Kool Ladd #1 - Introduction
Kool Ladd #1
Kool Ladd is a comic book character, first created in 2019, created by Jordan Tyler-Love. He is J.T. Love Industries fourth character created after Harold Brothschild, Fazuki, and Lionel Gawfeld, and is the company's mascot.
The pilot plot consists of his origin story, where he auditions to be the next mascot of Tagout Industries. If he was ever going to achieve that position, he'd have to have a couple tricks up his sleeve.
Production
How Kool Ladd was created back in November 2019, when Jordan had an idea to take his productions to the next level. It all began, when Marv Crusade was not a good-enough success, Jordan had spent the summer reading books by Nick Sharratt, in which Kool Ladd had a couple of base designs in style of his book illustrations. However, these did not work, as Jordan did not want another repeat version of himself, being Harold Brothschild. As opposed to Harold, Jordan instead drew Kool, this time, in the style of Sheffield's famous artist, Pete McKee. The sunglasses were dark brown, at first, but then he had settled for his trademark black sunglasses.
Kool is inspired by Jude Lizowski, a character from 6teen, including his personality, voice and lifestyle. The idea for having a skateboard, came from him, especially.
For the characters in the Kool Ladd universe, was to have different characters with different skin colours, and without mouth shapes. An example of this, is based the 90s cartoon Doug, where Doug is normal skin-coloured, as opposed to his best friend, Skeeter Valentine, who is blue, and Beebe Bluff, who is purple. Also, the 2018 series, Big City Greens, where the Green family are yellow-skinned.
Meet the Characters
Koolius Reginald "Kool" Ladd is the 23-year-old Jamaican-Canadian protagonist of the series. Kool's dream is to become the world's most talented adventurer, but to do that, he needs the money. He is very skilled, and likes to ride his skateboard, everywhere in the city, even in his apartment bannister. His mother is Jamaican-English, as she was born and bred in Sheffield in 1969, and his father is Jamaican, born in Kingston, 1966. Kool Ladd was born in Scarborough, Ontario on June 8th, 1998. His favourite pastimes are wearing costume disguises, reading comic books, learning History, watching retro shows, surfing, playing basketball, hanging out the mall, and surfing. He is not the average, everyday teenager, but he knows what he can do, once he puts his mind to it. For Thanksgiving, he spends it in the UK, as most of his family lives there, except for his mother, who lives down the road from him. However, he is shown to have a sensitive side, when things don't go his way: for instance - when he was in his teen years, he had two teachers he did not get along with (when they wouldn't help him), a lot of students had humiliated him, by framing him, getting thrown snowballs, or getting kicked in the kiwis, during P.E., or his friends not able to help him when he needs them most. But by age 16, he acted a little more maturely, during his 17th birthday, he had signed up for boat camp, in Bridlington, where he was a CIT, since he was one of the youngest students ever, to achieve a Sailor Scouting award. By age 18, he had returned home, to work in a Poutine Kebab restaurant in the Fjordburg Mall, similar to where Jude worked (Stick-It), but unlike Jude, he was very careful, handling food. His boss, however, had served unreasonable, insanely large portions, in which the food inspector had forced to shut down, which led Ladd to find another job, in which where his new boss and superior, J.T. Tagout and Director Von Pluitt, respectively, come in. He also works at the Fjordburg Village Library, from time to time.
In addition, to the idea of him, acting all wacky, the time-travelling idea for Ladd to visit different universes and times, was inspired by the famous novel by H.G. Wells, The Time Machine, and the classic retro movie trilogy series, Back to the Future and Bill and Ted, with Michael J. Fox and Keanu Reeves as inspirations for Ladd, which has also inspired Ladd to be a little more intelligent lad.
For the future universes, Jordan wanted to give Ladd appropriate attire for each adventure, as opposed to his usual green shirt, yellow sweater and blue shorts, in the real world. Here is an example: if he was to appear in the jungle as Jungle Ladd, he would wear a leopard-skinned fur coat.
Overall, he is a rad dude who is willing to try anything, once he sets his mind to it, never gives up easily, and will do anything for a laugh.
Smart thinking, Kool. You will eventually go down in both British and Canadian history. - Jordan Tyler-Love.
In terms of his job, he is very fond of Kool Ladd, because of his sense of humour, and the fact that he had believed in him. His favourite Kool Ladd running gags are the pogo stick and the clanging pans.
His personal life is not revealed in the comic, but shortly before he met Kool, he came out openly as gay in 2016. He lives with his boyfriend, on the other side of town, and have both adopted a little baby daughter in 2018. He is one of the few characters, in the Kool Ladd series, to be part of LGBTQ.
He is based on three characters: Von Hamburger from the Looney Tunes 1938 short, Daffy Duck in Hollywood, Von Drake from the Disney series, and Franck from the 1991 Touchstone movie, Father of the Bride, of which his accent has a mixed Martin Short-esque voice.
He is Kool Ladd and Von Pluitt's boss. Despite being three of the main characters in the 1st issue, he has only three lines, and in future comics, he is a very minor character.
Not much is known about him, either, except, although not explained in the comic, that his great-grandfather, Jebediah Obadiah Jeremiah Tagout, had founded the company in 1910, at age 65, three years shortly before his death in 1913, his grandfather J.T. Tagout, Sr., had took over the family business at age 30, began hiring black-and-white citizens, but his Tagout, Sr., had grown fond of Yappa Ladd, the patriarch of Kool's maternal family, of which Yappa would make a lot of classic black-and-white silent movies, right up until April 1935. Yappa made his final movie with Tagout, Sr., in 1941. However, Tagout, Sr., had to temporarily close down the company in 1940, to spend time with his son, Tagout, Jr., who was born in December 1928. 18 years later, Tagout III, was born in 1958, shortly before his grandpa died in 1961. However, because Tagout III, was bullied throughout his childhood, he remains the strict CEO, he is today. But, he is only strict towards the other employees, and is very caring towards Von Pluitt, Kool Ladd and his eldest son, Tagout IV and his 6-year-old half-daughter, Priscilla.
His personal life is very professional, especially towards his wife Marli, his 18-year-old son, J.T. Tagout, IV and Priscilla. Outside of the studio, in his spare time, he enjoys golfing, he attends the Tagout Country Club of Fjordburg, of which is the CEO there, too, and when his family are away, on his days or weekends off, he enjoys sailing and occasionally, making model boats/ships in bottles. So, let's just say he's the typical sea captain. He is a two-time regatta sailor champion at Scarborough, UK, not too far from where his most faithful employee, sometimes camps out in Bridlington.
Personality wise, he is based on Walt Disney, Jack Warner, Stan Lee, Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg, Jack Kirby, and current Disney CEO's, Pete Docter and Jennifer Lee.
Minor characters include:
The disabled stressed wheelchair man is a navy-eyed, aqua-skinned, disabled Yorkshire man, whose only mobility activity is in his wheelchair. He is one of the people Kool Ladd encounters. He is completely overwhelmed and has a personality problem. He has been dismissed from Tagout, as he was the first to relieved of his duties, which had made unable to show off his talents. His only source of power is his anger, which makes him even more vulnerable.
Not much is known about him, apart from he arrived in Toronto on a boat in the early 2000s, as he was crippled during the New Millennium, and his girlfriend had abusively injured him in his shins, which costed him his mobility to walk. His doctor had signed him a referral to relocate him to Fjordburg. He was born in Northern General Hospital on May 4th, 1980 and was raised in Manor Park Centre. His single mother, passed away in 1983, just when he went into Pre-school. He was raised by his teaching-assistant throughout his life until 1999.
His character design is based on Mr. Bump from the Mr. Men series, and his personality is based on the Vet Cat, who Max first encounters in The Secret Life of Pets 2.
Easter Egg cameos include, appearances from the 6teen cast: Jonesy Garcia, albeit with a change of shirt, Nikki Wong, in a completely different design, Coach Halder, and Ron the Rent-a-Cop, albeit recoloured with pink hair and skin, a tortoiseshell tie, a lime green suit and orange pants.
The Simpsons easter eggs include: Homer Simpson, as one of the Tagout employees in the waiting room with Coach Halder and Granny (from Looney Tunes, albeit redesigned), and Ned Flanders, as a normal human in a photo frame.
How The Story Idea Came to Fruition
For the idea for the story, Jordan originally wanted to make a remake of the 1944 Looney Tunes cartoon, Tick Tock Tuckered, which in turn, was already a colour remake of 1937 cartoon, Porky's Badtime Story, which starred Porky Pig, albeit with Gabby Goat, instead of Daffy. However, at first Jordan had the feeling, nobody would want to read a repeat version of that story, and that it would be better if it was an original, laid out, less frustrating origin story. So, instead a portion of this cartoon was reused instead, due to copyright issues.
The alarm clock was instead created to be a minor character in the series, as quoted by Ladd in episode 1 of Jordan's podcast, that the clock had belonged to his mother, as an antique.
Originally, J.T. Tagout was originally named Mr. Fenwick, but due to relocation to work from home, during the pandemic, Jordan had changed the name to Tagout, permanently. Von Pluitt's name remains unchanged.
Location
The city of Fjordburg is large city, not far from Toronto, Ontario, and was founded by a group of Scandinavian settlers on July 18, 1888, 21 years after Canada was founded, one of the settlers, however, was one of Tagout's ancestors. Fjordburg is based on and named after Duckburg, the hometown of Disney's DuckTales series. The city's first mayor was Swedish-Canadian, Bjorn Smorgasbroad, who served for 32 years, before his death in 1922.
The town is popular, like all provinces in Canada, for their poutines, even though Kool himself, doesn't like it. The apartment, where he lives, is known to be 6 storeys high. He lives in Apartment C, number 12, on Michael Angelis Street, which the street is named after the 2nd Thomas the Tank Engine narrator.
Other locations include, Ballantyne and Nephew Solicitors, which is named after voice actress, Linda Ballantyne, McGurrin's Chocolate Apple, which is a take on Terry's Chocolate Orange and named after 6teen and Total Drama voice actor, Terry McGurrin, and Corazza's Pizza and Pasta, which is named after voice actor, Vince Corazza. These references are to some of Jordan's childhood.
Rhodaginni's Greengrocers, which is based on Ozmen, on London Road and John Street, and the Premier stores. Mallet Mart, is based on the 7 major supermarkets: Asda, Tesco, Sainsbury's, Morrison's, Aldi, Lidl, and Waitrose, as well as Co-Op, Marks and Spencer's and BnM. The Fjordburg Community Hall is based on Sadacca at Spital Hill, and the Sheffield City Hall.
The schools that Kool had attended include: Smorgasbroad Pre School, named after the first mayor, Fjordburg West Elemenatary, Suzannah Constantine Junior High, named after one of the 2014 I'm a Celebrity contestant, and Eugene Levy High School, named after the Canadian celebrity. Catherine O'Hara Community College, named after Catherine O'Hara. Other education based locations included: Dusty Hill Junior High, named after one of the band members from ZZ Top, Martin Short High, named after yet another Canadian celebrity, Susanna Reid Elementary, named after the GMB host, Katie Griffin High School, named after the voice actress, and Jayne Eastwood College, named both after the Canadian actress and Rotherham College.
The Fjordburg Meadow Centre is the largest shopping mall in Fjordburg, based on the Galleria Mall in 6teen, Crystal Peaks and named after Meadowhall, in Sheffield.
There is even a Fjordburg Civic Centre, based on retail parks in Sheffield and a library, one of Kool's job.
The Fjordburg Huffington Hotel is the most popular, 5-star hotel.
If you're ever around the city of Fjordburg, be sure to visit us. - Kool Ladd.
Further info
Kool Ladd's trademark time machine, despite appearing on the issue, does not have an appearance in the actual story. The first use of the machine will have a major appearance in the 2nd issue. Other characters to appear in the future issues include: Dreema "Dreem" Gurl, Kool Pooch, his father Marley Jay O'Neill, his mother Frieda Tolsky Ladd, his librarian boss, King Artie, Jester Juggs, The Red Knight, Wally Winkle, and more exciting, yet multiple characters.
Kool Ladd, appears in his own J.T. Love Industries ident, voiced by Jordan, impersonating Christian Potenza.
Kool Ladd shares his mother's surname, as opposed to his father's surname, which in turn Jordan does this in real life.
In his spare time, Kool listens to classical music, has a sweet tooth and is a secret fan of skateboarder, Tony Hawk.
Kool likes to dress up in various disguises, in order to mingle with and maintain his appearance with the various townspeople.
Overall, Jordan chose this to make a former dream of his, Kool Ladd's reality.
Kool Ladd will be a mascot of Jordan Tyler-Love Industries, Incorporated for years to come. Hero, through and through.
Thank you for taking the time to read this. I really appreciate this.
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