Copyright © 2001 - 2024 Kevin McGrorty
1. Is this story auto-biographical?
If by that you mean, "have you based the main character on yourself and on past experiences", then yes, loosely. Friends are quick to point out similar quirks in personality between Nick and myself. But at the moment, it has stopped being any kind of biographical. Other than non-biographical. Unless you're implying I've travelled back in time and met The Bard himself.
Keezees [Khee-zeez] noun, adjective 1. A state of temporary immunity used in playground games across Scotland from at least the 1950's. This immunity is initiated in a number of ways, the most common involving sticking your thumbs in the air and simply shouting "Keezees!". Thus, you are temporarily exempt from whatever game is being played, and are immune from being picked, "tagged", etc. Overuse of "Keezees" can see the user being ousted from said game by vox populi.
I chose the name as it is a word used by everyone (in the west of Scotland) in everyday dialogue with friends...until they hit the age of 12. Then everyone stops playing playground games, and they stop using the word Keezees. Well, I'm taking the word back. I find that everyday situations could be enhanced by using this word. Someone giving you jip? Stick your thumbs up, say "Keezees" and walk away. Simple.
I came up with the idea for "Keezees" during a Maryhill/Dennistoun community art project in 2000, at which time the artwork for the comic was a hell of a lot more detailed, which is why I never saw it through...it took up way too much time, and the "saga" that I foresaw was a bit of an Albatross around my neck. "Keezees" was put on hold at that point. Then 3 years later, whilst doodling during my lunch-break on a film-making course, the idea of "Keezees" was rekindled...but when the film course ended, I shoved all my doodled upon paper-work into a folder, and forgot about it. Fast forward to September 2006, and I rediscovered my film notes, which I believed I had thrown out during a bedroom purge. I then promised myself that "Keezees" would definitely come to life this time, as it would offer me an artistic workout, and to be quite honest, I needed a routine of some kind after having been made redundant at that time. So here we are. I have a story planned out, so all of these strips should link up. I hope you enjoy it.
Aaaah, yes, that was a mistake I made in the early days; "Comic Sans" is a badly over-used font, due to it a) being free with PCs and b) favoured by passive-aggressives. So I am in the slow, tedious but ultimately necessary business of re-fonting [Is that a word? It is now] the entire comic. I was actually toying with the idea of using the "Comic Sans" for the demon's speech...
That was a result of my confidence in drawing in the Keezees style; as I continued to draw the strip, my confidence grew, and each new character's appearance would be a little more detailed than the last. Nick, however, was the very first character introduced; as a result, his appearance was fairly basic. In fact, he was designed a good two years before I started the comic. So I decided to spruce him up a bit, in keeping with other character's level of detail. Nell has also had a minor make-over (her chest now curves, as opposed to her original Madonna-esque chest). It also answers the question concerning what appears to be his "hair"...namely that it isn't actually his hair, it's the hood-lining of his parka jacket. I love parka jackets. :D And yes, he wore it in the shower in episode 63.
It's meant to be tongue in cheek. Having been asked why I chose the name "Keezees" in the past, I have offered the explanation that the word "Keezees" will be the last word ever printed in the story. Thus, "The last word in web-comics".
Just something I made for fun. 20 years ago I made a selection of wee animated gifs of myself to be used for various reasons on the website, and one of them, containing sprites of Jill Valentine and Rogue, was gradually expanded on every year, to the point where there are now a vast variety of characters (from IP's that for legal reasons I must say I DO NOT OWN).
The sprites themselves are drastically customised sprites from PS1 classic Pocket Fighters; I take one frame of each sprite's animation, redraw it to fit another IP's character and animate it to my own needs. It's basically practise for the animated sprites in my games.
Whenever I have written it, drawn it, scanned it, added text, trimmed it, and uploaded it. The release rate of "Keezees" is prone to delays brought upon by a lack of broadband internet access, other creative endeavours such as ZX Spectrum game dev, the odd bit of employment here and there and life in general, so "Keezees" is at the whim of the elements. My PC crashing and corrupting almost all of the back-up files didn't help much, either. As such, episodes are created in spurts, ie whenever I have "free time", I create between 10 and 25 episodes in one sitting. In the past, I have uploaded all of the most recently created strips in one fell swoop; but, seeing as uploads have been a bit erratic of late, I have decided to stock-pile them, and release 3 of them on a weekly basis.
Mmmmm, I dunno...what's in it for me?
My name is Kev, I'm Glaswegian, and I'm an artist, dabbling in assorted media. I am often refered to as "The Rev", even though I am not a Reverend. And my attire often leads people to assume I am of naval heritage, even though I am not a sailor. I am also frequently mistaken for Frankie Boyle. That's all you really need to know. I'd rather my work was more well-known than myself; I'm not much of an attention-hoor. Which is a bit of a hinderance regarding self-promotion.
*sighs* You just can't please some people.
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