Burt and Randy #1...Origins.

This is the first Burt and Randy. I guess some explanation is finally required. I shall do my best to recall the specifics.

I believe I was with 2 of my friends drinking coffee at the local coffee shop one night/early morning(2003-2004?). [This was common, and we would stay up for hours smoking and drinking coffee and making each other crack up. Many, MANY bits of lore from those halcyon days still survive(thankfully).] One of my buddies is a really good artist, and he was one of the people there that night. We had grown up making each other laugh with our art(and some friendly competition never hurt).

One of our games at the time revolved around words(as a matter of fact, words were one of our greatest sources of humor, ie; this particular artist friend, at one time, could not keep a straight face if he heard the word 'corn'). We were playing with rock star names. The name 'Burton Cummings' was mentioned. I didn't know who this was at the time. It was revealed that he was a member of Guess Who(though at the time I think he was erroneously linked to Humble Pie). Another game of ours was to play with band names/songs, so we made up a fictional discography for Burton Cummings. At the same time we came up with the name 'Randy Burton' for some reason.


FICTIONAL LP's and EP's by Burton Cummings(with apologies to the real Burton Cummings)

- The Real Burton Cummings
- Earfull of Cummings
- Hot Cummings
- Cummings : In Your Face!
- Cummings and Goings
- 2 Tickets to Someplace Nice
- The Thriller Album
- Shut Your Magic Mouth
- A Song About Magic
- Steamin' Hot Magic
- Magic, in Your Ass

As one can see we were pretty ridiculous and delirious from caffeine/nicotine overload plus (usually) a decent amount of sleep deprivation. So, somehow, after all of this, the creation of the name 'Randy Burton' changed to 'Burton Randy' Now I have NO CLUE as to the actual mechanics behind the evolution of 'Randy Burton' to 'Burt and Randy', but it happened.

Further, I have no idea where the idea for the first comic came from. Thin air I believe. As one can see, even the spelling of Burt was up in the air, changing throughout the course of that first comic.

Also, in my defense, this was done directly in pen as the idea was coming to me. And, frankly, I believe it to be one of my first true attempts at a 'comic' Usually the quality stuff seems to come from goofing off. Either way it made my 2 pals laugh enough that it inspired more comics by both myself and one of my buds.

And, in closing, by way of clarification, a brief explanation of Burt and Randy. Burt is your typical mean, mostly drunk hillbilly. Randy has apparently been deformed from birth, most likely as a result of poor prenatal treatment and the local water table being used as a dumping ground for toxic chemicals. In his first incarnations Randy wore a cape and was able to fly. He also has gorgeous boobs.