A Lil' Story A while back, around mid 2000. I had been working on the series "Nascar Racers" for FOX Kids. Around the same time, my sister Zeea had been doing some freelance work for The Betty Boop people, (King Features I believe), doing coloring for calendars and other licensing, when she had mentioned to me that she had heard that there were discussions going around up at King Features about possibly updating Betty Boop for the new millennium. A few years previous to that I had done some Betty Boop drawings that had begun to circulate around the internet. Zeea, having liked the drawings, told me about a conversation about the idea of "updating" Betty Boop, and asked me if I wanted to do some designs and She might show them up at King Features. I thought "What the Hell", I had already been toying with Betty, why not take a stab at it. My first inclination was to just improve her body. My reasons were 1) Her head is really the recognizable trademark and is loved "as is", and 2) I had really enjoyed putting the more realistic, adult body on her. Betty deserved a kickin' body, and hot modern clothes. Soon though, my attention had been drawn to the face and how just so, old school cartoony it was. At the time I had just done two pieces of art for friends, one was a drawing of one friend as an Elfquest Character, and the other was a big headed big eyed cartoon of the other friend.
Stylistically I thought that these images had elements that I thought were cuter and more modern then Betty. (That's just my opinion) So I began playing with Betty some more, and eventually came up with a design I liked a lot. She had a large head and large eyes with a small nose and small yet full lips. The hair had the flapper curls of Betty, but more shape and modeling to it. The clothes were style to what you might see a girl (or raver) from 15 - 25 might wear. She was cute as a button and ready to go. Only problem though, I ended up liking it so much that I didn't want to hand it over to someone else. I mean... if you think about it, even if King Features loved it, what would I really have gotten out of it. So I said, nope...she's mine and I gave her her own name. Lil' Lizzy B.
Soon I started drawing other images in this style. A friend for Lizzy, Jamie Lynn, and also some other peoples licenses in that style, like Lara Croft, Britney Spears, and the girls of Nascar Racers. Because Lil' Lizzy sounded so cute I would attach "Lil'" to all the names, Jamie Lynn would become Lil' Jamie Lynn. After enough of them had been done to seem like more than just a handful of drawings and a growing popularity on the internet, I felt it necessary to give the style itself a name and Lilz sounded good. I like the "Z" at the end. Coincidentally around the same time Bratz and Diva Starz began to show up at the local Toys R Us. Friends began to ask, "How are you going to compete with that?". I never really saw them as a problem. Lilz, in my "opinion", are better designed and better drawn, and Lilz are not geared at small children. The favorable response that I was getting from people I knew and from the internet was from people ranging from 13 to...well over 40. To top it off, men, were enjoying Lilz. So today, because of my perceived market, the Lilz have been comicbook heroines, party girls, devils, angels, goth and fetish girls. Recently Pirates, Mermaids and Faeries. People are calling. The first Lil' venture was my online store for t-shirts and other novelties. Now we are already in production with the first of the fully painted resin Lil' Sculpts, and are now in discussions with a supplier to a huge chain of mall shops about what can be made for them. Joel Adams |
