 The Duckumentary: The history of Callous and Cal Duck
by CJ San Juan, MD
I
have always been fond of ducks. They are, in my opinion, the best to
use in comic strips. Their awkward humor comes from the quacking and waddling
but they have their moments of majesty and grace as well.Back
in 1989 I drew up Dan "The Daring" Duck. As his name suggests, he was a daredevil of sorts,
signing up for duck-destined jobs like running across shooting
galleries. Publication, however, was limited to the back of notebooks
and doodles here and there to pass the long childhood summer days away.
Dan
the Duck's look was changed when I got into high school. He became a
typical high school student in a world full of walking, talking
animals. It was published in my high school paper and I got my
first thrill of circulated work.
The
paper's moderator suggested I draw humans instead of animals and this
left Dan the Duck to appear in backgrounds instead of being a regular
character. Nevertheless, it was good development for my next step.
In
my second year of college I was accepted into The LaSallian, which
published the first Callous comic strip.
Why "Callous"? When one of
my co-artists suggested I find a regular title for my series I opened
up a dictionary and the first word I saw would be my title. That word ended up being "Callous". Still populated by humans, Callous gained a small but
encouraging following and won several awards. Dan the
Duck was renamed to Cal Duck, a character with a seriously bad case of
horrible luck. He started to appear in the title frame of my series
and eventually starred in Callous' spot cartoons.
It
wasn't until my entry into medical school when I decided, following the
advice of my good friend, Andrei Avenido, to revamp Cal Duck
(as there are many unlucky cartoon ducks anyway) and make him a more endearing character. I took the character
Rianne, who starred in several Callous comic strips, and made
her a medical student (which made things easier for me to write). Then
came a walking talking duck in a plaid flannel shirt who tells her he's
her guardian duck. And I went from there....
Master
Kalus, Mallard Duck, Ling Duck, and Decoy Duck were characters I used
in my college paper's "logbook wars" where all the artists pitted their
characters into doodled mortal combat within the pages of the staff logbook. My ducks were quite invincible (ha!)
but come graduation I felt they were too good a thing to just leave in
the logbooks. So, they became guardian ducks too, each with a certain
character or physical flaw. Thus was born
"Quacks", my medical Callous spin-off.
After medical school, things slowed down considerably in the Callous world. There was no longer a school paper to publish a regular series so I opted to do my own publishing online. After trying out several hosts, this led to the site you are now browsing.
The Design of Cal Duck
Dan
"the daring" Duck's initial look was influenced greatly by Sergio Aragones' art
in MAD Magazine. However, I eventually got smitten by Jim Davis'
work and began to learn how to draw his characters. I then took his
style and made it my own and drew Dan the Duck with Davis'
characteristic eyes. However, Davis made a cartoon duck of his own,
which looked too similar to mine.
Around that time, circa early 90's, I was in a rock band. I began to really get into grunge
and drew Dan in a plaid flannel shirt. I liked the look and stuck with it to this day.
Upon
entering college I was exposed to Anime and Manga. Their cartoony Japanese-styled eyes replaced my Jim Davis-inspired oculars. One anime, Nintama RantarÅ, was a particular influence.
As a joke, I gave Dan a
haircut and buzzed his sides and back, which reflected my own change in
hairstyle as was required by ROTC, a course all male college students
in my country had to undergo at that time. This led to Cal Duck's current look. |
