As you may or may not know, December 13th, 2000 marked the K&K Forever Homepage's first birthday. **throws confetti**

Not so long ago, If anyone had told me that I would be credited for starting some kind of "revolution," I never would've believed it. Yet, with the concept of K&K, I did spark a revolution. I say that because ten years after TaleSpin aired, this single concept turned heads, it made people think… it even changed a few minds. It caused controversy. It caused arguments. It caused people to take interest.

To me, K&K has always been everything about the relationship between Kit Cloudkicker and Don Karnage. It's been a celebration of the positives, and a full acknowledgment the negatives. I think the primary reason K&K took the TaleSpin fandom by storm is because people generally just didn't consider the positives between Kit and Karnage, until someone happened to start pointing them out… that turned out to be me. Go figure. And as it turned out, the thoughts and theories I've presented about the two actually made some pretty darn good sense. Like, who woulda thunk it?

I think over the past year or so, I've also become a better person because of K&K. I've been a pretty shy guy most of my life, trying to "fit in" as best as I could. And I in no way spoke out much… because when you speak, people listen. It's horribly unfair to a shy person, but they do… they listen. I guess everyone's left with two choices, remain silent, or gather the nerve to stick your neck out once in awhile.

So you can imagine… after ten years of TaleSpin fans reveling in the idea of Kit with Baloo and Kit with Higher for Hire, someone pipes up, "Well… I like the idea of Kit with Karnage better." You talk about one unpopular opinion. I'm not sure if anyone I knew took it seriously at first… I'm not sure if I took it that seriously at first... it was a brand new idea, after all. But the more I thought about it, the more I liked it… the more I loved it.

K&K helped me become a person who stands by his convictions, despite what others may think or do. I've been called deluded, crazy (in the literal sense, not in humor), stupid, unfaithful to the series, etc etc ect. I didn't like that some thought of me as betraying TaleSpin, a show that had somehow earned my genuine affection, dominated my fonder thoughts for years on end, and inspired a lifetime's worth of imagination. But then again, they just had no clue how much it meant to me. So I always stuck to my guns, and I usually did it with a smile on my face… I'm still smiling today. :-)

Do I have any regrets? Only that I haven't done more already. Take this site… it's no where near as complete as I'd wish it to be after one year. There still has yet to be single completed fanfic added to it. I expect Once A Pirate to be the "great one" of TS fiction (at least to myself), yet it won't be finished for quite some time. I have yet to throw together the "K&K Theory" editorial which lists, defines, and explains just about everything I've mused about K&K. I haven't updated as often as I intended to upon creating this site. I wanted to update it once a week on Saturdays, if with nothing else, just a new slogan and skit. You have to keep things fresh if you want people to keep coming back for more. But then the updates got to be every two weeks for a long time… then three… now it's more like once a month.

But despite all that, I'm happy to say that the successes I've had with K&K Forever far outweigh any regrets. Probably the smartest (or luckiest) thing I did was add the site's own special chatroom, which is undoubtedly the most popular feature. But it's also become arguably the most popular TaleSpin chatroom of the day, which is a pretty big honor for me.

The art gallery has had tremendous success, with contributions from just about every top TaleSpin artist out there.

Where else can you play "Pong" as Kit or Karnage? ;-)

Two words: K&K Fanklub.

Favorite memories I have as Webmaster of this site during its first year? First and foremost would have to be actually bringing this puppy into the world. I was still a novice at Web design back then (not like I'm any sort of a pro now), so just getting it to look good was a big accomplishment for me. I wanted the site to have a sort of haunted, immortal, and of course, piraty look to it.

The K&K Forever Emblem

The first thing I needed was a logo for he site. I had a vision in my head of just how I wanted it to be… The Air Pirate's signature wolf-skull Jolly Roger with red, glowing eyes that illuminated the pitch-blackness, and reflected from Kit's silver airfoil below it. And Kit's red scarf, symbolic of his relationship with Karange, placed on the airfoil as well. With a lot of help from my bro' Wilson, we nailed it. Once that image was created, I had the inspiration to design the rest of the site.

Probably the most memorable K&K skit to me was "I have a code." And definitely all the ones about Karnage running for President of the United States (with Kit running as Vice President)… Pirates in politics! I love political humor, so I had a ball with that. K&K will be back in 2004, trust me. ;-)

Kit: Can I run for President next time? Can I?

Karnage: No.

Kit: Aw, nuts. *pouts*

There's a higher gratification to all this, also. The human factor. For all the gloomy days that have been brightened by a funny K&K skit, for every smile, for every K&K daydream and ounce of inspiration that I've somehow influenced, for the unbelievable amount of respect and support I've come to receive about K&K, and for the friendships its helped bond… it means the world to me. And that, my friends, is why K&K is "Forever." I have no better explanation.

It's been a wonderful ride so far. Kit and Karnage have spent one year on top of the world… here's to the next.