Fan request

Since the very beginning of my blog I've been getting loads of fanmail. People write me letters for complementing my creative efforts, thanking me for the inspirational life(changing) lessons I share, where to buy my artwork and sometimes they even ask if I'm single or what's my asl. I try to reply to most of them, but it's not always possible given just the sheer amount of letters I recieve but I appreciate your support! There is one question though that gets asked the most, what's the deal with my nickname from my Youtube channel, Bauter01?

Good question indeed and to spare the back of my innocent mailman, I'll tell you the little story attached to that right here. Come sit around the campfire and listen up little kids.

When I was younger, in a time where there existed no smartphones or tablets, me and a friend played a small flash game called "Bouterdart". The purpose in Bouterdart was to play a game of darts, not with regular darts, but with dwarfs/gnomes with pointy hats. A dwarf is called "kabouter" in dutch, hence the name Bouterdart. You could tie up the kabouters so they flew more steady through the air and sometimes they sneezed midair which made them hit the ceiling. We found it hilarious and I began drawing kabouters for fun. My favorite one I named Bauter, a reference to Bouterdart. Only later I realised I misspelled Bouter but to me his name was set.

Bauter was a naïve and adventurous little fellow who always gave advice to anyone who would read what I made him say. Wisdom like "Don't be sad about a bad test, somewhere in the world right now, there's probably someone on fire..."

                                                    

My friend also drew from time to time and we started a comic book staring Bauter and Guru. Guru was the creation of my friend, he was a fat green alien from the Planet Namek. The comic was not made in the traditional way where you develop a storyline in advance and than start making the drawings. No, I made a drawing with Bauter saying something, and then my friend drew Guru replying on that, and vice versa and it just flowed organically without a plan were the story would go.

In the end, the comic grew over 120 pages. Then the question came, would would keep it? We decided that we would each keep the comic for six months, the first six months my friend, then it was my turn, and so on....In those first months though we kind of lost track of each other and I almost never saw him and so when the first "shift" was completed, it was clear that it would also be the last and that I'd never have my turn to own our comic.

"Lucky" for me I had made a copy of the first few chapters which I can show you below.

Of course, it's worth isn't comparable to the original. I heard through the grapevine my old friend managed to sell the comic to an oil sheik from the United Arab Emirates and has now become one of the top ten richest people in Belgium. Am I envious? Nah, I'm happy for him and it could be worse, like being on fire or something, right?

Now, a few years ago I had to come up with a nickname for my Youtube account and somehow Bauter popped into my head. For whatever reason it didn't work so I simply added 01 and that was that.

So there you have it. I hope that answered your question and that this relevation will also lessen the stream of letters I recieve.

But that's not all, while writing this little history lesson, I felt the urge to draw Bauter once again. So I did. It's pretty amazing how well he still flows from my fingers, it's pure muscle memory. I did took the liberty to change his looks somewhat. I imagine he grew older like I did and got a bit batlle-hardened from his years on Namek, and I traded his pointyhat for a soldiers helmet. He doesn't look so naïve anymore...he even smokes cigars now!

Quick scetch of modern Bauter:

I'll leave you with a small bonus, I googled Bouterdart and to my surprise it still exists! It really is a horrible game looking back at it and it has a few glitches in it, but it's still a bit playable. So now you can go check out the game that gave birth to the gem that is now in some rich as fuck oil sheik's collection.

                                                             Bouterdart!!! 

                                       (Feel free to sing along with the theme song!)

Wait up, can't stop without some music! Moonface, real name Spencer Krug, is a Canadian musiscian who deserves a mention here. If I can help a brother out, I do it. I find his songs and lyrics different then most artists, in a good way. They tell a story and you really are invited to take a listen to them. Hear for yourself.
You can also listen to Terri Walker' Tired Out, a Brittish lady with a voice that packs a punch.

And now just shut up and enjoy.

                                                      Moonface - Barbarian         

                                                   Terri Walker - Tired Out