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Comics Update: March, 2002 Try The New Online Peanuts Jigsaw Puzzle Send A Free St. Patrick's Day E-Card Sign Up For Comics By E-Mail Test Your Comics Knowledge Find Out Who's Up For The "Cartoonist Of The Year" Reuben Award Reserve Copies of the Upcoming Get Fuzzy And Rose Is Rose Books Enjoy An Exclusive Interview With Cartoonist Brooke McEldowney Order The Latest Dilbert And 9 Chickweed Lane Books Discover Drawing A Crowd Snoopy.com Jigsaw Puzzle http://www.snoopy.com/comics/peanuts/fun_and_games/game_gallery.html Dilbert and Snoopy E-Cards Dilbert e-cards: http://greetings.yahoo.com/cards/Dilbert/ Peanuts e-cards: http://www.snoopy.com/comics/peanuts/fun_and_games/e_cards.html Comics by E-mail http://www.comics.com/dailycomics/subscribe Test Your Comics Knowledge Get Fuzzy 2: Fuzzy Logic http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0740721984/unitedmedia/103-1115414-6520625 Read a month of Get Fuzzy: http://www.comics.com/comics/getfuzzy/ Answer to the Comics Knowledge Question Read a month of Fat Cats: http://www.comics.com/comics/fatcats/index.html Reuben Awards Read Rose Is Rose here: http://www.comics.com/comics/roseisrose/index.html Read Luann here: http://www.comics.com/comics/luann/index.html High-Spirited Rose Is Rose: A Collection of Rose Is Rose Comics http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0740723677/unitedmedia/103-1115414-6520625 Interview with Brooke McEldowney Question: What inspired you to create Pibgorn? Brooke McEldowney: Originally, I had been looking through a book entitled Strange Stains and Mysterious Smells, by Terry Jones, illustrated by Brian Froud, when I came across a drawing of a fairy that appeared to be laughing wildly, guffawing right off the page. I had been thinking of a strip about a fairy when that drawing caught my eye and it kind of gave me an extra impulse. The other, far more compelling inspiration was "A Midsummer Night's Dream" (Shakespeare interwoven with Mendelssohn), in particular a recording made in performance at the Philharmonie, Berlin, with the Berlin Philharmonic conducted by Claudio Abbado, Kenneth Branagh narrating. At the point at which Branagh intoned, "Take my hand and we'll rock the ground," I knew I was ready to put Pibgorn on paper. When Amy Lago, my editor (I just decided not to use the words "long suffering"), asked me if I'd like to do the Newspaper Enterprise Association Christmas cartoon, I thought it was the right time to launch Pibgorn. And since then, the deluge of mail about Pibgorn has helped convince me that I should keep her flying.Q: What are some of the differences between Pibgorn and 9 Chickweed Lane? BM: Graphically, there are no differences. I resolved not to forge a change in drawing style. However, the manner in which I tell the Pibgorn saga is narrative, and covers many weeks. In Chickweed, I hardly ever venture beyond two or three days; and I always keep the gags freestanding for every installment (except, of course, for those occasions when I employ no gag at all in order to explore compositional efforts at black upon black, and so on). Compared to Chickweed, Pibgorn will get more elbow room.Q: Your book Hallmarks of Felinity was published this month. Where does your interest in cats come from? Do you own a cat now? BM: I've nearly always had cats in, or just outside, the house. Dogs too. It's hard to watch an animal day after day for nearly 50 years without coming to some basic conclusions about their motives, ways and means. My present cat, Colette, is entirely black, with golden eyes and a deep, resonant streak of insanity. She has been very helpful in racking up the Hallmarks of Felinity.Q: How does your background in music influence your comic strips? BM: On the surface, I weave musical images and ideas into my work all the time. Music means a lot to me. I moonlight at it when time permits. However, beyond the occasional decorative inlay of musical instruments and notes, music invests my writing in that I regard musical composition, in structure and progression, as a nearly perfect model for storytelling of any kind. Storytelling in a comic strip, over four small panels, is an amazingly compact and lapidary art; and looking to fundamentals of theme introduction, development and resolution, as the scaffolding on which you can array your characters, is not a bad idea, especially when you find yourself out on a cartooning limb (or limn).
Pibgorn, by the way, is the name of a rustic, single reed, Welsh instrument, considered to belong to the clarinet family.Read Pibgorn here: http://www.comics.com/comics/pibgorn/index.html Read 9 Chickweed Lane here: http://www.comics.com/comics/chickweed/index.html Order Hallmarks of Felinity: A 9 Chickweed Lane Book: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0740721992/unitedmedia/104-9332430-8819953 Another Day in Cubicle Paradise http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0740721941/dilbertcom-20/103-1115414-6520625 Read a month of Dilbert: http://www.dilbert.com/ Drawing a Crowd Read a month of Drawing a Crowd here: http://www.comics.com/creators/drawingacrowd/index.html http://www.comics.com/dailycomics/subscribe subscribe.update@unitedmedia.com .unsubscribe.update@unitedmedia.com .
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