Mike Peters and Drawing Board Dread

When I was at the 100th anniversary of King Features event a week ago, Mike Peters told a great story about when he sold his Mother Goose and Grimm strip -- a very happy moment -- and then realized he had to draw a comic strip a day, every day. And he was already an award winning editorial cartoonist. What did he have to prove?!

Now he had twice the work.

The way he told it, he was lying in bed, first thing in the morning, filled with dread. How was he going to come up with the requisite hundreds of funny ideas a year? How was he going to make the time?

He called Doug Marlette. Doug was an editorial cartoonist and he was also drawing his syndicated comic strip Kudzu. How did Doug manage to do it?

Mike explained his problem: he had to write, pencil and ink a strip or two a day. And it would be relentless. And, if the strip was successful, it could go on for the rest of Mike's life. How did Doug do this day after day?

Like I said, he was filled with dread. Just teeming with dread.

Doug said it was like brushing your teeth. You don't walk into the bathroom and moan that you have to brush this morning and then again  that night, and then twice tomorrow and tomorrow and on and on forever. You just brush and you don't think about it.

So, just go to the board and get going. Don't dread it, just draw.

I am sure that Mike told this much better than I did just now.

Sometimes, half the battle is just getting the pencil and paper out in the first place.

(Written on my phone while waiting for a car repair. This is the first time I've done a whole blog entry from my phone! I was dreading doing this, but it worked out OK.)