CARTOON NETWORK Juniper Lee is your average preteen girl, except when she, her pug and brother, are protecting the world from monsters.

Winick brings up baby
and Juniper Lee

Judd Winick will be celebrating the debut of his Cartoon Network show tomorrow, and maybe fatherhood as well.

"The Life and Times of Juniper Lee" Premieres 4 p.m. tomorrow on Cartoon Network, then airs regularly 4:30 p.m. Sundays

His wife Pam Ling, who is due any day, also helped her husband give birth to the 11-year-old Chinese-American girl whose magical adventures are colorfully portrayed in "The Life and Times of Juniper Lee."

"It's good karma," Winick said happily by phone from the couple's San Francisco home earlier this month. Winick commutes between the Bay Area and Burbank, where his "animated baby" was originally brought to life.

His character, Juniper Lee, is like any normal preteen, complete with a younger brother and a pet pug named Monroe. But just like her ah-mah (grandmother) and five generations before, Juniper is also the Te Xuan Ze, the Great Protector, the one who maintains order between our mundane human world and the magical one that co-exists with us.

Juniper's ah-mah is her sounding board when things get tough, and Monroe (who talks with a Scottish brogue only Juniper and her brother Ray Ray can hear) has been assigned to assist his young master.

The 8-year-old Ray Ray can be a pain as only brothers can be, but he's awed by his big sister and helps her on her adventures, sometimes.

But Juniper (voiced by a spunky Lara Jill Miller) is still trying to find her way between being the Te Xuan Ze and normal preteen.

It's gotta be tough when you have to leave your best friend's birthday party to fight a humongous furry beastie unleashed by aging hippie leprechauns.

Or you're working on a field school report with a boy you really like while battling the undead, who happen to be employed as cheap restaurant labor by an ancient mummy named Khomen Gettit as part of his mad scheme to take over the world via fast-food, rib-and-waffle joints.

Stuff like that can drive a girl to distraction.

WINICK IS now juggling his television duties with his other job, writing several superhero titles for DC Comics. He's become known as one of the better plotters and dialogue scribes in the biz.

Some with even longer memories may recall Winick was one of the participants in the third edition of MTV's "The Real World -- San Francisco" in 1994. (Ling was also a housemate before they became a couple, and those with keen eyes could see the sparks develop over time.)

Winick's friendship with another housemate, AIDS activist Pedro Zamora, was lovingly portrayed in his fine 2000 graphic novel "Pedro and Me."

"The Life and Times of Juniper Lee" started as a development for Noggin (now The N), Nickelodeon's educational channel.

Winick said earlier that the idea for the character came about when "my wife and I went out one night, and fueled by hamburgers and vodka, talked about creating a girl who had adventures like 'Hellboy' and 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer,' with the kids talking like grownups, and magic would be involved.

"It then went into development with Noggin for about a year, and then the network passed on it, which was good, because 'Juniper Lee,' as an educational piece, didn't work out. It would mean taking out some adventure in order to play along. So I was thrilled that I could now make it a straight-up action-adventure-comedy."

"It's a distinct pleasure for me to dip into the Cartoon Network talent pool ... I wanted some real cool action to go along with the jokes, and character designer Mike Kunkel ("Herobear and the Kid"), who I've known for a couple of years as an independent comic guy, I knew he would make Juniper cuter. And he introduced me to art director Alan Bodner, who did work on 'The Iron Giant' and 'Kim Possible.' "

Because of the ambitious look of "Juniper Lee," Winick admits it's "an enormously complicated show -- any given show could have as many as a hundred characters, with many backgrounds as well.

"The style of the show is such that it looks more like classic Disney and Warner Bros. animation. There's a lot of acting, with fight scenes with monsters spewing fire and energy beams and the like."

And while Winick has penned several episodes, he depends on the talents of his writing staff of Marsha Griffin, Tim McKeon and Adam Pava for help.

"I delegate the work, and all story ideas have to cross my desk first. I write a third of the scripts, and things like model designs and color from the animators have to be approved by me."

Cartoon Network's enthusiasm for "The Life and Times of Juniper Lee" is such that Winick said the series has been greenlighted for two seasons, totaling 26 episodes.

Not bad for a new dad.