Friday, July 11, 2003

Starting in Comics – Part 2 In an earlier piece, I wrote about how my familiarity with Robert Crumb made me realize that comics were not a limited medium, although comic book writers, illustrators and publishers aimed their product at a juvenile audience. I continued to think about such things and theorize about comics’ potential until May 1972 when Crumb and a couple of other guys in his string band who were cartoonists, Robert Armstrong and Al Dodge, crashed with me on one of their cross-country trips. By that time, I’d made up my mind to write some unique comics of my own that would be mainly autobiographical and concentrate on everyday events such as those that occurred on the job and between men and women in long term relationships, events that might seem small to some people, but, when added up, had a large impact on people’s lives. I wanted to write autobiographically because that method afforded me the easiest way to state my views on everything from world politics to pop culture in as direct and succinct manner as possible. I would need someone to illustrate for me because I couldn’t draw well. But I wanted to have responsibility for breaking the stories down into panels because that affected their pacing. So I wrote several stories in storyboard style, using panels, stick figures, speech and thought balloons, and showed them to Crumb and Armstrong. They both liked them and offered to illustrate them, which I was hoping they would. Several months later, my first published story, “Crazy Ed,” appeared in Crumb’s “The People’s Comics”. I was on my way. 9:26:09 AM