Little did Chris Cash ’90 and Dean Weaver ’89 know when they graduated that they would someday give life to a local superhero.

Four years ago the two designed Captain Crud and the Cruddies, an educational cartoon that is today being used by Fort Worth’s Environmental Management Department. The program introduces the superhero and his enemies to elementary school students, teaching them about recycling, conservation and safe disposal of household chemicals.

Dot Kent of the city’s environmental management department said the TCU alumni helped create one of the department’s most successful environmental education programs. Cities throughout North Central Texas use the characters to teach about safety in the environment.

Cash said the project was a fun surprise for he and Weaver, who own Dallas-based .Com entertainment inc, which specializes primarily in Web site development. (www.comentertainment.com)

“We added to the characters personalities, auditioned actors and gave them life,” he said. “We also did a focus group with second- through fifth-graders that helped us understand the best ways to finalize the script.”

The latest addition to the superhero team is the Buddies, who help the Captain spread the word on recycling. The Captain, Buddies and Cruddies can all be seen occasionally on the local cable channel in Fort Worth, as well as on videotape from the Fort Worth Public Library.

Creating database solutions for medium-size companies puts food on the table, but Cash and Weaver occasionally pitch animated characters for corporate training and sales products. Cash says they’d jump at the chance to be full-time animators. “We both have a desire to do animated properties, but there’s not a huge market for that unless you’re doing Mickey Mouse or Pokemon,” Cash said.