Paul Friedrich has been a presence in my life in one way or another since elementary school. It has been a fun ride to watch. And though I doubt I’ve ever heard him say it, it also seemed to have been a long, persistent and relentless ride. Mostly because the man rarely stops to take a break. Creatively at least. Once he creates a universe of characters, he plays with them for a while through varying media and marketing gymnastics, and he then puts them aside for use later. Why? Because it’s time to start a new universe! But he’s always been like that. I remember from the corner of my 5th grade classroom where I first encountered Paul’s Zimmy character and cartoon cast before even laying eyes on the lad, I knew a creative challenge had been issued by the rising king of cartoons in our region.
I lost track of Paul for a few years, but we shared a school year at one school, again at East Carolina University. Rekindling friendships over beers at parties. Meanwhile he had moved on from Zimmy and his cast to the much more adult Hubie the Dead Cow and that cast of slackers. Appropriately serialized in the University newspaper.
And after college he shows up with arguably his greatest creation, the Onion Head Monster and an explosive cast. At that point we introduced HellCar Comix together. Little did I realize at the time I was just a passenger.
You can find plenty of content on our time doing HellCar throughout the Alternating Crimes website and in blog posts, but I’d like to take the opportunity to include an Onion Head Monster story that appeared in the first issues of HellCar comics in its entirety.