However terrific your hero’s arch foe may be, he’s going to need other adversaries to avoid becoming dull. Not that I had much of an idea of other foes besides Dr. Bland. I wasn’t sure we’d actually get the first issue finished, let alone a second. And at this point we hadn’t actually figured out the storyline for our little comic. But crazed monkeys are fun to draw.

Since we were doing a superhero comic we needed some sort of supervillain. Our customers were (and still are) designers and other creative types and they primarily use Macs. Part of my experience in my oh-so-brief career as a designer was being frustrated trying to convince a client to go with a design that I thought was new and brilliant over the ordinary style they preferred. Obviously there was a conspiracy out there dedicated to crush new and brilliant designwork. Perhaps that conspiracy was also working with the computer industry to force users to stick to poorly designed and heavily restricted computer systems? Who could be behind such a conspiracy?

Obviously – DOCTOR BLAND and the AGENTS of D.U.L.L.!!!!!

I never did get around to figuring out what D.U.L.L. might be an acronym for. Any suggestions?

After I’d finished the main staff (if I remember correctly, Mrs. Boss didn’t want to be cartooned) I threw in a sketch of the boss’s three year old daughter. She’s a sweet little girl, really.

My job was (and is) to be responsive to clients. Our current website says:

David is our first line of contact for clients new and old. He’s the voice of reassurance when clients need help, and he’s the glue that keeps our team together. There are fast paced moments when he’s answering three calls at once, and fielding emails. And there are recuperative Zen moments, where David can slow down and catch up on paperwork, or observe traffic on Aurora through the office windows. Which David says is kind of like watching fast, noisy goldfish.

That’s mostly accurate. The bottle in my hand isn’t beer. There used to be a series of locally brewed energy drinks that I was addicted to. Used to be. The company discontinued them last year and now concentrates on caffeinated chocolates.

And here is a cartoon of what I looked like in 2002. I hadn’t planned to cartoon myself but the boss thought I should be part of the comic.

When creating superhero alter egos for KP and the Boss I mostly just designed a costume that I thought would be fun to draw. Their actual personalities or possible superpowers didn’t affect the design. By the time I drew EW’s alter ego I’d taken the time to think about what a techie superhero might look like. The design is no more real world oriented than the other two but he does look like someone you might ask to repair your server instead of punching it into next week.

EW had been with the company a few months longer than I had. He was a challenge to cartoon in part because he wasn’t funny looking. That would imply that the other guys were funny looking.

Hmmm. Maybe after I wake up some more I’ll try and articulate my point.

And here is CS in his superhero identity, Doc Swanson. This was the only hero character that I named. Since Swanson is my boss’s last name it seemed like an easy choice.

None of the superheroes had any specific powers. Maybe if the project had had legs we would had thought some up.

CS was and is my boss. This whole techs as superheroes concept was his idea.

And this is KP’s superhero alter ego. With the exception of his face, the parts of him that haven’t transformed into electricity are swathed in black. If I’d thought of a superhero name for him I’ve long since forgotten what it was.