The Story of Kilgore, Part 1
Hi there. My name is Mike, and I’ll be your professional smartass today.
So, my first W-2 job was at Jack In The Box, but I was mowing lawns and doing handyman-type stuff when I was about 12. Plus, yanno, chores. I worked at a grocery store after that, then Wendy’s. After that, I had a long stretch of dishwashing (this will come up later), some various sales work, and then I joined the Navy.
This is a family tradition. Both of my grandfathers, my dad, my first step-dad; all Navy. I was an FC/Fire Controlman. In an oxymoronic way, I didn’t put fires out, I started them. I operated and maintained the most sophisticated sensor and weapon control platform in the fleet. We tracked MIR from the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. (It’s been 26 years, I think I can talk about this now). I didn’t write the program, but I installed, ran, and monitored it.
Yes, I’m old.
Anyway. I went to “A” school (basically, an associates degree in electronics engineering), and two “C” Schools. AEGIS Computer tech first. The second was about fiber optics and what they called “Link 16”. Fun stuff. Not sure if I can talk about that one. But, I had some really nice barracks for that one. Practically a hotel room. And per diem. That’s always nice.
Okay, back to the story. I was really good at my job. Solved some issues that others couldn’t. Got a shoutout from the captain on the 1MC (ship’s PA system) once. Kind of a big deal. Good at my job, bad at bureaucracy. Story of my life. Had a great time on deployment (it was “peacetime”). I will never forget Barcelona. Or Rhodes, Greece. The Red Sea can kiss the darkest part of my lily white ass. Washed a lot of dishes whilst underway. Made Second Class Petty Officer the first time I took the test.
I’ve always had a love of art, though. Music, visual art, cooking, etc. I was really into comics back then, so I had a subscription to Wizard Magazine #IYKYK. I started entering their art contests with an amalgam of Deadpool and Wolverine. Instead of claws, ‘Pool had various Swiss Army Knife accoutrement. I didn’t win, but it was fun.
Flashback: I got a D in high school art class. No bullshit. The assignments were, but this story is not. The only reason I didn’t fail is because I was handing in pencil portraits as extra credit. One was of Spock, of course. Referenced from a Keith Birdsong cover. Another was this half-and-half Schwarzenegger/ “Terminator 2: Judgement Day” thing referenced from a Taco Bell cup.
I was 16 in 1991. Just saying. Also, shut up.
Anyway. Flashforward to 2005. I’ve been doing amateur stuff for a while now, I’ve had stuff printed (that nobody read), and I get this gig. Coloring a 70 page graphic novel by a known badass in the comics industry. Coloring, BTW, means that someone else drew the line art, and then I take it into Photoshop and make it pretty. I’m still proud of my work on that.
Worked on a few things for other people for a while, fun stuff, got to teach myself about a bunch of technique and color theory. Then I started working at the “World Famous” San Diego Zoo as a caricature artist. This taught me how to draw quickly. In the nine months that I worked there (more on this later), I never had a caricature refused. That’s kind of a big deal.
The reason I quit the Zoo is, I got this really awesome job at a company that did 3D conversion of movies. They used to do film coloration. If you watch “It’s a Wonderful Life” all the way, you’ll see a credit for Legend 3D. I was, at first a “depth artist”, then graduated to a compositor. I’m not going to bore you, but this is where I met Gorgeous Beauty that is My Wife and the Mother of The Boy. She was the IT desk boss, I was the angry computer artist guy.
You can see the connection. She had/has a really nice ass. And she liked my calves after I came out of the gym.
Sorry. Got sidetracked. Remind me to tell you about our family playlist.
So, we both got laid off from this company because they wanted to use labor from India. I’m literally still friends with a bunch of my friends that I worked with. But, I got unemployment insurance that allowed me to sit the fuck down and actually create. I did a bunch of contest stuff, and a bunch of commissions, that allowed me to hone my craft.
So, this body of work that I started got bigger. I started getting more work.
I started expressing my political views…
Then I got a bunch of work from Liberty Island…
Then branched out a little, started doing some animation stuff, moved, bought a house, moved again, got a puppy…
Needless to say, I have a lot of work to do.
Oh, some sneak peeks…
Cheers!
Sincerely, Kilgore