I Won The KATT Calendar Contest... Twice! - Curtis Tucker

Back in the day, the OKC radio station, Rock 100 The KATT, had an annual calendar/poster contest. In the late 80’s I was going to school at Central State University and had an art class with the actual artist that created the cartoon KATT character. I was also in an art class with the artist that won the calendar contest for 1988 which was the first year I submitted a design.

The following year I was stoked to see if I could outdo my classmate. While trying to come up with an idea I had a spark hit me one day. I was thinking about Robert Plant and how fun it would be to draw a cartoon plant named Bob. That would be the clue to the artists name.

While growing up I had always loved those Six Flags maps you could buy at the park. They were cartoon designs and had hundreds of little rides, buildings and people all over the map. You could spend hours looking at the map and find something new every time. That sparked another idea.

I decided to combine both ideas into my calendar design. I would draw cartoon clues to the names of 100 rock artists or groups. I would make the design look similar to those Six Flags maps.

I first came up with a list of 100 names that would lend themselves to cartoon clues. I then started drawing. Back in that day there were no computers to draw on or scan the design in so I was working on a single illustration board. I penciled all 100 clues and then inked the entire design.

After inking I colored the illustration with watercolor paint. Each clue was individually painted. The original design has the KATT character in a Sherlock Holmes outfit with a magnifying glass in the middle of the design. Once all of that was complete I covered all of the designs with a Frisket material leaving only the background.

To finish the background and make it look like dirt I mixed different brown colors of paint. I then dipped a toothbrush into the paint and flicked it onto the illustration. I then changed the color slightly and flicked another coat. This was repeated until the background was filled in.

After drying I pealed all of the Frisket off and was left with a complete illustration. Throughout the calendar I added a few clues that meant nothing and also hid a few names and initials.

My plan was for the KATT to sell the calendars and have people try to name all 100 bands and artists. Listeners could then send in their guesses and the radio station would pick a winner for some big prize. I submitted the whole package and waited.

A few weeks later I got a call from the station manager and he had lots of questions for me. I got the feeling that he did not believe I had come up with the idea on my own and had done the design. Once I explained to him where all of the design ideas came from he felt confident enough to tell me that I had won! It was a pretty big deal because they were the top station in Oklahoma City.

They sent the design to the graphic design company to add the actual calendar and wording on the design. They made a decision to pull my KATT character out of the middle because he was covered in the Sherlock Holmes cape and hat. They wanted their artist to draw a regular KATT in the bottom of the calendar with the dates.

The graphic art studio was having problems figuring out how to pull my KATT out of the design without leaving a big blank hole. They were working with the only copy of the design on a piece of illustration board. There was no way at that time to scan the design into a computer and manipulate it in some graphics software.

I was then contacted to come in and see if I could figure out what to do. I placed a sheet of tracing paper over the middle of the design and drew a line all of the way around my KATT character. My line followed the edge of elements that would be on the outside of this new are I was creating. No clue could straddle the line.

I then took that outline and transferred it to a new illustration board. I drew some new clues inside that area and filled it with other objects. I inked those and painted them. The big hurdle was how to do the background so it matched the original because it had been done randomly with a toothbrush. I was able to match everything pretty good. The design studio then put an overlay of the new middle on top of the original design while shooting film for printing.

If you look really, really close you can see the outlined area in just a few spots. Find the Scorpions clue and look at the tail. You can see a darker area on one side and a lighter area on the other. If I hadn’t mentioned it most people would never know I had spliced the two designs together.

The entire design was wrapped up and sent to the printer. The radio station sold the calendars through local Arby’s restaurants. I believe they were $2 each. I still remember finding a local Arby’s and seeing the design for the first time. It was so awesome!

That calendar ended being the best selling design they had up until that time. The popular morning show Rick and Max spent several shows trying to figure out the clues. The station decided not to do the contest. One morning I even called into the show to help them solve a few of the names.

The next year I submitted another design and ended up with a third place finish. My design and the winning design both had a brick wall with the letters K-A-T-T spray painted on it. I thought that was a little weird. That was the 1990 design.

I won again in 1991 with a part two version of my first win. I drew another 100 clues to more band and artist names. That one was not as exciting as the first but was fun to create. As far as I know that was the last calendar contest that they did.

I am including closeup photos of the ’89 poster to see if you all can find the clues. I have never released all 100 names and don’t know if anyone ever found them all. Look for Robert Plant, he started it all. There’s also Talking Heads, Cheap Trick, Canned Heat, Iron Butterfly, The Doors, Genesis, Meatloaf, Bread, ZZ Top, April Wine, Rolling Stones and more.

I will post the complete list soon. Enjoy!