Episode 2: The Truth is Out to Lunch, Part 1

Thanks for visiting. I thought I'd take the opportunity here to answer the question, "Where on Earth did you come up with the idea of Wonder 'Zoi?". It's a question that gets posed frequently, in fact it's third only behind, "Did you stop taking your medication again?" and "What the heck is a 'zoi, anyway?"

I was first introduced to borzoi a few years ago. My friend Jennifer Frank was doing grad-school time at Catholic University in Washington, DC at the time, and had come to know Bonnie Dalzell, a borzoi breeder in Maryland. One Christmas, Jennifer returned home with a lanky but sleek and imposing 18-month-old borzoi named Pounce. He was the most unusual dog I had ever seen, and had an aura about him. In truth, Pounce is not a terribly large borzoi male (though not small either). But his personality makes up for it.

As I got to know Pounce, I learned two things about him. First, he is a control freak and considers himself the center of the universe. Second, he is a complete ham. Combine the two, and you have an extremely manipulative creature ready to walk all over any creature with any susceptibility to being manipulated. Pounce tried very hard to pull one over on me when I was visiting Jennifer in Washington. Jennifer was off to classes, and I took Pounce out for some exercise in the back yard of the house where she was living at the time. Pounce marched over to the back gate, stood fast and would not move. Obviously he was playing the "I'm waiting right here for Mommy and you are a meaningless treatgiver" game. So, I got his leash and collar, and firmly led him back in. I had won that round, and he respected me after that.

It wasn't too long after that when Jennifer had one of Bonnie's dogs, Lance, in for a visit. Lance is a gorgeous red-and-white spotted fellow. Unlike Pounce, Lance is a total marshmallow. I found the concept of this soft, sweet, fuzzy white dog with a little halo, and this evil, dark, brindled dog with glowing red eyes and little horns very intriguing.

The creative process for me often begins with a simple thumbnail sketch. In Architecture, we call the conceptual germ of a grand design the parti. Usually, these little germs stay safely trapped behind the covers of my lecture notebooks and sketchpads, but every now and then they get loose... Jennifer asked me to videotape the 1995 Westminster Kennel Club dog show. As I marked the label of the videotape, inspiration suddenly grabbed me about the neck, and out popped a little Japanese-manga-looking charicature of a while borzoi with a blanket tied around his neck, and the name "Wonder 'Zoi."

This concept quickly grew into a full cast of characters. I quickly identified the hero with Lance, the real dog. The idea of this marshmallow-dog shouting "This looks like a job for Wonder 'Zoi" and emerging a superhero with nerves of steel just struck me funny (and I'm still dizzy from it). I will readily admit that I built a number of superhero gimmicks into the character of Wonder 'Zoi, in loving parody. Pounce, on the other hand, presented manifold opportunities all by himself as a villain. Pounce had an eternal, black-hearted relationship with my cat (yes, I actually did own a cat once). It wasn't a "predator/prey" thing, it was raw hatred. Pounce was the king-dog, ruling by force of intimidation. Grand Moff Tarkin could have taken lessons from this pup. But even the diabolical überhund of Annwn has his weaknesses. Pounce loves whippets and baby puppies, and is a nut for squeaky toys. The dichotomy was irresistible to me, and it's a concept I plan to explore when the Evil Overlord returns to the pages of Wonder 'Zoi in the near future.

So there it is. It was all downhill from there. Send me an email if you want to know more, or if you're wondering what inspired any of the other characters. Heck, send me mail, period! I'm very interested in what you, the readers who suffer for my art, have to say about this stuff.

Patrick M. Roach
March 2, 2000

Footnote: I don't know the etymology of parti as an architectural design term, but I'll bet it had something to do with Le Corbusier, a Modernist architect notorious for his involvment in the development of the International [lack of] Style of architecture. Known as "The Corbmeister" to "non-Modernist" thinkers like myself (the term "Postmodern" has its own ugly implications - look what Venturi/Scott-Brown did to Michigan Stadium!), Le Corbusier designed the famous church at Ronchamp, France, an exquisite study of light and form that either looks like a nun's hat or a mushroom, depending on your state of mind. He was also responsible for a concept called "le Modulor," a system for designing buildings based on the proportions of a pulp-fiction detective. And this guy came up with this before LSD! The Oxford dictionary defines "parti" as a "Person regarded as eligible etc. in the marriage market", so I guess that's where the idea of "being married to a design" comes from.

Episode 2: The Truth is Out to Lunch, Part 1