Author Archive: captkevman
I'm a guy who was a cartoonist in high school and college, dropped out of college, entered the workforce and forgot he was a cartoonist -- for 20 years. I'm now trying to reconnect with my creative side and see if I can make something happen.
I also help organize a local comic & cartoon creators' group, and I organized an October 2012 community drawing event called DRAWtoberfest.
2013 Challenger: captkevman
My name is Kevin Copeland (although I usually just go by captkevman pretty much everywhere online).
I’m a freelance computer technician and consultant by trade, and I’m a comicker/cartoonist community group organizer by hobby.
This is the part where I usually lament that I don’t make the time to draw like I should due to my self-imposed obligations, but actually, I’m feeling pretty good about where things are at the moment, despite the lack of personal productivity (which is still low, but it’s better than it’s been in a while):
Our local cartoonists’ group has been going about five years now. We just completed our third 24-Hour Comics Day a couple of weeks ago (I finished mine for the first time — YAY! — see cover above), we just wrapped our second annual DRAWtoberfest Faire celebration (which I founded and helped organize both years), and we just participated in our second annual local Mini Maker Faire, where we had a table set up talking about our community group and making mini-comics with local kids (and anyone else who wanted to make mini-comics!).
(On a side note, I’m really starting to fall in love with the mini-comic format/sub-genre.)
I’m participating in the 30 Character Challenge again — this year, with renewed vigor. I hope to complete the challenge, but whether I do or not, I’m sure I’ll be blown away by everyone else’s contributions.
Good luck to all the 2013 challengers, and Happy Creating!
#05 – Captain Cosmo
If you’ve seen my last couple of entries, you’ve read about a storyboard contest I entered in the early 90’s. This guy, Captain Cosmo, actually pre-dates Sir Eggplant (#03) and Druckon (#04) by about 4 years.
Captain Cosmo began as an idea for a t-shirt design project in my 8th grade shop class (it was a fictional band – Captain Cosmo and the Intergalactic Airheads), but when time came for a second storyboard contest idea, I decided to give him a makeover and base him partly on Captain Kirk from Star Trek, and partly on generic Sci-Fi B-movie captain-types. His original conception was around 1984-85; his makeover/storyboard was around 1993-94.
Then, Toy Story came out, and later, Futurama, and Buzz Lightyear and Zapp Brannigan were essentially the same character, so it kind of took the wind out of my sails as far as wanting to introduce Captain Cosmo to the masses. Still, he has a crew, and they’re looking for a home, so I’m going to try to make them part of whatever I end up doing.
#04 – Druckon
Sir Eggplant (see my #03 for 2012), in his original (now discarded) origin story, encountered Druckon and they became constant companions. Druckon is half-duck, half-dragon. (Don’t try to visualize how that happened…you’ll be traumatized for life).
Druckon speaks with a nondescript Eastern European accent, and serves as the mind and voice of reason for the bumbling but well-intentioned Sir Eggplant.
Creator’s Note: I first developed Druckon while working on a storyboard for Sir Eggplant’s origin story. Although I scrapped the rest of the story, Druckon kind of stuck, so he’s part of my rag-tag repertoire of characters floating around in my head waiting for a purpose.
#03 – Sir Egglant
For the past couple of years, I’ve thought of the 30 Characters Challenge as a challenge to come up with 30 NEW characters and share them. But the more I’ve thought about it this year, I really want to get back to cartooning again, so I figured I’d introduce some of the long-time repertory characters that I’ll be using in my comic (should I get it going again). First up, is this guy.
Sir Eggplant
Sir Eggplant began life as a doodle in my 12th grade English notebook in 1988. A few years later, I was going through old notebooks and sketchbooks when I ran across him again. He sort of spoke to me, and shortly thereafter, I would discover a cartoon storyboard contest. So I created a story around Sir Eggplant, and drew up a storyboard for the contest. Nothing ever came of it, but from that moment on, Sir Eggplant became the signature character among the hodgepodge of characters floating around uselessly in my head.
The initial story was an attempt to explain how an eggplant became a sentient being, with elements of time travel and astral mysticism, but eventually, I decided to just leave his origin a mystery. But one other good thing came from the original storyboard, and that was Sir Eggplant’s companion/sidekick, who will be introduced as the #4 character in this year’s challenge.
#02 – Grglftz
I haven’t yet decided if grglftz is an astronaut/explorer of his species, or just an idiot who likes pretending. Perhaps it’s both.
#01 – Anthony M.
He came in and sat down at the bar, eyes bloodshot, ragged clothes, scraggy hair, unshaven. Hunched over, arms folded on the bar, he sat motionless — gazing straight ahead with an empty stare that screamed defeat.
His appearance was so haggard he could be mistaken for homeless. He just sat in quiet desperation. Many dismissed him as a bum or a junkie. He certainly had the hollow face of a worn man. But Anthony M. wasn’t a bum. He wasn’t a junkie. He wasn’t drunk or stoned.
Just an hour earlier, Anthony was in a screaming match back home.
“F*cking b*stard!”
“Stop being an a**hole!”
“You’re a monster!!”
“I hate you!”
Every profane word was used…the worst ones more than a few times. They got so loud that he’d be surprised if the police weren’t waiting for him when he got back home. He hated himself. He hated his failure. How could he have let himself blow up like that — especially at his 12-year-old little girl?
It was she that had screamed the loudest and had cursed the most. After the third or fourth F-bomb, he snapped. He looked down and picked up the first thing he saw and threw it across the room in rage. It was her stacked schoolwork — it flew apart and papers and notebooks rained down in a flurry of chaos across the floor and furniture of her room.
The screaming continued, this time with his wife, who was furious at him for his outburst. She had to remind him their daughter had a condition called Oppositional Defiant Disorder, and that she couldn’t help acting that way. Of course, as soon as his temper got the better of him, he had remembered. He just wished he could have controlled himself better.
Anthony would never hurt his little girl. But tonight, he did. He screamed at her and made her feel worthless and unloved. Then after he realized what he’d done, he cursed himself for not having the strength to hold back his rage.
Anthony had always tried to be a good father. Tomorrow he promised to do better, but tonight he had failed, and he needed to punish himself for it.
2012 Challenger: captkevman
I’m Kevin Copeland, known online mostly as captkevman, but also occasionally as The Wayward Cartoonist. I did the challenge in 2010 and 2011, although I only completed 5 entries and 1 entry (respectively). I promised myself I’d try again this year and try to complete all 30.
My online handle (captkevman) is a combination of my name and my favorite childhood cartoon character. I picked it as an AOL handle back in the 90s, and it just sorta stuck. My other alias (The Wayward Cartoonist) is a bit more appropriate: I used to cartoon a bit back in high school and early college, but I haven’t done anything to speak of for the past couple of decades. I’ve spent the last few years trying to reconnect with my creative side. During my journey, I have started (and serve as organizer for) a local cartoonists/comickers group, I’ve been to a few conventions (SPX 2009 & Intervention 2011, plus some other local cons) that have been very inspiring, and I’ve had a few false starts on a webcomic project (which, despite several personal setbacks, I’m not ready to give up on yet). This year, I also organized the first annual DRAWtoberfest (drawtoberfest.org), which was designed to be a celebration of drawing for people of all ages and abilities.
As for my “real job”, I’m an independent technician and consultant focusing on products with a certain fruit logo on them. While I haven’t been creating as much as I’d like, I do take comfort in the fact that several members of our local group have gone on to do some pretty cool things: a self-published comic book, a self-published drawing book, and admission to RISD are a few of the achievements by our members. While I’m not personally producing much at the moment, it’s nice to be a part of a community that encourages and inspires creators.
This year, I did start drawing more frequently, even if it was just because of the game Draw Something on the iPad/iPhone. (Hey, I’m still marking that in the “win” column.) 😉
As for what to expect from me: keep your expectations low, and you won’t be disappointed. Last year, I actually did about 8 characters, but I only got a chance to post one of them. I’m hoping to do better this year. Look for a variety of character types, styles, and genres. I’m not filtering anything this year (except for decency).
I look forward to seeing everyone’s amazing characters this year!
#1 – Roscoe
I wish I could take credit for creating Roscoe, but I happened upon this fellow while refilling my Big Gulp at 7-Eleven one day last spring. Of course, I don’t know what his name really was, but he was short, stout, heavily pierced & tattooed, and rode off into the sunset in a top hat on his beach cruiser bike with a 12-pack under his arm.
I like to think Roscoe was some sort of biker leprechaun, but I didn’t have the guts to ask him to show me his pot o’ gold. ;^)
2011 Challenger: captkevman
I’m Kevin Copeland, known online mostly as captkevman, but also occasionally as The Wayward Cartoonist. I did the challenge last year, although I only completed 5 entries. I promised myself I’d try again this year and try to complete all 30.
My online handle (captkevman) is a combination of my name and my favorite childhood cartoon character. I picked it as an AOL handle back in the 90s, and it just sorta stuck. My other alias (The Wayward Cartoonist) is a bit more appropriate: I used to cartoon a bit back in high school and early college, but I haven’t done anything to speak of for the past couple of decades. I’ve spent the last few years trying to reconnect with my creative side. During my journey, I have started (and serve as organizer for) a local cartoonists/comickers group, I’ve been to a few conventions (SPX 2009 & Intervention 2011, plus some other local cons) that have been very inspiring, and I’ve had a few false starts on a webcomic project (which, despite several personal setbacks, I’m not ready to give up on yet).
As for my “real job”, I’m an independent technician and consultant focusing on products with a certain fruit logo on them. While I haven’t been creating as much as I’d like, I do take comfort in the fact that several members of our local group have gone on to do some pretty cool things: a self-published comic book, a self-published drawing book, and admission to RISD are a few of the achievements by our members. While I’m not personally producing anything at the moment, it’s nice to be a part of a community that encourages and inspires peers.
I’m hoping to use the 30 Characters Challenge to “clear the rust” from the ol’ creative pipes and flex those muscles again. I look forward to seeing everyone’s incredible work again this year!
#5 Raptor Cleric in Enchanted Robes
This started out as a possible bird of prey character, then went a little Egyptian, then veered off somewhere into Stargate / Joseph & His Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat Land.
#4 OnionHead
OnionHead. Not sure what I’m gonna do with him yet, but as of this writing, it’s the 21st, and I’m WAAAAAY behind, so I’ll get back to his description later.
#2 Max
Max is a somewhat mysterious individual. He shows up at cons – sci-fi cons, horror cons, fan cons – always dressed as an old-school vampire. At least, we think it’s a vampire. He doesn’t say much, and keeps mostly to himself. He’s no fan of the sparkly “Twilight” vamps, or even the hip “True Blood” or even “Buffy” or “Lost Boys” bloodsuckers. No, Max kicks it old school. WAY old school. Like, “Nosferatu” old school. Come to think of it, is Max even his real name? Nobody has gotten close enough to him to find out….
#1 [Unnamed villain]
Originally, my first entry was going to be an existing character of mine, along with the excuse that I may not find time to come up with original characters for this event. I would further rationalize this by reasoning that, heck, nobody’s ever seen my characters anyway, so they’re new to everyone but me. But then, out of nowhere, I started doodling this guy (no pencils, straight pen – hence the sloppiness). So he suddenly became my first entry. And yes, that is a clear dome full of sand as his head. Not sure where that came from.
[update: changed link from twitpic to skitch]
#30Characters Chatter…