Everybody Else Seems To Find These

I will never find my homemade baseball cards, but I did think enough of my cartooning to save most of my comics and miscellaneous drawings from high school. I created an entire universe of characters with backgrounds and fictional cities.

My "main" characters were Harold and Bjourni. During my Junior year of high school, I actually created an intricate storyline that progressed throughout my notebook pages. Storylines were never abandoned and the past was never brushed aside for convenience. There would be no "older brother Chuck from Happy Days" moments.

At the end of the semester, I collected all the Harold and Bjourni comics that I had created and bundled them together in a binder. I drew unrelated comics from the same world and threw them in between the Harold and Bjourni comics.

I took my inspiration from the cartoons that I grew up watching. I pulled the format from Bullwinkle and Rocky. I stole basic ideas from Ren and Stimpy. I even spoofed Quantum Leap and SNL in several ways. I asked a cartoonist friend to write an introduction and even made a high school friend a cartoon star.

Even with all of this going on, I still loved baseball and the White Sox. I slipped in a short storyline about Harold and Bjourni playing professional baseball with the Metallion Black Sox.

I never storyboarded any idea. I just let my imagination run wild. Whenever I got to the last panel on the piece of notebook paper, I would add a cliffhanger, come up with a title for the next page and start fresh. Working that way, I'm surprised that everything turned out so well.

In this comic the two friends are both discharged from the Navy and decide to go to open tryouts for the Black Sox. Harold grows a mustache and the Black Sox are on the verge of going to the playoffs because the Armaville Asymetrics lost their game. Bjourni is the starting pitcher for the big game and Harold is left out of the lineup.

In the next Harold and Bjourni comic, there are even cartoon characters of Hawk Harrelson and his broadcasting partner Wimpy. Maybe I will post "Play Ball" in the near future. I still feel a little weird posting this part of my youth. In the back of my mind, I still hold out some hope of getting these comics published.

Maybe Harold and Bjourni will find their place on the bookshelves. Will they bring their friends with them? I certainly hope so. I know that Recycled-Man, Mr. Moronically Insane, The Jersey Fly, Seymore the blind man and Ned, Harry and the Pelican would love to find a home too.