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.

In 2002, there were three techs working for the company; the boss CS, the senior tech KP and the junior tech EW. My job here was to turn them into superheroes. First I had to turn their normal selves into cartoons. I don’t consider myself a good portraitist. I’m about the level of those guys who do quick sketches at the fairgrounds – except I’m much slower.

This is as far as I got on the slingshot “instruction manual”. At this point we realized that we weren’t going to get it together in time for Christmas.

Ah well.

The boss liked to give out fun things to our regular clients for Christmas. The first year he had me paint almost 5 dozen little ceramic pigs. That was inspired by all the huge themed pig statues that were all over Seattle in 2001.

In 2002 he wanted to give out toys. In particular a sort of sling shot. My job was to create a fun little instruction manual. Unfortunately we left planning and purchasing the toys to the last minute and had to abandon that plan. I don’t remember what we gave out instead.