Fayette-cetera: December 2008

Friday, December 26, 2008

Making Christmas BIG December 24 2008

On Wednesday December 24th, the Fayette papers were combined: The Fayette Advertiser with the Democrat-Leader, so that the "paper people" could take the rest of the week off after Christmas; hence this strip for Christmas Eve.

Which was the perfect occassion to use Baby William and his wonderment about the BIG look of Christmas....except for one thing!

Merry Christmas, all!

Finish That Tune December 20 2008

Has this even happened to you? And why did Elsie just stop at that point anyway? Did she know that her husband would be thinking about this all night? And why didn't Sage just ask her what the next lines were?

Of course, if all of this had happened the right way, then there wouldn't have been this particular strip today. Kinda makes you wonder, eh? (But don't loose sleep over it!)

Dear Santa December 13 2008

I think it's a special treat to read 'Dear Santa' letters in either the Fayette Advertiser or the Democrat-Leader. Where else can you do this anymore, especially in a local paper? Thanks to the fine "paper people" who take this extra effort to enable all of us to read these special notes to Santa!

Light up our Lives December 6 2008

Sage Weatherwise continues to display outlandish holiday decorating ideas...one year, he had so many lights that Santa noticed the glow from the North Pole. We all know a guy like this.

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Big Boys and Bellies November 26 2008

I get "full" just reading this strip again. It was delicious!

November 22 2008 and Thanks!

Wow - what an idea, huh? To provide a Thanksgiving meal to all the homeless animals that we see here and there. Animals make life here on earth even better - why do we not spay and neuter our dogs and cats? We just make like tough for everyone when we don't.

But anyway, I know I am thankful to the animals - where would we be without them?

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