Oozing Talent

Today, Halloween, is a red-letter day for readers of GoodStuffNW. Not because I'm going to be handing out extra-large bars of extremely expensive Recchiuti chocolate to the first 1,000 trick-or-treaters who ring our bell. No, much as I'd love to, I'm not doing that. Bad for the teeth, you know.

It's because today is the debut of a brand new web comic drawn by my neighbor and friend, Karl Kesel (left, with his wife, Myrna). Karl is one of those people you meet at the dog park who seems like the nicest guy ever…always pleasant and smiling, petting your dogs and asking after your family. Then after a few chance encounters you find out he's a famous comic book artist known for his work on seminal characters like Hawk and Dove, Superman and Batman. But he doesn't tell you that…he just says he works on comics, and you have to Google him to find out exactly what he's talking about.

So, to get to the point, today he's debuted his much-anticipated (by me, anyway) website, Mad Genius Comics, with the first installment of a heartwarming little zombie Christmas story called Johnny Zombie. Instigated, oddly enough, by the decision on the part of Karl and his wife, Myrna, to adopt a baby.

"That was the tipping point," he explained. "It suddenly became about my legacy, and what I could leave behind for our son or daughter. I plan to do any number of characters and concepts at Mad Genius. Some of these comics will be drawn by others, some I’ll draw myself, and I wouldn’t rule out me drawing someone else’s story, but I’ll always own or co-own anything that appears on Mad Genius Comics. Remember— I’m doing this for the kid!"

Enjoy!