Developed in 2014 by Dr. Peter Moyes, I had the opportunity to work on Wise Up Kid in developing the lead character, Carlos, and putting together a couple comics and other bits and pieces. Other collaborators included Anthony Cheung, Mariana Shek, and Eun Jung (Joy) Ku. Tons of fun and a great introduction to working with a writer/creator to bounce ideas around.
Creating Carlos
Peter wanted a certain type for his main character, Carlos, described as a leftover from the 60s/70s, bit of a hick with sideburns, balding, plaits/pony tail, jeans, vest, beads, bandanna, peace sign/smiley face somewhere. The Furry Freak Brothers were a good starting point:
I got to work and after some back and forth we finalised our dear Carlos
Creating a Cover
My brief for the cover was that it should feature Carlos, with specific text and generic comic iconography from heyday such as price, promotional buzz words, and the background should speak to universality of the themes within. Robert Crumb’s Book of Genesis Cover was given as a prompt
same process as before, a few concepts and back and forwards and we worked out a rough for the cover- Carlos floating on the clouds, with a multitude of arms in various gestures (mudras)
I’m infamously unsure of myself in selecting my own best work, so I instead flooded Peter with a multitude of infinitesimally different cover drafts and colour choices.
Introducing…
Next thing was to make a 3 page comic introducing the app. The usual process, bombard Peter with too many images and see what happens.
STRAIGHT TO HELL
At Peter’s behest, Ruminator ruminating, Jesus fisher of men, Buddha levelling up, and Stan the man on the street- Wise Men one and all
Contents Page
It was around this time I was thinking, this is a lot of work. What have I gotten myself into, as the things to do kept on coming. Next up was designing a contents page. Anthony Cheung drew up a lovely background (below) so I only had to fill in Carlos and the menu items. The pink bunny slippers were a big hit
Haiku Page FTW
In keeping with Peter Moyes’ esoteric blend of East and West, a Haiku page was created as a place for kids using the app to chill out.
You can find more from Peter Moyes at http://www.petermoyes.com.