Chef Bob is a terrible cook.

His recipes are so noxious that he must don a gas mask to work in his own kitchen.

But when it comes to fighting villains like the deadly Darth Tater, Chef Bob is cookin’ with gas.

The comic book anti-hero, who makes his movie debut in the Youth Media Festival on Aug. 22, was created by Sakai Intermediate School sixth-graders Calder Rooney and Jimmy Mooney.

“I wrote a little story about a bad chef,” Mooney said, “using the interesting food at Blakely School as my inspiration. The teacher liked it and and gave me a good grade.”

Mooney envisioned the character as a kind of culinary Dr. Frankenstein, who cooks up and then must combat his creations.

“He makes the evil (beings) himself,” Mooney said, “and he takes responsibility for them and tries to subdue them.”

Mooney enlisted Calder Rooney, the best artist in his class, to be the illustrator. Rooney agreed to draw Chef Bob – a task he might have refused months earlier, as the pair had been having “hostilities.”

“Through a field trip we became friends,” Rooney said, “and through the buying and selling and trading of Legos.”

The newly formed creative team produced the first edition of the full-length comic book series, “Chef Bob and the Phantom Halibut,” and shared it with classmates.

More characters were introduced in subsequent issues, and the protagonist’s appearance and personality have been refined.

“He’s timid and not very bright,” Mooney said.

“Well, he’s not stupid,” added Rooney, overlapping Mooney’s remark in their tag-team approach to communication, “but he doesn’t realize what he’s making until it comes after him.”

Their collaborative process starts when the pair work out a basic story line. Rooney then draws the illustrations and speech bubbles, and finally Mooney fills in the text.

“It’s very fun to collaborate together,” Rooney said. “We never fight about it. If we disagree, we make a compromise. The flow of the comic goes on.”

This summer, Chef Bob made the leap from print to film, as Rooney animated his hero through a Bainbridge Island Broadcasting claymation class offered at the Playhouse.

Rooney learned to make his characters move by changing the position of clay figures in small increments that each became a single frame of film.

Working with animation teacher Wendy Jackson Hall, Rooney shot 30 frames per second to make the characters come to life.

The only difficulty he encountered was the weight of the chef’s hat, which made his clay figure topple over.

“Then Wendy Hall Jackson gave me some extra-light clay,” Rooney said. “I made the hat out of that, and it helped a lot.”

While the first film is silent, there are plans for a talking version, with Mooney as Chef Bob and Rooney voicing Darth Tater.

They have copyrighted the characters and hired a marketing director, classmate Josh Miller.

“We do hire employees to help with sales,” Rooney said. “Their payment is comics for life.”

They plan to market Chef Bob trading cards and a Chef Bob T-shirt. The upcoming fourth issue will feature “Chef Bob on Mars.”

The time-line is subject to interruption by play time, and summer is a slow season.

“There are delays,” Rooney said. “Jimmy went on a boat trip, and only one day after that, I went on a trip to California.”

Both boys look forward to seeing their work on the big screen for the BIB animation festival, together with other works from the six summer animation classes taught by Hall and Eric Ancheta.

“We’re very excited about Chef Bob coming to the screen,” Rooney said. “This could be a major success for this comic. We’re hoping to make copies of the tape and sell it with the comics.”

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See the adventures of Chef Bob and more animation and live-action films at the Bainbridge Island Broadcasting Youth Media Festival, 8:30 p.m. Aug. 22 in Waterfront Park. The free festival features animation and live-action films made by 43 kids ages 8-18. Information: 790-2980