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Crime-fighting ‘Badger’

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by Allie Tempus

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Ask University of Wisconsin students who Badger is, and most will mention a scowl-faced, sweater-donning Bucky mascot. Ask a comic book buff, and the answer is quite different: Badger is a local superhero exhibiting symptoms of multiple personality disorder. And after 10 years out of print, he’s back on the shelves and wilder than ever.

Badger first came to life in the mind of Mike Baron, a UW alumnus. Although he studied political science, Baron had wanted to be a writer since growing up in South Dakota reading Disney’s “Uncle Scrooge” comics.

Baron wrote whenever and wherever he could, doing mostly journalistic work and music reviews. Although he initially intended to be a standard writer, Baron kept meeting artists that inspired him and steered him toward the world of comics.

After spending several years as a journalist in Boston and working on his first comic with well-known artist Larry Gonick, Baron moved back to Madison in 1977. After his first successful comic book “Nexus” — a science fiction book that has won many awards — Baron decided to strike again while the iron was hot.

Baron presented a new idea to Capital Comics publishers, who suggested a more traditionally costumed crime-fighter. Baron said he took those suggestions and ran with them.

“I conceived Badger right after that meeting, because I said, ‘Why would anyone want to put on a costume and fight crime? They’d have to be crazy,’ Boing! That was the first pillar,” Baron said.

The second “pillar” of Badger was the character’s name. It was a product, Baron said, of the Madison atmosphere and walks down State Street.

“The third pillar was my fascination with multiple personality disorder, because Badger was the first MPD comic book character,” Baron said.

Baron soon came back to the publishers with Badger — and they fully approved.

“Of course we liked the fact that it had a name based on a Wisconsin mascot. It’s a little different twist on that character,” said Milton Griepp, co-owner of the Capital Comics publishing company.

The first Badger comic was published in 1983 and was distributed nationally. The offbeat plotlines and references to Madison and Wisconsin culture soon gained the comic a steady, local following.

Rob Holly, who works at Capital City Comics bookstore on Monroe Street in Madison, realized the appeal at a young age.

“I initially started picking it up when I was a kid. Every other superhero is based in New York, and here’s one that’s, you know, in the town that I lived and worked in,” Holly said.

In the comic, Badger is from the town of Barneveld, near Madison, and in an early issue called the “Ghost of Bascom Hill,” much of the story took place in Science Hall on the UW campus.

Over the years, Baron estimates that he has worked with dozens of artists on Badger — and he’s just fine with that.

“I think that the revolving artists work better with the Badger than any other character because of his nature. He’s a multiple personality, and personality itself changes,” Baron said.

Bruce Ayres, who has owned and operated Capital City Comics since 1975, has seen Badger through its many reincarnations.

“When it’s good, it’s very good,” said Ayres. “When it’s bad, it’s terrible. And that’s because Michael is trying to do unusual things with it. It’s not like a regular comic book. The central character is legitimately a mental case.”

Holly agrees that Badger tends to stand out among comic book superheroes.

“It had some unusual ideas behind it,” Holly said. “The characters, the plotting — you never knew where it was going to be headed. It wasn’t formulaic. It wasn’t typical of your average superhero-type comic.”

After several shifts in publishers and too many artists to count, the quirky Badger comic went out of print in 1997 due to poor sales.

“I thought the one published in ’97 was crappy,” said Ayres. “Mike would say it wasn’t his best work either.”

Baron agrees.

“Ten years ago the books were printed in black and white, we had a different artist on every issue, the books came out sporadically, the stories were hit-and-miss. This new series is much stronger,” Baron said.

Indeed, Badger is the picture of strength on the colorful, glossy covers of the new series, “Badger Saves the World,” which debuted last November, just about 10 years after it went out of print.

The comic is now reliving some of its old glory. Ayres said he has already had to restock Badger because of popular demand.

Although Baron had some initial frustration with artwork transitions on the new series, he is glad that Badger is in print once again.

“I’m aiming for commercial success,” Baron joked. “I figure, maybe by the time I’m 120, I’ll be there.”

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Anonymous (March 26, 2008 @ 4:29pm):

thought this would be about the CB

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