Yay! Believe it or not, this isn't even my first cartoon character. Nope, that honor goes to Ace Frehley of KISS. My brother and I made "KISS STORIES" cartoons since I was around 7 years old. But sadly, they're all GONE...tragic. Then came "Ripley the Reindeer" which was a stuffed toy I had in 1980 when I was 10. But no, Barfman didn't happen until 1983, in my freshman Latin class! Most of them were drawn on the back of dittos (remember dittos, with that purple text on them? remember the unholy smell? yeahh....I sure do...). No fewer than 150 or so episodes were made...some half-page, some full-page, and some with a helluva a lot of pubescent effort splurged on them. I was so hooked on drawing this character that I couldn't think of anything better to submit to the UCONN Daily Campus in 1989. I didn't even go to UCONN...I didn't make the cut with my crappy grades (doodlers are underachievers!), but my buddies went there and encouraged me to submit crap anyway. The Campus was holding a cartoon contest, and unbelievably, mine won. The editor thought it was the Next Big Thing. Wow. My first (and only, sadly) daily cartoon strip, with 15,000 readers! My lifelong dream, up until then, anyway! To this day, perfect strangers who went to UCONN at the time tell me they remember my toon, and never really understood it because it had a confusing, continuing storyline, usually too obscure or metaphysical for even college stoners to pick up on. And well, Barfman never really barfed enough, either. Incidentally, I made around 90 4-panel strips from 1989 to 1990, and then another 60-70 between the years of 1991 and 1994. I spent all summer of '91 making dozens more Barfman strips, but the new editor said I had to be a student to submit, so most of them went unseen, except for a local rag called the "Hartford Planet" which lasted all of a few months in 1994, with a reader base likely much smaller than the damn Campus had!! Anyway, I owe a lot to Berkely Breathed and his beloved Bloom County strip for developing a lot of the styles I still lug around with me to this day. Thanks, JERK! So! Here's a whole MESS of Barfman toons from the UCONN years, and two from the anti-climactic years, too. Following this long list of links are four REALLY OLD Barfman JPGs from the early, early days, too! Scroll down, if you don't believe me!

Episode 1 -- Barfman discovers his powers! Episode 11 -- Legal woes over his logo Episode 12 -- Barfman is given a corporate logo Episode 15 -- Still lamenting the logo; what an exciting storyline! Episode 20 -- Trippy statement on art, man Episode 29 -- Barfman's options of punishment Supplement 1 -- Bonus! How to DRAW with DUDE-GUY! Episode 43 -- Building a time machine out of a Volkswagen...? Episode 45 -- Time machine's maiden voyage Episode 48 -- Trouble with an alien Episode 49 -- The trouble worsens...neat alien mothership in this 'un Supplement 7 -- Intermission! Another art lesson from Dude-Guy Episode 63 -- Time traveling unravels laws of physics Episode 64 -- More scary unraveling Episode 69 -- Barfman patches up the paradox Episode 80 -- He wakes up in a strange place... Episode 86 -- Unraveling revisited! Episode 87 -- The END of the UNIVERSE! Note: #88 was just four black panels! Supplement 8 -- Year-end epilogue; summary of All Things by Dude-Guy Extra #1 -- From 1992: An interview with Chaos Extra #2 -- Also from 1992: Constructing panels!

HEY, LOOK! IT'S THE VERY FIRST BARFMAN:

ADVENTURE 1, EPISODE 1
Made in 1983

Done in pencil. Time has not been kind to the original. I may not even be able to read it in another decade...good thing I scanned it! Or is it?

ADVENTURE 8, EPISODE 23
Made in 1984

I have adopted a blue ball-point pen as my chosen media. The priest-things are from a 1976 Rush album called 2112. Barfman travels to the future and the whole premise rips off the album. I threw in Indiana Jones because I was a tard. Like you need me to tell you.

ADVENTURE 9, EPISODE 4
Made in 1984

This adventure featured my Latin teacher as a mad scientist, and this episode shows a robotic clone he created, misbehaving to the kids. I had about a dozen guys in my Latin class who were rabid, rabid Barfman fans, so I gave a lot of them cameos. I think the '80s hairdos come across quite well in their caricatures.

ADVENTURE 18, EPISODE 1
Made in 1985

The purity of this specimen staggers me. It embodies my comedy roots to a tee. I am naked to all who read this. Behold, it is my ass.

Copyright © 1983 - 2003 David C. Lovelace