Presenting: Paul Corrigan
Sock Monkey and Wooden Donkey Gain Notoriety
Several weeks ago my husband forwarded to me a black and white, old Americana-style video clip. It was a stop-motion, silent movie-type reel featuring a jaunty sock monkey and the cutest wooden donkey you've ever seen. The clip was Crumby Presents created by Paul Corrigan, graphics designer and creative director at Barkley, an employee-owned advertising agency in the old TWA building at 1740 Main (you know, the one with the rocket ship on the roof). Corrigan is not your average ad man, however, as I soon found while furiously attempting to track down more video clips of Cecil (the aforementioned monkey) and Britches (the donkey).
I found one more video on Corrigan's web site (www.cecilandbritches.com), No Santa Today, from last year. In it, Cecil and Britches realize Santa is not coming to visit their town mall, and they decide to take matters into their own hands (paws?) so as not to disappoint the children. My favorite phrase in this clip is "Home, Britches, for to get our Santa things!"
Scrabbling for a contact address to reach Corrigan, I unearthed yet another website, www.daringplanet.com. This one was totally different featuring a full-color cast of space age superheroes (including a monkey!) with back stories, a link to a fan club, and a ray-gun offer! At last, I contacted Corrigan and he graciously consented to an interview.
First things first: Paul Corrigan was born in Alaska and moved to Oklahoma at the age of 4. He studied graphics design at the University of Oklahoma where he was formally trained in illustration. It was at an agency in Oklahoma City that Corrigan hatched the idea for Daring Planet. "It was supposed to be a series, with characters you could follow and an ongoing plot," Corrigan says. "What happened instead was the characters got richer, and the fan base got huge, and eventually the project was lost in the details."
Ultimately, Daring Planet became defunct (even though the website is still there, and still really cool). Corrigan decided he really wanted to do a project he could finish, so he created Cecil and Britches in a way that was totally the reverse of his former approach. "With Cecil and Britches," Corrigan says, "I started with the end product – the clip, and dispensed with the minute details."
What resulted was a simple, yet impressive package that hits with impact. People love Cecil and Britches. Corrigan builds the sets that he films and that involves taking original photos and shopping for weird old stuff on ebay. He says, "It's like hobbyists who play with model train. In the end, you have a miniature village with props and backdrops and everything."
Of course, I'm gunning for a Cecil and Britches fan club with t-shirts, stickers, and my own laminated member card, but Corrigan says that isn't in the works. "I just want to keep it simple. With this project, I can do what I couldn't with Daring Planet," he says. "Before, I had elaborate back stories, plots and bios, but I never got the final product off the ground. This time, I already have the product and I can make more, faster."
Corrigan also has a blog worth checking out - www.stampkit.com. And don't miss his company's web site (www.beap.com), featuring the Bad Gift Emporium (another of Corrigan's ideas). The emporium displays some of the ugliest or least useful crap anyone ever had the misfortune of receiving along with descriptive remarks from the proud owner. You can even submit your own at www.badgiftemporium.com. In the meantime, fans of Cecil and Britches can check Corrigan's website this spring for a new clip starring the monkey and donkey.
Heather Murphy is a stay-at-home mom of two busy little boys in Liberty. Heather has worked in the health-food industry and has been an active supporter of organic growers for many years. In addition to tending her own garden, and learning preservation methods, Heather likes to spend her time cooking for and playing with her family. She knows Pirate Komoki.
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