|
Comics: Meet the Artist
With Brian Crane
Cartoonist, "Pickles"
Hosted by Suzanne Tobin
Washington Post Comics Editor
Friday, Nov. 9, 2001; 1 p.m. EST
Welcome to the Washington Post Style section comics discussion, hosted by Comics page editor Suzanne Tobin.
"Pickles" deals with the ups and downs of getting older through the experiences of its main characters, Earl and Opal Pickles. Earl and Opal share their lives with daughter Sylvia and her husband Dan, their grandson Nelson and their dog, Roscoe, and cat, Muffin. Cartoonist Charles Shulz wrote in the forward to a collection of "Pickles" cartoons, "I think it would be very comforting to have Earl and Opal for neighbors..."
"Pickles" cartoonist Brian Crane was online Friday, Nov. 9 at 1 p.m. EST to answer questions and take comments about his cartoon.
Crane was born in Twin Falls, Idaho, but grew up in the San Francisco Bay area. He lives outside of Reno, Nev. with his wife, Diana.
The transcript follows.
Editor's Note: Washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control
over Live Online discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions.
Suzanne Tobin:
Greetings, comics fans! Welcome to "Comics: Meet the Artist" with our guest, Brian Crane of "Pickles." Before I welcome Brian, I'm hoping you all will help me to decide if I should host the chat the day after Thanksgiving, or just bag it. Are all you folks going to be at the malls that day? Or recovering from too much food and/or family? Let me know if you think we should just let the chat take the day off too. Send in your opinion with your question, or just e-mail me at tobins@washpost.com.
Okay, now that we've got that bit of business out of the way...Welcome, Brian. It's so nice of you to join us from your studio in Sparks, Nevada. I hope we're interrupting anything important.
Brian Crane: Thanks for having me here, Suzanne. I was just watching a tape from last night's David Letterman show and there was a guy on Stupid Pet Tricks from Reno, Nevada, which is right up the road, so I guess he's a neighbor of mine. It was quite a trick. The guy did somersaults and the dog jumped over him, it was almost like a circus act. So you're not interrupting anything of any importance.
Boonies, Va/:
Greetings!
Pickles cracks me up. I have two questions. 1. Do you have a dog and a cat that you use to model the behavior of the ones in Pickles? The cat, especially, is right on. 2. One of the cable channels (USA? TNT?) has a cartoon intro to its movies featuring a dog that woofs. The dog looks alot like the one in Pickles. Did you draw that?
Brian Crane: To answer your last question first, I've never seen the intro, so I'm not really sure what you're talking about, but I didn't do it. Years ago, someone asked me if I had done the "Rugrats" show, because the family is named Pickles and they have an old man who's on there who looks a little like my Earl, and so they thought I might be doing that, but I only do the one comic strip.
As for your first question, the dog is modeled after a dog I had when I started doing the strip, who was actually a girl dog, so I did a sex change on it to make it a boy dog, because I was trying to even out the genders in the strip. She was a few kibbles short of a bag, let's just say. I don't have a cat now, I had quite a few when I was growing up, so I draw on those recollections quite a bit. I hear from alot of cat owners who say that I've nailed their cat's personality with Muffin. It's rewarding and also a little scary sometimes. One lady got upset with me when I had Muffin have kittens--she said I should have had her spayed! So people take these things a little too literally sometimes.
Lakewood, Colo.:
Pickles is a great strip. Although I'm a little younger than Earl, I am already recognizing a lot of the things that concern him in myself (need I say "eyebrows"?), and I particularly like the way Earl and Opal both get their fair share of punchlines, just like in a real long-term marriage. Are you the real Earl Pickles?
Brian Crane: When I first started this strip, I was a young slimmish guy with a full head of hair. Now I'm a middle aged guy with an expanding waistline and a receding hairline, so I think I'm actually turning INTO Earl. It's becoming a case of life imitating art.
As for Earl and Opal both getting their fair share of punchlines, alot of that comes from me and my wife. We've been married 30 years. So alot of her lines becomes Opal's and alot of Earl's lines come from me. I try to keep it even. I've been accused of making Earl too dumb, and Opal too mean. But if you just had two people who didn't ever fight or have disagreements, they'd be pretty boring.
Silver Spring, Md.:
No question, just wanted to say that Pickles is my favorite comic in the Post these days. I especially love that it is on the last page of the comics, so I always have something fun to look forward to. It always makes me chuckle. Thanks!
Brian Crane: Thank YOU! That's a comment that I get quite a bit. Some people say that "Pickles" is the first thing they read, and others say it's the last thing they read. I'm just happy they read it, period.
Rockville, Md.:
Sometimes it seems that the humor in "Pickles" is done at the expense of the older parents, and it actually comes off as a bit cruel and unkind. I'm only in my 30s, but I've talked to some folks in their 60s and 70s who read the strip and they're not amused at all. Why the cruelty and why not treat the older couple with a bit more respect? You may be turning off your older readers. Bob
Brian Crane: Well that really surprises me. I've never have any older people complain about that. I speak to older groups all the time, at Rotary Clubs, senior citizen centers, etc., and I've never had anyone say they didn't like it. I don't do it in a spirit of cruelty. If it's perceived that way, it's certainly isn't MY intent. To me, Earl and Opal are like family, and it's all based on love and understanding.
Fairfax, Va.:
Are you old enough to have a son or daughter and spouse living next door or nearby? You have really nailed that relationship also, in my view. Also, grandpa's interchanges with the grandson are great! My late husband did so many things, gave so many answers like grandpa's! Great job. I never miss reading your strip, and even when upon returning from vacation, I go through all the "old" comics to be sure I haven't missed anything. Keep it up!
Brian Crane: Well, bless your heart. I do have one son who is married and has my first and only grandchild, but unfortunately they live out of state, in North Carolina. So I guess some of what goes on in the strip is wishful thinking on my part, that they did live next door. Alot of the humor comes from Earl and Nelson, and that's partly why I've not allowed the characters to age, because I want to keep that relationship the same. Also, if I allowed Earl and Opal to age, I'd soon be out of a job, considering their advanced years.
Fairfax, Va.:
I am 66 years old, and I have never found a single element of cruelty in your comic strip. Perhaps you have to reach a "certain age" to perceive that it's not cruel, but truly is life, humorously presented!
Brian Crane: You know what that reminds me of...I did a series where Nelson lost all his hair because of a terrible accident with chewing gum. And then he met a boy who had lost all his hair because of chemotherapy for cancer. I didn't get any complaints from cancer patients or people who worked with cancer patients. As a matter of fact, I heard from a cancer advocacy groups, as well as cancer patients themselves, who thought it was a great series. But I did get some complaints from people who had no personal connection with cancer or cancer patients, who thought I was being insensitive. But I think alot of people who aren't living through something like cancer thought I was portraying them as victims, when I was actually portraying their upbeat, survivalist attitude. I think I try to do the same thing with old age.
Washington, D.C.:
How many "Pickles" books have there been? I can't find any.
Brian Crane: There have been two "Pickles" books, both by Longstreet Press. And they're both still in print, and available from Amazon or Barnes & Noble, or your local bookstore. (Hint, hint!)
Pierce County, Wash.:
Hello Mr. Crane. I'm 21 now and have been reading your strip since I was 14. I have been reading it everyday and it still remains to be one of my favorite strips. Aside from the usual questions, is there one cartoonist's drawing ability you wish you possessed? And if so, who and why? --Christopher
Brian Crane: Oh, there are so many, it's hard to name one. I'm a great admirer of Berke Breathed, and Bill Watterson, of course. When I was a kid, the ones that really inspired me were Al Capp of "Lil Abner" and Walt Kelly of "Pogo." I don't even come close to matching them in artistic ability, but I do the best I can.
Knoxville, Tenn.:
My twin sister, Nancy Caldwell, who lives in Frederick, Md., can't access the Web during work. She asked me to tell you that "Pickles" is her favorite comic strip, and that it constantly reminds her of her husband and herself.
I didn't remember "Pickles" from when I lived in BOY-DO-I-MISS-IT Maryland, so I got it from the Post Comic Page... sure! I loved it! Just didn't remember the name.
I'm going to ask our local paper if they'd consider running it.
Brian Crane: Thanks to you and your sister...you're my new best friends!!!!!
Glebe:
(quick aside to ST: I will be at work on day after Thanksgiving, so I'm up for a chat). I really enjoy Earl and Opal... I know what previous poster said about them being mean sometimes, but I like that they are not stereotypically sweet older people. There are a couple of other strips that have sweet endearing oldsters... some marriages are like that, one is sharp and forthright, the other is gentle or quieter and gets their own back from time to time anyway... Suzanne Tobin:
Unfortunately, Live Online programming is canceled the day after Thanksgiving, but maybe we can work something out with Suzanne to do a make-up show. -- Liz
Brian Crane: It takes all kinds, as they say. I don't think of them as older people, I think of them just as individuals who happen to be older and they reflect my own take on life.
Suzanne Tobin:
The last comment is from my producer, Liz, who obviously I should have asked about the day after Thanksgiving before querying you all. Duh!
Sacramento, Calif.:
I'm "only" 47 but I really enjoy your strip. You manage to avoid being overly warm and fuzzy about Earl and the other older characters, instead employing a semi-grim, self-deprecating humor that you often find in the elderly ... that makes me think you've modeled the strip on real folks, rather than some test-tube idea of how to produce a successful strip aimed at a certain demographic. True?
Brian Crane: That's absolutely true. The original inspiration for the characters is from my wife's parents, who have that sort of surface bickering but have that deep, abiding love underneath. (Come to think of it, I've never really told them that I based Earl and Opal on them, and I'm not sure how they would take that, so let's just let that be our little secret!)
Vienna, Va.:
Pickles is hysterical! It is the last strip that I read everyday and one of my very favorites. How long have you been drawing it?
Brian Crane: Thanks for the compliment. I started working on it in late 1988. It debuted on April Fool's Day, 1990, appropriately enough. And we didn't join The Post lineup until my 50th birthday in 1999, and that was like the feather in my cap, getting into The Post.
When we first started out, we were only in 24 papers, and since I have a wife and seven children, that wouldn't even keep us in Cheerios, so I kept my day job at an advertising agency. I finally was able to quit that in 1995, and go with just the comic strip, and I haven't looked back since. I think I'm in more than 300 papers now, and it's very humbling and gratifying to be seen everyday by all those people.
Arlington, Va.:
I'm interested in your opinion of other comic strips. Who do you think are the best? Who inspired you to draw yourself? If they gave out "Oscar"s (R)(TM)(c)(pat. pend.) for comic strips, who should get them? Perhaps we could even have categories: best strip, best artwork, best humor, best social commentary, best character, and best advancemnet of the genre. (The week before, there could even be techincal awards -- re-inking, text, box design, copyright placement, haha!)
No fun picking yourself, or the Lucille Ball of Comic, Charles Shultz!
Brian Crane: There actually is an equivalent in the comics world to the Oscars, and they're called the Reubens and they're done every year by the National Cartoonists Society. They don't get nearly the press coverage that the Oscars do, but the do, in fact, exist. I've been nominated once, but didn't win.
As far as who I think SHOULD win, there are so many good comic strips out there, that just picking one would be a shot in the dark. Plus, living here in Reno, I don't see that many strips daily, because my paper only carries one page of comics. So be grateful for your three pages in The Post!
Oakton, Va.:
Wow, I didn't know there were Pickles books! I'll get them both this weekend, and put them next to my Calvin & Hobbes and Dave Barry collections! Exalted company, huh?
Brian Crane: Absolutely, yeah. I'm afraid I'm gonna look pretty bad by comparison, though. Those are pretty tough acts to follow.
Herndon, Va.:
Earl and Opal remind me of Marie and Frank on Everybody Loves Raymond. Humor seems to gather steam with age. Except with my mother-in-law. I know that's a statement, not a question, so .... er, did you see Survivor last night?
Brian Crane: I love "Everybody Loves Raymond," but I've never seen "Survivor" and I hope to go to my grave being able to say that.
Speaking of being cruel, the grandfather in "Everybody Loves Raymond," Peter Boyle, is alot crueler to his wife than my characters would ever be, so for those of you out there who think I'm mean, cut me some slack!
Herndon, Va.:
Did you have any other names in mind for your strip?
Brian Crane: "Pickles" was actually just kind of a working title, since it's the last name of the characters and it reminded me of the situations or "pickles" they get themselves into. I just assumed the syndicate would change it, because I knew they'd changed the name for Charles Schulz's strip from "Lil Folks" to "Peanuts." And they never did. I still don't think it's a great name for a strip, but I guess it's too late to change it now.
Ellicott City, Md.:
I just wanted to let you know that I enjoy Pickles every day.
Do you write the cartoon from personal experience? From friends?
Thank you, Maria
Brian Crane: Quite a bit of it does come from personal experience, but is exaggerated for comic effect.
One episode that came from something that happened where I've been marriedfor almost 30 years, I finally noticed that my wife couldn't put on her eye makeup without sticking out her tongue. And so I used it in the strip, much to her chagrin.
Medford, N.Y.:
Seven children? I'm guessing your wife has the sense of humor in the family. Do you encourage any of your kids to take up cartooning?
Brian Crane: Yes, she does have the sense of humor and ever willing to forgive me for exposing her foibles in an international comic strip.
I do encourage my kids to draw, and some have shown some talent for it, but so far, they've all been smart enough not to want to do it for a living.
Merrifield, Va.:
I love your drawing style. It seems to lend itself to animation. Ever been approached about doing television?
Brian Crane: Well, thank you. I've been approached once about doing a TV special, and nothing ever came of it, which is probably just as well, since I've got enough on my hands just doing the strip. And, sometimes, when I've seen comic strips translated into a TV show I didn't think they did justice to the original (the Peanuts specials being the exception to the rule).
West Potomac High School:
Where did you come up with the idea for this hilarious comic strip that appeals to all ages?
Brian Crane: WOW! Will you be my agent? That's an interesting question, because coming up with the basic premise for a comic strip is really important. Because it's not like writing a novel where you write about it for a year or so, and then go onto something else. If you're lucky, it's something you'll be writing for the rest of your life, so you want to choose your characters and setting very carefully. In other words, you want something you can milk for what, hopefully, will be a very long time. In my case, I just started drawing characters, different kinds and types, until I came up with this older couple who appealed to me, and made me feel like I'd be comfortable writing about them and getting to know them for years and years to come.
Herndon, Va.:
You're right. Frank Barrone is a lot meaner than Earl. But I think Earl would think he was funny.
Brian Crane: You're right, he would.
Herndon, Va.:
Our whole family loves your cartoon. To be honest, I'm a single-panel gal, but my husband kept bugging me to expand my horizons and read Pickles. Is there a Pickles calendar?
Brian Crane: No, I'm afraid there's no calendar for me to shamelessly promote. But thank your husband for being my advocate.
I actually have my wife to thank for the fact that "Pickles" is in existence, because after being turned down by three major syndicates, I had pretty much given up on it. But she was always my No. 1 fan, who believed in it even when I didn't, and so she convinced me to submit it one last time to The Washington Post Writers Group, and that time turned out to be the charm. So I guess that's another lesson that nagging does have its virtues.
Suzanne Tobin:
I'm so sorry, folks, but we're out of time for today. If your question didn't get online, you can e-mail Brian at bcpickles@aol.com. Thanks so much, Brian, it was really fun chatting with you.
Brian Crane: Thank you, Suzanne, and for all your readers and I'll see you in the funny papers.
| |
© Copyright 2001 The Washington Post Company |
