You learn just by trying and experimenting. By the time I was 14, I had my own comic strip in the Kansas City paper.
When I first started, you couldn't mention divorce or death. You couldn't show smelly socks. You couldn't show a snake. They took a skunk out of my strip one time.
Professionals don't get writer's block. I can always come up with the punch line.
At one time Tribune Syndicate emptied out their storeroom. They put tables full of original cartoons down in the lobby and said take one if you want one. The comics were simply a burden to them.
I like a happy ending. That's what I do all the time. I like to make people feel happy.
When I introduced a black soldier, Lt. Flap, in 1971, the Stars and Stripes banned the strip. They were having racial problems and thought it would increase the tensions.
