Kelmoore Investment Company is building on the success of its Kaptain Kelmoore comics with the launch of a new website dedicated to its very own financial superhero, also known as The Defender of Truth, Justice and a Balanced Portfolio.

The Palo Alto-based company will launch the site officially this month or in October, said Tamara Beth Wendoll, marketing director for Kelmoore.

Investors can read the first Kaptain Kelmoore comic online, request comics, or gain access to calculators and retirement tools.

Responses to the three Kaptain Kelmoore comics, which aim to educate investors about options, mutual funds, and covered calls, have been very positive, said Wendoll. The fund firm has received requests from "all over the world," totaling more than 30,000 for the first two issues.

“Two years ago, we created Kaptain Kelmoore to help educate investors about options investing – our firm’s specialty,” said Wendoll. “The informative, but light-hearted comic book presentation of a complex financial vehicle became enormously popular with financial advisors and individual investors. Since then, Kaptain Kelmoore seems to have developed a cult following.”

Kelmoore released its first Kaptain Kelmoore comic in 2002, with an issue designed to educate investors about call and put options.

Wendoll thought of the idea for the comic after sending ecards to clients and brokers and receiving favorable responses from that. "We just wanted to do something different -- then once we got good feeback, it was an easy transition [to comic books]," said Wendoll.

Comic artist Shepard Hendrix of DC and Dark Horse Comics illustrated the comics.

The comics include offbeat features including a recipe for Kött Bullar (Swedish meatballs), a humorous question and answer page titled "Komments from the Kaptain," and the history of the ukulele.

The fund firm is working on the fourth comic in the series and plans to continue the series for the next few years, said Wendoll.

Not everything is fun and games over at Kelmoore; the fund firm also recently hired a chief compliance officer and will have a new general counsel starting this month, said Wendoll. 

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