The founder of Planet Venison was born Vincent Maurice Skidmore on October the 24^th, 1950. His parents were Chicago beatniks and avid followers of the Chicago blues and jazz scene.

Vincent's time with them was short lived, however. At the ripe old age of six months, Vincent was separated from his natural parents when an airport error accidentally had him shipped to Cleveland, Ohio instead of Paris, France. Vincent's parents waited for hours at the Paris baggage claim, horrified at their predicament. In Paris they were to start a new life as European beatniks. It would be thirty-seven years before they would be re-united with their son.

Meanwhile in Cleveland, a military family named the Torkelsons came across Vincent and tried to find his parents. Unfortunately Mr. Skidmore had been too hasty in filling out Vincent's baggage tag due to a Moonie that he was trying to evade, and the Torkelsons spent the better part of a year searching for the parents of 'Venison' Skidmore, obviously to no avail. Finally the Torkelson's formally adopted Vincent, whom they continued to call Venison for the balance of his childhood.

Vincent, hereafter Venison, had a fairly strict family upbringing in Cleveland, as Mr. Torkelson was a Navy man and the father of seven sons and no daughters. Originally, Venison had planned to follow his seven siblings into the military, but was prevented by the glass eye he had obtained following a tragic Tennis accident.

So Venison went off to college, applying to the Naval Academy but finally winding up at the University of Utah, where he majored in political science. His emphasis was in Third World Government, and following his graduation in the spring of 1971, he interned under Fidel Castro for one full year.

Venison enjoyed his internship, and so rather than return to school to pursue a masters, Venison decided to accept a permanent position in Castro's regime as territorial governor of the small island of Winnebago.

Venison took charge of Winnebago in the summer of 1972, then six months later decided he was better suited to be a totalitarian dictator. He subsequently broke ties with Castro and maintained his totalitarian regime until October of 1977, when he was ousted by a group of Winnebagan nationalists that surrounded the island with canoes and prevented the import of all LP's and eight tracks.

Discouraged and dissatisfied with the career path he'd followed, Venison moved to San Francisco and spent a period of one year as the frontman for a burned-out group of ex-hippies named the Erotic Cakes. The psychedelic era long gone, the Erotic Cakes tried for a time to adapt by performing what they dubbed 'socially conscious disco music.' Their only single, 'Liberation Boogie' failed miserably on the charts and reportedly sold three copies.

While still remaining on good terms with the rest of the band, Venison quit the group with the intention of finding a job more suited to his training. Fortunately the CIA had been keeping an eye on Venison for some time, and when he became available he was immediately recruited as an analyst.

The CIA's hopes were that Venison would use his years of experience in Central America to their advantage. Initially that was the case, but over time his interest in his job dropped off considerably, at least as far as his assigned topics. A desire to express himself artistically grew in Venison, though he'd had no previous training. Soon his weekly reports had fewer and fewer sentences and more and more cartoons, usually of President Ronald Reagan water-skiing in his underwear. When he spent the entirety of 1986 shadowing Richard Simmons he was fired immediately and promptly committed to the Illinois State Sanatorium in Joliet, Illinois.

While Venison had been responsible for his deteriorating performance, the CIA tacked on a number of spurious accusations to his record in order to save their own face. According to these additional reports, Venison was a co-conspirator with his old mentor Fidel Castro, the recipient of various illegal arms and drugs, and was an avid golfer. The last item caused Venison a significant deal of grief, coming as a viscous stab in the back from his former employer.

Joliet turned out to be a boon for Venison. With nothing but free time on his hands, Venison discovered a passion for the arts. He took in enormous volumes of films and books, and secured the opportunity to visit nearby art museums on numerous occasions. One one occasion he managed to escape custody and make an artistic pilgrimage to Paris, Florence and Graceland that provided numerous ideas for future projects. Throughout his sanitarium exploits, he managed to make contacts with a number of celebrities in the field of arts and entertainment, and through sporadic interaction developed a bit of a reputation as a Hollywood insider. At one point the rumor mill got so out of hand, in fact, that it had Venison linked to Raquel Welch a full year before his release.

Once out of Joliet, Venison knew that he couldn't return to any sort of a political career. Even if he hadn't been permanently blacklisted by the voting public that was witness to his personal breakdown, his heart just wasn't in it anyway. He was an artist, and nothing else.

Where many like him would wind up penniless and impoverished, chasing after fleeting dreams, fortune smiled on Venison. While riding on a Greyhound Bus on the way to a 1999 Dionne Warwick concert in Atlanta, Georgia, Venison met Clancy Marks. Clancy was the disenchanted son of Otto Marks, a wealthy Canadian philanthropist renowned for opening special schools for children with warts. A bit of a voyeur, Clancy bet Venison his entire inheritance that he couldn't get the phone number of a woman the pair spotted at a truck stop. As luck would have it, the woman was a prostitute. Out of the goodness of his heart, Venison decided to give up the phone number to Clancy.

Six months later Otto was decapitated at a construction site, and Venison, despite the enraged but legally helpless cries of the Marks family, inherited 250 million dollars. With the money he bought a large chunk of land in southeastern Idaho, and in May of 2000 started a commune for disgruntled artists. Planet Venison.

VENISON TIMELINE

1950-Born in Chicago, Illinois

1951-Separated from parents through airline baggage coordination error. Taken in by Paul and Gena Torkelson of Washington, DC.

1955-Makes toast

1967-Meets sweetheart and future soulmate Marie at a Maryland rifle range

1968-Enters the University of Utah, studies Political Science, emphasising Third World Government

1972-Graduates from University of Utah, begins internship under Fidel Castro

1973-Completes internship and takes over as Territorial Governor of the small island nation of Winnebago

1974-Invents cable television, marries Marie

1977-Overthrown by group of Winnebago nationalists

1978-Joins post-hippie acid band The Erotic Cakes in San Francisco

1980-Leaves Cakes and is recruited by Central Intelligence Agency

1986-Reunited with birth parents while tailing Richard Simmons

1987-Fired from CIA for gross incompetence and committed to the Illinois State Sanitorium in Joliet, Illinois

1990-Sneaks out of custody for six months and makes an artistic pilgrimage to Florence, Paris, and Graceland

1997-Released from sanitorium

1999-Wins inheritance of Clancy Marks

2000-Founds Planet Venison