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MEOW WOW ABOUT THAT CAT THE ABSOLUTE TRUTH ABOUT AND SECRET ORIGIN OF ITSI KITSI THE HAPPY ADVENTURE CAT! I first met Sam during a wintery Ohio whiteout. At first, all I could hear were her cries which placed her somewhere between our snow-covered vehicle and the barely visible light of our friend's rickety back porch. Instinctively, I bent down toward the sounds and began to make some loud kissy noises, which are universally accepted throughout nature as the come-on invitations of fallen mankind attempting to communicate with the rest of the animal kingdom. This never works on elk or whales, but it did the trick that ice cold evening when a tiny little kitten came running toward me from the darkness. At first, I really didn't know what the heck I had scooped up from the ground and shoveled into my half-zipped snow suit. Coulda been a rabid weasel for all I knew. One look at Sam's sweet, chatty tabby-calico face and my heart was hers. Those orphan green eyes were a knockout. That night Sam was transported to the warm bathroom of our apartment, where her angry Siamese sister stood guard just outside the door. For the next 15 years, every time T'Challa saw her adopted sister, she was sure to greet her with a loud letter 'H' and not much more than that. The next morning Maureen woke up to find an adorable fluffy donut baby curled up and snoring in the center of our antique pedestal sink. Her original plan was to have me find a different home for this wayward traveler. See, my wife is a true cat lover, but she's also the practical one in our relationship. The truth is that we were already pushing the boundaries of our rental agreement with the feline princess we had. Luckily, bewitching magic protects kittens as they sleep. Especially when they're cute. As a purebred seal tip, T'Challa was to be feared and revered by visitors to the Yambar estate. One look at her and you were reduced to confessing sins you had committed as a child. She had a regal quality and she knew it. She was the queen of personal intimidation. It was rumored that she was a Harvard grad and had practiced medicine somewhere in Europe. We weren't always home, so who's to say. Sam, on the other hand, was the eternal happy cat, a greeter of anything walking upright. She was easy, not in a French prostitute kinda way, but in a lite friendly fashion, the kind you're glad to find when visiting a bed and breakfast while vacationing in Mystic, Connecticut, sorta way. Extremely pettable and ever loudly purring to underscore the event. In a nutshell, Sam was loved by everyone who ever met her and was almost stollen by friends and family members alike on countless occasions. Above all else, Sam was a Daddy's girl. My little shadow. If I was there, she wasn't far off and for that I was glad. Her legal name was Sammy Danish, which was somehow tied into a homage to Sammy Davis, Jr. This association and the reason for it are lost to Maureen and me, but we can say with all honesty that we were not drunk when it happened. Now, how Sam got involved in comics is a story all in itself. I had just gotten off a long run of Mr. Beat and had recently launched my second humor-related series, The Fire-Breathing Pope, when I noticed something amazing. I had seen it before but not through the eyes of God like I did on that day. Sam was peacefully sleeping next to me on our sofa, as she often did (every chance she got), when suddenly she leapt straight up into the air and exploded throughout our home at mach 5 speed, jumping and leaping to and from every surface, be it flat or vertical. It was as if she were chasing some kind of invisible cartoon gremlin or worse. Then, as mysteriously as she had begun, she eased back to sleep at my side as if nothing at all had happened. "Wow! That cat's like an H-bomb on a sugar rush!" It was in that moment that the energy and manic identities of Itsi Kitsi and her depressive rival Mister Poopsqueek were born. If I could capture that energy, the odd abstract quality of it all, and put it to paper... Hmmm. I soon coupled my recent observations with another interesting fact about Sam - her love of the shower and the sound of dripping water. When I'd jump out then she'd jump in. Sometimes she'd just sit in our tub and watch the water droplets form and fall from our faucet, her head tilted curiously to the side as if in deep analysis and contemplation. What kind of message was she getting from the briney deep and how did it affect the fate of life on planet Earth? "Look at you, Sammy. You're like a crazy little aqua cat." Magic. In 1999, the independent comic world was being rocked by a tidal wave of distributor censorship. No new titles were being given a season to grow and build stronger readership, unless, of course, they were dropping money for large scale advertising, (something they'd never see return to them again) and were featuring big-chested hussies stroking long, powerful guns in their hands on the front covers. Doing a straight-ahead humor comic was the kiss of death. So, that's exactly what I set out to do. In 2000, some friends of mine formed a small independent publishing company called FBI Comics (Funny Book Institute) and invited me to submit something brand new for them to print. They, and just about everyone else, were speechless when I sent them the finished first issue of ITSI KITSI - HAPPY ADVENTURE CAT. Stunned actually. Ironically, none of the 6 comics produced for the company ever made it into the comic distribution scene, so I didn't feel all that singled out. Being an experienced spin doctor and not being the type to ever take a loss directly on the chin, I began peddling ITSI #1 as a convention-only exclusive. By the end of 2002, ITSI KITSI #1 had sold through 80% of its initial print run and the character had appeared in several other titles, including COMIC LIBRARY INTERNATIONAL #6 (Giant Sized Itsi-Bitsi Comics), CLI #9 (World's Greatest Christmas Comics), CLI #10 (Off the Wall Adventures), TWO FUN FLIP BOOK #1, THE COMPLETE MR. BEAT (Vol. 2 & 3), and BURGER BOMB #3. I also had the thrill of seeing signed copies of ITSI #1 go up on Ebay and fetch some pretty impressive prices. It didn't hurt that they were co-signed by members of the Japanese pop-rock band SHONEN KNIFE and 1960s teen idol and MONKEES frontman DAVY JONES, both of whom made interior appearances. Little did I know that things were just heating up. When I first met 7-year-old LAYNE TOTH at the Mid-Ohio-Con in November 2003, she was selling her own signed NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD ANNIVERSARY art prints. Cool idea, cute kid, and creepy images. Needless to say, this caught my eye immediately and I plunked down some cash. At the end of the show Layne and her dad stopped by my table to return the gesture by purchasing a few copies of I DREAM OF JEANNIE which I had worked on. I was glad to see a parent who was as interested in his kid as he was with what his kid was interested in. As a goodwill gesture I slipped a freebie copy of ITSI into the stack and watched them walk off into the crowd. Within a month Layne began sending me samples of her artwork in the mail and even some e-mails telling me of her interest in the character and her desire to create her own stories. ITSI KITSI had gotten fan mail from cat people and children in the past, but this was altogether different. One packet included some hand-drawn and colorized samples, a formal cover letter, some newspaper clippings showing her playing harp with her grandma and winning an art contest, a photo with the inscription, "Just in case you forget what I look like"and a resume that included the line, "...and I will try my best to meet all of your deadlines." Her work was honest and her approach was very professional for someone her age. And she was relentless. What was not to like? After speaking at length with her father, TORNADO, an ex-boxer and boxing promoter, our families decided to meet during Easter weekend 2004. We hit it off in a big way. It seems that ever since Layne was "little," she wanted to do comics. During our telephone conversations, she expressed interest in creating a homemade chapbook of ITSI KITSI comics to sell at comic shows. By the time they left, after having eaten supper in Youngstown, Layne Toth was on her way to becoming one of the youngest comic book pros in American history. "Hey," I figured, "if she's got all this drive and talent, why not let her loose on an actual comics project." This, I'm pleased to say, was an idea that turned out to be bigger than both of us! Divine inspiration is a beautiful thing. Now, most folks already know that as an independent creator I can come up with some pretty jacked up stuff, but most also know that one of the genres I love most in this industry is "all-ages kids' comics"! They simply rock! Now I had an opportunity to not only continue to do crazy cat comics but incorporate that magical kid-energy into the mix with Layne's creative go-girl input. Sweet. Layne didn't waste any time. She knew exactly what she wanted to do. Within months she not only drew half of MEOW WOW! #1, but she contributed heavily to the actual origin story of ITSI KITSI and even jammed with me on a special print and on the book's cover art, which I painted.. During May of that year, Layne debuted her first-ever solo print and t-shirt design featuring ITSI KITSI and her nemesis MISTER POOPSQUEAK and offered her original art during an auction for the Make A Wish Foundation hosted by the Pittsburgh Comicon. The crowd applauded as the piece fetched over $200. The prints and shirts quickly sold out. A few months later a MEOW-WOW POW WOW COMIC ART FEST shirt was designed for a special MEOW WOW! pre-release party which was held at Harper's Restaurant and Brew Pub in East Lansing, Michigan. The event included an appearance by me as well as fellow artist LEVI KRAUSE, illustrator MARC WOLFE, and Layne who was celebrating her 8th birthday with plenty of cake for all in need of a sugar fix. Folks lucky enough to attend the gig were treated to a complimentary MEOW WOW POW WOW CD single by GREG HOWE and PROJECT GROOVEYARD which contained "live animation theme music" for FAITH WARRIOR PRINCESS. Again, the shirts quickly became history. In a surprise team-up move, ITSI KITSI showed up next to EL MUCHO GRANDE, SUICIDE BLONDE and COURAGEOUS MAN in MR.BEAT's 10th anniversary comic, THE MR.BEAT SHOW, published by SSS Comics. ITSI also showed up to eat a frog in TRINITY TROOPERS #1, published by Airwave Entertainment that same year. Always with the quality! When the 2004 Mid-Ohio-Con came around, attendees were surprised to find ITSI KITSI all decked out in royal attire, holding high an ice cream cone on the convention's official 25th anniversary event shirt. Couple this with the fact that the MEOW WOW! #1 comic was on hand a full month before it hit the comic shop shelves and was being "flower embossed" at no charge... well...it was a blast! (Layne and I thought the security guys at the con looked mighty stunning in those kitty cat shirts. Ha!) The shirts also doubled as a kickoff for our 2005 MEOW-WOW PURRFECT LOVE WORLD TOUR. The shirts disappeared as we canvassed the United States and Canada the following year. As word got out about Layne's professional debut in MEOW-WOW! #1, the press moved in and suddenly even more icing was added to the happy cat cake. National Public Radio and the Associated Press began by broadcasting and printing interviews with Layne about her achievement. Then Layne and ITSI began being spotted in such diverse places as TIME magazine, 60 MINUTES, the SUN supermarket tabloid, and THE PULSE an online comics news site. She's even on a waiting list for several national talk shows including ELLEN and has been featured in the new BBC television program ONLY IN AMERICA, which is slated to air throughout the United Kingdom, Australia, and Canada. As it turns out, teaming a chubby little cloud of vanilla feline fun with a brilliant and gifted blonde haired cartooning cutie wasn't such a bad idea after all! I originally designed ITSI KITSI with the hope that kids who read it would be excited enough to pick up a crayon or pencil and jump right into the imagination zone by creating their own adventures and amusement. I'm glad to see that good things are happening as a result. This is the stuff that makes the day's work worthwhile. Sadly, we lost our cat Sammy to intestinal blockage and had to put her down during the summer of 2005. She lived to be 15 years old . Her mother and I miss her every day. Sometimes I'm overwhelmed by the inspiration and joy that our little cat has brought to so many who have visited our home and have read our silly little comics. Without Sammy none of this would have happened. Walt Disney is famous for reminding generations that the Magic Kingdoms could not have existed without the birth of a tiny little mouse. I'd like to believe that in some way the same could be said of our friendly baby cat Sam. There may never be any theme parks erected in her honor, but I hope that her memory will continue to live on every time you pet one of her purring cousins and read the continuing manic adventures of ITSI KITSI - HAPPY ADVENTURE CAT. ITSI KITSI fans got another feline fun fix when Airwave Comics released MEOW WOW! #2 in November, 2006 at the Mid-Ohio-Con in Columbus, Ohio and brought international kid power punk pretties and recording artists SHISHO along to further clutter the kitty box! As it turned out, SHISHO made their first comic book appearance ever in MEOW WOW! #2 where they rocked out with Itsi and became swamp toads under the always delightful control of penciler and inker pal, Levi Krause. (Click here to get the whole story!) SHISHO’s terrible twosome, Midge and big sister Vivian, signed oodles of comics including ‘certified first editions’ of MEOW WOW! #2 while at the Yambar booth and even offered attendees an ‘ultra-limited edition 6-song Mid-Ohio-Con demo CD’ of their music. All 80 of the discs flew out the door in the hands of happy campers who were smart enough to get their cat fancy on! After the signing the whole gang enjoyed a fine supper with mac-n-cheese on the side for all in tow. MEOW WOW #2 also marked the return of the mighty Layne Toth who took on half the writing and art chores by sending Itsi Kitsi into deep space in search of her lost astronaut father. Meanwhile a mutated Mister Poopsqueak proved just what a disgusting rat he could be by enlisting the help of the Shameless Nameless Ones so he could break up Itsi’s beach party back on Earth. Layne’s little sister Peri Toth made her comic book debut with her own characters, Heart Girl and See-Thru-Baby who will be getting her own comic any day now! (For more information on Layne and Peri Toth visit them at www.sisterscomics.com ) Whew! That should bring us up to date with all things ITSI KITSI for now but keep you eyes open for more cuddly cat adventures. They could sneak up on you at any moment! Shhhhh! Sammy is sleeping.