Tag Archives: We Are The World

Comic Relief 1985 Part II: Electric Marmaduke

I’ve never been introduced to your family, but I can tell you one thing about them for certain; they’ll be hungry this Thanksgiving. Not for turkey. For conversation that won’t end in bloodshed.

comicrelief1

What better topic could you suggest, than heavy-handed comic strips from over thirty years ago? Join the table, for a big helping of nostalgia, extra cringes, and unintentional laughs! Continue reading

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Filed under Comix Classic & Current, Eatable Things, Nostalgic Obsessions

Comic Relief 1985

For an UNPRECEDENTED three years in the late 1980s, I drew a surrealistic comic strip called Mike the Pod for my high school newspaper. Initially, a buddy of mine scripted it, but once he graduated (he was a grade ahead), I went solo and moved the strip in a more satirical direction. This meant parodies of established icons of the comic page, but in the Age Before Internet, what did one do for proper visual reference?

Typically, I would lug a sketchbook to the library, open one of the huge newspaper compendiums, and double the relevant artist until I got the hang of their style. This was seldom convenient. Then one holiday season in 1988 or ’89, the aforementioned co-writer buddy gifted me a small book that not only provided visual reference for over 100 different newspaper strips, but ironic belly-laughs for decades. For crying out loud, the foreword is written by Kenny Rogers… and it’s about a hunger project.

“Comic Relief”.

comicreliefcover

Here’s the flavor text from the back cover:

Thanksgiving 1985 was a memorable day in the nation’s funny papers. For the first time in history, the entire comics page was devoted to one subject: hunger. The project, organized by Milton Caniff (Steve Canyon), Charles Schulz (Peanuts), and Garry Trudeau (Doonesbury), brought together over 175 cartoonists, and Comic Relief presents their Thanksgiving Day strips and panels. A cornucopia of cartoon commentary and humor, it is the first time such an array of American comic-strip talent has appeared together in one book. The reader can enjoy this great cartoon spectrum while helping directly in the fight against hunger: Sales of Comic Relief will raise money for USA for AFRICA.

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Filed under Bad Influences, Comix Classic & Current, Nostalgic Obsessions