The past twelve-to-fourteen years has been an exploratory time for me, artistically speaking. Probably in other senses as well, but I’m only here to talk about my art journey. Back in 2012 I was pitching publishers to make a graphic novel about my bear and bird team, Boulder and Fleet.
But while I waited for that pitch to be turned down, I explored a handful of other cute anthropomorphic concepts, like Pickles and Taft, Baron von Bear (which became Doctor Baer), and Cap’n Cat. As I say to my students, I like making minicomics to test drive ideas. If I’m still excited about the idea after spending eight pages with it, I can probably make it through a 150-200 page graphic novel.
So I made a Cap’n Cat minicomic back in 2011 or 2012. And I enjoyed it!
And in 2014 I got my first mobile device with a digitizer–the Galaxy Note 10.1. Of course it wasn’t nearly as powerful as the tablets we have today, but it was an exciting piece of technology. I couldn’t draw in Photoshop or Clip Studio Paint, but LayerPaint HD seemed like a good candidate for comics-making on the go. So I decided to learn the app and test its limits while also developing a new Cap’n Cat minicomic. And here are the unfinished pages:
The story begins with Lao fishing, and just like in the first minicomic, Maggie interrupts/annoys him with something she’s excited about.
They go inside to find two ghosts waiting for them! The bird, a captain themself, explains that their boat is out of fuel.
Lao wants these spectral stowaways out immediately, so he offers them a can of gas. But ghost boats require a different fuel–one that can only be found on the MOST HAUNTED ISLAND IN THE WORLD.
Lao tells the ghosts they’re on their own. But Maggie refuses to cook his favorite meal until he agrees to help their new friends, so he reluctantly agrees to go to Ghost Island.
They arrive, and all looks peaceful enough. But when the ghosts go ashore, they’re surprised by a giant ghost…!
…who isn’t a bad fella after all. The island, so far, is only populated by friendly, working-class ghosts. But they have to deal with the irascible owner of the Ghost Gas Station in order to get their fuel!
And that’s where the story petered out. I know I wanted to end if with Lao having to suffer some indignity in order to save the ghosts, which Maggie would love him all the more for. But for a variety of reasons, I never found the time or energy to finish this story. Bummer!
But Lao and Maggie are now main characters in the new Doctor Baer comic! While we won’t get to see them sort things out on Ghost Island, we’ll see them help a train full of mummies get to their proper rest despite a team of gnarly bandits.
