Blue Moon Blog

I’ve loved Lilo & Stitch since it was released, so was pleased earlier this year to stumble upon the web site and blog the creator of those splendid characters, Chris Sanders. Here’s a guy that’s written and directed his original concept for Disney, and is now directing his next movie at Dreamworks, and somehow he finds time to do a weekly web comic. Sanders has been at it since late last year, and kept it up ’til he had enough to collect in a little book he’s recently published.

This little guy is Ogo the cat, one of the main characters from Kiskaloo, which contains the first two stories and a bunch of extras.  The stories and characters are charming and quirky. Sanders’ line is supple and gorgeous. In his work, one can see glimpses of Charles Schultz, Bill Watterson, Walt Kelly, Al Capp and Carl Barks, but these influences show up as just echoes, and what emerges is a style all Sanders’ own. The format he’s chosen is square (the format to which I seem to gravitate for my own projects), somewhere between the traditional, small daily strip format and a larger Sunday funnies format. In this middle ground, he’s able to do strips that are short and sweet one-joke strips, but also has room to let characters and concepts breathe and to tell larger, longer stories.

For cute bunnies, vampires, scuba girls, tigers, babies, and a quest (not a quest — a mission!), pick up this fine first volume at Bud Plant books.