exempt him from my
schoolboy criticisms. In fact, it may have made my critiques more
pointed. There were many cartoons, for example, that featured old Uncle
Sam attempting, usually in vain, to warn President Carter about the foolishness
of a step he was about to take. I seldom lambasted The President for any
of the unfortunate economic or political conditions of the day (if ever...I can
find no evidence nor memory to the contrary), preferring instead to chide him
for not living up to his promise. By the time he was up for re-election, I
had lost my hopes in him. I saw him as a floundering outsider.
Worse, the alternatives seemed, well...worse. Ronald Reagan? I saw
him as an elderly grinning jerk, prone to grouchy outbursts and flippant
intolerance. John Anderson? He was the most viable of the so-called
"Third Party Candidates," and he
picked former Wisconsin Governor Pat Lucey as his running-mate. Anderson
seemed "OK," if uninspiring, so that's who I supported. Oh...and I was
just thirteen (it's not like I could actually vote or anything anyway). By
the time of the actual election, there were hostages in Iran, a disastrous
rescue attempt, lines at the gas-pumps, inflation, food shortages, and, as The
President called it, a general malaise. Drawing any politician no longer seemed
like fun, so I gave up on any thought of being a political cartoonist.
With that decision, President Carter joined the "forbidden" list. OK,
OK...now on to the first part of -
None Like It
Hot - WOMP's
2007 FallCon Report
Well, in spite of my year-long
trepidations, The WOMP Staff and I did
set up at the annual MCBA FallCon this year. We left Prairie du Chien at
5:05AM in the midst of a thunderstorm, and found ourselves within a mile or two
from the convention site (Minnesota State Fairgrounds) by 8:45AM. We'd
have made the entire trip in record time, except that I'd forgotten to bring
along our saddle-stapler for assembling the many giveaway copies of Tales From The WOMP-Blog
#3, so we had to stop at a Target to get a new one. Still, by 9:05AM, we
were setting up the WOMP table. Somehow, The Staff's badge/credentials had
been misplaced or overlooked, so she was issued a "blank" badge, upon which she
had me print "Dorothy
Zbornak," the name of Bea Arthur's
Golden Girls character. "Dorothy"
and I began laying out my various comics, Oz things, and such, when the
thunderstorm, which had been following us all the way there, struck. For
the sake of the lines of fans then standing in the rain, an announcement was
made that the convention would open early. We rushed through our set up,
trying to be ready in time. The whole thing made me, well...pretty
sweaty. OK; I was very
sweaty (even for me). It was only then that we, and those around us, began
to realize that it was getting hotter by the minute. Throughout the first
day, in fact, the temperature continuously climbed, going well past
"uncomfortable," approaching "dangerous." Even so, we had some fun, met
some new friends, saw some old ones, bought some cool stuff, and even sold some
of my stuff (which was
unexpected). So what if
I looked like I'd been wrestling with a squid? No-one seemed to mind (or
were very kind in overlooking it). In spite of the stifling heat, we had
many lengthy visits with convention attendees, including a familiar-looking fan
whom I best remember as having dressed as Princess Leia years ago ("bun" coif
and all), a young girl named Tegan who was also an aspiring artist, another
familiar attendee, Allen Klingelhoets, who said that he had just gotten a gig as
interviewer for Jazma Online, and several people who were fans of The Wizard of
Oz. Of course, we eventually were able to see many of the Official Friends of WOMP,
like Derek Anderson (and Renee), Maxxx Madcap, Jeff Rose (and entire family),
Mike Toft, Chad Corrie (and his dad, Lee), the MCBA guys, and Ivan Martin.
It's always fun to see old friends, especially those who live so far from
us. That's part of what makes FallCon my favorite comics show. I
believe that I also made some new friends, including David Tea, our "booth
buddy" to the west. David is the writer, artist, and stapler of quirky
existential mini-comic Five Perennial
Virtues. He is a very sweet guy
with a quirky sense of humor. He, like us, entertained young artist Tegan
as she hung around our tables for hours. Later, while I was visiting Mike
Toft's table, I also talked to his
"booth buddy," Damian Sheridan. Damian is the creator of the very
interesting, and well-written mini-comic, Citizen Kidd. Coincidentally, he,
too, was without a stapler, but he solved the problem by binding his minis with
rubber-bands! Ingenious! More FallCon tomorrow. See ya
then!
October 8 - Let's play "Catch-Up," shall we? Back to my
"forbidden" characters (hooray?) Tomorrow, strength and time provided, I
hope to give you a rundown of our "adventures" at FallCon (quick preview:
HOT!). So, I'll get the ball rolling tonight with what should have been
October 4th's "Forbidden" WOMP
Character of The Day - Captain Bronto! I was a big fan of classic monster movies when I was a
little kid. I remember literally begging my parents to allow me to stay up
one night to watch the Late, Late
Cinema showing of King Kong vs. Godzilla,
citing the film's "historical importance" (yep, I was a very strange kid). Toward
that end, I wanted my own gigantic monstrosities to draw. One of those was
the aforementioned Captain Bronto, who very closely resembled a long-necked
version of a Sleestak from Land of The
Lost. Here's his
Encyclopidia
entry -
Captain Bronto
- after freak accident
this man's head took the shape of the last dinosaur on Earth. On the side
of evil
Where do I start? Pretty
quickly, like within a few weeks, I realized that the good Captain was a bad
character. What was the nature of "freak accident?" How could it
cause his head to take the shape of anything,
nonetheless the shape of, presumably, the head of
the last dinosaur on Earth...and, aren't there still "dinosaurs" (like
crocodiles)? Why, then, did this cause him to be "on the side of
evil?" And, for goodness' sake, why was he a "Captain?" Sheesh! I suppose
that they can't all be winners - and none of my characters
really are - but Captain Bronto may be
the dumbest character
that I'd ever created. Maybe. Nipping at the Captain's heels for
that title is October 5th's "Forbidden" WOMP
Character of The Day - Truel "Jay" Wayne! OK, time for some more insight into my weird
childhood. Here's the short version; I was not given many toys, so I
eventually bought my own. With $1.00 per week allowance earned doing
dishes and taking out the garbage, I bought action figures. Hundreds of
them. Hundreds and hundreds. Then I built a scale-model city for them in my parents'
basement, complete with streets, airport, schoolhouse, radio/TV station, and so
forth. There, playing with the figures, I imagined a world that is now the
basis for The World of Monkey. As such, the basement city seemed very much
like something of a soap opera to me. Whenever I bought a new action
figure, I had to figure out how to fit him or her into the continuing
storyline. That proved a bit more vexing
than usual when I brought home the bendable figure of the "main" alien from
Close Encounters of The Third Kind. He was from places, and motives, unknown. He did not
speak. He was nude. Worst of all, he had no name. So, I resolved that he
was named for the planet from which he came, Truel (heck only knows from where I
got that). Naked as he was, I
placed him in tattered remnants of an older Robin figure's costume. This
gave rise to the thought that he was taken in, and eventually adopted by Bruce
"Batman" Wayne, thus "Truel Wayne." The "Jay" part came from my impression
that he had formed the sign-language gesture for the letter "J" when he used
hand signals to communicate with the scientists at the end of Close Encounters. He didn't (a "J" being a pinky finger air-tracing a
capital "J"), but I thought he did. Yep. Well, the many, many
reasons for Truel's state of being "forbidden" are pretty obvious now.
Slightly better, but no less sad, are October 6th and 7th's "Forbidden" WOMP Characters of The Day - The Blackhawk and Maroon
Falcon! For those of you who
stuck it out during Sidekick Month here in the WOMP-Blog, have read my story
Sidekicked posted elsewhere on the
WOMP-Site, or picked up a copy of Tales From The
WOMP-Blog #3 at the FallCon comics
convention this last weekend, you may know that these two characters, originally
intended to be the "Batman and Robin of Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin," are slowly
working their way off of the "forbidden" list. I suppose that, now that
I've been tweaking them a bit, they may merely be "forbidding." There is just so much
that's wrong with the characters, and so little that's right...but I'm working
through that, bit by bit. I think. In that four part Sidekicked story, I cleared up my
problems with some of their stupidest elements (stupidest? Is that a real
word now? Gazillion is. Hmm...Gazillion. That's a great name
for a character! Maybe even Captain
Gazillion! But I digress...), like their totally lame names, weird
costumes, and even the very concept behind their "millionaire and youthful ward"
relationship, but there is still much more work to do before I can imagine
incorporating these particular childhood characters into current WOMP
continuity. Not all off-limits characters are from my fabled childhood,
though. For example, take tonight's "Forbidden" WOMP Character of The Day - The
Mime! Coming from my days at
the Joe Kubert School, The Mime is now a no-go because of uncertain
ownership. In a college for cartoonists, all-night comics discussions were
the rule, rather than the exception. One night, Dave Weiser (my first
roommate), and I gabbed all night, pitching ideas to each other. Somehow,
we began to formulate the story behind a superhero called The Mime.
Nothing too deep was discussed, mostly just visual stuff, like how the "mime
powers" would work and how we might design his costume. We even followed
up with a series of concept drawings, but, when Dave left school after a couple
of months, The Mime became trapped in an invisible box of copyright limbo.
Just as well, because others have used the same basic concept in the years
since...with little, or no, success. Maybe Dave and I dodged a bullet
there. More "forbidden" tomorrow, when I talk about one of my characters
based on a real person...a very famous
real person. See ya then!
October 4 and 5 (and 6 and
7) - OK, so I'm
swamped! Right now, at 2:00AM, I have just a couple of minutes to tell you
that I have been preparing for the FallCon this weekend, for which I must "wake
up" at 4:00AM. Basically, I won't be able to post anything until we're
back late Sunday night. Sorry. In the meantime, consider making the
trip to FallCon. If you do, I'll see you there! I'll get back to my
"forbidden" characters when I get back (I'm sure you'll be on pins and needles
until then). See ya!
October 3 - A decade! The WOMP Staff and I have been married for
an entire decade, as of today, October 3. It doesn't seem like ten years
(five or six, maybe). Still, I suppose I should do something special for
her, right? Of course! Actually, I've got lots of stuff planned,
including dinner and...gulp...jewelry. Yowza! Uh, on a completely unrelated note,
I want to remind any of you WOMP-Blog readers from the Minneapolis/St. Paul area
that I will be selling...er, I mean attending
the FallCon comic book convention this weekend. I'll have lots of new
stuff for you to buy...uh, I mean look at. All at very reasonable prices. To "look at"
it. Sigh. ANYHOO, back to the theme of "Forbidden" WOMP
characters. Last night, I posted the name of Old Man Meriwether.
While that means something to me,
it probably means absolutely nothing to you
until I explain just who the heck Old Man Meriwether is. To remedy this
problem, which would otherwise persist all month, I have decided to temporarily
invert the way I normally post the "...Of The Day" characters. Starting
tomorrow, they will come at the beginning of the entry, instead of the
end. Now, though, I'll get back to Old Man Meriwether. Already, as
I've used his name just three times in the previous few sentences, you may see
one of the reasons why he became "forbidden." His name alone definitely falls into the
"Too Stupid" category. Created when I was about twelve, O.M.M. was one of
a small stable of non-superhero characters that I attempted to develop.
After several years of having drawn masked figures slugging each other, I guess
I just thought I should try something else. The character grew from a
sketch of a bald old man with a pointy long beard, whose face, then, resembled
an ice cream cone. That's it. That's the whole thought process
behind him. Many of my earliest characters came to me first as visual
puns. I remember another who developed from the way that the closed-top
numeral "4" reminded me of someone's legs as he leaned back against a wall,
putting one foot on the wall as well. His name, not surprisingly, was
Fourtney (a name so awful that it makes "Old Man Meriwether" sound positively
Shakespearean). He never made it past that first drawing, but O.M.M.
survived just long enough to make it into the Encyclopidia of John Mundt's Cartoon Characters and
Names, an actual hand-drawn
encyclopedia
that I produced in about 1978. I quoted from it last night when I
discussed Birilla. It's a great little bit of personal weirdness, as well
as an invaluable tool into the mind of a thirteen year old kid. I still
refer to it often (and expect to do so quite a bit this month). Here, for
example, is what I wrote about O.M.M. -
Old Man
Meriwether - old man in every
body's past on the side of good.
I don't know whether you've
picked up on that "side of good" thing. Back then, it was very important
to me to categorize my characters squarely either on the side of "good" or that
of "evil." There was no room for anything in between...except for when I
described a character based on my cat, Grey Ghost, who was -
...on (I guess) the side
of Grey Ghost (ussually good, but not always).
For those of you keeping
score, that is the same cat who passed away right before I helped Dennis Jensen
meet a deadline about fifteen years later (as I described in last month's
WOMP-Bloggings). Grey Ghost, a blue-gray shorthaired cat known as "Kitty"
for most of his life, was a great source of inspiration to me for nearly twenty
years. He appeared in some of my grade school comic strips, in a special
feature within Premium
Comics #1 during high school, on the
cover of the first mini-comic version of The Adventures of
Monkey, and in T.A.O.M. #1 as part of a reprinting of
that mini's cover. When he passed, though, I must admit that the joy of
drawing him sort of passed as well. Plus, he was named after a copyrighted
TV character from the 1960's, who, in turn, was based on a Confederate raider of
The Civil War. The name alone carries too much unnecessary baggage.
As a character, then, he joined the list of those who are now "forbidden."
Tonight, I'll leave you with his name again as your "Forbidden" WOMP Character of The Day - Grey
Ghost!
October 2 - So, I'm going to daily post what I'm calling "Forbidden"
WOMP Characters. I've been drawing comic book stories for decades,
starting around the Summer of 1972, when I was just a wee WOMP. That's
when I discovered the very concept of creating comics, when I was inspired to
illustrate the "adventures" that my toys had. That's where Monkey was
born. It wasn't long, though, before I started to expand my tiny handful
of characters to a crew, then a group, then a pantheon. Along the line,
I've created and drawn many characters of which I am quite proud, some of which
I am still trying to utilize. Then there are the other characters. Beginning
all of those years ago (when I was just six years old, after all), right up
through today, I have had many "false starts." These are characters that
were poorly thought out, foolishly redundant, alpha versions, somehow offensive,
obviously stupid, copyrighted to someone else, or otherwise completely unusable
for anything but the learning process...and, now, as fodder for the
WOMP-Blog. As I list these now-forbidden characters from my own lifetime
of creative development, I hope to delve a little into the character creating
process itself. For example, the name I provided for the "October 1" entry
was Birilla. Created when I was about twelve years old, Birilla was,
uh...well...let's just say that this is
how I actually described him at the time, thirty-five years
ago -
Birilla - this villian is a
cross between a bird and a gorilla. This strange creature was formed in a
nuclear reaction. On side of evil.
Beyond being evidence that
I've always had a problem spelling the word "villain," this little snippet of
back-story pretty well sums up why Birilla didn't "make it." I may have
been twelve, but I knew a turkey (or Turkilla)
when I saw one. Still, I had to actually see the character to learn
that. Part of my "process" back then (and probably still) was to just
explore any concept that struck my imagination, no matter how bizarre.
More tomorrow, but here's another "Forbidden" WOMP
Character of The Day - Old Man Meriwether!
October 1 - Keeping with a tradition that now goes back a few years, I
was unable to post an "October 1" entry on the actual 1st of October. It
is 3:00AM on the 3rd as I type this, and I'm again playing "October Catch-Up"
because of the start of my Fallfire
art contest! Long-time WOMP-Blog readers know what's coming next; constant
pressure from me to get YOU to
enter the contest! In a nutshell, the concept of the contest is to get
artists, of any and all mediums, to produce new, spontaneous work inspired by
the word "fallfire," all for prizes and glory. Ah, just click on the
Fallfire link already. It's the
only way I'll shut up about it. Anyhoo, with the contest and FallCon prep,
I'm running short of spare time. I've got meetings with potential sponsors
all day (starting in just a few hours, actually...yipes!), so let me get right
to this month's "...Of The
Day" theme, which I will describe
in greater detail in the "October 2" entry to follow. After all of the
research into Crusty Bunker last month, and years of talking about other comic
book topics, I felt like it was finally time to focus a little on my own
work. Sort of. You know me; I can't really just promote myself, so
there is a "twist" to what I have planned. You'll see what I mean after
reading the "October 2" entry, but, just to get things rolling, I'll wrap up
this entry with your "Forbidden" WOMP
Character of The Day - Birilla!