Make Way - New Comic Strips Coming Through
Inch by inch and rung by rung, new comic strips are making their way up the ladder of syndication and leaping into publication. The older strips dominate the funny pages with beloved standards such as Beetle Bailey, Blondie, Peanuts and Dennis the Menace. It is pretty hard to elbow in between them with their huge fan bases of support. Newspaper editors are leery of making changes and dread upsetting their readers, but cartoonists with fresh ideas aren't given up. Here's a quick look at several newer entries to tickle your smile button:
------------------------------------------------- Using a plot line like no other strip, Lost Sheep made its debut through Comics Sherpa, Ucomics "incubator website." Lost Sheep features the escapades of George, a sheep who left the flock to seek a better life. George befriended Joe, a human, and has taken up residence with him along with a parrot that they rescued from a pet shop. Sounds puzzling but it's very entertaining with the sheep and parrot attempting to fit into a human world, giving Joe both advice and trouble. Creator Dan Thompson is a professional cartoonist with a background in character design, animation clean-up and a portfolio of cartooning work in magazines and websites. Thompson submitted his innovative comic strip to Comics Sherpa in the summer of 2003 and has now become syndicated by uclick. Dan Thompson lives in Western Connecticut with his wife Kari.
http://www.ucomics.com/lostsheep/
------------------------------------------------- With a degree in Film from Calfornia State, Northridge, Michael Jantze is a creative fellow, working for heavy-weight companies such as Industrial Light + Magic and PC World Magazine, and as a freelance filmmaker and writer. Jantze developed his The Norm comic strip "during these dark years" of working, as he tells it. The Norm focuses on the amusement of Norm's modern life as a young married man working at a rather unsuccessful publishing house, and whose in-laws have moved in right next-door. King Features Syndicate describes The Norm as "a fairly new comic entry on U.S. comics pages and becoming a fan favorite. It reaches hip readers with strong art and storylines and character-driven humor. The fact that Michael draws cute women doesn't hurt either. The Norm.com Web site is considered one of the most innovative sites on the Internet. For instance, Norm's daily journal uniquely adds depth to each day's strip." Visit http://www.thenorm.com/how/ for a fascinating look at how Jantze draws his strip. The talented Michael Jantze and his family live in Dallas, Texas.
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