The Daily Cartoonist » Discussion

Comic Strip Doctor Quits His Practice

Alan Gardner — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 21:23:01 +0000

David Malki, the self proclaimed comic strip doctor, has tired of his snarky ways and has decided to stop writing his columns.

Continuing commitments with my own ongoing comic, writing, and film projects have precluded my spending further time on faux criticism, and frankly, I don’t even read newspaper comics anymore. So it’s been a bit hard to get into the swing of things; each time I had wanted to write a new column I found myself dredging through online archives looking for the worst examples of Ziggy or whatever, and that’s not how I want to spend another Saturday, ever.

What do comics mean to you?

Alan Gardner — Mon, 02 Apr 2007 19:03:37 +0000

Last week, I enjoyed an email exchange with Rebecca Nappi of the The Spokesman Review. She’s renewed her interest in the funny pages after losing interest in them when she went away for college 34 years ago. She’s written a commentary about why the funnies have beaconed her return.

The adult world is pretty scary right now, and we adults need routine, too. Comic strips are once again part of my morning ritual. It’s grounding.

…

Most people, though, live their daily lives absorbed in more personal headlines. They work out issues with spouses and bosses, snuggle with pets and babies, carpool with life’s smaller crises. The world outside their personal lives explodes with wars and turmoil. Elected leaders do wise as well as stupid things. The economy races up and down. Yet their private narratives move forward, often with little connection to breaking news.

Modern mothers – those who work inside and outside the home – have guilt talk in their thought balloons when their teens get in trouble, just as Winnie Winkle did nearly four decades ago. Comic strips reflect the daily reality where most of us dwell.

A character in “For Better Or For Worse” is mending from a broken heart. Another character in “Funky Winkerbean” is battling cancer. Sally Forth’s mother is driving her crazy. I have come to care about all these folks, and as silly as it seems in our tense time of war and terror, it’s comforting to ponder where their story lines will take them.

Most of you who visit the blog are serious comics fans - not passive readers. We’re groupies. Is our experience the same as Rebecca’s? What do comics mean to you?

Discussion: I’d rather lose my left (or right) hand if I had to give up using…

Alan Gardner — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 17:27:35 +0000

Back in the mid-90’s I was watching a video that Tribune Media Services distributed to newspapers to promote Jeff MacNelly. Half way through I noticed Jeff was using some kind of pen that made thin and narrow strokes like it was a brush - but it definitely was a pen.� I did slow-mo several times trying to figure out what he was using. I finally emailed Chris Cassatt who was Jeff’s assistant at the time and asked him what he was using. He wrote back telling me it was a brush pen that could only be purchased from an art store in Canada and also gave me contact information on how to order one - which I immediately did.� Since then, that brush pen (I still use the original) has been irreplaceable. I love the freedom of being able to work away from my desk and not have to carry around an ink bottle and cup of water to clean the brush.� I showed the brush to other cartoonists - Mark Pett and Mark Ritter, both of whom have purchased and use it.

What specific tools and products do you use that are so indispensable or enjoyable that you without them, cartooning would be slightly less of an experience than it is now?