Origins of Time Traveling Cartoon Caveman Ug Lug

It's been a couple of years since I started work on Caveman Comics, the story of a crazy caveman who marries a rocket scientist and then time travels back with her to the present. It's a lot of silly fun and drawing Ug has been a real learning experience. I think all the hours I've spent drawing these cartoony images have helped me with the latest superhero project I'm working on called Liberty Ace, even though those characters are much more realistically drawn than Ug.

Anyway back to Ug, it would seem that time travel always has something to do with any stories I write. It could be that I'm obsessed with the idea. It's amazing to think it's been 9 years since I first published my time traveling novel series the Time Cruisers which is a far cry from the cartoony adventures of Ug Lug. I guess, I just happen to love a wide variety, as long as it has some time travel or science fiction element.

In order to promote my Caveman Comics graphic novel series, I actually restarted an interest I had in animation which got me to creating cartoons based on Ug Lug's adventures. I'll freely admit I'm no Hanna Barbera, but I'm happy with the results. I think there's always room for improvement. Check out my efforts below.

Life of Lugs Episode 1 

Life of Lugs Episode 2 

Life of Lugs Episode 3

Life of Lugs Episode 4

 

There's lots more cartoons I made but in a less episodic scattered approach.

If you watch those cartoon videos above you'll get the basic structure of the Caveman Comics book 

series, but I, of course, highly recommend picking up the original book series. I, of course, am biased, but I must tell you that I put my heart and soul in those books. It's a combination of all the Saturday morning cartoons that I loved watching growing up as a child in the 70's and 80's. Yes, I'm extremely nostalgic, however, I also feel there is a plenty of uniqueness to the Caveman Comics series. It's sort of a continuation of the classic cartoon flavor from decades gone by.

You'll probably also note a lot of obvious influence of classic comedians, such as the Three Stooges and Tim Allen, in my Caveman Comics books and animation. When Ug talks, he's like a combination of the Hulk, Tarzan, and Tim Allen doing his caveman voice. He talks in this fashion, "Ug not like this. Ug angry with you," etc., etc.

Here's a short summary of the first book, 

Take a zany cartoonish trip back to the stone age when Dr. Ann Brainsmart, a brilliant rocket scientist, accidentally travels back in time thanks to a rocket ship experiment that goes in a completely unexpected direction. She is accompanied by her talking robotic dog, Oscar, that is half robot and half canine with gadgets galore, who tries to be helpful, but often just adds to the confusion. When Dr. Ann lands her ship in pre-historic times, where encountering dinosaurs like a grumpy Tyrannosaurus Rex is a normal, everyday thing, she meets a cranky caveman named Ug Lug. At first, Ug doesn't take to Dr. Ann very well, but, in time, the two fall in love and then marry and have a son named Dug Lug before Ann is able to build a time machine to bring them all to present-day America.

Even if funny cartoons aren't your cup of tea, I highly recommend bookmarking this blog, especially if you are into comic books in general, or superheroes. I have been collecting comics since the 70's and love to talk about comics. I'll be sharing more art from my upcoming Liberty Ace series as well.

Thanks for taking the time to read today's blog entry.