The Moore American Newspaper Interviews Kung Fu Bean Creator

MOORE — Imagine waking up in the middle of the night by a bright flash and loud bang. You get out of bed and find a large can of beans in the middle of the floor.

Excited because you are a little hungry and beans are nutritious, then out of the can pops Kung Fu Bean, a martial artist wearing a flag of Japan for a head band, and he’s ready to take on the world.

Kung Fu Bean is the creation of Moore comic artist Michael Adams, and Viper Comics out of Dallas has picked up the comic on its website. Once 45 pages of the strip are published on the website, they will be published in a book. Adams also would like to see Kung Fu Bean become an animated series.

The Bean was born in 1999 when Adams was doodling and the sketch developed from there. Then “Kung Fu Panda” came out and Adams was mad. “I tried to come up with a better name,” Adams said. “But kept coming back to it because it’s who he is. Once you read it, you know it is nothing like ‘Kung Fu Panda’.”

He has three daughters, ages 5, 9 and 11, and he wanted a kid-friendly story to go with the drawing.

Kung Fu Bean is dejected trash from a space shuttle. The can of generic beans, banana peel, half eaten apples, drift off in space when a flash of lightning heats up the beans and compresses them into one large super strong bean. He is skilled in all forms of martial arts.

Adams took Tae Know and Kung Fu as a child and two of his children have their blue belts in Tae Kwon Do. His youngest will be taking it soon. “Just two away from their black belt,” Adams said.

Adams has watched all the old Kung Fu movies and he thought it would be fun to spoof them. He also wanted a team that was unusual. “I tried to think of the oddest pairing of characters,” Adams said. “He’s a master of martial arts, a walking Kung Fu parody. Tank is a know-it-all, super genius and of course, there is X-5, the smart mouthed robot Tank built.”  He wanted a strong character for his daughters, he said.  “I wanted to show my girls that girls can be strong, smart and self-reliant,” Adams said.

Adams also has worked as a colorist for projects like Blue Water productions Hillary Clinton comic. He also worked on background posters for HBO’s “Entourage” season two, episode nine.

Breaking into the comic business is not easy, Adams said.  “It’s sitting in a chair at one o’clock in the morning making yourself work while the rest of the family is in bed.”  And it all comes down to networking, he said. “The more people you know, the better,” he said. “You have to go to the conventions, rent a table, bring your product, as many as you can, and you have to be committed.”

“It’s all about the producing,” Adams said. “Fans don’t want a one-book-wonder. Be consistent.”

Adams always has drawn and won a few contests in school, he said. It wasn’t until his early teens that he started reading comic books. The “Silver Surfer” was the first book that impressed him with its artwork and story line.

Stationed in Japan with the Navy, Adams noticed that the Japanese people of all ages read comics.

“It covers all subjects from teen crushes to soccer,” he said. “Everybody reads about it. It doesn’t have the stigma it had here in the states.”

Comics are accepted more now, he said because of all the movies about super heroes and television’s “Big Bang Theory,” he said.

Adams has a few other projects sitting on the shelf, but for now, he will focus on Kung Fu Bean.

A new page of Kung Fu Bean is uploaded each Thursday at http://kungfubean.vipercomics.com/