Welcome to the Tucson Comic News, a compendium of political cartoons and other features. We can do this every month, if things work out all right. Here's the deal: I'll provide you with free cartoons, as many as I can; if you'll help keep my advertisers happy. Now, this can be relatively painless, since you have to spend money anyway. This way, they'll help pay for your cartoon habit. The happier they get, the more cartoons I can lay out for you.If you like what I'm doing here, I hope you'll show your support by mentioning the Comic News whenever you shop with our advertisers. And don't forget to check out the fifteen coupons that appear in this issue. Besides saving you a pile of money, they'll provide tangible proof of the efficacy of Comic News advertising.
Okay, now I'm starting to sound like a pledge break on a public radio station. Anyway, I hope you enjoy the paper. Usually, the “Publisher's Rant” column will give me a chance to blow off some steam about the burning issues of the day. This time, however, I have three different tasks: to introduce the paper, the features, and myself.
Besides featuring the work of eighteen of the best political cartoonists in the country, the Tucson Comic News will carry eight other cartoon features, as you might have guessed from the cover.
Zippy the Pinhead you might be familiar with from his Sunday strip in the Daily Star; I'll be presenting the daily cartoons. Of course, some of you have been following Zippy for the past 20 years. Or maybe he's following you. Zippy is the work of San Francisco cartoonist Bill Griffith.
Buddy Hickerson's The Quigmans is sort of like the Far Side with a caffeine overdose. It usually make me laugh.
Marian Henley's Maxine! has ended up on my refrigerator door a number of times in recent years. There is, of course, no higher compliment for a cartoonist.
Subconscious Comics is done by Tim Eagan, a hell of a nice guy who I used to work with at a couple of other papers. Basically, it all takes place inside some guy's mind. I think Fox stole the idea for “Herman's Head,” but Tim is too nice to sue them.
Washingtoon, by Mark Alan Stamaty, is about life inside the Beltway, and, I guess, further proof of how demented you can get living in DC.
L.A. Cucaracha is done by Lalo Alcaraz, who also works as a standup comic, he tells me. The panel runs in the LA Weekly, and satirizes the intersections between Chicano and anglo culture.
US History Backwards is done by Yours Truly. The deal is, I draw editorial cartoons on historical events, along with a paragraph of explanation. The name comes from the fact that they run in reverse chronology. I started the series a couple years back in 1990, then worked backwards through the '80s, then the '70s, and so on. Sometimes it's not very funny. That's US History for you.
So now we come to the cartoon that either needs no introduction, or needs a lot more than I can give it here. Simply put, George Herriman's Krazy Kat, which ran from 1911 to 1944, is one of the supreme achievements of cartoon art. But don't take my word for it. you could ask Pablo Picasso, or Jack Kerouac, or H. L. Mencken, if they weren't all dead.
Anyway, the way it works is like this: the Kat loves the mouse, the mouse hates the Kat, the dog loves the Kat. Every day the mouse beans the Kat on the noggin with a brick, and the dog tries to prevent it. But the Kat wants the brick, because he or she (it's not quite clear) interprets it as a sign of love from the mouse. And this went on for 33 years. So give it time; you might take a while to warm up to it. But artsy fartsy folks like me can't get enough of it
Okay, so you can skip the rest of the Rant if you don't give a damn who the hell I am. First off, I gotta be up front about this: I'm a recovering Californian. I've been in Tucson all of six weeks so far, and I'm mighty happy to be here. Nothing against my home state, but our last few governors have pretty much run it into the ground. Course you folks are no slouch, either, when it comes to wacko politicians, but I'm pledging to lay off pontificating on local politics until I get the lay of the land.
So here's the biographical sketch: Born in what is now known as Silicon Valley, back when it was mostly apricot orchards. Attended UCLA halfheartedly, then moved to Santa Cruz and got a degree in art. Worked in a liquor store and a bookshop before joining the staff of the local weekly as a concert reviewer. Eventually worked my way up to Arts Editor, 6 weeks before the big earthquake of '89 killed that paper dead. Then I was invited to join the Santa Cruz Comic News, this planet's first cartoon newspaper (there are currently around 30). And that's where I learned the ropes of this here cartoon business, before fleeing inland.
And it's great to be here. My partner, Jana, and I moved here both for reasons of health and economics, because we fell in love with the town, and because I thought it would be a perfect place for a cartoon newspaper. I hope you'll agree.