In the early 90's I saw an emerging generation gap stereotype: The self-righteous ex-hippy boomers vs. the gen-x slackers. I had developed these characters back in the 80's with films and audio tapes, but I could see them in these new roles perfectly. All of my past work (Ultra Klutz, Habitrials, Tirade) were not paying the rent with back issue sales, so I admit to wanting to do something more commercial and make a living from it. I drew the first issue on spec and shopped it around.
I landed a four issue contract with Kitchen Sink Press (a well established publisher going back to the underground days), for what I believe was their last original humor series. It sold well initially (nearly 4,000 copies) but not well enough to weather the constantly dwindling comics market of the 90's.
Despite jabs from the press of it being a "sell-out," I got two more Eisner nominations from 1995 for BEST LIMITED SERIES and TALENT DESERVING OF WIDER RECOGNITION. Then Caliber Press in conjunction with American Entertainment offered to publish Father & Son monthly with hopes in exploiting it with media deals outside of comics. I re-tooled the characters again, stepping away from the fading grunge look, and even made these cool animation style model sheets.
The deal fell apart after I drew nearly two issues worth of material, which I eventually published myself in 1998 as the double-sized "Like, Special #1".
In 2001 I issued FATHER & SON: Everybody's Favorite Sell-Out, which collects the four Kitchen Sink issues plus one "lost episode" and one unpublished page. Since the book does not contain the Special, there is no single F&S Omnibus in print.
For the webtoons I ended up creating myself in the last decade, I have sent them back in time to the styles and setting of the early 80's where they started. Considering my animation is as limited as commercial animation was the early 80's, maybe that's more appropriate. .
