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These are the oldest surviving drawings from my youth, and yes they have become new and improved characters in The Belview Zone Universe.  Anyway, in this beginning there emerged varies comics, and here are a few surviving samples-

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The characters where very simple and this comic did not last long for soon it gave way to The Belview Zone comic strip which eventually would grow too big and become grounds for varies graphic novels.

The Belview Zone, a later strip.  Notice the fancy border, an idea that I did not continue.

The Belview Zone was a lot like When Nature Goes Nuts, and one could say are the same comic.  In a sense yes, a lot of the earlier When Nature Goes Nuts comics came from The Belview Zone, and even some of the characters are modern animal versions of characters from The Belview Zone.   Basically The Belview Zone was set in the future, and I just wanted a new strip set in present days so I could write about current events. The Belview Zone which can be found by selecting the graphic novel link. Is as I said before, a very large Galaxy of varies story’s that intermingle from time to time. There are over a hundred characters and growing and plenty of planets and unique story’s.

This is the story I am working on at present, ( January/2007) it’s the opening story to all the later story’s.  It takes the character Izean around The Belview Zone and well you’ll just have to read it.

Some more earlier samples of The Belview Zone.

 

This was one of my favorites back then.  If you are having a hard time reading it I will help you, for the lettering is rather horrid.  It reads- Caveman see’s his first and last Dinosaur.

Most of the early comics where basically single panel comic strips.  Then I got better at writing.  The next strips came after the ones you see above..

Most of my punch lines where rather week and repetitive.  The punch line on the comic to the right can be found in almost half of all the early ones like this.
But I did have my moments where I would come up with some good ones.

 

Clockwise-
Dapin, Thalimus,
Izean & Calyard

Another earlier comic.

This is when things go strange for The Belview Zone Universe, or at least for me.  This is the time when I became an adult and lost my way, and lost the joy I had with my comics.  It lasted about 11 years give or take a year.  During this time I was heavy into the unknown and forbidden archaeology, I couldn’t get enough of it.  I also got into the metaphysical, for I had little in common with most people, and I had to ask the simple question of “what the heck is up with me“?  So I did my rounds in the Metaphysical, found myself and also found the joy I had lost for my comics.  Not bad!

Old drawing not sure of the date created, maybe around 1985.

But what does all this have to do with The Belview Zone Universe or The Jellyfish Coddle for that matter?  Well my writing was infected with all the new things I had learned.  One of the strips that I created during this period.  The strip E.O.T.U (Explorers Of The Unknown) which is now featured in The Jellyfish Coddle is an example of that infection.

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This one was a place for me to use all the unknown things I learned, but It was created during my bad spell so I ultimately stopped writing it.  But as I said before It made a come back. These are just a few, samples and you may even recognize them.

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This drawing below is an earlier attempt at a comic book.

And this brings us up to the year 2002-2003 the time frame when I created my favorite comic strip When Nature Goes Nuts! Now then, this was not the original name of the comic, and like many comics as they evolve had another name.  This comics first name was The Loose Screw, but the name was heavily used so I changed it.

As I said earlier I wanted to come up with a new strip that I could use to write about this time period we live in.  Thus I took some animals, made characters out of them, took one from The Belview Zone, made him more Furry looking (Bear) added some weirdo’s and the strip was born.

All the Character where created in the same day, but not all stayed with the strip. 
The Rabbits and the Hunters basically just didn’t work out, for the Rabbits where rather moody characters (which threw off the flow of the comic) and the Hunters well they just didn’t get enough work, so I canceled there contract in When Nature Goes Nuts and now they are free agents.  They actually appear in the November issue in the Holiday Blueberry’s strip.

Another strip that I have not mentioned is the Encyclopedia Of Human Existence.
This one started out with the name Over yonder, and changed so many times I can’t recall them all.  This strip is what I call the garbage pile strip.  (No negativity intended)
It’s where I put all the random strips I spontaneously write that have no place in the other strips, so I throw them into this one  This strip is my filler strip, if I have an open spot in The Jellyfish Coddle, I’ll put one of these in there.  But to date it still my random comic.

After the creation of When Nature Goes Nuts about a year later, I had the idea for The Jellyfish Coddle,   This is the first attempt that failed, for I wanted to print it into small books or what some call zines and then simply distribute them at varies coffee houses.  The problem was I could not figure out how to print them at a price I could afford at the time, so I put the first draft away.

Here’s the first draft of the Coddle.

A year later when my financial situation improved, I was reminded of The Jellyfish Coddle from a friend.  He told me of someone he knew who was putting out zines at various coffee houses, and yes that brought it all back, and I set myself to creating the first issue of The Jellyfish Coddle. 

The first problem was that I was still stuck on the idea of printing them off on paper, for I knew little of web sites and I did not even fancy that idea.  The first printing cost me around $44 and after stapling them all together and being ready for the coffee house it lost steam. There was something wrong with how I was doing it.  So I put the issues on the shelf (where they still are) and gave it some thought, and a month later, I realized that one of my friends I knew back in the day was a web designer now, suddenly it all began to make sense and eventually with the help of Scrally design, the first issue of the Coddle was born.  It had it’s humble beginnings, mostly full of poetry and drawing with a few comics here and there, but soon the comics would take over the entire issue and more newly created comics would join like Happy Bear, which was born on a day when a grumpy person passed me and Boom! the idea of a Happy Bear that charges two dollars for being grumpy was there!   Or Cat & Croc which was created while writing a strip for When Nature Goes Nuts, for sometimes when I write I put random objects or animals in my mind and have my characters interact with them until something funny happens. This time though, a new comic strip happened.  It was just the idea of a cat riding the back of a crocodile that I thought was so great!
Actually Happy Bear and Cat & Croc are the only new comics, the rest are older ones brought back to life, like Devil Commentary’s which in it’s earlier incarnation can be found in Issue #1, and was created some time between 2001-2002.  Also E.O.T.U which I already mentioned earlier, or Misadventures Of The Enlightened Ones, a strip that just popped in my head a year after When Nature Goes Nuts..  Now one may ask is that it, am I done creating new strips to add to the pile, Have I reached my limit?

All in all you now have a run through of the history of The Belview Zone Universe, but I must admit, there is a hell of a lot more too it, and there will be a hell of a lot more added. To date I have three more children story’s finished that need to be drawn, and two more still being written.  There’s three more graphic novels still being written, besides The Adventures Of Izean which I‘m presently drawing, and a novel that I’m not going to tell you anything about, you‘ll just have to wait.
All in all I will never stop creating new story’s and characters and such, so you will always have something to look forward too.  As for me I need to get back to my comics.

Written 1/2007