In Minneapolis JumpStart by Robb Armstrong replaces Stone Soup in the Sunday Star Tribune.
“Jump Start” has run in the Star Tribune’s weekday comics pages for years. It’s now part of the Sunday lineup.
The Minneapolis Star Tribune interviewed Robb on the occasion of the comic strip being in the newspaper seven days a week:
A: …I didn’t want the strip to be saccharine or glowing. I wanted it to be as close to reality as the form allows. It gets very real.
Q: How so?
A: Both of my main characters are on the front lines. Joe is a cop and a Black man. His wife, Marcy, is a very dedicated nurse and a mom. These are not costumes just slapped on them. I have a connection to these characters that makes me test them, push them, find their failures.
Q: The strip is based in real life, and partly on your life. But it’s often, well, funny. There isn’t a sense of anger, of outrage.
A: That’s not what this world needs. My friends don’t need to hear how outraged I am. I have to be part of the cure. I created a cop who actually believes in protecting and serving others. I can make this happen [in a comic strip] even if I never see it in real life.
The Minneapolis Star Tribune interview, or read it via MSN without a paywall.
Q: As a fan of the strip, I admire your multiracial cast of characters. But it’s so large, I can’t keep their names straight.
A: I’m probably the only one who can. There are over 30 characters in “Jump Start.” In my new book “On a Roll!: A Jump Start Treasury” that’s coming out in October, I put in a family tree.
An intelligent strip. It should be in more papers.