A Very Special Day

I've been teaching 3D design for several years now.  With a few exceptions, I give assignments in general terms, and let the students decide the subjects for themselves.  One thing I have found is that, given a choice, most students tend to gravitate toward images of animals.  In a project where students make use of pulp cardboard coffee trays as a material, last year I had a student turn hers into a pig, or at least the head of a pig.  I thought it had a strong resemblance to a comic book character I helped to create, Wacky Castrated Pig, and so I brought in the original mini-comic to show her.  This year, same project, and another student did a pig sculpture, though this one was a more naturalistic pig representation.  So I brought in WCP #1 again, and that's when I realized something.  My fellow comic artist and co-producer of the comic David Lasky included the precise date of production on the book in the copyright statement.  The official publication date was April 15, 1992, which means today is the 25th Anniversary of that first issue.  The character was conceived in a dream in 1986, a dream in which it had become a worldwide sensation, which never quite happened.  There were 3 or 4 issues of the home produced mini comics, and the above cameo appearance in one of my boardwalk prints.  That print was in a show for 3 months earlier this year, which led to an order for that print, so while Wacky never became the hit I dreamed (literally) he would be, he's still out there working for me.