With the official launch of Nathan Cooper’s In the Sticks comic strip still a few months away, Universal Uclick is pre-launching the strip by showing the development process of how a feature is developed and made ready for nation-wide syndication. Over its first three weeks, the strip will alternate between character designs from Cooper’s sketchbook, rough strip sketches with editorial notes, and finished art.
“We’re doing something special with the launch of In the Sticks, something we’ve never done before when introducing a new comic strip,” said Universal Uclick vice president John Glynn. “We’re offering the audience an inside look at the work that goes into the creation of a new feature – how the cartoonist comes up with ideas, how the characters evolve, how the stories take shape, and so on. It’s a fascinating process, and it’s one that visitors to the site are really going to enjoy.”
In Cooper, Universal Uclick found a cartoonist who was eager to share his stories, and his strip’s story, with new readers.
“Having created In the Sticks and experienced this evolution firsthand, I’m really excited to let fans see how the strip grew from an idea to a finished concept,” said Cooper. “It’s a been an incredibly rewarding experience, and the payoff is a strip that I’m proud to call my own.”
In the Sticks is the story of an ex-pro golfer named Del who buys the golf course once owned by his great-grandfather in the hopes of restoring it to its past glory. While Del tends to the greens at the Blooming Dogleg Country Club, he’s kept company by Cosmo, the poetry-writing blue jay, Dewey, the lovable bear who sometimes caddies for the club’s members, and Flip, the misanthropic beaver.
The daily strip will make its debut in newspapers across the country in early 2010.
This best part of this is reading the comments posted below the comics. “Hot Pocket”! Still laughing about that one.
Does Cosmo have a twitter account?