About dizABLED
- Claire & John Lytle
The concept of Leeder O. Men was born in 1985 while I was a teacher’s assistant at an adaptive weight training class at Santa Barbara City College. When I started to lift grown men with their wheelchairs buckled to their bodies up to the chin-up bar for fifty pull-ups, I became irreversibly involved. Leeder’s first stunt Leeder’s first stunt emerged in my sketch book shortly after.
I published early cartoons as editor of my own small skateboard magazine called Naughty Nomads. Leeder’s cartoon family were all skateboarders, so he soon learned to defy gravity with his own unique brand of ramp riding. Leeder went on to acquire a cult following in the underground skateboard zine trading phenomena of the late 80s and early 90s (many NN followers have since rediscovered Leeder in vivid color right here), paving the way for his inevitable return when he reappeared in ’94 with stronger wheels and a web site. In 1995, I married Claire Le Guern-Lytle, Leeder’s assistant mouthpiece and visual consultant. She also happened to be a writer for paraplegic students at the University of Paris Dauphine while she was a law student at the University of Paris Pantheon Sorbonne.
In the fall of ’97, dizABLED evolved into its present strip format. It’s 2007 and we are hard pressed for free time raising our family, yet we know where this strip is headed. We have started to compile the ideas that have been contributed and as we begin inking, the site will be updated as we complete them. We would love nothing more than to draw them every week for you again. Maybe someday. It’s a bit like fruit in season for us. It’s good to know the fruit exists, but it is not always ripe. Nature prevails.
Leeder still sees the new future, to boldly roll where no one has rolled before. With the arrival of ”hardcore sitting”, a new level of excitement has been realized and it is very exciting to see Leeder’s forcast becoming a reality in these living, breathing athletes.
If you like our cartoons, we’re happy you made the visit. If not, please compare notes with the Leeder O. Phobes and then head over to the Association for Applied and Therapeutic Humor. They can better explain some of the reasons why we choose to be involved.
dizABLED is a proud official partner of the WAPD.
