The Tribune in San Luis Obispo found out that Jim Borgman, Rick Kirkman and Jerry Scott were all going to be in one place and sent a reporter over for an interview. The result is a lot of tidbits on how these hugely successful strips came about and the working relationships between the creators. Jerry and Rick co-created Baby Blues and Jim and Jerry co-created Zits. It’s a unique cartooning triangle.
A teaser from the interview – Jim and Rick both describe how they fed Jerry with material:
BORGMAN: And then shortly thereafter, within five years or so, I remarried. I brought two kids to the table and Suzanne had three. So for a while we had five teenagers in the house. So even if I wasn’t the writer, I was kind of like the embedded reporter – the embedded cartoonist – taking field notes and sending them to Jerry, just about themes that come up and tensions. I’m not good at writing full scripts, but feeding that meat into the grinder – I enjoy doing that.
KIRKMAN: It was the same with me. When we started, I had two kids, and Jerry didn’t have any kids. So all of those things going on at home kept coming out at some point. So I just unloaded on Jerry. Jerry’s got a remarkable ability to take a long, boring story and boil it down to two or three panels. And suddenly it’s funnier and more potent.
Brilliant stuff…two great strips both writing and drawing…
Proof that syndicated comics don’t have to be “edgy,” “hip,” snarky, off-beat or Far Side clones to be fun to read. The fact that both strips are well-drawn and consistently funny helps.