October 2005
Now that the Tabloia run was over, and as I was realizing how much money I lost from self-publishing, and as I was trying to find companies that might hire me for comics work, one scheme I boiled up in my head was to try contacting the Skeptic Society again.
I thought maybe I could use my Dr. DeBunko character, and rather than have him here and there as a back-up feature in my sporadic comics, begin writing his adventures for the Skeptic Society’s use.
Daniel Loxton, who’s in charge of Jr. Skeptic, and whose research I’d quoted (“ripped off”) for the Dr. DeBunko Yeti story in Tabloia #576, had contacted me after I sent him a copy, and had been very supportive. He read comics, and noted my Sam Kieth and Mike Mignola pin-ups, so I knew this was someone who appreciated what I was doing. And obviously I really appreciated what he did, because the Junior Skeptic articles were my favorites. It made me feel a little “not smart enough for Skeptic,” I supposed, to appreciate Skeptic subjects geared toward “juniors,” as opposed to the kinds of skepticism “grown-ups” would want to read. But his “Jr.” features on UFOs and King Tut’s curse and the Bermuda Triangle were the tabloid subject matter I was looking for in a Skeptics Society.
We had emailed back and forth a number of times, and we hit it off. He had mentioned trying to get copies of Tabloia sold through the Skeptic website, since they featured Dr. DeBunko. Daniel imagined pitching Dr. DeBunko as “bridging the gap between academia and youth culture.” We discussed some possibilities, as far as them buying some of my inventory, selling my comics by commissions, doing a link to my site, letting me run an ad, selling Tabloia five packs or Dr. DeBunko t-shirts and billing them as gifts for “that niece with the nose-ring that you don’t know what to buy for,” but we were never able to make anything come of it, when you also consider the Skeptic Society’s budget and warehousing space. He asked if I had any other thoughts, and so I thought, what the heck, it doesn’t hurt to offer…
I emailed him back and asked if there might ever be any space for Dr. DeBunko to do appearances as a teaching tool or icon or mascot in Jr. Skeptic, or for me to write an original Dr. DeBunko story for Skeptic. I was open with format, since I knew they might not have a full two or six pages per issue to sacrifice to my comic.
He was actually kind of excited about the idea. He’d had a heavy workload, and envisioned a couple pages put aside for a Dr. DeBunko comic, featuring the subject matter that issue would discuss, to punctuate educational points. If he could save himself the work of throwing together an extra two pages, it would buy him some time to compile a collected Jr. Skeptic hardcover project they were in the process of putting together.
We spent a lot of time emailing back and forth, discussing possibilities. Not story possibilities, but possibilities for how we might make this work.
His main concern was that Dr. DeBunko is pretty edgy, and Skeptic Magazine is not. Jr. Skeptic Magazine is supposed to be family friendly, and Dr. DeBunko is decidedly not. Dr. DeBunko is “mature” (meaning it’s full of immature toilet humor and vulgarity), and Skeptic is appropriate and scholarly and ACTUALLY mature. He described Jr. Skeptic as the “Disney version of Skeptic: tight art, G rating, positive values.” A mainstream, glossy production value. If Dr. DeBunko were in it, he would need to portray a different side. Be funny but educational, and not snide. Daniel said we should use Scooby Doo as our model, so that it’s got some indie cred, but geared for grade 6-9, and parent and teacher friendly.
I told him I was willing to tone down the outright foulness of my stories, and could even do a cleaner art style. If he wanted to help with the themes or stories, that would be fine too. I’d be happy to work any story or style he wanted. I just thought it would be a fun experience, and a nice resume addition. So long as I had the rights to publish them myself at some time, I was open to the possibilities.
He finally said he would pitch the Doctor to the powers-that-be of Skeptic, as a one-time tryout. We could always wait and see how the reader response was. I thought it would be great to have a Dr. DeBunko comic published in my favorite, most highly respected magazine, by the only organization I’ve actually thought, I really want to support these guys. I was up for whatever they were willing to let me do. Daniel thought it was a win-win, and a good deal for them.
On October 21, 2005, Daniel wrote me the bad news that the higher-ups of Skeptic were not interested in adding a Dr. DeBunko strip to an issue of Jr. Skeptic. A number of reasons were given, many of which Daniel and I had already discussed. They didn’t want to introduce fiction into the magazine, since they considered their publication an educational alternative to fiction. Humor didn’t do well in their magazine, and the one humor column they had been including, they were planning to discontinue in the very issue Daniel had suggested bringing me in, due to poor response. They of course also thought my style didn’t match up with their magazine’s style. So it didn’t work out.
Of course, I was disappointed, but far from devastated. I didn’t know if it was going to happen or not, and wasn’t getting my hopes up. And this was basically all the same experience I was getting from any editors I approached. They’re familiar with my work (either because I sent it to them, or because they read Ojo), and some people even enjoy or appreciate it (or seem to), but don’t have any work to offer me. If I get a response from them, it tends to be that they think I’m just not a fit.
I didn’t want this rejection from editors to hold me back, so through it all, I just continued plugging away, writing and drawing whatever stories I wanted to tell. But this attempt at getting more Dr. DeBunko stories out had me thinking about and brainstorming some more Dr. DeBunko ideas. I went through my stacks of Dr. DeBunko notes at that time, and realized I had a few more stories I wanted to tell.
Within a few months, I would script, draw, and produce these stories as convention-only mini-comics.