Fayette-cetera: Saving Face April 16, 2011

Sunday, April 17, 2011

Saving Face April 16, 2011

This cartoon ran in the Democrat-Leader on Saturday, April 16, 2011 - and this paper was delivered to every home in Howard County, whether they subscribe or not. What a great marketing strategy.

All the characters are excited, since they're sure that some big wig national syndicate person most likey "read" this, and will only want to syndicate this 7+ year old comic. After all, we're not getting any younger. (That's me, not the characters...)

2 comments:

Anonymous said...: Dear Happy Face-Maker,
To all your new viewers out there, they are in for a new treat. They will quickly come to love all of those lovable Fayette-Cetera characters.Your new viewers will look forward to seeing what zany adventures await them every Saturday(just like I do). Thanks for continuing to make us smile.

Franci; April 17, 2011 at 1:33 PM
James said...: Mahalo, Franci!
I sure do appreciate your view of the comic. "Smiling" is what makes me draw...thanks for always sharing yours with me!; April 24, 2011 at 4:35 PM

Post a Comment

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

Sunday, April 17, 2011

Saving Face April 16, 2011

2 comments:

Toons and me

Where "Fayette-cetera" is published

Blog Archive

About these characters and their Fayette heritage...