Inspired by Minty Comedic Arts YouTube channel, here is a top ten list for those of you who have already read my story “Fever” in “YEET Presents” #32, out this month from C.O.P. Comics. If you haven't read it yet, please do and then come back here for some fun facts!
10. This Is My First Published Story
All my life I have wanted to be a published
author. I self-published a series of
comics and magazines which were mostly photocopied pages when I was in my
teens. As an adult I took a mail
correspondence course from the Institute of Children’s Literature based in
Redding, Connecticut. I passed the
course and got my diploma, but this didn’t help me get published with any of
the children’s magazines that I submitted stories to. Jump ahead to ten years later and I am
finally getting my first comic book story published in an independent comic
named “YEET Presents”.
09. The Character Taanda Was Created In 1951
Taanda, the White Princess of the Jungle was a
character published by Avon Periodicals, Inc. from 1951 to 1952. The writer who created her is unknown, but at
least three artists worked on the Taanda strip.
Everett Raymond Kinstler drew the cover for
issue #1 but the stories inside the comic were drawn by Louis Ravielli. Kinstler drew the cover and the first two
stories of issue #2, but an unknown artist drew the third Taanda story for that
issue. Kinstler drew the cover for issue
#3 and he and an artist named Gene Fawcette worked on #3’s stories. Kinstler drew the cover for issue #4 and
Fawcette drew stories for issue #5, but all of the other remaining credits are
unknown.
08. The Story Was Originally In Color
I hired an artist named Charles E. Butler from the
U.K. to draw, letter and color my story “Fever”. Mike Jones, the editor of “YEET Presents”,
chose to print it in black and white. His
reasoning is it is too expensive to print in color. I was not informed of this before it was
printed, and neither was the artist. Had
either of us had been contacted in advance Charles would have altered the art
to make it more suitable for a black and white comic. I really wanted my comic book story debut to
be in color, and I wanted the readers of “YEET” to see it this way too. What’s worse, the art on the outer edges is
slightly cut off. I am really irked by
this.
07. The Jungle Cat On Page 2 Is Not A Tiger!
Charles drew some jungle animals in the pages of
“Fever” that I did not mention in my script.
That is okay, as far as that goes.
But the jungle cat on page 2 looks vaguely like a tiger, and my story is
set in Africa. I want to go on record as
stating that I was fully aware of the fact that tigers do not live in
Africa. They are native to Asia and
India. African jungle cats include
cheetahs and leopards. So the orange
jungle cat you see is either a cheetah or a leopard!
06. Kwandi The Medicine Man Is An Original Character
All of the characters in my story “Fever” are in
public domain except Kwandi, the medicine man.
He is my first original character to be published in a comic.
05. Taanda’s Name Changed To Tarinda For One Issue
For the final issue (#5) of “White Princess of the
Jungle” Taanda was renamed Tarinda. And
I have no idea why!
04. Changing Hair And Skin Colors
As I stated above, there were at least three artists
who drew “White Princess of the Jungle”.
It’s possible that there was more than one colorist and that they did
not consult with each other. As a
result, Koru’s skin color changed from black to white depending on the
story. Taanda has red hair, although in
reprints from various publishers Taanda’s hair color is changed to black or
blonde.
03. Cave Girl Has Three Family Names
Surprise guest star Cave Girl is a character that was
published by Magazine Enterprises from 1952 to 1953. Cave Girl’s real name is Carol London,
Mantomer or Gandomer depending on which page in Cave Girl #11 (her debut issue,
by the way) you are reading. Again, I
have no idea why. I can only assume the writer
or letterer did not check what was written on previous pages.
02. The Title Was Taken From A Song By Devil ANTHEM.
Those who know me know that I am a fan of Japanese
female idol singers. I took the title of
my story “Fever” from a song by the group Devil ANTHEM., which is the title of
their 2017 album.
01. This Story Is Meant To Be The Beginning Of A
Series
As you might guess from the ending of my story, I
meant this to be the start of a series of stories featuring not only Taanda and
Cave Girl, but possibly other public domain jungle characters. I haven’t scripted any sequels yet, but I
would like to soon!
Thank you for reading and have a great 2020!
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