Fayette-cetera: July 2008

Sunday, July 20, 2008

Baby William grows up on July 19 2008?

We all know one of those kids - the kind that just loves the library, at a very early age. He's the one who's got a stack of books that's being carried by his parent as they check out. Lotsa picture books at a very young age. I wish this would have been me!!

My love for the library developed real late in life, and I always feel like a little kid when I'm there: so much to check out!! I could hang out at the library all day - gee, I wonder if my life would be any different if I had started loving books at 3 or 4 years of age? (Not that my life is a bust now, thank you....)

Yeah for Baby William, and all the adults in his life!!

Sunday, July 13, 2008

Trevor and Grandma Gosselbaum from July 12 2008

Here's a relationship that I'm having fun developing: Grandson Trevor and Grandma Gosselbaum. Trevor takes advantage of her when he can, and Elda has a way of commanding over Trevor, which he doesn't want, but can certainly use. I've seen lots of pairings like this in my lifetime, and it's always interesting to watch the interplay between the adult and kid - to see who gets away with what. Before this strip was revamped in February 2008, the last strip to appear in the old format was about Trevor and his band coming over to Grandma's house to practice - unbeknownst to her! She thought he was coming over to sing Happy Birthday to her, plain and simple. We'll see where this goes! Stay tooned.

The Fayette Advertiser and Democrat-Leader combined papers for this special edition on July 3 2008

I think at one time or another, every comic strip usually has one character dressing up like another. This situation probably soaked into my brain from watching countless reruns of "Gilligan's Island", "Bewitched", and so forth.
So, here's my version...and let me know if any of you out there always use a rag when dusting, too!

Wednesday, July 2, 2008

June 28 2008 and the tractor pull

I've never been to a tractor pull, but I do know what happens during such an event. There was a time when I didn't know, though, and I was a lot older than Baby William. Those kids are just full of surprises, eh?

Let the summer strips begin: June 21 2008

Ah, the first cartoon of summer 2008. Remember being a kid, and playing around all day? Remember relaxing under a tree or in a hammock? Remember trying to remember what it was like to have some time to yourself? Enjoy!

About these characters and their Fayette heritage...

"Fayette-cetera" was first published in September of 2003, in the Democrat-Leader, one of two papers from the same Fayette newspaper group. The Democrat-Leader is published each Saturday, and has been a good training ground for Myrtle and her gang.

Actually, "Fayette-cetera" is a combination of two of my past comic creations: Myrtle, Ed, Elsie and Spatz were developed for a strip called "Bugrow, MO", back in the mid '80's. It was published here and there, in a few magazines, and in The Maneater, a publication from the University of Missouri, Columbia.

Also appearing in The Maneater was "Potshots", which involved the lives, in still pictures, of the Tucker clan: Steffie and Adam. This ran for several years in The Maneater, in the early '90's. Since that time, the Tucker Mom and Dad have changed; Tom and Jone were from "Bugrow", and I added Steffie and Adam to their family for "Fayette-cetera".

It's been a character mish mash of sorts, and I've so enjoyed developing the relationships between all of them over these last 4 plus years. It's one thing to draw a comic feature that a few friends read here and there; it's another thing to have many people reading the feature week after week. That's where I draw my inspiration, because as a life-long comic reader, I know what I like, and I know which comic strips will give it to me...so I try to exhibit some of those same characteristics in "Fayette-cetera".

MYRTLE GOSSELBAUM would be my oldest creation (I'm not sure she would apprecate this statement). There's something about her that I've always liked, and I can see bits and pieces of my Mom in her, plus some other friends and relatives I have known.

ED GOSSELBAUM, Myrtle's husband, was right there at the start when Myrtle appeared, back in the mid '80's. The first strips back then dealt with a gorilla that Myrtle saw outside their family window. Ed thought Myrtle was just seeing things. Their relationship reminds me of the way my Mom and Dad got along: usually fussing about one thing or another.

TREVOR GOSSELBAUM, Myrtle and Ed's son, has "evolved" in recent years. Back in the '80's, he was more of a clean-cut fellow, but through the years he has evolved into the song-writing, band playing, living at home "artist". I'm sure he'll one day write a song about all these characters. He is good friends with TAYLOR.

ELISE and SAGE WEATHERWISE are the loving couple who have been together for ages. Their only child is Joan, who is married to Thom Tucker. Sage came about from another project that I had worked on for a character that was needed for a weather book that was being produced for children. As far as I know, the book never came about - but Sage was just too good looking to let go, and made the perfect comanion for Elsie, who actually was Mrs. Offerokker in the previous strip, "Bugrow, Mo". In that comic feature, she acted just as her name applied, but her personality changed dramatically after meeting SAGE.

More to come...

Fayette-cetera