Kim and Jason Kotecki are the inspiration for the "Kim & Jason" comic strip.

By Rick Hummell

Some folks might say Jason Kotecki is afflicted with the Peter Pan Syndrome, the pop psychology term for "men who’ve never grown up."

Everyone, however, would say the world is a better place for it.

Just last week, Kotecki and his wife, Kim, hosted a benefit in Madison for the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Wisconsin, their second annual benefit for the foundation. Last year’s event, attended by the likes of UW football coach Barry Alvarez, raised $6,000, and the couple are hoping to double that amount this year.

Other charities supported by Kotecki and his wife are the National Adoption Center, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Childhelp USA (an agency for abused and neglected children), Care Net (a network of more than 600 pregnancy centers), and Compassion International (an international child advocacy agency).

Obviously, the common thread of the Kotecki’s largess is children. They do more than give lip service to helping kids, however; in fact, they give three percent of the proceeds from the business to helping kids.

Just who are Kim and Jason Kotecki and what is their business?

Kim and Jason are the stars of the comic strip by the same name created by Jason.

The origins of the Kim & Jason comic strip date back to the mid-1990s, when Jason, in efforts to woo Kim, would send her cute cartoons of the two of them together. “I started drawing in a shameless attempt to woo Kim,” says Kotecki. "It must have worked. Kim is now my wife and the characters I first drew years ago have taken on their own lives and personalities."

The characters include Kim and Jason, a skunk named Stinky, Jason’s younger brother, Dougie, Kim’s somewhat snooty seventh-grade sister, Katie, and a wise and witty retired neighborhood carpenter, Boompa.

The Kim & Jason comic strip now runs in more than a dozen newspapers in the Midwest and has over 1,000 online subscribers. The Kotecki’s also have a full line of greeting cards and other items like mugs, T-shirts and mousepads.

Their website says Kim & Jason "is all about helping grown-ups of all ages escape adulthood, whether it’s through a stress-reducing chuckle or a nostalgic reflection on a treasured childhood memory."

After years of hard work, Jason says he believes his comic strip endeavor has attained a certain level of success.

Through countless public appearances and persona pitches, assisted by a publicist known as the Publicity Princess and a sales assistant called the Sales Servant, Kotecki says the business is starting to "take off."

"I wouldn’t say we’ve ‘made it’ yet, but after five years of day to day efforts of doing everything we can do on a bootstrap and on a small budget, I think new doors are beginning to open for us."

So much so, that Kim, an elementary school teacher in Stoughton who’s salary has carried the duo through the last several years, is about to "retire" from teacher and work full-time on the business spawned by the comic strip.

"Kim’s already been such a big part of the business anyway," said Kotecki. "Having her full-time will really catapult the business."

©2005 Unified Newspaper Group.