See You In the Funny Papers?

A photo shoot, an interview, and why old school is new again.

Sirius and Floof go Hollywood, or possibly Ealing.

They’ve Got A Little List

Female comic strip artists are simultaneously in the news and no longer in the news (papers) this month. Two huge American newspaper chains standardized their comics sections and the changes kicked in at the beginning of March. Coincidentally, they dropped all of the syndicated cartoons drawn by female artists except for Lynn Johnston’s FOR BETTER OR FOR WORSE, a great strip that is currently in repeats. They retained several strips about women that are drawn by men.

Coincidence, I’m sure.

I’d like to point out that there is another underrepresented group in the comics and animation professions.

Older artists.

This is a bit odd since older people tend to read newspapers and newspaper comic strips. I don’t know if kids still hunker down with the Sunday funnies, but it was an eagerly awaited treat when I was a kid. My sister, our father and I would argue over who got which section first. There were two sections with four pages each. We’d figure something out, then exchange sections when we were through. We’d read everything, even the strips that we did not like.

Some current strips like BROOM HILDA and THE LOCKHORNS are written and/or drawn by older people. The Lockhorns was retained in the syndication sweep. Broom Hilda, one of my favorites, wasn’t even on the short list but it appears on GoComics. I found her there, after thirty years not seeing Russell Myers’ wonderful comic strip in any paper I read. He’s the original artist and the current world record holder for Longest Time Drawing A Comic Strip (54 years!).

Since only 34 strips are now in the big newspaper chains that own papers across the USA and Canada, new comic strips like (ahem) FurBabies and many others have a lesser chance at syndication . I like the freedom of online publishing but confess that I’d love to see a Sunday funnies section with my own work in it.

Write This Way

I subscribe to the online international version of The Guardian, which has excellent news coverage and human interest stories that are genuinely interesting. In 2022 they began a feature in the lifeandstyle section that profiles a remarkable group of older people.

Some younger people see older people as a burden who do not contribute anything to society. Some blame older people for everything that is going wrong in the world today. I would like to point out that many of the so called ‘baby boomers’ protested an unjust war, supported the civil rights movement and the women’s movement, became environmentalists, and achieved the right to control their own bodies. (But what have we done for you lately?)

Do not ever use the term “OK Boomer” to an older person. You don’t know what they went through to get the things that younger people now take for granted.

The increasing Ageism in society was the possible motivation for The Guardian’s A New Start After 60 , a series of profiles of people who changed careers or found new purpose in later life. Sometimes much later. There is a 90 year old drummer, an 87 year old mountain climber, and many more. The series began in 2022 and is updated every Tuesday on the Guardian’s lifeandstyle section.

The page has a form where you can describe your change of life and if they like it, they might contact you for an interview.

I received an email from the editor about a week after I sent in the form along with some FurBabies comics. After they made sure that I started the comic after age 60 (I did it three months after my 65th birthday) an interview was arranged for the following week, with a photo shoot on the same day.

The photographer, Derek Shapton, asked for some pictures of my desk setup. Here they are. I draw and ink the characters separately on a 1960s architectural drafting board on the dining room table. Those are the original Sirius model sheets from December 2022 on the wall since I use the expressions. The character lineup is from August 2023. Charlie Chaplin looks over my shoulder and Groucho peeks through the chair slats. An Easter card is on the drawing board.

The computer is set up on an old Disney animation desk. I use both screens to composite and color the artwork after it is scanned. When Derek Shapton expressed a preference for the drawing board as an ‘old school’ background I replied that I used blended methods, and nearly everyone does that these days. You’d be surprised how many comics are drawn on paper, then scanned.

A photo of Dad is prominently featured at the upper left side of the picture, and a portrait of Gizmo drawn from life by Nina Haley appears just below it.

The interview was conducted on March 18 on Zoom with Anita Chaudhuri, a very pleasant journalist. I sent her some blog posts and information that helped her write her excellent questions. One of them was ‘is there ageism in animation’? “It’s endemic,” I replied. She was shocked. “But no one sees you.” “No one sees comics creators, either. There is a belief among producers and publishers that you can only appeal to an audience sector if you are a member of that sector.”

This is not true.

One of the very best storyboards I ever got from a student was about old people. The student was very young, but they could observe their grandparents. The story was sad and hilarious. One of my favorite portrayals of a mother and child in an animated film (Tarzan) was storyboarded and animated by men who did not have children of their own. They could OBSERVE. As Joe Grant (who was working right up to his death at his drawing board age 95) told me in another context, “(it takes) talent and imagination.”

Comic Art portrays life events through graphic symbolism and the emotional use of color and design. In the comics, you can portray anything that you can draw. Your appearance and age are unimportant. FurBabies characters are toddlers (Sirius), kindergarteners (Floof), grade schoolers (Kate and the other kids), young adults (Shawm, Stella and Kate’s offscreen parents), and older (Mrs. Oldman and Buster). I have been all of those ages. I never had children, but I had students, I have pets, and I can observe children and hear stories about my nieces and great nephews.

Derek Shapton arrived at noon the same day and shot over 400 pictures of me at both desks, with and without a hat, and occasionally without glasses. I drew a few sketches in real time that will appear in future strips.

The Guardian will use one of them. I asked Derek if I could purchase one to use for publicity on various cartoon sites and he is amenable to that. He is a terrific photographer. Take a look at the other portraits he’s done, you may recognize a few. https://www.derekshapton.com/current

Derek told me that in addition to celebrities, he enjoys photographing ‘real people’.

I should have told him that there are no real people in cartoon studios!

I’ll link to the article when it appears on the Guardian site. See you in the funny papers.