About WildLion
About WildLion:
“I am a Wild Lion that cannot be tamed. Gr-r!”
These are the words of the littlest lion of all, WildLion.
WildLion stakes his claim as the king of the big Serengeti desert. But sometimes it seems that only he knows it.
With a gentle, steadfast heart, WildLion hangs onto the promises of who he is despite appearances to the contrary.
My own gentle nature mixed with formal statements to my wife years ago that I was “a wild lion that cannot be tamed” was an in-joke that led to the development of WildLion as a cartoon character.
WildLion made his debut over a decade ago in the fourth and final issue of an obscure but fondly remembered American comic book, Apathy Kat, published by Don Chin’s Entity Comics.
I inserted WildLion into the book as an afterthought — he never interacted with the other characters in the story — he seemed to be living in his own world unnoticed by others, but then he mysteriously would appear on library posters and billboards in the town of Acredale where Apathy Kat and his friends lived.
When I published my own full-color collection of the first two issues of the comic book under the new title Acredale, I named my publishing company Wild Lion Press with him as its mascot logo.
Acredale / Apathy Kat Color Collection
Years passed and I began to serve other creators of comic books designed for general audiences by offering printing and consulting services for their self-published works. It was work I greatly enjoyed, but I realized that my own cartooning voice wasn’t out there along with my self-publishing colleagues.
So I began to work on finishing the Apathy Kat/Acredale story I had begun years ago. How hard it was to write!
After many faltering attempts, in 2007 I had the opportunity to create a set of prototype novelty books in a format I’ve been developing for years: the Matchless Book. Matchless Books are small and have a magnet on the back that allows you to place them on a refrigerator or school locker.
WildLion seemed like the perfect subject matter for these tiny books, and so I sat down to write a series of comic strips. How easily the stories came!
Many friends encouraged me to pursue WildLion, most notably my old college friend Reese Watt. I set out to write more stories, and I discovered that they came as easily and delightfully as the first. WildLion was beginning grow into a rich character, and people were responding to him.
I’ve tried to understand the appeal of this little lion. I think he represents many things to many people.
In my case I think of the quiet people in this life who often are overlooked and passed by, whose very virtues make them all but invisible in a world too noisy for their special brand of beauty. What the world doesn’t see is that those people are often who they are by choice, and in their own quiet ways are wild lions that cannot be tamed. They put up with a lot but never give up on preserving the quiet but fiercely beautiful goodness that lies within them. They are my heroes, and it’s for them that I developed this character.
Having said that, WildLion is a lot more to me as well. I haven’t yet pegged him down and hope that I won’t. There are too many delights I’m discovering in this little character. I hope you enjoy him as well as his personality continues to reveal itself.
WildLion is in a way a state of mind. Some days he’s firmly rooted in the desert and jungle, other days he’s battling with a vending machine, buying a Mr. Microphone at the local goodwill store or booking too many conference facilities at the local hotel. Some things just can’t be explained, and I’ll just have to ask you to come along for the ride.
Happy reading,
Harold Buchholz
