Dr. Dendull

The nefarious Dr. Dendull debuted in "SDF: Sombrero Friday" in the King Smooth story. He really only has a brief cameo, more of a presence than a character. He pops up later on in a "Liquid Jar" strip, but I can't remember which issue it's in (Lost Jigsaw Pieces, maybe?). With only two (very brief) appearances, Dr. Dendull, somewhat ironically, is one of the more successful villains in the TORCverse, because, as we all know, Villains never seen to have a very long shelf-life in my little universe.

The not-so-good Dr. Dendull returns in "SDF: Pulp", where it turns out he is the object of Bad Jack's hatred. Why? Well, we'll get to that, eventually. In the meantime, let's talk a little bit about where Dr. Dendull came from.

The start of Dr. Dendull comes, like a lot of my stuff from the "Super Duper Fun Comix"/"SDF" era, from the germ of William S. Burroughs. In several of Burroughs's works, there's a character named "Dr. Benway". Unlike most of Burroughs other characters, which typically consist of a name and a vague purpose and little else, Benway pops up enough that he kinda develops into something of an actual personality. Benway is a quack, a hack, a drug dealer, a con artist, a charming manipulative scumbag. He's got his greasy fingers in all sorts of pies. In David Cronenberg's film "adaptation" of "Naked Lunch", Benway pops up early, getting "William Lee" hooked on the Black Mead, then reappears at the end of the film as a the crossdressing, would be world conquering, world class drug dealer, slavemaster. So, yeah, I always liked Benway.

I thought to myself, what if we took the general attitude of Benway, and instead of making him a person, what if he was a living disease? A thinking, living virus that was selfish and manipulative and lived only to make everything like himself. A twisted horror, an anti-doctor who lived to deny the Hypocratic oath. Sounded good, now all I needed was a visual.

I was immediately reminded of Terry Gilliam's "Brazil". If you've never seen Brazil, for the love of all the is holy, watch Brazil. Anyway, in Gilliam's Brazil, one of the main character's best friends is a seemingly nice fella (played by Michael Palin, the cute Python, no less), who works for a Government run group called "Information Retrieval", which specializes in torturing people for information on terrorists (that don't actually exist, interestingly enough). Anyway, when Palin's character is working, he wears this really creepy looking Baby mask. That was always a creepy concept, that there was this horrible, murderous, torturer hiding behind this horrible mask, was, at the exact same time, a loving, happy-go-lucky, family man with a cute little daughter. The image stuck with me, so when it came time to design Dendull, I took a modified version of the Babymask from "Brazil" as the centerpiece. From there I just gave him hospital scrubs and rubber gloves, and I was set.

To witness the horror that is Dr. Dendull, check out my new book, "SDF: Pulp", available at http://www.torcpress.com/store.html. Right-o.