Six Chix: The Comic Strip

I’ve been playing around with the Pentel Pocket Brush Pen, again. It does have a nice brushy quality, which inspired the little series of drawings that follow.

 

 

 

Owls are always fun to draw.  

People may be surprised to know how far in advance many comic strips have to be produced. In our case, Six Chix dailies are supposedt to be delivered five weeks in advance, and our Sundays, nine weeks. I won’t lie to you, I push the limits of my editor’s patience and shave a week or two off. Last week I delivered  my Six Chix cartoon which is sheduled to run on November 7, the Friday after the election. In my effort to stay  as current as possible,  my cartoon alluded to the joy that the election of ‘08 was FINALLY over, knowing full well another vote counting snafu could, well you know… I decided to take my chances.

So what’s with the long lead time in the Syndication business? Believe it or not when I first looked into this, years ago, I was told it was a hold over from the “old days”, when some cartoonists were known to enjoy a cocktail or two and wake up somewhere down in Mexico. Those crazy guys.

So, working weeks in advance is the way it still continues to be, and some cartoonists create very well in that format. Not so much me. But fortunatly, I enjoy a 24 hour ( some times less ) turn around time  for my weekly cartoon, Feral West, which runs in  the West Marin Citizen. It allows me to take my pen off it’s calendar leash,  sniff all the new smells and leave a few fresh marks.

When the vegetable gardens collapse into compost and the furnace rumbles to life in the wee, cold hours it’s time to prepare for the big game. No, not football, the REAL big game: deer season. No matter where you stand on the issue of hunting [ a bloody sport of Bambi killing or an honorable, survival skill] there are preparations to be made. Store owners stock up on ammo and beer, landowners replace fallen posted signs, woods walkers dig out their old, red jackets and dogs of every shape and size wear blaze-orange collars to distinguish them from tenderloins on the hoof.

The first few years I lived here I was dead set against hunting but the hunters didn’t seem to care a bit.This county is  Mecca to deer hunters; my nearest neighbors are the hunting cabins owned by non-residents. Through ignorance or design they tramped these fields and woods shooting at anything that moved. The problem was solved when one good friend was invited to hunt here and run off the “trespassin’ riff-raff.” It’s worked just fine for years; my friend gets a freezer full of venison and I live in relative peace. And I learned something valuable: responsible hunters are nature lovers too! Go Figure!

I’ve been creating a self-published wall calendar ["Sticks"] for 14 years; that’s a lot of deer hunting cartoons! My drawing style has changed a bit but my perspective remains fairly constant. I speak for the deer, whether they like it or not.

“Sticks” calendar 1996

“Sticks” 1999

“Sticks” 1998

“Sticks” 2003

“Sticks” 2004

“Sticks”2006

“Sticks” 2007

Be careful, it’s dangerous out there, no matter what species you happen to be.

September 29 through October 6th is Banned Book Week here in Library land and across America. It’s time to take down some of your favorite titles and peruse them again. To take a stand for intellectual freedom and the right to read what you want!

 

 At the library where I work, I took the advice of the American Library Association and decided to do something to mark the occasion this year. I organized a Read-A-Thon. We invited a diverse group of townspeople including officials, library trustees, state reps, and notable citizens, people whom most of the town will recognise, and they will be reading selections from 15 of the banned and challenged books from our collection. We hope for a big crowd and I’ll let you know how this event goes.

 

 I’ll be reading a passage from “Flowers In The Attic” by V.C. Andrews. I never read it before. It’s on the banned and challenged list, and even though it’s not quite what I usually read, it was actually pretty addictive.

 So, here’s the perfect excuse to become a Reading Revolutionary and read a dangerous book! Let me know what titles you’re reading. We revolutionaries have to stick together!

 

 

 

It’s the first full day of autumn and I’m offering a mish-mash of the slightly odd and the very average.These are a handful of red Maple leaves plucked and gathered for this very purpose. In the high hills of rural New York autumn sneaks up slowly and then as October breathes down our backs it picks up speed like a blaze in dry grass. These are the first scouts of fall.

My lawn is fairly large[ thanks to a good friend] but, it can’t go on forever. Where it stops other things grow. Come September the Goldenrod reaches its full height[ as much as 6 ft!] with masses of bright yellow flowerettes. Add to that palette the opposing side of the color wheel and VOILA-wild, purple Asters.

My path with Goldenrod and Asters.

My friend who moved to rural N.Y. from her birthplace in France told me this story. After she had lived here a while a friend from France came for a visit in the fall.By the time the friend arrived from the airport it was night . Come morning, the friend arose, stepped to the kitchen window and gasped. She exclaimed,[ In french, of course] ” Oh my God did you plant all those beautiful yellow flowers yourself?!” My French-born friend just laughed and replied: “That was exactly my thought when I first saw the Goldenrod.”

Weeds aren’t so bad when you don’t know they’re weeds!

And lastly a couple of autumnal cartoons : The first from this year’s Stick’s calendar for September.

Last and possibly least, Snarky Trees. Enjoy the most poignant season of all.

If you live in the north-east, you know what comes next!

 We all have work we consider our favorite, something that we feel represents our true artistic soul. It may never have been recognized or embraced or even published… but someday, it will be recognized as our greatest work. Or not.

The “Terrible Tea Time” is that work for me. Back in the early 80’s, I came up with the kind of comic strip I’D like to read. It took place in a post-apocolyptic society and featured two nameless women, room-mates, possibly sisters, the relationship was ambiguous. They had an unseen maid who controlled things. A cat who became a TV star. Numerous men they lusted after. The main characters were un-named so as to remain mysterious and anti-cute. In a way, it was an anti-strip. I sent it out to syndicates where it received actually interesting rejections.

 

 Eventually, Joe Bob Briggs, my champion in the early days, printed it in his newsletter and even tried to get his syndicate to take it on. Joe Bob (John Bloom)is one of the people I owe a lot to and whom I admire for his radical use of film criticism, film reviewing (via the chain letter film reviewers) and his great show Monstervision plus many side bars to his career. He’s the best. He deserves a whole blog and I plan to do that soon!

 

“Tea Time” also appeared in a small press underground magazine called Rabbitears. 

 I also sold a collection at craft shows. It definitely had its fans.

 

So, someday, the greatness of Tea Time will be recognized! Yes, the writing was scribbled and sometimes hard to read, and the squares not the perfect cartoon comic squares but it was artistic and sexy. That counts for something, doesn’t it? The right market is out there. I’m still waiting.

Here’s a cartoon idea that a neighbor brought over in sketch format. Thanks, Eva!

 

 

When I was first starting out, and trying to get published as a cartoonist… it seemed that I was never going to get a break. I’d send my work out and get these “positive” rejections. “Try doing this”, or “Maybe you should change that”, so I followed the suggestions, and still no sales. This was the late 70’s,early 80’s.

What to do? I came up with a great idea. I’d teach myself silk screening, print my cartoons on T-shirts and hit the craft show circuit going stright to the public without the middle man (editors etc.).

Learning silk screening was not so easy. This was the old, manual days. I managed to learn to screen the black drawings and then hand-painted bits of color.

I also created (with some help) an eye catching life-size display of my characters that I could stretch the shirts on. I named my new business the Strip T’s Design Company.

The first show I did, I had about 4 dozen shirts, all hand done, which included an edgy tourist shirt line (see above) and some of my women’s humor cartoons.

 

The designs were a HUGE success! Women of all ages gathered around the booth and LAUGHED! They said they’d never seen humor they could relate to before and I was sold out before the show ended. 
Not long after, my designs began getting attention from the big textile magazine, Impressions, and winning humor awards. My little business! Then, a licensing agent saw them in there and contacted me. I got deals for calendars and cards. So, it was only after all that, that I sold my first cartoon to a major market. Glamour! In ‘95, I got my first syndication deal with Chronicle Features (and King was interested back then, too!) who told me I could do anything I wanted, so I came up with “Fair Game” (Thanks, John for the title!). Syndication being a business, a couple of years later Chronicle sold to Universal, then Universal dropped it, but some clients  continued to buy it from me. Not long after that… Jay Kennedy called to ask if I’d be interested in his new idea, a rotating strip drawn by a team of women cartoonists. He didn’t have to ask twice!
“Six Chix” has been a joy and a pleasure to do with such wonderful, funny women who continue to amaze and surprise me with their talent and perspectives (we get proofs every week so we can all see what we’ve been up to).

So, all in all, I’ve been pretty lucky. Matt Groening once gave me advice  (I sent him some work to critique) (this was before the “Simpsons”) and he said “Don’t give up, give your work away for free if you have to, to get it seen, and you’ll get some sort of career going.” It has been some sort of career!

Because I’m a woman I do windows.

I never buy colored toilet paper.

I talk…a lot.

Because I’m a woman I appreciate a good hair day.

I love fireflies on a starry night.

I know how to hand launder silk.

Because I’m a woman I feed the dog.

I write letters and sign them with love.
Because life is too short not to.

I like curves better than straight lines.

Because I’m a woman I know how to disassemble a shop-vac.

I tend to apologize too much.

I like making people happy.
As long as they’re easy to please.

Because I’m a woman I hate war.

I find tiny details fascinating.
Especially when they’re about me.

I love Jane Austen, wildflowers and the moon.

Because I’m a woman I write a grocery list.
And sometimes I remember to take it with me.

I like sad songs.

I love the smell of horses and smoke.

Because I’m a woman I like beauty.
Especially in humble things like fungi, stones and toads.

I treasure the little things.

I worry too much.

Because I’m a woman I’ve been paid less on the job than the men I trained.

I recycle.

I love my country and my planet.

Because I’m a woman I hope for the best.

I’ve known a victim of domestic violence.

I vote.

Because I’m a woman I try to see both sides of an issue.

I know women who had illegal abortions.

I strive to live up to my principles.
And don’t always succeed.

And just because I’m a woman the Republican Party thinks they can get my vote by adding a woman to their ticket??

NOT A CHANCE!!

As I wrote in an earlier blog, my wonderful daughter Nico got married on June 21 (here’s a photo!)

What many do not know…is the mystery of the wedding topper. Yes, there was a mysterious occurance just weeks before the wedding. Nico had made a wedding topper of herself and Jeremiah for their cake out of sculpey. It was adorable and she left it in her room, here, on her desk.

Our house is an old farm house. We have many rooms and two attics, or the “hattic” (house attic) and the “battic” (barn attic) as my husband calls them.

In these two attics a variety of sneaky, unseen creatures seem to reside that only come out when no one sees them…or at inopportune times, like the bats swooping round our bedroom while we were reading in bed.

 

And, don’t forget, we have 3 cats who are supposed to protect the house from invaders!

 At any rate… in getting things ready for the wedding, I went to check on the wedding topper…and, OH, NO! It was not on the desk… it was on the floor! And the heads were missing!!! AAARGH! What to do? Who was the culprit? Not long before, I heard squirrels in the wall, so, it seemed like they were the most likely suspects!

I called Nico and told her my suspicions. Where would we get a cake topper as unique and special as hers? After being aghast at the implications of headlessness…her wish was to have ME make two squirrels as cake toppers.

How to do it? I make jewelry out of sculpey…but never figures even though I have a long history and early career of working in clay and selling the art I used to make. Clay is far more pliant.

What else. I used to make stuffed animals. All by hand. How often have I wished I was techy enough to figure out sewing machines! So, I sat down and drew up a simple pattern, and bought some material suitably squirrely…

I stitched them up, and, they seemed passably squirrel like.

Hooray! The day was saved! They were a big success! Not only did they preside over the cake:

but they also got to go on the honeymoon road trip!

Squirrels in New Orleans

On their own pillow in a fancy hotel.

It was a happy ending for all.