Rustle The Leaf - Development

Development

Early versions of Rustle the Leaf were developed as multi-panel strips that filled an 8.5 x 11 page. The cast of characters included "Rustle," the leaf of a Basswood tree, the title character and its most prominent personality. Rustle's comedic sidekick was "Rooty," an angry, wise-cracking acorn sprout. Also in the cast were 6 other characters: "Dandy" (a persecuted, paranoid Dandelion seed), "Fuego" (a firefly), "Paige" (a water drop), "Dizzy" (a helicoptering Silver Maple seed), "Professor Oakmont" (a sagacious Oak tree), and "Amelia" (an adventurous dragonfly). Wilkinson drew the strips digitally using Adobe Illustrator (vector-based) software. Editorial (character dialog and direction) was provided by Ponce. In this formative stage, the strip was directed toward children, and was therefore too broad and without nuance. It lacked the sharp edge, humor and intellect required to address diverse, complex, often serious environmental issues. Although several monthly strips were published on the Citra-Solv web site, and hundreds were downloaded for use in lesson plans and for other teaching purposes, "Rustle the Leaf" needed a more experienced, more credible creative engine to drive its art and editorial content. By May 2004, it was clear that Rustle the Leaf was not achieving Ponce's creative vision, nor Steve and Melissa Zeitler's distribution goals, and it was suspended until a more clearly defined direction could be established.

Six weeks after "Rustle the Leaf" production was suspended, Ponce contacted his friend Dan Wright, a seasoned, nationally proven comic strip creator, who's strip "Wildwood" was syndicated by King Features from 1998 through 2002. While "Wildwood" was in syndication, critics compared Wright’s comic strip panels—especially his nature scenes—to those of the legendary Walt Kelly. In late June 2004, Wright and Ponce began meeting in Muncie, Indiana several evenings each week to discuss the Rustle the Leaf project, and to develop a new creative direction for the strip.

During these development meetings, Wright's experience creating over 1,500 "Wildwood" strips provided the necessary context for how Rustle the Leaf should be approached. Wright's first priority was to address the "special world" in which the comic strip existed. He was uncomfortable with the mixing of plant and insect life in the cast, and believed the strip would be more successful if the characters were limited to the plant Kingdom—something fairly unique, and which would challenge Ponce and Wright creatively. Over weeks of development and discussion, the strip's cast was paired from 8 characters to 4, and Ponce and Wright began to iron out personality types and relationships among the remaining characters. The new version of "Rustle the Leaf" would include Rustle, Rooty, Dandy and Paige. The characters who would most frequently appear would be Rustle and Rooty. Dandy would appear in about a third of the strips, while Paige appeared only occasionally. Both Wright and Ponce had trouble relating to Paige, a character who's existence was due to a suggestion and sketch made by the Zeitler's pre-teen daughter (of the same name). Ponce (and then Wright) thought it made business sense to include the Paige character, and she appeared from time to time as an intellectual foil for Rustle and a personality foil for Rooty.

Once the cast and their relationships were established, Ponce and Wright began "playing with" their personalities, and Wright began recreating the characters visually. One of the reasons Wright was intrigued by the "Rustle" project was the strangeness of its characters—especially "Rooty," whom Ponce had conceived as an acorn with green "root-feet" appendages, and an oak frond shooting up from under its cap. "I saw that thing and thought: 'Wow--that's just nuts. It's one of the most original comic character ideas I've ever seen.'" Ponce cites a "watershed moment" for his enthusiasm with Wright's creative direction and artistic gifts. In one of his sketch books, Wright had drawn an early version of his interpretation of "Rooty," standing on one root-foot, gesturing with the other as he belted out an eco-conscious version of "Home on the Range." "At that moment," Ponce would later say, "I knew Dan and I were going to take 'Rustle the Leaf' someplace it deserved to go."

In August 2004, Melissa Zeitler met with Ponce and Wright at a Panera Bread location in Muncie, and the creators presented her with new character studies, new character personality profiles, and sample strips. Six days later, Steve and Melissa Zeitler contacted Ponce with the news that they would fund the new version of "Rustle the Leaf," which meant Dan Wright would leave his position at a local ad agency and work on "Rustle the Leaf" full time. Ponce would continue his other employment as a marketing consultant, but would donate 20 hours per week to the co-writing of the strip, research and writing of a monthly "Rustle the Leaf" lesson plan, and to the development and implementation of a new web site to feature the strip.

The Zeitler's formed a new corporation, "GO NATUR'L STUDIOS, LLC." in which they and Ponce owned stock. Following each year of Wright's employment, he would also earn stock in addition to his regular salary and bonuses. On September 1, 2004, GO NATUR'L STUDIOS, LLC. opened a small production studio/office in downtown Anderson, Indiana, on the third floor of the historic Union Building, located at the corner of Meridian and West 11th Street. Ponce drove from his home in Fishers, Indiana to Anderson 3 to 4 times each week, and the pair worked feverishly toward a comic strip and web site launch date of November 1, 2004. The goal was to have a "cushion" of 15 strips written, drawn, inked and colored by the launch date.<