Made in SA: Frank ZieglarMade in SA: Frank Zieglar

Frank Zieglar at work on KiDD AND GEEZER

Frank Zieglar is the mastermind behind KiDD AND GEEZER, a humorous Web Comic produced right here in the Mission City. The strip is about when an old Geezer provides room and board for a college Kidd…The Generation Gap is Guaranteed! Zieglar has been producing the strip on a regular three-day-a-week schedule since March of this year. We’ve been enjoying the comics so I thought we would dig below the surface and find out more.

Tell us about the secret origin of your web comic Kidd and Geezer? Why did you start it?

I’ve always loved comic strips and comic books. I knew that my cartoon style leaned more towards a comic strip, but never thought I could come up with a joke 365 days a year. Even doing three a week is challenging. We all know that the newspaper market isn’t what it used to be, so starting a webcomic let’s me follow a lifelong dream. I would still love to be syndicated, it’s just very unlikely.

As for Kidd and Geezer specifically, that started with a throw away comment by Scott Kurtz of PVP during a Webcomics Weekly podcast. Scott said that there had never been a good college comic strip. I took that as a challenge and came up with a senior citizen going to college and wanted to call it ‘Old School’. That bounced around in my head for about a year and went through some changes to become ‘Kidd and Geezer’.

I’m a big Web Comic fan, evolving out of a life-long love of comic strips in the newspaper. What traditional strips have you found to be the most influential in your work?

I don’t know if they influenced me as much as I would like but I’ve always been a big fan of newspaper comics. Peanuts, Calvin and Hobbes, Foxtrot, Bloom County (original), Farside, Garfield, and Crankshaft are all on the top of my list. But I liked them all. Little Orphan Annie, Henry, The Lockhorns, Marmaduke, Dennis the Menace, Blondie, Hagar, Broom Hilda, B.C., The Wizard of Id, Hi and Lois, Rose is Rose, Beetle Bailey, Zits, Luann. A lot of these get snubbed by web comic people, but I still love them and will read the comic section before anything else in a newspaper.

Which comics artists do you most admire?

Charles Schulz and Bill Watterson are the top. For me they set the standard. Schulz of Peanuts made simplifying an art form. Watterson of Calvin and Hobbes showed us what we could do with that.

Is there an autobiographical component to Kidd and Geezer? Which one are you?

A lot of the events are loosely based on things happening around me so there is an autobiographical aspect sometimes. Kidd is my young, fun loving, silly side that still reads comics and watches cartoons. Geezer is my mature, responsible side that has an opinion about everything – cranky opinions.

What do you like about the Web Comic format? Does the format have any special requirements that you would not have in another medium?

It keeps coming back to a standard format because a lot of web comics would like to print a book collection. That’s really the only limit – making it printable. If you don’t plan to print then there are lots of ideas – from the ‘infinite canvas’ theory to motion comics.

If readers are new to Web Comics, what ones should they seek out to get up to speed quickly? Which Web Comics are essential…aside from Kidd and Geezer of course?

I’m really the wrong person to ask that. RSS makes it so easy to follow a comic that I have over 200 comics in my reader. It’s easy to give a new comic a chance using RSS.

Some of my favorites though are Air Force Blues, inkdick (a journal comic), Menage A 3 (blue humor, maybe NSFW), PvP, Rip Haywire, Sheldon, Sinfest, Thog Infinitron, xkcd.

You work as a caricaturist. Where can people find you plying your trade?

Bus Driver Frank

I drive a school bus for my ‘real’ job; so I usually draw at Six Flags in the summers and weekends. I didn’t go back this year though so I’m looking for a place that I can set up regularly. Someplace with a lot of foot traffic and money to spend… uhh I mean money to invest in an original work of art.

How do you find caricature affects your Web Comic? Would you recommend caricature to somebody looking to get into comics?

I recommend it to anyone who wants any kind of art career. It’s a good skill to add in your arsenal and not alot of artists can do it. Many of the theme park artists move onto to animation, comic books, webcomics, children books, and graphic arts. You learn alot when you draw faces for 6-8 hours a day, five days a week, all summer long. Too many comics have faces that look the same and only the way to tell them apart is the hairdo. Knowing the face helps avoid that.

Are you available for private events? How do interested people get ahold of you?

I do as many parties and events as I can, which is never enough, which is why I drive a school bus. I be reached by email (zieglarf@kiddandgeezer.com) or phone (210-601-1555). Samples of my caricatures can be seen on my blog.

Is it difficult to come home after driving or drawing all day and then create a web comic? How do you stay motivated to keep the comics coming three days-a-week?

This hasn’t been an issue so far, since I didn’t go back to Six Flags this year. At work though you are drawing for others, whereas at home you are drawing for yourself. Three a week hasn’t really been too difficult, so I’m considering jumping to five days-a-week. As long as I can come up with the jokes.

You have been mentioning Draw San Antonio on Facebook, Twitter and your blog. Tell us about the group. How often do they meet? Who’s the organizer? What goes on at the meetups?

Frank Zieglar by Frank Zieglar

For a long time now, local caricature artists have been meeting occasionally to hang out and draw. It’s been random though. I’m trying to get it going on regular basis and have other artists or interested people join us as well. We’ve been meeting every Wednesday night at Northstar Mall food court from 6-9PM. That will probably change in October because everybody seems to busy already on Wednesday nights.

There might be talk about business related stuff like marketing, the latest find in a new marker, conventions, or just about anything really. We hang and shoot the bull and draw mostly. Sometimes we draw the people around us and give away the caricatures.

Do you have any events coming up that our readers should know about?

The Internatonal Society of Caricature Artrists, of which I am a member, holds an annual convention which is really one week long draw party. This year’s is in Sandusky, Ohio and is special because there will be four guest speaker/artists from MAD Magazine.

Locally we are going to have CrippleCon in January of 2010. This is the extreme caricature convention. It’s the most rowdy and raunchy caricaturists in the nation. If you like caricatures or parties then this is the place to be. Leave the kids and easily offended at home for this one.

Franks Favorites:

SF/Fantasy Authors:

1. Stephen King (The Stand, It)
2. Isaac Asimov (Foundation and Empire)
3. Piers Anthony (Xanth)
4. Douglas Adams (Hitchhikers Guide)
5. C.S. Lewis (Narnia)
6. Mary Stewart (Merlin Trilolgy).

Movies/TV

1. The Matrix
2. MiB
3. Dr. Who
4. Star Trek
5. Timerider
6. A.I.
7. Battlestar Galactica
8. Firefly