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present, for your amusement, this small collection of
one man's
attempt at comics page glory. Just click on any of the title
icons to view a selection. Close the window when
you're done. |
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Lou's
Zoo was my first serious attempt at a daily comic strip. The
back story is that I was working with the Super-collider project,
cranking out various illustrations for their in-house publications.
At one point they decided they needed a mascot, using some kind
of critter that spent time digging in dirt. After much consideration
they settled on an armadillo and, so, Lou was born.
The super-collider project soon bit the dust and I was left
with nothing but memories and a lot of illustrations of a cute
little armadillo. And, so, Lou's Zoo was born. |
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Lou's
Zoo made the editors at various syndicates sit up and take notice
but they suggested I try another concept that didn't involve
talking animals since the consumer, believe it or not, wouldn't
grasp the reason WHY they were talking. Uh-huh.
So what I did was devise an animal that had a logical reason
for speaking English. Actually, it was a robot dog. A Four-legged,
Interactive, Domestic Organism. (Clever, huh?) The original
concept was that his talking ability would gradually develop
over time, but to get the idea across I accelerated the process
a bit in the first set of cartoons. |
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| Since
the first two comic strip ideas didn't pass final muster I decided
to develop a cartoon that drew on the almost limitless resources
of the internet. The idea was to highlight wacky or interesting
web sites each day and bookend it with a related joke. Several
syndicates liked the idea but asked if I could make the jokes
"funnier". I thought the jokes were adequately amusing
and was ready to try again when a thought occurred to me concerning
the legality of printing an image of someone else's web site
in a nationally-syndicated format. Rather than fight that 600-pound
legal gorilla I decided to move on. |
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| More
than any of my other creations I had a real sentimental attachment
for my little robot dog, so I decided to try once again to foist
him on the syndicates. This time, however, I altered his personality
a bit, giving him an air of cultured pathos. This time he would
be a loyal and intelligent servant who is still capable of dishing
out a droll bon mot or two. I pictured him as art of a robotic-canine-Mr.
Spock. This incarnation of Sparky gets the most response from
people who visit this site. |
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| I
decided to work up a comic strip that threatened to cross the
boundaries of public decency, so I chose the Mafia as a role
model. It may seem a bit derivative of The Soprano's but I attempted
to syndicate this idea long before HBO jumped on the "crime
as entertainment" bandwagon. Actually, my inspiration was
Bud Grace's Piranha Club, specifically Uncle Sid and his larcenous
cronies for whom no criminal or slothful act was too minor to
attempt at least once. Alas, this one didn't make the final
cut, either. It may have been ahead of its time. |
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| Hilary
Price, the creator of the comic strip "Rhymes With Orange"
and I became acquainted under circumstances of which I'm not
at liberty to reveal, but we got along well enough that she
asked me if I'd write a joke or two for her comic strip. I vaguely
remember acting pretty cooly to the suggestion but I'm sure
I jumped around like a maniac at the prospect of getting my
jokes in the papers...again. Anyhoo, here's a small collection
of the results of our collaborationette, and on each one you
can see a very small "Thanks M. Stanfill". She's so
polite. If you'd like to know more about Rhymes With Orange,
click here. |
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Mike Stanfill, Private Hand - 2330 Jonesboro - Dallas, TX 75228 - 469-279-0317
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