Almost 19 years ago, a Lanier High School student named Jayme O’Guin won first place in a national contest drawing cartoons of Homer Simpson.

On the front page of the Dec. 6, 1991 issue of The Valdosta Daily Times, O’Guin shared that he would like to become a professional artist as an adult — maybe even be an animator for “The Simpsons” television show, if it’s still on then.

Now, in 2010, “The Simpsons” are still on the air. O’Guin goes by his middle name Waco. He doesn’t draw for “The Simpsons,” but he’s developing a potential animated series for FOX.

“I wanted to work on ‘The Simpsons’ years ago,” O’Guin jokes in a recent phone interview from Athens. “Now, ‘The Simpsons’ getting canceled could be the best thing that could happen to us.”

O’Guin and partner Roger Black, listed in a Daily Variety article as Athens, Ga.-based comedians, are developing an animated pilot called “Brickleberry Park.” The animated show centers on forest rangers in a struggling park set for closure. However, a new ranger is assigned to get the park into shape.

Inspiration for this show came to O’Guin from his wife, whose father is a park ranger named Woody.

They originally considered the project as a live-action sitcom, but it would have cost a fortune in special effects to produce the type of show O’Guin and Black envisioned. They opted for animation, though they are no strangers to live-action television.

O’Guin and Black were the minds behind the irreverent MTV sketch-comedy “Stankervision” which lasted a season and featured both men as performers. “Stankervision” was built around the team’s comedy act which they developed while attending the University of Georgia. The show incorporated animated segments.

O’Guin and Black will provide some voice work for “Brickleberry Park,” but most of the voices will come from Dave Herman as the new ranger, Tom Kenny of “Spongebob Squarepants” and Carlos Alazraqui of “Reno 911.”

At 34, married and the parent of a young son, Lucas Waco O’Guin, he’s glad to have his performance days behind him. O’Guin’s come a long way since that front page in The Valdosta Daily Times nearly 19 years ago.

Then, he went by his first name, Jayme, rather than his middle name, Waco, a family name shared by his father and grandfather. Waco, O’Guin says now, was a horrible middle name for a kid in high school but a perfect, unforgettable name for a comedian/cartoonist/producer later in life.

The son of Waco and Peggy O’Guin, he was attending Lanier High and was involved in 4-H when he sent a series of Homer Simpson drawings into a national Butterfinger candy bar contest. The contest asked for drawings of Homer for a Father’s Day card.

O’Guin won the prize of a big-screen TV, and seeing his drawings in a national magazine.

He graduated Lanier High in 1993. He attended Valdosta State University for a couple of years in the mid-1990s before transferring to UGA.

In addition to live performances and “Stankervision,” O’Guin and Black have developed various Internet Web shorts, which have attracted more than 18 million hits, according to Daily Variety.