Crude Behavior is a graphic novel written by Ron Callari and illustrated by Jon Donohoe. As a political satire it is a fictionalized version of George W. Bush's 8 years in the White House, and features the online cartoon character 'kidd millennium,' an irrascible pundit, wise beyond his years.

After being rejected by 100s of 'traditional' publishers, it wasn't until the Callari-Donohoe team met Dave Baxter, Deputy Director for Robot Comics on Twitter that "Crude Behavior" was able to be picked up for publication.  

KIDD MILLENNIUM is the unofficial heir to R.F. Outcault’s 19th century newspaper comic sensation, THE YELLOW KID.

With his jug ears, two buck teeth, beady blue eyes, and yellow nightdress, the Yellow Kid hardly looks like an icon for comic and commercial success, but that’s exactly what he became in late nineteenth-century America. Created by middle-class artist R.F. Outcault, who later went on to draw the even more successful Buster Brown comic strip, the series of images in which the Yellow Kid appeared presented a turn-of-the-century theater of the city, in which class and racial tensions of the new urban, consumerist environment were acted out by a mischievous group of New York City kids from the wrong side of the tracks.

The Yellow Kid has long since passed away, but op-ed journalist Ron Callari believes we once again need YK’s style of off-the-cuff commentary for the next generation.  “On January 1, 2001, kidd emerged as a full-blown character and an ongoing, self-proclaimed spokes-kid for the next generation,” Ron states on the kidd millennium Official Website. “Estimated at 3.9 million American children, societal forecasters believe that this new population group (born post 2000) will eclipse the attention of the boomers, the last major bubble to have moved through the population funnel. Based on that premise, kidd millennium comments, with attitude, on his brave new world from a narcissistic and questioning point of view.”

The Creators

Callari has written freelance for the AlterNet, Baltimore Chronicle, Scoop, and the Sacramento News & Review, and is currently a regular Society and Trends blogger for InventorSpot.com. Donohoe’s award-winning illustrations can be found at Illustration Ireland.

With ROBOT COMICS, he and artist Jon A. Donohoe will be bringing the kidd’s first full-blown Graphic Novel - Crude Behavior - to the iPhone/iPod Touch, Google Android, Amazon Kindle, and additional multi-format eReaders.

We’ll be starting with the KINDLE,” Deputy Director Dave Baxter revealed.  “We’ll be putting up a collection of the kidd’s one-panel strips for free download on the ROBOT COMICS website as a DRM-free .mobi file, and as a $0.99 release on the Amazon storefront, for those who will only trust books sold directly through Amazon.  Then the GN will be in two editions - one for the Kindle 1 & 2, another specifically for the Kindle DX alone.  Then serial adaptations for the Apple and Google markets will be arriving shortly thereafter.Look for the first KIDD MILLENNIUM releases to hit on or around October, 2009.