Paul Lopez

Paul Lopez (born January 2, 1954; died December 22, 1992) was an Chicano-American animator, film and television producer, and cartoonist. He was the co-creator of Long-Tail Kitty (1983-1991) and Orange Gus (1983-1992) with a young Ellen Peck. He also created Mimsie and Smokey, a television cartoon series based on the mascots of MTM Enterprises, and was credited as the creator of the Spacebots franchise, though according to Ellen Peck’s accounts, the latter was actually created by an Argosy marketing executive.

Biography
Before being hired by Argosy, Lopez made indie comics called “zines”, often with surreal art styles and/or storylines. Lopez was hired by Argosy in 1983, along with his understudies, Ellen Peck and Nathan Blake; Lopez had been grooming Peck into a relationship since 1977.

Lopez had a severe alcohol addiction, and was also a heavy smoker. He did not have very good relations with other male animators, especially Michael Shires Jr. and Nathan Blake, and was constantly trying to sabotage their work, or even murder them. He had several DUI charges, but never spent more than 1-month sentences in jail; it is rumoured that Argosy executives bribed the King County authorities to keep Lopez out of jail.

According to accounts from other Argosy employees, Lopez was extremely hard to work with. In one reported incident, Lopez bought a katana to the animation studio, and threatened to stab animation CEO Michael Shires, but when Shires threatened to call the authorities, Lopez ran away.

Lopez was also involved with several multi-level marketing companies, such as Amway, Avon, and Mary Kay. This caused tensions with Peck and Blake, who have referred to multi-level marketing as a “pyramid scheme”.

Lopez died on December 22, 1992, after a car accident caused by his own drunk driving. However, according to Peck, “(he) was extremely drunk, and was trying to make a “game” out of running over as many pedestrians as possible… if he hadn’t done that, then the lung cancer from his 6 packs a day would have done him in”.

In retrospect, Peck has said “I miss the creative Paul, who made all these characters, but not the crazy Paul who was constantly trying to kill people”, and also admitted that her “co-creator” credit on Long-Tail Kitty and Orange Gus was “basically a farce… I came up with the names of some of the characters, but since I was mainly in charge of the corporate identity for Argosy and MTM, Paul basically did all the work.”

Personal life
Lopez groomed his understudy, Ellen Peck, into a relationship: they had their only child, Ellen Peck Jr. (professionally known as Ellie Lopez), in 1984. About a month before Ellie was born, Peck and Lopez had a “shotgun wedding”. At the time Lopez died, Peck was attempting to file for a divorce.