News Release

Superhero Suffers an Identity Crisis

Kansas City, MO  (12/19/2005)  In only his second month of syndication, Captain Victory—the superhero of the daily comic strip, Ink Pen—has been confronted with a confounding identity crisis. His name doesn’t technically belong to him.

In the Monday, Dec. 19 Ink Pen strip, the morally bankrupt superhero is greeted with some startling news from his agent, Bixby the rat. “Bad news, Cap—turns out there’s already a Captain Victory,” Bixby says, informing him of famed comic creator Jack Kirby’s character of the same name. After Bixby overrides his protests that he is Captain Victory, the superhero asks in the final panel, “Then…who am I?” He will continue to wrestle with the ramifications of the dilemma until his new name is revealed on Saturday, Dec. 24. (The Dec. 19 comic strip can be seen on www.ucomics.com.)

The strips reflect the real-life issue Ink Pen creator Phil Dunlap became aware of when he received an e-mail from Lisa Kirby, daughter of Marvel comics legend Jack Kirby. Kirby—the creator or co-creator of Captain America, The Fantastic Four, The X-Men, The Incredible Hulk and dozens of other characters—also created a character in the 1980s named Captain Victory. Though Kirby’s Captain Victory bears little resemblance to the one created by Dunlap, his estate still holds the trademark on the name.

“While I didn't know about Jack Kirby's Captain Victory character, I am a huge fan of his work, so the idea that I could have at all insulted his memory made me feel terrible,” Dunlap says. “Lisa was very understanding, but we realized of course the right thing to do was to change the name.”

Because three weeks’ worth of Ink Pen strips had already been submitted to newspapers clients, including the Chicago Tribune, Atlanta Journal, and the Detroit Free Press, Dunlap and editors at Universal Press Syndicate had to think of a way to change Captain Victory’s name without confusing the growing readership. They decided that the best way to address the superhero’s identity crisis was to work it into the strip itself.

“While I'm bummed that I lost the name, it certainly makes for a good story, and one that can be told for the most part in the strip itself, which was fun,” Dunlap says. “The strip is all about blurring the lines between cartoon characters and the media in which they appear, so this whole situation was perfect material for Ink Pen.”

Ink Pen centers around an unemployment agency for out-of-work cartoon characters run by the rat and dog team, Bixby and Fritz. Among their clients are Hamhock, a naïve pig trying to break into show business; Ralston Rabbit, a high-brow, bow tie-wearing bunny who’s pigeonholed into physically violent commercial work; and the lazy, farcical superhero who—until Saturday—is called Captain Victory.

Ink Pen was created by Dunlap, a Massachusetts native who has worked in advertising in Los Angeles for the past three years. The Tufts University graduate also spent two years doing freelance storyboard work for clients such as Saturday Night Live, MTV, U2, and Jay-Z.

Creator(s):

Contact(s): Kathie Kerr

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