CARTOONS

DAN PIRARO, cartoonist, “Bizarro”, December 20, 2002
CZIKOWSKY: I bet you were a “normal” child. How bizarre, if at all, were you when you were young?
PIRARO: I was fairly normal, except that I daydreamed a lot and drew constantly. I got in trouble in school for drawing too much. If the first grade, I used to get fed up with the whole thing, raise my hand to go to the bathroom, then walk home, sneak into the house and draw quietly in my room.
I also used to eat bark off of trees, but that’s another story.
CZIKOWSKY: How do you do it? How does one consistently come up, not only with humorous ideas, yet with uniquely bizarre humorous ideas, day after day? Do you try to do one comic a day, do you work in patches, or does it vary? What, if anything, do you use for inspiration for your great work?
PIRARO: The whole trick to being a cartoonist isn’t drawing, but thinking. I’ve had to write over 5,000 jokes in the past 16 years. Under normal circumstances it is hard, but when something really lousy happens in your life, like a divorce or a death or being arrested for public indecency, it is really hard to keep the jokes coming.
I don’t know how I do it, no one does. It’s just something I can do. Thank God.

MIKE TWOHY, cartoonist, “That’s Life”
CZIKOWSKY: You mentioned your first cartoons were rejected by the New Yorker, yet they were enough to launch your career. There seems to be a little more in between that story. How did you make your first sales and how did you get your strip launched?
TWOHY: There’s not too much in between. It was just persistence and it took about a year before the New Yorker bought my first drawing. For my “That’s Life” panel,the Washington Post Writers Group was interested in syndicating a general humor panel of mine when I first showed it to the editor there. I guess I’m one of the lucky ones.

TOM ARMSTRONG, cartoonist, “Marvin”, January 31, 2003
CZIKOWSKY: How did you come up with the name Marvin?
ARMSTRONG: The character is based on my son, who was 4 at the time, and we were expecting another child, and I didn’t have enough money coming in from my current strip, John Darling, and then I read an article about a baby boom going on with the baby boomers. It talked about a big blip coming in the baby population. An editor at a syndicate had told me to try to look at demographics and find a niche that was going to affect a significant part of the population. So I read a cover story in Time Magazine, with Jacyln Smith very much pregnant on the cover saying that the working women were going to opt for motherhood and put their careers on hold, so I figured I’d let my new baby pay for itself. I wanted to change the name from Jonathan, who was my son, to protect the guilty. I just sort of pulled out Marvin, because I thought it was short and catchy.
CZIKOWSKY: How do you consistently come up with fresh and funny ideas? Do you work on “Marvin” on a daily basis, or do you produce several “Marvin” comics in batches and then take a break?
ARMSTRONG: The key to doing a comic strip 7 days a week is that you have to have consistency. I have found that Monday is my writing day, not the best way to start a week, but it works for me. Tuesday is sort of make-up work, I also work on my outside licensing projects on Tuesday and Wednesday, and Wednesday afternoon and all day Thursdays are my six dailies, and Fridays are devoted to the Sunday strip.
Most evenings are spent either in the studio or either inking in front of the television.
It’s a little about the movie, “Groundhog Day”, every Monday you wake up and it’s déjà vu all over again. I basically have six characters and the baby never grows and so for the last 20 years, I’ve had to come up with something fresh on the same basic plotline. There are days when I think there’s not another diaper joke in me!
CZIKOWSKY: What kind of adult do you think Marvin would become?
ARMSTRONG: Oh, that’s a good on! I think he’s going to be a little dictator. One of my earliest lines from Marvin was “I try to be nice to my parents because good servants are so hard to find.” I guess he would (fit) the GenX or GenY profile pretty well, in that he looks at the universe through his own navel. He’d definitely would have an eating problem, he might be one of the people suing fast food franchises for making him overweight. I think he’s very bright, and of course he thinks way beyond his years, so he probably would be a managerial professional who gets other people to do all his work for him. He would be a delegater, for sure.

BILL AMEND, cartoonist, “Foxtrot”, February 14, 2003
CZIKOWSKY: If you were not a cartoonist, what do you think you would be?
AMEND: I’ve always assumed I’d be a retired former dot-com zillionaire, which is a cheery thought. Seriously, I’d probably be doing something in a similar vein…maybe in film or video games or books or something.

BRIAN WALKER, cartoonist, “Hi and Lois” and “Beetle Bailey”, Februiary 29, 2003
CZIKOWSKY: You don’t have to disclose your exact location, yet what part of Connecticut is your studio? It seems there are several Connecticut artists. Maybe there is something in the (Connecticut) drinking water that inspires cartoonists?
WALKER: I don’t think it’s the drinking water…the reason why there were a lot of cartoonists in Connecticut for may years was that many of them worked for clients in New York City. But Connecticut didn’t have an income tax, so they could live across the state line and take a train in. But now there is an income tax, so that’s not really valid. But in today’s world, with e-mail and FedEx, a cartoonist can really live anywhere. I’m actually the Chairman of the Connecticut Chapter of the National Cartoonists Society.
CZIKOWSKY: What is your work process? Do you attempt to do a comic a day, or do you do them in batches, or does it vary?
WALKER: I definitely do them in batches. I do 60 gags for Hi and Lois a month and Greg (Walker) does about 30. So you can see we throw out about two-thirds of what we do. And with Beetle Bailey, since there’s four of us writing, there’s even more attrition. So hopefully what ends up in the paper are the best gags. It’s like batting average in baseball, you don’t always get a hit, but hopefully your average is pretty good.

STAN LEE, cartoonist, “The Amazing Spider-Man”, March 14, 2003
CZIKOWSKY: If you were not doing what you do now, what else do you think you might have done in life?
LEE: Believe it or not, there are so many things that I enjoy doing and that I would have like to do so also. I would have loved to have been an actor, or a lawyer, but not the kind that sits in an office and works on documents, I would have wanted to be the kind of lawyer (who) argues cases in front of a judge, like in the movies. And I wouldn’t have minded being the President of the United States but I was always too busy to tackle that, which I’m sure will break a lot of people’s hearts.

JIM BORGMAN, cartoonist, “Zits”, April 4, 2003
CZIKOWSKY: Who came up with the title of your comics, “Zits”? How was the name determined?
BORGMAN: Jerry (Scott, collaborator on “Zits”) was the first person to mouth, “Why don’t we just call it “Zits”? We were thrashing about for a name. When you are doing a comic strip, you want it to have a name that says succinctly what the strip is all about and to convey an attitude. And there’s nothing that says teenagers like the word zits. It felt edge and a little daring. And all the suits at the syndicate in New York were nervous about it so we knew we were on the right track.
CZIKOWSKY: If you had not become a cartoonist, what else do you think you would have done with your life?
BORGMAN: As a child, I dreamed of becoming a Catholic priest, or a zookeeper. Let’s just say I’m glad I became a cartoonist.

RICK KIRKMAN, cartoonist, “Baby Blues:, April 18, 2003
CZIKOWSKY: If you were not a cartoonist, what else do you think you might have done in life?
KIRKMAN: I couldn’t ever take anything seriously enough to do anything else. I was, prior to this, an advertising art director, designer, and freelance illustrator. When I was a kid in the ‘60s, I entertained the idea of being an astronaut, but that involved too much Math.

GRAHAM NOLAN, cartoonist, “Rex Morgan, M.D.”, May 16, 2003
CZIKOWSKY: As an illustrator, what input do you have on plot lines or dialogue? If you could have more influence on the written end, would you wish such influence?
NOLAN: I just control the visuals on the strips. In the comic books, I had more input.
CZIKOWSKY: If you were not an illustrator, what else do you think you might have done in life?
NOLAN: This is what I have always wanted to do since I was 11 years old.
CZIKOWSKY: How did you come up with BANE? Have you suggested other characters?
NOLAN: Actually, Chuck Dixon came up with the idea for an evil “Doc Savage” and I designed the character.

JOK CHURCH, cartoonist, “You Can With Beakman and Jax”, May 30, 2003
CZIKOWSKY: I am glad you mentioned Buckminster Fuller. His ideas about the geodesic domes being a way to undergo construction have turned out to exist in the natural world. What was it you admired about Buckminster Fuller?
CHURCH: I’m glad I mentioned Buckminster Fuller too. I think he was really far out. I think he was far out in the Frank Lloyd Wright kind of far-outness. As a matter of fact, this Tuesday, June 3, on my farm, I and a friend named David and Blue and Kaz, are building a 30-foot model of the molecule “Buckminster Fullerene”, which is a recently discovered form of carbon. I just love that there’s things left to be discovered. People were aware of a form a carbon that has 60 atoms of carbon in the molecule, but nobody could figure out what shape or structure that it had. It had to follow the rules of carbon bonding, how carbon atoms attached to one another. The story that I’ve heard is that one of the researchers was working at home when one of his children’s soccer balls rolled into his office. A soccer ball has 60 corners, and it follows all the rules of carbon bonding. It was named “Buckminster Fullerene” in honor of Bucky and his observations that the smallest unit that a sphere can be broken down into is a triangle.
CZIKOWSKY: How did you come up with the idea for your strip? How did you sell the idea to your local paper, and how did it then grow to be what it is today?
CHURCH: Well, back when I was at Lucasfilm, I was working on a kids’ show that answered children’s questions and the project did not move forward. But I still loved the idea. I thought children would always have questions and at the end, because it didn’t move forward, I needed a job. So after looking for work for about two years, I got a job at a printing plant and the Macintosh computer had just been invented. Shortly after that, a program called Illustrator 88 was written. I used it to create a comic strip that did a lot of what I wanted the TV show to do. I could not create a TV show on my own but I could do a comic strip. I couldn’t draw a straight line, but with my Macintosh computer, I could draw a crooked one, and adjust it. I didn’t have the money to buy one of those computers, but I was working at a printing plant where there was one. I also didn’t have the money to buy the output color prints from a computer. They were $5 a page. This was years before the invention of the inkjet printer. I decided the best way to do this was to have it printed in a local newspaper. I created six comics that answered real questions from real children in my neighborhood. And I gave it to them for free. Thirteen years later, the same paper, the Main Independent Journal, still doesn’t pay for it. On Sundays, I put my ladder in the back of my truck. I would drive to the printing plant. I would put my ladder up to the dumpsters, which were huge, they were the size of railroad cars, and I would crawl into the dumpster to search for my comic strip. And I pulled out 60 or so copies. Sometimes they were a little messed up, I mean we were in a dumpster, so I’d iron them when I got home. Then I would mail them to newspaper editors and ask if there was a place for me. I got the list of editors from the library. There are directories called Editor and Publisher Yearbooks and it lists all the editors and the newspaper circulation and that’s who you send stuff to. And I sent it to them every week, even after they said no. I mean I was out of a job, what could their “no” mean to me? And I gave myself the goal of 10 papers in a year. Well, Universal Press Syndicate picked me up and within a year, I was in over 100 papers. I encourage you to send your stuff too.

RINA PICCOLO, cartoonist, “Six Chix”, June 13, 2003
CZIKOWSKY: If you were not a cartoonist, what else do you think you might have done?
PICCOLO: I would learn how to be a better waitress and make great tips. I don’t really know how to do anything else except cartooning and working with the public.

RICHARD THOMPSON, cartoonist, “Richard’s Poor Almanac”, July 11, 2003
CZIKOWSKY: It is stated you live quietly with a wife and two daughters. Are you the only American male who can make that claim? Or do you use ear plugs?
THOMPSON: I work best in a semi-catatonic state.

CHIP DUNHAM, cartoonist, “Overboard”, August 8, 2003
CZIKOWSKY: If you were not a cartoonist, or if you could have a second career (which is becoming more common in today’s world), what else do might you have done, or still might do?
DUNHAM: I think a whole other career would be trying to animate my stuff and come up with longer storylines, so that might be a future project, And I still might try to be a rock star.
CZIKOWSKY: Beverly Hills, Michigan? Did I sleep through another earthquake and Beverly Hills shifted that far east? Where is Beverly Hills, Michigan? Did you grow up there? If not, what brought you to Beverly Hills, Micigan?
DUNHAM: Yeah, Beverly Hills Michigan. Go figure. It’s a great town, a suburb of Detroit, and we have Starbucks and everything. My dad transferred here about the time I started high school. Before that, we lived in Los Angeles, Wisconsin.
CZIKOWSKY: Which, if any, of your characters would be caught in a Starbucks?
DUNHAM: All of my characters would frequent a Starbucks, but it would be after hours and they would be robbing it.
CZIKOWSKY: Have you thought of marketing your characters? What child wouldn’t want a cuddly, stuffed pirate?
DUNHAM: I really haven’t thought about marketing very much. I’m in a good number of papers, but I think you have to be in meganumbers before anyone starts thinking about turning your characters into toys.

BOB WEBER, cartoonist, “Slylock Fox”, August 22, 2003
CZIKOWSKY: You are yet another comic artist who resides in Connecticut. What is it about Connecticut that produces or inspires so many cartoonists?
WEBER: I think this history of cartoonists living in Connecticut goes back many years to when New York was the publishing capital and many, many of the magazines had their editorial offices in New York City. At one time, magazines likes Collier’s and the Saturday Evening Post were a place were cartoonists could sell their work. In the last ‘50s, my dad was one of those cartoonists who moved into the city, and later to Connecticut in order to be close to the action because, back then, the editors would see cartoonists once a week. They call it “Look Day”, and it was every Wednesday, and aspiring cartoonists could come in and wait their urn and go in with their batch of cartoons for review. And if the editor was interested in you, they would hold onto them, and when you came back the next week, if they had decided to buy it, there would be a little “OK” written on the cartoon. So that was really what attracted many cartoonists to the area. They even had a name for a group of the cartoonists who would come in, they called them “the Connecticut cartoonists”, because they would take the train in every Wednesday. And some of the cartoonists who got their start this way later went on to produce syndicated newspaper strips, for example, Mort Walker of “Beetle Bailey” and Hank Ketcham who created “Dennis the Menace”.

STEVE MOORE, cartoonist, “In the Bleachers”, September 19, 2003
CZIKOWSKY: Have you ever received any reaction from professional athletes over something from “In the Bleachers”? If so, what was the reaction?
MOORE: Actually, it happens all the time. The most recent one I can remember was from Ron Rivera, who is the linebackers coach for the Philadelphia Eagles and who also played professional football for the Chicago Bears. He emailed reacting to a cartoon I did showing a huge, huge football player going head to head with a teensy tiny football player. And the little guy had a thought balloon over his head saying “I think I can, I think I can”. Ron liked it as a motivational cartoon for his little players to help keep them in a good attitude.
CZIKOWSKY: How did you make the switch from news editing to cartooning? What was the process that launched “In the Bleachers”?
MOORE: It really wasn’t much of a switch as a double life. I started “In the Bleachers” in 1985 while I was working as a news editor at the Maui News. Before that, I had been their sports editor and while I was in sports, I got the idea to do a sports cartoon that would, first of all, be funny, and second, would break up all the gray type of the scores, facts, and figures page. Right after I became syndicated, I moved to the Los Angeles Times. And I spent from 1985 to 1996 doing two jobs, the cartoon and news editing. I would get up at 5 a.m. every day and work a couple of hours on the cartoon, then hop into the car and battle the traffic to go to work at the Times. I’d also work about 10 hours on the weekend on it. Somehow I managed to meet my wife during that time, and squeezed in enough dates that she eventually agreed to marry me.
When I was syndicated in enough newspapers to make the move financially, I quit the Times, and for a while, it was free sailing with the cartoon only, but I eventually acquired another career as a creator of TV and film animation, so now I’m back to two jobs again.
CZIKOWSKY: What advice would you give to someone who would like to be a cartoonist?
MOORE: I would recommend that you go to http://www.reuben.org/, which is the Web site of the National Cartoonists Society, and look at their page for aspiring cartoonists. Basically, it’s the same advice I’d give. The only thing I’d add would be to ignore the odds against you. When you hear that out of 5,000 submissions a year, only 3 cartoons are launched at each syndicate, don’t let that intimidate you. Just try to come up with something funny…that’s the bottom line.
CZIKOWSKY: How do you keep up such talent time after time? Do you produce your work in batches, or do you work at a steady rate? Do you ever have writer’s block? If so, how do you overcome it?
MOORE: Thanks for the compliment, but I have this problem, I hate my stuff when I’m done with it. I don’t think my work is particularly good when I’ve completed it. Maybe it’s because I’ve spent so much time on it that I just get sick of the joke, or maybe it’s because it really does stink. As for writer’s block, I’ve never had it, it’s more of a problem of the quality not being there sometimes. I can always come up with a cartoon, the hard part is making sure that it’s actually going to be funny. As far as how I work, I work at a steady pace. I usually think of ideas for two hours every morning, and then in the afternoon when my hands have stopped shaking from the coffee, then I draw. I usually get about three cartoons a day done and I stay five weeks ahead. Without coffee, I’m doomed.

FRANCESCO MARCIULIANO, cartoonist, “Sally Forth”, October 3, 2003
CZIKOWSKY: What is your creative process? Do you design entire storylines with the outcome predetermined, or do you prefer to let your characters proceed with their futures uncertain? Do you write in batches or do you create at a fairly steady pace?
MARCIULIANO: A lot of it has to do with finding inspiration. I question friends and family. I eavesdrop on conversations at restaurants and public transportation. I stalk interesting looking people for hours, hiding behind mailboxes and slow-moving senior citizens. In short, I’m insufferable company. I also draw inspiration from various sources—Nick Hornby novels for his incisive, almost intuitive grasp of adult relationships, “The Simpsons” for outright laughter and “The Cat in the Hat”, frankly because I’m fascinated by the concept of a feline millinery (really, have you ever heard of such target marketing)? Many would be quick to point out that none of these brilliant influences have ever made themselves into a single “Sally Forth” comic strip, to which I can only respond “Gee, you…you really know how to hurt a guy.” Then after all my research—which has yet to be considered tax deductible—I start writing the daily script, often in one sitting so that days flow seamlessly from one to the next. Sometimes I have a predetermined outcome. Sometimes the story dictates the ending. Sometimes I panic and dismiss the first six days with Ted coming out of the shower and Sally realizing the last year was all a dream (check your “Dallas” reruns, people). Then I rewrite. And rewrite. And…well, you get the idea. Each week I submit a full six daily strips and one Sunday, including logo panel. Each week my editor writes back, “You’re kidding, right”? It’s sort of a dialogue we have going. Oh, you don’t know the pain I suffer.

JAN ELIOT, cartoonist, “Stone Soup”, October 24, 2003
CZIKOWSKY: If you were not a cartoonist, or, if you are able to attach a second career to your current one, what else might have you done or still might do?
ELIOT: I began my art career in ceramics at Southern Illinois University. I still miss having a pottery studio, and fantasize about building one again in my retirement. Whenever that might be.
Besides cartoonist, my other true passion is travel. I want to visit all continents before I die…but that’s not a career. It’s an expense that my current career is trying to pay for. But if I could do ANYTHING…with money as no option, I’d travel.

BERKE BREATHED, cartoonist, “Opus”, November 21, 2003
CZIKOWSKY: Opus has to appeal to adults, at least initially. Most 10 year olds had diminished reading skills when Opus last appeared. How do you intend to reach out to the young and get their minds off of reading for current events?
BREATHED: Nudity. It works for Hollywood.

JEF MALLETT, cartoonist, “Frazz”, December 5, 2003
CZIKOWSKY: If you were not a cartoonist, or if you could be something in addition to being a cartoonist, what else would you or you still might do?
MALLETT: I’d like to write a novel, but I think I’m too happy to write a good one.
When I was kind of starting out, I went to nursing school as kind of a backup. I dropped out to work as an artist in a newspaper. Twenty years later, I finally got around to drawing a strip for a living—and still, now and then, I wonder if I don’t need a backup. But by now I’d make a lousy nurse.
Still love to write and draw, though. I’d just like to find more ways to do that.

PATRICK McDONNELL, cartoonist, “Mutts”, December 19, 2003
CZIKOWSKY: How did you get involved with Toys for Tots, and what is your involvement with them?
McDONNELL: On the muttscomics.com web site, a few years ago I did a storyline where Mooch the cat was trying to figure out what to give Earl, who thought he had everything. And, by that, he meant a bed and a food bowl. So he thought he would give him nothing, so he ended up giving up a big box of nothing. So in October of this year, we contacted Toys for Tots and suggested a “gift of nothing” promotion. So on we thought it would be a good idea to offer a Mooch-decorated “box of nothing” on the muttscomics.com site that people could give to family and friends. The idea was that all the profits from the $12 sale would go to Toys for Tots, so that even though YOU’RE getting nothing, there’s a child who’s getting SOMETHING. The other bonus is that there will be a golden ticket in 10 of the “boxes of nothing which can be returned to me, and I will do an original piece of art for those 10 lucky winners.

NICK GALIFIANAKIS, cartoonist, “Tell Me About It”
CZIKOWSKY: Does Ms. (Carolyn) Hax (“Tell Me About It” columnist) have any editorial approval on what you draw, or does she have no idea what you will draw?
GALIFIANAKIS: I don’t dress myself without it by my adorable genius ex-wife.

CATHY GUISEWITE, cartoonist, “Cathy”, February 27, 2004
CZIKOWSKY: Carrie Bradshaw found the true love of her life. Cathy found the true love of her life. Isn’t that really the point true stories are supposed to reach?
GUISEWITE: In my own life I was happily single for 47 years and really was at a place where I wasn’t looking for a person to share my life. I felt I was living a full life. And that where Cathy’s been in the comic strip, she hasn’t been a desperate single woman, she’s been a successful single woman. I will always really support the joy of living independently on your own. But I’m also happy that I’m getting to experience this new phase. Ultimately every human wants to have another human connection that’s important to them, either a spouse or another family member, or a best friend, or even a pet.
CZIKOWSKY: Do you use details from your life, or do you make up details, or do you sometimes use actual detains and other times make them up?
GUISEWITE: When they’re really, really embarrassing things, then I’ve made them up. When they’ve examples displaying confidence and control over my life, then they’re actually my own life.
CZIKOWSKY: I am certain your Mom isn’t reading this. So how similar or different is Cathy’s mom from your mom?
GUISEWITE: Well, fortunately, like Cathy’s mom, my own Mom can’t get her computer to work, so she will not be reading this. And I’m free to say that she’s exactly like the Mom in the strip.
CZIKOWSKY: Cathy admits remembering previous decades. Still, she remains remarkable young looking. Will Cathy age as future decades go by?
GUISEWITE: That’s an excellent question. Since I’m the artist--even though the strip is still a reflection—I get to draw some version of myself that’s as young as possible. But I think that her marriage and new life are going to bring about a lot of changes in all things, probably including her hairstyle, which hasn’t changed in 27 years.

ANN TELNAES, cartoonist, March 12, 2004
CZIKOWSKY: Is it me, or do you seem to find a special talent for pointing out the flaws of Dick Cheney? What is it about Dick Cheney, other than his quietly running the country, that brings out such inspiration from you? TELNAES: Because I think a former Secretary of Defense, who becomes the CEO of a company, which in turn, profits $85 million from a war while that former CEO is now serving as Vice President, is a conflict of interest and while that’s not illegal, it’s certainly unethical.
CZIKOWSKY: Supposedly your comic strip (“Six Chix”) is designed to reduce the stress of any individual artist from the pressures of consistently finding new ideas under deadline. Yet, isn’t that sort of insulting to your wonderful talents? If given a chance, do you think you could produce strips at a faster pace?
TELNAES: Yes, in one sense the workload is lessened. However, you’re not also dealing with established characters. I think I could actually do better if I had reoccurring characters and a story line, but I have so many other things going on with my editorial work, that if I ever did a comic strip on my own, I would have to cut out sleep.

JOHN KOVALESKI, cartoonist, “Bo Nanas”, March 26, 2004
CZIKOWSKY: What is your creative process? Do you attempt to produce your strip at a steady pace, do you do them in batches, or do you vary your pace?
KOVALESKI: I try to write and do about two dailies worth of work every day. The key phrase is “I try”.
CZIKOWSKY: Do you find yourself facing writer’s block? Of so, how do you overcome it? If not, what are the influences that help provide you with your ideas?
KOVALESKI: I write a lot of things down on paper…objects, actions, etc…and try to think around them, combine them, whatever I can do to come up with an idea. If all else fails, I give up for a while.

LANCE ALDRICH, cartoonist, “Real Life Adventures”
CZIKOWSKY: Please describe your work process. Do you work at a steady pace, do you produce in batches, or does it vary?
ALDRICH: I sit there in my favorite chair, in the morning, because that’s when I seem to be at my best, surrounded by three cats, and sometimes I don’t come up with anything, other times I fill half a page. And when it’s over, it’s over, it’s like the window closes and I don’t go back to it the rest of the day. My favorite thing to do is to write Sundays, because instead of writing captions, I write tortured poetry and (collaborator) Gary (Wise) just does cartoons based on the poem. It’s fun because I just start with the first line and I don’t know where it’s going from there. I may just have a word in my head, like “lawnmower”, and I just start writing and I don’t know what I’m going to say about lawnmowers but by the time I’m done, it’s a pretty funny poem. And then I send it to Gary, and if it’s good, I hear him snort over the phone.
CZIKOWSKY: Do you ever face writers block? If so, how do you overcome it? If not, how do you believe you are avoiding it?
ALDRICH: I wonder every week when I send Gary two pages and so of ideas, if I’m done…if I’m ever going to have another idea. But then I do, and I’ve been doing it for 13 years and I felt the same way for 38 years in advertising, so I guess I was wrong. When I have writer’s block, I just write SOMETHING. If I’m sitting in that chair and I look across the room and I see a magazine rack, I just write “magazine rack”. I may not use it for two years, I may never use it, or I may use it the next week. So you have to write stuff down, because if you don’t, it’s dust in the wind, you’ll never see it again. It’s scary as hell. It really is. I’m sure every writer of every kind—Ernest Hemingway used to call it facing the great white bull, facing the blank page. It’s the way I’ve always written. I write the first sentence and I go from there.
CZIKOWSKY: If you could do something in addition to your comic strip, what else would you like to do?
ALDRICH: You know, I’d like to go out and beat the living hell out of people who abuse animals. But it’s illegal, so I mostly settle for working in the yard and playing with my grandchildren and going up to our lake cottage in Northern Michigan.

MIKE BALDWIN, cartoonist, “Cornered”, April 23, 2004
CZIKOWSKY: I just saw “American Splendor”. I realize comic books is a different category, yet I was struck that the write had to keep his day job. Do most cartoonists you know have other jobs?
BALDWIN: There are 200 syndicated cartoonists in North America. Most papers run about 20 cartoons, and usually a lot of the same 15. You do the math.
And so it is easy to see that since cartoonists are paid on the number of papers that carry them, many of us are working on fumes. It’s a labor of love, and love hurts.
So, to answer your question, yes, unfortunately, a lot of cartoonists have to do something else (or marry someone who has a real job) to make ends meet.

GLENN McCOY, cartoonist, “The Duplex”, May 21, 2004
CZIKOWSKY: How did you enter the cartooning business? Did you study art and did you have other jobs prior to creating “The Duplex”?
McCOY: You might want to look at my bio on ucomics.com, but to make a long story short, although I’ve been drawing cartoons since I was a kid and working for all my school papers, I never considered it a feasible career path. But as I was working as the art director for my local newspaper, where I still work today, someone notified me of a cartooning contest sponsored through USA Today and King Feature Syndicate. The top 300 entries would get a really cool hardbound book on the history of comic strips. So I entered because I wanted the book but I accidentally won the contest, so I never got the book. But I did spend a week in New York with King Features and I stayed with Mort Walker, who does “Beetle Bailey”, washing his car. But from then on, I had the attention of syndicates asking me to submit comic strips to them. From there, “The Duplex” sprung up.

GREG EVANS, cartoonist, “Luann”, June 4, 2004
CZIKOWSKY: What is your work style? Do you produce strips at a steady pace, do you work in batches, or do you vary your pace? How far ahead do you tend to work, or have you ever found yourself falling behind? If so, what do you do then?
EVANS: I work a pretty typical work schedule. I stay two months ahead. I’ve never been behind. I’m compulsive that way.
CZIKOWSKY: How much of your (then) pre-teen daughter can be found in Luann? (Don’t worry: we’re certain she’ll never read this.) Did you get ideas from actual life, or are your ideas basically fictional?
EVANS: Early on, many of my ideas came from real life. Now, most are fictional.

ADRIAN RAESIDE, cartoonist, “The Other Coast”, July 16, 2004
CZIKOWSKY: How do you develop your characters? Are any of them based on people, or groups of people, you know?
RAESIDE: I actually base mine of my own life, so to speak. I’ve been surrounded by colorful characters most of my life and have put many of them in the strip. I just hope they don’t find out…
CZIKOWSKY: Do you remember any of your early washroom drawings? Are any of them worthy of repeating?
RAESIDE: They mostly depicted teachers in various unpleasant circumstances. I really didn’t like school.

JEFF MILLAR, writer, “Tank McNamara:, August 13, 2004
CZIKOWSKY: How did Tank McNamara get his mane, other than he is big enough to be a tank? Is McNamara taken from anyone you know?
MILLAR: Back in 1974, when we began syndication, the type of sportscaster who became Tank was fairly common: A former athlete who got his job as a local sportscaster not because he had any skills at journalism, but because he had a semi-marketable name. That stereotype has largely disappeared and most former athletes who do come to broadcasting have camera presence and at least enough storytelling skills to make the cut as sportscasters. To be honest, I don’t remember how he got the name. I needed a name of a character who was very big, and Tank McNamara just came off the tips of my fingers.
CZIKOWSKY: How do you produce your strips? Do you work at a steady pace, do you produce strips in batches, or does it vary? How long does it usually take to produce a single strip?
MILLAR: I write the dailies (Monday through Saturday) in one batch, usually on Wednesday afternoon. Bill has until Friday noon to get them to the syndicate. That batch starts syndication a week from the beginning from the following Monday. The Sundays are written much further in advance, about two months.
Obviously, it takes Bill longer to draw the strip than it does for me to write it. On the other hand, I come up with the ideas, which requires a substantial amount of reading.

PATRICK McDONNELL, “Mutts” cartoonist, September 10, 2004
CZIKOWSKY: Do you have staring contests with a pet? If so, who wins?
McDONNELL: I have had staring contests with my cat and I wouldn’t say I win, but she does get bored first. And I’ve had staring contests with my dog, and he always wins. Do you have staring contests with your animals?
CZIKOWSKY: I have staring contests out here, but I realize I am at a disadvantage: snakes don’t have eyelids.
McDONNELL: Okay.

ROBERT MANKOFF, New Yorker Cartoon Editor, November 5, 2004
CZIKOWSKY: What was your career path that led you to become Cartoon Editor? When did you become interested in cartoons, and in what type of cartoon work have you engaged?
MANKOFF: I went to the High School of Music and Art in New York City. Always drew and always was funny. Also couldn’t do anything else worth a damn so my fate was sealed early.

BRIAN CRANE, “Pickles” cartoonist, December 3, 2004
CZIKOWSKY: Are any of your characters based on actual family members or people you’ve known, or perhaps composites of different people, or is each character not based upon anyone in particular?
CRANE: I didn’t realize it when I was creating my main characters, Ear and Opal, but as I saw them on the comics page I gradually realized that they were amazingly similar to my wife’s parents. I’ve never told them this because I’m not sure how they’d take it, so let’s keep it a secret, okay? The dog, Roscoe, was actually based on a dog I had when I created the strip. He’s now gone to Doggie Heaven, but it’s nice to see him living in the comics.

MIKE PETERS, “Mother Goose and Grimm” cartoonist, January 14, 2005
CZIKOWSKY: If you could create a brand new comic strip, would you do so, and what type of characters would it involve and what type of subjects would you like for it to delve into?
PETERS: I’ve thought about it many times and people have tried to do it, but with my political cartoons (which I do about 4-5 times a week) and then my comic strip (which is 7 days a week), I think I’d be dead if I took on anything else. But there are topics that I would love to tackle. Maybe in my next life.

JIM DAVIS, “Garfield” cartoonist, Janaury 28, 2005
CZIKOWSKY: Have you read any of (Gene Weingarten’s) books or columns? Even though you two have different types of humor, and he is critical of your type of humor, do you respect or fault his type of humor? DAVIS: To be honest, I am not that familiar with Mr. Weingarten’s writing, but no one kind of humor has ever made everyone laugh (to my knowledge). If my humor isn’t for him, or his humor isn’t for everyone, it’s no big shakes. We both make somebody laugh and that’s the important thing.
CZIKOWSKY: Did you and David Letterman ever share a cola and discuss comedy while at Ball State?
DAVIS: Actually, shared a lot of beer and offended a lot of people. David is one of the funniest people I’ve ever met. Don’t try to match wits with the guy after a pitcher at Manor’s.
CZIKOWSY: What is your version of The Aristrocrats joke?
DAVIS: Have to plead ignorance. I don’t know the joke.

SIGNE WILKINSON, editorial cartoonist, April 1, 2005
CZIKOWSKY: What do you see are your responsibilities as a political cartoonist? You obviously have more leeway than reporters, so you are allowed to comically exaggerate. You are allowed to show an opinion. At the same time, there are many who skim the news and whose primary knowledge of some news items will be what they see in your cartoons. Do you see yourself as an educator of the public, or do you see yourself primarily to entertain and make us laugh at the inconsistencies of news events, or what do you see as your role as an editorial cartoonist?
WILKINSON: Yikes! How about asking for the meaning of life? In my job, I definitely DO NOT see myself as an educator. My responsibility is to give my opinion on the news using pictures rather than words. It’s been my experience that people don’t pick up a cartoon, smack themselves on the forehead and say “Well, now I’m going to vote the way this cartoon says I should.” Mostly, I think cartoons reassure people who already agree with them that they aren’t alone.

DAVE COVERLY, “Speed Bump” cartoonist, DAN PIRARO, “Bizarro” cartoonist, and PAT BRADY “Rose is Rose” cartoonist, May 27, 2005
CZIKOWSKY: I have a question for each of you: why should the other two cartoonists win (the National Cartoonist Society’s Cartoonist of the Year award)? No, seriously, lie if you have to.
PIRARO: Pat deserves it because his work has been consistently good for years. If Dave wins, I’ll beat him to death with the statue because he’s younger than Pat and me.
COVERLY: Pat should win because he’s been brilliant for years. Dan should win because I don’t want to get beaten to death with a statue.
BRADY: It would be nice for an old bald dude to lose once in a while.
CZIKOWSKY: You are shipwrecked on an island with Gene Weingarten. What item would you most want to have with you, and why?
COVERLY: Chastity belt. No explanation required.
PIRARO: A cruiseship.
BRADY: Don’t know the gentleman.
GENE WEINGARTEN, Washington Post Staff Writer, May 31, 2005
CZIKOWSKY: Any comment from you, Gene?
WEINGARTEN: Coverly’s line is probably actionable, but I will just get back at him via savage public attacks on his work.

RICHARD THOMPSON, “Cul de Sac” and “Richard’s Poor Almanac” cartoonist, June 6, 2005
CZIKOWSKY: Did you know as a child you wanted to be a cartoonist? When did you decide this, and how did you enter the cartooning profession?
THOMPSON: Drawing was what I always did instead of what I was supposed to be doing. That seems the way most cartoonists start off. I entered the profession by finally taking a portfolio of drawings around. Everything else metastasized from that.

DEAN YOUNG. “Blondie” cartoonist, August 26, 2005
CZIKOWSKY: Do the other cartoonists tell you in advance what they are going to do when their cartoons show their characters receiving the invitations and going to the anniversary, or is this a surprise to you to see how they react?
YOUNG: A lot of the cartoonists did show me, and a lot of it is a surprise to me. So I’m enjoying looking at the comics pages each day, and happily seeing what surprises are in store for the Bumsteads anniversary.

PHILIP KENNICOTT, Washington Post Staff Writer, February 10, 2006
CZIKOWSKY: What was the reasoning of The Post in (not printing a cartoon depicting Mohammed)? I know the Philadelphia Inquirer did, which I believe is their right, and that offended Muslims protested at the Inquirer, which is their right. Shouldn’t the message be that in our open society we are allowed to have open expression, and when that expression offends someone, they have a right to make their points as to why it is offensive, and from there we can better decide what is correct and incorrect to state in what settings in the future? KENNICOTT: Newspapers aren’t the best place to test the limits of the principle of free speech. Their mission is news and information and, yes, broad public debate. But by the nature of their audience, and mission, they won’t be the public space in which limits are most often tested.

SCOTT STANTIS, “Prickly City” cartoonist, March 24, 2006
CZIKOWSKY: Seeing you are not an Alabama native, how did you wind up in Alabama?
STANTIS: I came to Alabama to become the editorial cartoonist for the Birmingham News. Seeing as there are only about 80 jobs in the US, you go where the work is. I do like it here a lot. Birmingham is a surprisingly cosmopolitan city. The rest of Alabama, is, well, Alabama.
CZIKOWSKY: If you think a pro-corporate entity like the Post is a liberal entity, what do you think of the “we’ll lie for the President” New York Times? Which, by the way, you may answer freely as they have no comics, which right away makes them suspicious.
STANTIS: I totally agree that any publication that has no comics is suspect to the extreme.
You make a great point. The perceived chasm between liberal and conservative in the United States is much smaller than it’s made out to be. I would love a much broader debate with reasoned discussion from a wider range of people and views. I guess that is what the Internet does so well.
CZIKOWSKY: Your cartoons often have political or policy slants. Do you feel happy knowing that you have a loyal following of people who disagree with you, or do you tend to direct your appreciation towards those who mostly agree with your sentiments?
STANTIS: I seem to have a large number of readers from the left. I think this speaks well of Prickly City, but even more about readers like you. I never claim to have a corner on the truth. I have my views and you have yours. The joy and the passion is in the debates. I often say of my liberal friends, “we may not have the same politics but we share the same values”. By this I mean we all want a better world for our children. We want every Americans to have the opportunity to succeed. We don’t want to see any one go hungry. How we cure these ills is where the debate begins. I want to engage the whole political spectrum. I take off on Republicans, too, ya know.

DAVE COVERLY, “Speed Bump” cartoonist, BILL AMEND, “Foxtrot” cartoonist, and DAN PIRARO, “Bizarro” cartoonist, May 26, 2006
CZIKOWSKY: Do you know each other fairly well or not? Do any of you keep in close contact with each other?
COVERLY: We all know each other intimately, if you catch my drift.
AMEND: I wanted to know Dave Coverly better, not now I’m not so sure. Generally, yeah, we all tend to know each other over the years. That’s one of the benefits of attending the Reuben Awards weekend…getting to meet your peers.
COVERLY: Oh, so now last night meant nothing, Bill? Thanks. Thanks a lot.
CZIKOWSKY: Would each of you please pick one or more of your fellow cartoonists and provide us with your honest evaluation of his comic?
PIRARO: I think “Bizarro” is one of the best drawn and funniest cartoons ever. How does he do it day after day, year after year? The guy must be a god, or at least a genius. And he is sexy and tall, too. Sincerely, Dave Coverly.

JOK CHURCH, “You Can with Beakman and Jax” cartoonist, June 30, 2006
CZIKOWSKY: If you were not a cartoonist, what other career would you like to, or perhaps still might, pursue?
CHURCH: First of all, I don’t think that other cartoonists regard me as a cartoonist. They see me more as a graphic artist. I don’t really know what I am. My friends accept, as a matter of fate, that this is what I do for a living. I think that the career that I embrace whenever I’m in the car listening to Eric Clapton is that in my other life, I AM Eric Clapton. But I have absolutely no musical ability at all. I placed the piano as a child and a saxophone in the high school band, but for me the band was more about the marching than the music.
I think that I have enjoyed videotape editing and the editing of sound and have made an LP and a friend of mine named Richard Bolingbroke is an artist, and I have been videotaping him creating his art, and I love that it combines the editing and reporting skills that I acquired when I was a radio newscaster. I think it’s interesting that children that study music grow up with seemingly unrelated talents and gifts such as a higher understanding of spatial relationships and higher mathematics. So, I think I’d like to continue my filmmaking career, because the Beakman and Jax once birthed a TV series, and I enjoyed that. The 96 episodes of Beakman’s World are going back into syndication this September and I’m really excited about that.
CZIKOWSKY: How did you get the name Jok?
CHURCH: My parents wanted to name my Jacques, but my mother was very interested in becoming an American (my parents were born in Romania). In fact, my mother was obsessed with it. She thought that no one in the U.S. would understand the spelling of that name, so my father proposed Jock. My mother said that would be obscene, so she suggested taking the c out to make it clean. So I ended Jok.
CZIKOWSKY: Do you have some favorite among your works? If so, what are some that are most memorable?
CHURCH: I really enjoy when I’m asked questions that leap from the physical world and the material world into our hearts. A child asked me to say, “I’m moving and I don’t know how I’m ever going to make new friends.” That was one of my favorites. Another was from the man who wrote to tell me that he’d become an engineer in a jet airplane factory. He wanted to know what turbulence or chaos was. And this was important because it coincided with the Columbine killings. Some people like the young men wearing the black coats called out the word “chaos” as a kind of slogan and they confused its meaning. Chaos does not mean total disorder. Chaos means a multiplicity of possibilities. Chaos is from the ancient Greek words that means a thing that is birthed from the void. And it was about that which is possible, not about disorder. Another favorite question was “What are the laws of the universe?” And as far as I could tell I saw four of them. The first is that the universe works to be balanced. Another was there is no such thing as darkness, there is just more or less light. The other two at the moment escape me. It’s physics, but it’s also poetry.

TERRI LIBENSON, “The Pajama Diaries” cartoonist, July 14, 2006
CZIKOWSKY: Did you draw cartoons in school? Was there a metamorphosis that led to the Pajama characters and, if so, what was it?
LIBENSON: I love this question. There was, in fact, a metamorphosis that led to the creation of the characters.
I tend to base my ideas from life. Back in school, I came up with a quirky strip about four college characters, which ran every week for a while in our student newspaper (I still love that strip, by the way). Then years later, I had a weekly strip syndicated with King Features about a newly married couple, based on my husband and myself.
After the birth of our kids, The Pajama Diaries became a sort of natural extension of that weekly cartoon. And speaking of metamorphoses, The Pajama Diaries characters will grow older through the years and evolve. So, I’m sure you can count on even more changes (sooo looking forward to the puberty years.)
TONY COCHRAN, “Agnes” cartoonist, September 1, 2006
CZIKOWSKY: How long have you been drawing “Agnes”? How did you come up with your characters? Did you have cartoon characters when you were in school and, if so, do any of them have any resemblance to your existing characters?
COCHRAN: “Agnes” was syndicated in 1999. All of my art before I went to the Columbus College of Art and Design looked like cartoons. But I majored in Fine Arts and it transitioned to large paintings, both figurative and egocentric. However, after graduating, getting married, and spending 15 years working in an auto body shop waiting to be discovered by the hooty-tooty art people in New York and Los Angeles, I went back to cartooning. I had a lot of success painting, but never enough to quit the day job. But one day my patient and understanding wife, Vickie, gave me the go ahead to do the art thing full time. I got a studio in an old casket manufacturing building and chased success with mixed results. One month I was out of canvas and reluctant to ask my patient and understanding wife for one more check to buy supplies. So I began using up my paper. Agnew showed up in my sketchbook one day. She wouldn’t be quiet and hasn’t been quiet since.

RICHARD THOMPSON, “Cul de Sac” cartoonist, September 11, 2006
CZIKOWSKY: Are there any family members or friends who may find themselves, or think they find themselves, represented in your comic, and do you deny any resemblance as purely coincidental?
THOMPSON: They’re all there in various mutated and combined forms, with a thin layer of me on top, I guess. I told a neighbor that it was all based on his family, kiddingly, and he looked at me with horror. His house is now for sale, not kidding.

GENE WEINGARTER, Washington Post Staff Writer, October 23, 2006
CZIKOWSKY: Since Garry Trudeau seems so reserve and shy about discussing his personal life, how were you able to get him to do so? How did you get him to agree to be interviewed?
WEINGARTEN: Well, I asked.
Garry and I had corresponded a few times before, online. I host a regular chat on Tuesdays, and it frequently deals with issues of the comics pages, and on more than one occasion I had relayed a reader’s question directly to Garry.
I’m not entirely certain why Garry agreed to this, given his historical aversion to publicity, but I think part of it was that he knew I cared about the comics, looked at them analytically, and respected comics as an art form. Obviously, he also knew that I thought the B.C. storyline was great. But Trudeau is very media savvy, and knew perfectly well that once he agreed to participate, anything could happen. He just risked it.

LALO ALCARAZ, “La Cucaracha” cartoonist, October 27, 2007
CZIKOWSKY: How did you get into cartooning? Was this something you did in high school or maybe even earlier? When did you start drawing characters?
ALCARAZ: Drawing and musical talent runs in my family, on my mom’s side specifically. Every male in my family can draw/paint and or play a musical instrument. I can draw/paint. So basically I started as soon as I could hold a crayon against the wall.
As for characters, I didn’t start drawing them until college, where I started drawing ed toons for my school paper at San Diego State.
CZIKOWSKY: If you were not a cartoonist, what else would you like to have done or perhaps still may do?
ALCARAZ: I have no skills for anything else, and minimal skills for cartooning, so I’d be a hobo.
I used to have a sketch comedy group. The Chicano Secret Service, and let me tell you, rock and roll lifestyle is nothing to sneeze at…Also I have a political satire / talk radio show, “The Pocho Hour of Power”, today at 4 pm on KRPK 90.7 FM in Los (kpfk.org) so if you listen you can tell me if I should quit my day job or not.
CZIKOWSKY: Will any family members or close friends recognize themselves in your cartoons? What do you draw upon to create your characters?
ALCARAZ: I am Eddie, my wife is Vero, Eddie’s girlfriend and my kids recently begged to be put back in the strip. Whenever I draw a kid in the strip, I just tell my three kids it’s them. Kids will believe anything.

JOE EDLEY, “Scrabblegram” Writer, March 20, 2007
CZIKOWSKY: How did you get to work on puzzles? Did you create puzzles for school newspapers or for your friends when you were a kid?
EDLEY: I’ve been creating puzzles since I was a kid. When I got into “Scrabble”, I used my abilities to try to improve people’s anagramming abilities. I’ve been creating word puzzles for the “Scrabble” game community for nearly 20 years. Having adding “Scrabblegrams” to my resume is a recent thing, and I was happy to be at the National Scrabble Association when they asked us to do it.
CZIKOWSKY: I am sure you never makes mistakes, but I am wondering, has there even been a mistake (which I am sure wasn’t your fault) in printing a puzzle? Is so, what was the mistake?
EDLEY: Boy, you’re a true optimist! Nice to think that, but the reality is that I make mistakes from time to time. I do the Scrabblegrams in batches of six months at a time, and once in a while there is a mistaken addition.

BILL AMEND, “Fox Trot” cartoonist, DAVE COVERLY, “Speed Bump” cartoonist, and DAN PIRARO “Bizarro” cartoonist, May 18, 2007
CZIKOWSKY: Are there topics you have done that you sat back and thought to yourself: a few decades ago, I could never have done that? If so, what were some of those things? PIRARO: Yes, joke about Britney Spears. She wasn’t famous a few decades ago.
COVERLY: A few decades ago, I would have been the youngest syndicated cartoonist EVER.
I’ve done jokes about bomb-sniffing dogs that, post-9/11, I probably wouldn’t draw now.
AMEND: To be honest, newspapers seem way more PC and sensitive with regard to comics then I remember them being when I was younger.
CZIKOWSKY: We hope you are enjoying your more relaxed life, Mr, Amend. Just note how you’ve ruined the lives for millions others. We’ll try to manage and keep waiting anxiously until Sundays.
AMEND: Thanks. One more thing to deal with in therapy. Seriously, it’s nice ot not be perpetually stressed and panicked for the first time in 20 years.

TIM RICKARD, “Brewster Rockit” cartoonist, June 8, 2007
CZIKOWSKY: Did you draw cartoons in high school, such as for the high school newspaper? When did you start creating comic characters and may we someday see them?
RIKCARD: I’ve been drawing cartoons all my life and I was the cartoonist for my high school newspaper, And will see them someday? Lord, I hope not.
CZIKOWSKY: If you could fly into space, who in your comic strip would you wish to fly with, and who would you prefer to stay on the ground, and why? RICKARD: Probably Pam, but for all the wrong reasons. Who would stay on the ground? The rest of them.

MATT JANZ, “Out of the Gene Pool” cartoonist, July 27, 2007
CZIKOWSKY: When did you begin drawing cartoons? Did you do cartoons for your high school newspaper? What drew your attention to creating cartoons?
JANZ: I started drawing cartoons when I was 8. I received a big box of “Peanuts” books and that was it.
I did illustrations for my high school paper but kept the actual cartoons to my own notebooks, which were never filled with actual notes.
CZIKOWSKY: If you were not a cartoonist, what else might you have done as a career, indeed, perhaps you still may do?
JANZ: If I wasn’t cartooning, I’d probably be designing web sites. Graphic design always came easy to me.
I wouldn’t be an accountant, that’s for sure.
CZIKOWSKY: Will we ever see Madame Red’s husband? If so, what is he going to look like (or, even if we’re not going to see him, how should we imagine him?)
JANZ: Nope, Herbert will remain behind closed doors. I think, years ago, I did draw the top of his head peeking up from a couch.
He looks like Gene Weingarten. Ick.

GUY and RODD, “Brevity” cartoonists, with SUZANNE TOBIN, Washington Post Comics Page Editor, August 24, 2007
CZIKOWSKY: In respect for brevity, what next?
GUY and RODD: Possibly a modern art version of the Kama Sutra.
CZIKOWSKY: You worked on campaigns for films? Did you two work by yourselves or were you part of a larger organization that promoted films? What exactly did you do in these campaigns?
GUY and RODD: We used to be part of a larger organization that promoted films. It was an amazing place, full of brilliant people. It’s called Cimarron.
CZIKOWSKY: How did you two create “Brevity”? Did one of you first come up with the idea of working together, and who first came up with the name “Brevity”?
GUY and RODD: Guy was doing horrible drawings, then Rodd started doing much better ones, and that’s how we started working together.
The name “Brevity” actually came from a piece of hate mail, where a reader complained about our long captions by saying “Don’t you know that Brevity is the soul of wit?” Which, if I’m not mistaken, is a quote from “Dune”.
TOBIN: :Yeah, right, which is why you have Shakespeare in his underpants on your Web site.
CZIKOWSKY: Besides cartooning, what else might you like to do in life, or what else have you done, and what else may you still do?
GUY: Rodd would like to have a daughter.
RODD: Guy would like to date her.

MARK TATULLI, “Lio” cartoonist, February 28, 2008
CZIKOWSKY: Have you made a total pledge that you will not use dialogue? I have noticed you’ve found many interesting ways to get around using dialogue. How frustrating is it, or is it invigorating, to have limited your comic strip without using thought balloons? TATULLI: I’ll never say never. You just never know. I have had other characters speak, but I can’t imagine the main characters (Lio, dad, etc.) ever talking. I just don’t think in that direction when I write.
CZIKOWSKY: If you were not a cartoonist, what else would you been doing, indeed, perhaps still may do?
TATULLI: I’m not really qualified for anything else anymore. I’ve been out of the TV business for three years now, so that leaves me in the dark there. I suppose I could collect stray shopping carts in the Target parking lot. That seems like something I could handle.

SHAWN MARTINBROUGH, illustrator, April 18, 2008
CZIKOWSKY: What did you start drawing? Did you do comics for your high school newspaper? How much art study did you have?
MARTINBROUGH: I started drawing in elementary school. Then my parents took notice and enrolled me in a painting course at a community center in my neighborhood. I attended Fiorello Laguardia Music and Art High School in Manhattan as an art major then got my degree in Illustration at the School of Visual Arts.

TONY RUBINO, “Daddy’s Home” cartoonist, April 18, 2008
CZIKOWSKY: When did you start creating comics? Did you have a comic in your high school newspaper? What drew you to developing such great comics? RUBINO: I started drawing when I was very young, and I always liked to make people laugh. So, it just seemed like the logical thing to do. I did a comic in my HS paper, but I did not have one in my college newspaper, at American University.

SCOTT HILBUR, “The Argyle Sweater” cartoonist, and SUZANNE TOBIN, Washington Post Comics Page Editor, May 23, 2008
CZIKOWSKY: Are you familiar with Thatcher Longstreth, the noted late Philadelphia business, political, and civic booster who mage argyle socks his trademark? If only he had made argyle sweaters his trademark, who knows where he could have gone.
HILBUR: Can’t say that I’ve heard of Mr. Longstreth. Sounds like he had pretty good taste though.
CZIKOWSKY: OK, how much money did the newer comics gather to bribe Doonesbury to go on vacation?
TOBIN: That is an EXCELLENT question! Scott?
HILBUR: We all got together and the best we could collectively come up with was about $36 dollars.

KEITH KNIGHT, “The Knight Life” cartoonist, June 20, 2008
CZIKOWSKY: When did you first begin drawing comics? Did you draw any comics in your high school newspaper?
KNIGHT: I always have been drawing comics. There’s an upcoming strip about that.
I had ‘em in my high school newspaper. Even the occasional junior high newsletter.
CZIKOWSKY: Given that a number of cartoonists, I have learned, do other work, is there anything in life you would like to, or still might, do?
KNIGHT: I just did a strip about my bucket list for “The K Chrnoicles”.
As far as other work I’d like to do: film/television projects, have a talk radio show, review restaurants across the world with a comic strip, and teach at a college or art school.

GENE WEINGARTEN, Washington Post staff writer, July 29, 2008
CZIKOWSKY: I like how “Sally Forth” discovers that their 10 year old daughter is really 36. This proves so many theories about alternate universes.
WEINGARTEN: I am pretty sure I was the inspiration for this. Last week, in the Gene Pool, I noted Hilary’s real age. Marciuliano mentioned this in his blog. I think he got that strip in in a hurry.