As some of you may have noticed, the popular political comic strip Mallard Fillmore has had a sudden change of art style in the past month or so, with a new signature present in place of Bruce Tinsley’s. Well today we pull the curtain on that mystery! Meet Loren Fishman, the man in charge of filling Bruce’s shoes while he’s away.
King Features Syndicate has openly recognized Loren Fishman as the new cartoonist on Mallard Fillmore. In a new interview KFS’ Edgar asks Loren about his career and about taking over on a comic strip very much identified with its creator.
The biggest challenge for me has been to keep the voice of the strip consistent. I know that Mallard is a character based very heavily on Bruce himself, so while I can do my best to get inside his head, I don’t always know exactly what Mallard is thinking the way Bruce innately would.
I’ve also had to get used to the format of the strip. My own comics are almost exclusively single-panel gag cartoons without recurring characters; so, writing cohesive storylines has been a challenge, albeit a really fun and interesting one.
As noted in the interview’s headline, Loren is the “guest cartoonist” until Bruce returns.