Endurance
So, I wasn't sure what to blog about today, until I happened to blip on comicbookresources.com and saw an article that stated that "Witchblade" is officially 10 years old now. That's right, a lame ass character that no one cares about anymore and was only a cheap extension of a cheap trend (bad girl comix) in a medium no pays attention to, has been around for a decade. And speaking of lame ass characters no one cares about in mediums no one cares about, I'm pretty sure that my flagship character, Cactus Joe the Clown may be almost as old. Gimme a second to do the math...
Cactus Joe the Clown was first created when I came back from my first (and only) disasterous year of enrollment at Southern Illinois University back in 1997. Damn. Eight years. Oh well, we'll do CJ's ten year anniversary in 2007.
But since we're on the subject, I'll tell you flat out that in his original incarnation, Cactus Joe was a blatant rip-off of Sweet Tooth from the Twisted Metal video game series. Pretty emberassing, huh? Well, inspiration comes from all over the place sometimes, and I needed a new lead character to represent how my life had changed post-college. The fact that I chose a psychotic, murderous Clown who was also a hero as my new lead should give you an idea of what frame of mind I was in at the time.
The Clown's changed a lot over the years. In the beginning, his head was on fire and he dressed like a bum. Over time, he became a kung fu guy, a Batman rip-off, a Pinhead rip-off, a tech guy, and at one stage he was this supernatural monstrocity that ripped his enemies apart and then used their bones and internal organs as weapons. That one was a little too dark.
I didn't really have the Clown figured out until "Super Duper Fun Comix: Violent Video" (the fourth issue of my last pre-SDF series). Here's the thing, he's ultimately just this relatively laid back dork, who happens to be unkillable, while having the uncanny ability to kill others really easily. There are still elements of other characters to his "ability set". He still has some tricks that are eerily reminiscent of Pinhead. But at the end of the day, I think the Clown, over the course of the last nine years has evolved into his own unique character that continues to grow with every story I create.
In two years, Cactus Joe will be 10 years old. I should definately throw him a birthday party then. Now if I could just remember what month I created him in...
Cactus Joe the Clown was first created when I came back from my first (and only) disasterous year of enrollment at Southern Illinois University back in 1997. Damn. Eight years. Oh well, we'll do CJ's ten year anniversary in 2007.
But since we're on the subject, I'll tell you flat out that in his original incarnation, Cactus Joe was a blatant rip-off of Sweet Tooth from the Twisted Metal video game series. Pretty emberassing, huh? Well, inspiration comes from all over the place sometimes, and I needed a new lead character to represent how my life had changed post-college. The fact that I chose a psychotic, murderous Clown who was also a hero as my new lead should give you an idea of what frame of mind I was in at the time.
The Clown's changed a lot over the years. In the beginning, his head was on fire and he dressed like a bum. Over time, he became a kung fu guy, a Batman rip-off, a Pinhead rip-off, a tech guy, and at one stage he was this supernatural monstrocity that ripped his enemies apart and then used their bones and internal organs as weapons. That one was a little too dark.
I didn't really have the Clown figured out until "Super Duper Fun Comix: Violent Video" (the fourth issue of my last pre-SDF series). Here's the thing, he's ultimately just this relatively laid back dork, who happens to be unkillable, while having the uncanny ability to kill others really easily. There are still elements of other characters to his "ability set". He still has some tricks that are eerily reminiscent of Pinhead. But at the end of the day, I think the Clown, over the course of the last nine years has evolved into his own unique character that continues to grow with every story I create.
In two years, Cactus Joe will be 10 years old. I should definately throw him a birthday party then. Now if I could just remember what month I created him in...
1 Comments:
Excellent blog as always, Joe. I have one question for you though. On last years blog you talked about all the horror movies you were watching during October. I haven't seen any posts like that yet. Lets seem some horror movie bloggage.
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