Jennifer Cabala: Well, the holiday season is most enjoyed by the young and the young at heart. And our in-studio guest this morning tries to instill that youthful spirit in all of us.

Roland Beres: That’s right! He’s the creator of the fledgling cartoon strip “Kim & Jason.” It’s been around for a few years, and the characters are all about youthful spirit. Author, Jason Kotecki, is here to tell us about the strip, and the fundraising effort that he takes on every month. Thanks for coming in!

Jason Kotecki: Thanks for having me, appreciate it!

Roland: Nice to have you here on a Monday. I like your artwork, you do a great job!

Jason: Thanks! Thanks a lot!

Roland: Tell us a little bit about how your raise money for charities.

Jason: Well, we basically select a different children’s charity every month, and 3% of our merchandise sales goes to that charity. So, for instance, this month is the National Adoption Center because this (November) is National Adoption month, so that is the charity that we picked for this month.

Jennifer: How did you guys decide to do something like that?

Jason: Well, I had a really good childhood and so we started out with this comic strip to encourage people to return to childhood. Well, since I had such a good childhood, it stinks for me to see that some kids don’t. So, we decided to do whatever we could to help do our part to help out kids. So, we started that, I think about a year ago, to give some of our sales to different charities like National Adoption Center, Make-A-Wish Foundation, stuff like that. So, it’s been pretty cool. It’s gotten us involved in a lot of different opportunities.

Roland: That’s great idea! Now, tell us about the strip...a little bit more about it and how long ago you started, it’s about 3 years ago?

Jason: Yeah, the comic strip has been running online for about 3 years. I started it about 6-7 years ago for my wife. The characters are based off of us as children and kind of a sappy, cheesy way to win over her heart. And they took off on lives of their own. And started this comic strip on the website. Yeah, it’s been going since August of 2000.

Roland: It’s not an easy job to get into these newspapers, is it?

Jason: No, it isn’t. There’s a lot of syndicates that are the main people who run the strips and buy the strips and they get thousands of submissions every year. So, we’ve kind of taken it upon ourselves, or I should say, my wife has, of calling individual editors, and just trying to get in bit by bit. But yeah, it is a pretty tough racket to break into.

Jennifer: So, where are you around here? If, you know, if you look in your local paper.

Jason: Well, we’re always trying to get into all the local papers, probably the closest one here now is in Monroe. They run it on a daily basis. So, some in the Milwaukee area. I think one in Green Bay. So, little by little we’re getting out there, so.

Roland: And you know, I’ve noticed that the comics, especially on Sunday, it’s shrinking more than ever. How do you get this stuff into these tiny little squares?

Jason: Well, you have to start big. I have a comic strip that I do about this big, and then it shrinks it down. So, there would be no way. I would probably lose my eyesight if I had to cram it in so small, but you start a lot bigger

Roland: You don’t see that ever changing though, do ya?

Jason: Nope, it appears it’s getting worse and worse. I remember hearing Bill Waterson talk about the old days where it was like 3, 4, 5 pages of comic strips. Ya know, really big, a lot more artistic, but a lot of limitations now.

Roland: It’s a shame....But again the website is...

Jason: KimandJason.com.

Roland: KimandJason.com

Jason: Yup, we’re getting more visitors every month. So, it’s going good.

Roland: Nice to have you here. Good luck with the strip.

Jason Kotecki: Thanks. I appreciate it.

Jennifer: Thanks Jason!