CONGRATULATIONS!

I just received an email from Scott Hilburn announcing the syndication of his comic strip The Argyle Sweater. Way to go, Scott!




Universal Press Syndicate (the home of such features as Garfield, Lio, For Better or for Worse, Cul de Sac, and old faves Calvin & Hobbes and The Far Side) is launching the strip in newspapers this April.

Scott shared the news on his blog today, so I think it's okay if I mention it here.

Scott's is a real Cinderella story. He started out on Comics Sherpa, moved to GoComics, and then got picked up for newspaper syndication. The odds of that are quite high. Consider it like winning the comic strip lottery.

I've liked The Argyle Sweater from the moment I saw it on GoComics. Scott's humor is inventive, intelligent, quirky, and just a little sick. The perfect combination for a cartoonist.

Plus he draws the funniest pinatas around.

Here's wishing Scott a long and healthy newspaper career.

Monkey Business

My editor at MAD asked for a monkey-themed comic for an upcoming monkey-themed issue. I sent a couple of sketches, none of which were chosen.

I didn't send this gag, which sort of morphed from my original submission. Too bad. I think it's pretty funny.

MAD #486

Here's my second appearance in the venerable (or is that venereal?) humor mag. My comic runs in the February 2008 issue of MAD magazine, right at the top of the Strip Club section. I have some other material in the MAD pipeline that I hope appears soon.

Holy $#%*! I just looked at the cover and saw the $4.99 price tag. MAD now costs five bucks? It was just $3.99 a couple of months ago. A one dollar price increase is sure to bring in new readers. Jeez. Glad I got a few comp copies. I'm not sure that I would even pay five bucks to see my strip.

Happy 2008!

I haven't been posting much, as I've been working on various projects and have become a bit apathetic about the blog. I hope everyone had an enjoyable capitalist gift-giving season and a pleasant change of the calendar.