Thursday, July 16, 2015

Puppy Love

I'm happy to share today's Rhymes With Orange, which features my latest collaboration with the comic's creator, Hilary Price.
As is usually the case, the final comic has changed a bit from my very rough rough submission sketch. Hilary tightened up the dialog and made the interaction more of a conversation by showing the two dogs strolling along as they speak to each other.

During a recent Q&A session, I was asked if it's easier to write gags about people or animals, and I somewhat glibly replied, "Even when they’re about animals, they’re about people." To be sure, sometimes an dog or cat gag is no more than a clever comment on the animal's attributes, but I almost always use animal characters as surrogates for people, to comment on the human condition. I think that's the case for most cartoonists who aspire to any depth in their work.

This gag also highlights a consistent theme in Hilary's work—using anxieties and fears as a springboard for gags. She often discusses this when talking about her comics. I had hoped that this gag about making a good impression on a date would resonate with her, and it did.

As I've mentioned before, it is a true pleasure to work with other cartoonists, particularly someone as excellent as Hilary. She won a Reuben Award from the National Cartoonists Society this May, as well as an Inkpot Award this month at San Diego Comic-Con, so don't just take my word for how great she is. Both awards were well-earned.

As always, thanks for reading and commenting!

Tuesday, July 07, 2015

Mimes With Orange

After a long break, here's a new Rhymes With Orange collaboration with my good pal Hilary Price:
This one percolated for a while before taking its final form. It started as a doodle in the margin of a sketch for another panel, and originally depicted a mime ventriloquist holding a dummy that looks just like him:
I thought the image was interesting, and had some promise as the seed of a gag, so I sent a larger sketch to Hilary to see what she might come up with.
Hilary thought that the ventriloquist shouldn't be a mime, but possibly a a novice, starting off with a mime dummy; or maybe a dissatisfied customer returning it to the store, saying "I couldn't get it to work." After further consideration, she came up with the very funny gag published today.

This is a perfect example of the way Hilary and I collaborate. Her final cartoon is often quite different from the submission sketch. My rough usually serves as a springboard for her own take on a concept, and the results are always surprising and rewarding to me. It's a joy to work with other cartoonists from time to time, and to gain a fresh perspective.

In fact, this sparked yet another idea that I just might use sometime in the future...

We have a few more joint comics in the pipeline, so stay tuned. In the meantime, you are invited to peruse our previous collaborations, archived in this blog's RWO Suitcase.