Tag Archives: artist life

Tax Lacks

Last hand-coloured Sunday strip care of studioseena, today. Tomorrow we sign off Rivertown News and wish our young couple well in the future. Stay tuned for our second strip, Then Comes Marriage coming soon.

Last hand-coloured Sunday strip care of studioseena, today. Tomorrow we sign off Rivertown News and wish our young couple well in the future. Stay tuned for our second strip, Then Comes Marriage coming soon.

Behind the Scenes

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behind the scenesAs today is Sunday and it’s now becoming a tradition with me, here is an alternative to a black and white “daily” strip. We didn’t complete any full color Sunday strips, as I’ve mentioned before, because the Comics Syndicates didn’t require them as part of a submission and SCENE Magazine didn’t have a Sunday edition. But that doesn’t mean I didn’t write any scripts for Sunday comics. I believed that it was only a matter of time before we were syndicated across North America and having to come up with a new one every week.

Here is a scan of the first such script I wrote. It gives you an idea of the kinds of things I routinely demanded of Tim without much consideration for the effort it would cost him. “So, I’m seeing a full color Sistine Chapel ceiling with Dexter fist bumping the Almighty, who looks like Charles Schulz.” 🙂

RN Sunday Script 1

Thanks For Coming Out

In the early 90s, diversity was coming to the comics pages. Both Doonesbury and For Better or For Worse had gay characters and we didn't want to be left behind. The strip didn't last long enough to do much with this storyline, but I thought what we did was funny.

In the early 90s, diversity was coming to the comics pages. Both Doonesbury and For Better or For Worse had gay characters and we didn’t want to be left behind. Our goal was to have characters that were a slice of real life, reflective of people who were our friends and family. There was a backlash (mostly in the States) about gay characters on the comics page, which was another reason we wanted to put our support out there. Our offering didn’t warrant even one letter to the editor in London, Canada, so I’ll take that as a sign we handled the subject well. I also think Tim nailed the reactions perfectly in the last panel.

The Treachery of Images

"La trahison des images" - The image of a pipe, plus an image of an image of a pipe. The artist himself had this to say: "The famous pipe. How people reproached me for it! And yet, could you stuff my pipe? No, it's just a representation, is it not? So if I had written on my picture 'This is a pipe', I'd have been lying!"

“La trahison des images” – The image of a pipe, plus an image of an image of a pipe. The artist himself had this to say: “The famous pipe. How people reproached me for it! And yet, could you stuff my pipe? No, it’s just a representation, is it not? So if I had written on my picture ‘This is a pipe’, I’d have been lying!”

Rules Were Made to be Broken

Some of my favourite gags were the ones which really let Tim have fun with the concept. This is another great example of a reflexive gag about comics or their visual language in which he just knocks it out of the park. More to follow – stay tuned.