a third O.T. Katie thread

[hugob00m]

I have a long story that I've been playing with since about a week before St. Patrick's Day. (That's one reason the Leprechaun is back and most of the characters are dressed in green.)

Before I start posting the story itself, I just wanted to say a few words about the making of an O.T. Katie strip.

In the early days of computer art, there was a belief among some people that cut-and-paste art, colorizing, and other computer functions should be the domain of artists who can't draw pictures by hand. I looked at it differently. To me, the computer was one more drawing tool, along with the pencil, the pen, and the paintbrush. I was convinced that, with a printer and a scanner, hand-drawn art and computer art could be combined... and should be.

O.T. Katie was one of my early endeavors in combining hand-drawn art with computer art. I started out drawing the human figures and faces by hand and scanning them. The backgrounds were mostly done on the computer, a few straight lines and angles here and there to suggest the walls and corners of a room. For the hand-drawn parts, I used a Sharpie pen, so that my outlines would be bold, simple and dark, like the classic comic books that provided part of my inspiration. Then I adjusted width of the line tool on the computer to match the thickness of my hand-drawn lines. Of course, even though most of the human faces and figures were hand-drawn at first, I would copy and paste some parts of the story that used the same character in the same pose in more than one panel of the story.

After I had drawn several strips, I began to notice that I was having a problem that is fairly common among amateur cartoonists, especially ones who don't use live models. My proportions weren't always consistant. To solve that problem, I drew up three Katie templates, front view, rear view, and profile, and then divided them up into torso, thigh, lower leg, foot, upper arm, forearm, hand, and head. That way, the length of Katie's arms and legs would be the same from one panel to the next. Then, I did the same thing for a male character. (I don't suppose anyone pays as much attention to the men in the strip as they do to Katie herself, but I wanted their proportions to be a little more accurate too.)

Another thing that happened was that I started to run out of ideas for three and four panel stories, and coming up with these long and rambling ones. Saving my drawings to copy and paste into new strips has made it possible to do some of these long stories without having to draw each individual panel by hand.

The software I use for the computer part of my drawings is Paintshop Pro, which is similar to the better-known Photoshop, but made by a different company, and cheaper at the time I happened to be out shopping for graphic software. (I bought version 8 just before version 9 was about to be introduced, and electronics stores were trying to get version 8 off of their shelves.) So now, everything that I don't draw by hand, is either drawn with the line tool of the Paintshop program, or copied and pasted from a drawing I did earlier.

Enough of that for now... on with my newest story... another long and rambling one! I hope you'll like it.

[hugob00m]

When I did the story about Mr. Kauf losing his company, his house, and his life's savings in a stupid bet with Mr. Fitz, I didn't realize at first that some of you would sympathize with Mr. Kauf. Since then, I've been thinking about ways that he could get back what he lost... and of course, since the title of the strip is O.T. Katie, someone is going to have to give our callipygian heroine a spanking...

[hugob00m]

I started this just before St. Patrick's Day, and that's one reason the Leprechaun is involved...

[hugob00m]

And, in honor of my own Irish ancestors, the skirt Katie is wearing in the early part of this story is a County Leitrim tartan.

[hugob00m]

Katie has a plan...

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...And she puts the first part of her plan into motion...

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...And he goes for it!

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...With some hesitation...

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...And the toss...

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Katie wins!

[hugob00m]

Mmm! I like that little victory dance! ...But can she collect?

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...This law really does exist in Missouri.

[hugob00m]

So then, one way or another, Mr. Kauf has his company, his house, and his life's savings back... but now, Mr. Fitz has been prevented from spanking Katie... What's the deal?

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Is Mr. Kauf going to... or will he be too grateful?

[hugob00m]

Just two one-swats? Is that all we get? Surely there's more!

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Yes there is, and don't call me Shirley!

[hugob00m]

Will she use up all her amnesties in one day?

[hugob00m]

So now, even without official "authority", Mr.Fitz has had enough of Katie's sassy little mouth!

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[hugob00m]

...And so, over his knee she goes!

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...only to be stopped again! Argggh!

[hugob00m]

Can you feel Mr. Fitz's frustration?

[hugob00m]

...But does the Leprechaun have a valid reason to spank Katie?

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Someone needs to!

[jimc]

great story, b00m. I'm glad you got Mr. Kauf his company back and i am sure our bonney lass Katie will somehow lose on all sides Kauf is of course going to spank her, the leprucan (Haigh and probally mr. Fitz and even Bull Moose will probally find a reason to put Katie otk as well. Thanks for sharing these B00m they are great as always.
JIm