- Jeff Balke: All the characters have to look the same.
- Angela Fitzgerald: Jeff Balke carries lots of titles.
- Animator, creator...
Colorist. [laughs]
- Angela: Jeff is also a self-taught comic artist.
- Jeff: This is fun.
I just, I love the colors.
- Angela: In his Milwaukee home office,
the essentials include his dog, Benny, Crocs, and crayons.
- Saturday morning cartoons.
That's the best way I can really put it.
I don't go too crazy with details.
- Angela: For more than 18 years,
Jeff has been coloring and creating comic book characters.
- Jeff: Boop, boop, boop.
It's like second nature now.
I can look at something black and white
and I can physically see what it's gonna look like colored.
Very simplistic.
Looks like it'd be easy to draw.
Can't wait to color the tutu. [chuckles]
I get to be me.
I get to do everything I wanna do.
Create a whole different world.
Take people out of reality
and just take everyone away, including myself,
from the everyday life.
[playful music]
- Angela: He also draws on everyday life
to create his characters.
One of 'em, for sure, is probably my alter ego,
and that's my main character, Stanley.
He's a fun guy and funny guy.
I actually had all my characters when I was a kid.
I kinda had 'em all in my mind.
As I grew up, I got older, I said,
"I wanna start creating them."
That's what I did, Stanley and Friends.
A lot of it was from my childhood.
The fun stuff that I physically have gone through
or am going through.
- Angela: For Jeff, creating comics
is more than childhood fantasy.
The support of his parents and teachers
changed the trajectory of Jeff's passion and profession.
- Oh, completely.
I went from being the kid that just went to sketching whatever
on a piece of paper, but now, it's a career.
They were never those parents that said, "Oh, have a backup.
"Do something else.
Be a lawyer."
They were always very supportive of me doing this.
This is something I've wanted to do my entire life.
[chuckles]
- Angela: Through the years,
Jeff has created more than 100 characters.
- Jeff: That's one eye.
- Angela: But there are six creatures
that capture the heart of his attention.
- Jeff: Stanley is the first character I created.
He's a little squirrel.
His girlfriend, Natasha, is also a squirrel.
Chester, little chipmunk.
He's a little off the wall, little kind of crazy, kooky.
Billy Billington, he is our duck.
Baby Fang, he's a little wolf cub.
He does nothing but eat.
Eat, eat, eat, eat, eat.
Yeah, I definitely created that character.
And then, we have Bandit.
And they just all blend very well together
in all the books, especially when you start writing it.
You can totally see all of their attitudes and everything
just mixing perfectly together.
Proud of these little guys.
- Angela: A point of pride for Jeff
is having his characters appear in Storm King comics.
- Jeff: Like, this one is Stanley and the Haunted House.
"So, how are we gonna catch these ghosts?"
Poof!
"With this!
One snap, and we've got them."
"Ha ha, Stanley.
Funny."
"Okay, guys, let's..."
For that book, I did the story.
So, I created the characters.
I also did the writing.
That's actually my first writing gig.
It's Halloween.
How can you not have fun with it?
You know, it's my favorite holiday.
- Angela: And what surprises him most about a life in comics?
- That I can get paid. [laughs]
I mean, really, that's the biggest thing.
It's just amazing.
And the infamous and most popular "Dancing Skeletons,"
our first animation, coming to life later this year.
I have a lot of fans out here in the Midwest,
a lot in Wisconsin.
Just the joy of actually being able to do what I wanna do
and create a whole new world with my characters.
[laughs] I love doing this.
This is probably one of my favorite pictures.
I like this one.
A lot.
I really wanted people to just enjoy themselves,
get out of reality for just even a minute
to read one of the books.
[deepens voice] Welcome to Faerie Tale Theater.
That's really what I want people to do.
Storm King Theater, oh, there we go.