Here is another of my favorite humor cartoonists whose delightful work on Popeye was always a hit with fans...My working habits are quite loose. Some of my fellow cartoonists are able to follow a regular, daily work pattern, but I have never been able to do this. I usually work on ideas and do my penciling in the mornings and save the inking for the evening. Inking is the mechanical part of the business; so I enjoy half-watching TV while I do it. Any part of my work can be interrupted for something important like golf or bowling. There are about twenty syndicated cartoonists living in my area, and they all enjoy dragging a fellow comic artist away from his drawing board. I hate to admit it but I'm a deadline worker and do my best when my back is against the wall. In respect to ideas, I don't buy gags; I do them myself...with the help of my family. My Son, Brad, is developing into a great idea man. I made the mistake of paying him once for an idea once, and he quickly lost his amateur standing.
I do not like to write out a complete daily continuity too far in advance. When I have a continuity idea I blab an out line into a small tape recorder and file it away until I'm ready for it. The day-to-day strips are done on a weekly basis. I feel that too-tight writing holds me down, and I lose the spontaneous ideas that always pop up when I'm working. As for my background, I started drawing at an early age because it was easier to make pictures than to learn to spell. I was born in Wenatchee, Washington. While I was still in high school I went to work for the late E.C.Segar, the creator of Popeye. I saw the birth of many wonderful characters: Swee' Pea, Eugene the Jeep, Alice the Goon, and Poop-deck Pappy. In recent years I have added Granny and Betty Beasky. After Segar's death in 1938, I was asked by King Features to continue the strip. Except for a period as an assistant comic editor, I have been doing the daily and Sunday Popeye strip ever since.
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