My exclusive interview with Gary K. Wolf, creator of Roger Rabbit, Jessica Rabbit, Baby Herman, Private Eye, Eddie Valiant, and the whole concept of ToonTown.
STF: What gave you the drive and passion to become an
Author?
GKW: I got that from my parents, from the
support and their acceptance of me for who I was and the kinds of things I
wanted to do.
I was in the first or second grade. My teacher gave my class a picture to
color. It showed a farm house, a barn
and a single cow. The whole purpose was
to stay inside the lines.
I left the farmhouse white, I colored the
barn red. When I came to the cow, I
thought to myself, "What a sad, lonely cow, standing alone out there in the
middle of that big field." My mother had
always told me that when people were sad and lonely, they were blue. If it's true for people, it must be true for
cows. I colored that cow
blue.
Next day, the teacher handed them back. All but mine. She called me up in front of class. She held up my picture for everyone to
see. I figured I must have stayed inside
the lines better than anybody, but no.
"Look at this silly picture," she said.
"Cows are brown, cows are black, cows are white. Never, never are cows
blue."
My mother had to come to school for a
meeting with my teacher. My teacher told
her that her son had a real problem and probably required counseling. After that meeting, my mother and my father
sat me down. They asked me why I'd done
it. I told them. They sent me out of the room, discussed it,
and called me back in. "From now on,"
they told me, "whenever you want to color a cow blue, you go ahead and color a
cow blue." What a great thing from two
people who never made it past the eighth
grade.
STF: How did the idea and inspiration for Roger Rabbit,
Jessica Rabbit, Baby Herman, Private Eye, Eddie Valiant, and the whole concept
of Toontown come about?
GKW: I was looking for a concept for my next
book, something I could use to tie together my two favorite loves, Comic
books/cartoons and noir mysteries.
I was watching Saturday morning cartoons –
purely for research I told my wife – when I became fascinated by the
commercials. I saw the Trix Rabbit,
Cap’n Crunch, Snap, Crackle and Pop, Tony the Tiger, talking to real kids, and
nobody thought that was odd. What a
great premise, I thought for a novel.
Thus was Toontown born.
I developed some funny characters. I named the hero Roger after my cousin. I made Roger a rabbit because I liked the
alliteration. I based Jessica on Tex
Avery’s Red Hot Riding Hood. Baby Herman
was a reflection of the adult baby characters that were common in comics and
cartoons of my youth. I named Eddie after my dad and gave him Mike Hammer’s
personality.
GKW: They fit right into the new story and
were appropriate to the concept. Disney
changed the story from the one in the book, but they had to. The book used concepts that wouldn’t work in
a movie (i.e. the word balloons.) The
book also forced readers to use their imaginations. The movie puts everything right out on the
screen.
Disney did keep the most important elements
of the book, my characters and the overall concept of animated characters
co-existing with humans.
STF: What are your thoughts on a sequel to the 1988
movie? Do you see it as being a possibility in the
future?
GKW: Stay
Tooned!!!
STF: How do you feel about some of the more hardcore
Roger Rabbit fans and enthusiasts? Being one of them, I consider myself
extremely lucky you call me a friend and that I have so many wonderful "Grail"
and rare, one-of-a-kind Roger Rabbit related items from
you.
GKW: I love my Roger Rabbit fans. My fans are what keep the Rabbit, and my
work, alive!! Without my fans, I would
be a little known author who created a bunch of largely forgotten
characters. Long live the Legion of
Toontownians!!!
STF: I know you have a re-release of your first Roger
Rabbit novel, Who Censored Roger Rabbit?, coming soon from Centipede
Press with artwork by Wayne Anderson. Can you tell a little more about it and
how this new edition came to be?
GKW: That one was pure serendipity. Centipede contacted me and asked if I would
be interested in doing a high quality, low volume reprint. Naturally, I was thrilled. Centipede came up with British illustrator
Wayne Anderson. His artwork is fabulous and right in keeping with the concept of
the book. The final product will be
magnificent, something all Roger Rabbit collectors will want to
have.
