Fayette-cetera: March 2009

Sunday, March 22, 2009

Spring Awakening March 21 2009

No wonder Baby William prefers the other three seasons more than Spring!!

Monday, March 16, 2009

Following Directions March 14 2009

Try this recipe - it was prepared on Pepper & Friends, and tasted quite good! To see the recipe being prepared, go to www.komu.com, click on 'Pepper & Friends', and click on 'Recipes' in the Video on Demand section. Look for Julia Helvey, microwave cooking - and enjoy!

And I know exactly how Ed feels!!

Family Time March 7 2009

Oh, can you imagine something like this really happening? I mean, being late for a pancake breakfast - is there anything worse?

Sunday, March 1, 2009

On With the Strip February 28 2009

Some people will "get" this, and some people won't. There are those who look to the comics for the simple joke, or the outrageous ideas - but those same folks seem to have a hard time working the other side of their "cartoon induced" brain. Today's feature shows the "other side" of the strip; actually, the back side - behind the scene kind of thing. Mr. Jerry looks like an interesting character, and I'm looking forward to working him into other ideas. Of couse, this could get complicated, since he is the Strip Manager, and is supposed to be off to the side, keeping things organized. Hmmm...maybe I'll have to hire a strip consultant!

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