KATY KEENE AND BILL WOGGON, STRAIGHT UP (continued)

MF: You mentioned that Bill Woggon worked with assistants. Have you stayed in touch with them?
SUSIE BOTHKE: Both women [he worked with, including Cathy Gill] have passed away. [I’m not sure where Floyd Norman is.]

MF: Did Bill Woggon ever create art, just for the family?
SUSIE BOTHKE: He did our Christmas card every year, birth announcements, anniversary and birthday cards for our mom. That was his other form of art work.
JERICO WOGGON: He would draw birthday cards for me. I remember being a kid and skateboarding a lot. He drew this card for my birthday, at age 8, with a picture of me skateboarding wearing a Star Wars t-shirt. My grandparents worked as a team to create cool cards for the kids on the holidays. My grandmother would do the writing. There were fun little poetic-written things by my grandmother

MF: Did your grandfather inspire you to create art?
JERICO WOGGON: Yes, I definitely feel that he’s inspired me to continue making art. Nothing else really feels right to me. Also, I’ve been inspired by the rest of my family. My dad [Bill Woggon, Jr.] is an photographer, designer and builder. My Great Uncle Glen was involved in cartooning and my Great Uncle Elmer was the Art Director for the Toledo Blade and the cartoonist for Chief Wahoo, and creator of the first aviation comic strip in 1929, Skylark.
I wanted to be like my grandfather, making a living as an artist. It’s like, your grandfather climbed Mt. Everest. You know, he pulled it off- Wow- with low-tech gear, he pulled it off. I saw how my grandfather connected with millions of people and made their lives happier and better. It’s like when someone else shows you that you can do it.
I want to bring it back to the family, to carry the torch for the Woggon art family. I want to keep it going.

MF: Jerico, is it true that you’ve launched a web site to memorialize your grandfather?
JERICO WOGGON: I’ve started working on [a site called billwoggon.com]. First I’m starting out by posting a little family album on my web site [www.cherrymeltdown.com]. This is the newest thing, bringing my past up to present. I’m beginning to start something and I’ll keep it going.
It takes a lot of focus. A web site for him would be a tribute site. It would pretty much be everything. Mostly image-driven, with sections for friends and memories, sort of an online book. It would be some place where fans could go and meet. There are so many people out there who love Katy and collect the comic books. I want to pull the family together. Grandpa really built something special here. The site would be a place for people to pay homage and respect to the work that he’s done.

MF: Where is your art career headed?
JERICO WOGGON: I’m focused on fine-art, fashion, animation and other wild projects. There’s a black light art group show at the Lala Land Gallery (on Santa Monica Boulevard) on April 1st, 2005.

MF: What can a modern audience learn from Katy Keene?
JERICO WOGGON: She had old-fashioned values. From Katy, people can re-connect with a sophisticated woman with old-fashioned values and etiquette. Reading Katy, it’s like immersing yourself in the good old days, and the way things were. It’s like things can be the way you wish them to be. You know, it’s like Happy Days, good old-fashioned America. Like asking a woman on a date and opening the door, kissing her hand.