My brother & I started doing our own home-made comics sometime in either 1965 or 1966 (I'm not really sure exactly when). For many years, it was a case of, whatever he did, I'd try to follow suit. I was inspired by him, and tried to keep up, whereas he was always trying to stay ahead. Call it brotherly competition... or something.
At first, we were doing comics based on TV shows. Kinda like Dell or Gold Key back then. Then in September 1966, he decided he wanted to do something "original". What he did, basically, was take a new favorite TV show that inspired him, change the names and locale, and did his own version. Well, naturally, I thought that was a good idea, and decided to see what I could do. But instead of taking my cue from ONE show... I hit multiple shows at the same time, taking bits and pieces from all over the place and seeing what I could come up with. It was like all these ingredients were poured into the mix, and EXPLODED out of my head and onto the paper, all at once. It happened so fast, with so little thought or consideration, it took me years to even remember where some of it all came from!
Some of the shows I took inspiration from had been on for some time, others had just debuted on TV that month. As it happens, September 1966 may have been the most amazing month in TV history, as far as I'm concerned. I can't remember any other new TV season where SO MANY amazing, wonderful, creative and fun series debuted all at the same time. And that was the moment when both of us started doing "our own" comics for the first time, in both cases, series we'd continue to do for years after-- in most cases, longer than most of the shows we took inspiration from lasted on TV!
In about 2 hours, I'd knocked out a complete 8-page story. The art was crude, and very rushed, and the writing almost non-existent. But there must have been something there, because I kept at it for years afterward.
The series was STORM MAN AND STORMBOY, a father-and-son super-hero team who operated in the American southwest, sometime in a semi-utopian future world, of the kind so popular in science-fiction shows in America, England and Japan. The first story had a rather absurd title:
"THE FUNNY OBJECTS"
I did this when I was 7 years old. 55-1/2 YEARS ago!
"THE FUNNY OBJECTS"
Story & Art by HENRY KUJAWA
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Story & Art Copyright (C) 1966, 1985, 2022 Henry R. Kujawa.
All prominent characters are Trademarks of Henry R. Kujawa.
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