Interview: Robb Armstrong

Just looking at that photo above, of JUMP START cartoonist Robb Armstrong on a speaking engagement, makes me want to attend. He looks like he's having the time of his life.

NoHo interviews Robb Armstrong, whose comic strip JUMP START is in about 420 papers.

Here, he talks about his process:

“By the time Monday rolls around, something has to be sort of written down,” Robb shares. “By the time Tuesday comes around, some visual idea has to be in place; by the time Wednesday rolls around, this thing has to look like a week of strips. Thursday and Friday are sometimes frenzied to get the finishing touches and the photoshop done, and it’s just hours of sitting at a computer. And everything’s turned in by Thursday or Friday, but Thursday, hopefully.” At present, Robb is two weeks ahead of what’s currently in print in the daily papers, and three weeks ahead of what’s in print in the Sunday paper, which he admits is a big shift from his earlier days as a cartoonist where he maintained a six week lead. “And the reason for that is I’m far more self-critical then I was when I was young,” he says. “I thought everything I did was great back then; I was a poor editor. But today, I may not know what’s funny or what’s good, but I do know what’s not funny and what’s not good. In those two areas, I’m actually reaching the level of expert.”