Bringing 'Stanley and Friends' to life

Jeff Balke:
All the characters have to look the same.

Angela Fitzgerald:
Jeff Balke carries lots of titles. Animator, creator Colorist.(laughs)

Angela Fitzgerald:
Jeff is also a selftaught comic artist.

Jeff Balke:
This is fun. I just, I love the colors.

Angela Fitzgerald:
In his Milwaukee home office, the essentials include his dog, Benny, Crocs, and crayons.

[playful music]

Angela Fitzgerald:
He also draws on everyday life to create his characters.

Jeff Balke:
One of em, for sure, is probably my alter ego, and thats my main character, Stanley. Hes a fun guy and funny guy. I actually had all my characters when I was a kid. I kinda had em all in my mind. As I grew up, I said, I wanna start creating them. Thats what I did,Stanley and Friends.A lot of it was from my childhood. The fun stuff that I physically have gone through or am going through.

Angela Fitzgerald:
For Jeff, creating comics is more than childhood fantasy. The support of his parents and teachers changed the trajectory of Jeffs passion and profession.

Angela Fitzgerald:
Oh, completely. I went from being the kid that just went to sketching whatever on a piece of paper, but now, its a career.

Jeff Balke:
They were never those parents that said, Oh, have a backup. Do something else. Be a lawyer. They were always very supportive of me doing this. This is something Ive wanted to do my entire life.(chuckles)

Angela Fitzgerald:
Through the years, Jeff has created more than 100 characters.

Jeff Balke:
Thats one eye.

Angela Fitzgerald:
But there are six creatures that capture the heart of his attention.

Jeff Balke:
Stanley is the first character I created. Hes a little squirrel. His girlfriend, Natasha, is also a squirrel. Chester, little chipmunk. Hes a little off the wall, little kind of crazy, kooky. Billy Billington, he is our duck. Baby Fang, hes a little wolf cub. He does nothing but eat. Eat, eat, eat, eat, eat. Yeah, I definitely created that character. And then, we have Bandit. And they just all blend very well together in all the books, especially when you start writing it. You can totally see all of their attitudes and everything just mixing perfectly together. Proud of these little guys.

Angela Fitzgerald:
A point of pride for Jeff is having his characters appear in Storm King comics.

Jeff Balke:
Like, this one isStanley and the Haunted House.So, how are we gonna catch these ghosts? Poof! With this! One snap, and weve got them. Ha ha, Stanley. Funny. Okay, guys, lets For that book, I did the story. So, I created the characters. I also did the writing. Thats actually my first writing gig.

Jeff Balke:
Its Halloween. How can you not have fun with it? You know, its my favorite holiday.

Angela Fitzgerald:
And what surprises him most about a life in comics?

Jeff Balke:
That I can get paid.(laughs)I mean, really, thats the biggest thing. Its just amazing. And the infamous and most popular Dancing Skeletons, our first animation, coming to life later this year.

Jeff Balke:
I have a lot of fans out here in the Midwest, a lot in Wisconsin. Just the joy of actually being able to do what I wanna do and create a whole new world with my characters.(laughs)I love doing this. This is probably one of my favorite pictures. I like this one. A lot. I really wanted people to just enjoy themselves, get out of reality for just even a minute to read one of the books.

Jeff Balke (deepened voice):
Welcome toFaerie Tale Theater.Thats really what I want people to do. Storm King Theater, oh, there we go.