When and where were you born and raised?
I was born in Akron , Ohio in 1947. We lived there till 3 rd grade, then we moved here [ Medina ] and I've pretty much lived around this area of Northeast Ohio since then.
Tell me about your family—your mom, your dad, your siblings.
My dad was probably a pretty big influence on me. He was always cracking jokes and making puns. I probably get a lot of who I am from him. [Laughs] Mom didn't get a lot of Dad's puns, so that prepared me for my audience.
I've got one sister. She's a sociology professor at Wilmington College [in Ohio ].
With your cartoons – they definitely showcase “the human condition” – do you ever consider yourself a sociologist, too?
Not really. All I've ever wanted to be is a cartoonist.
But I do understand about the social commentary sort of thing that I'm doing with cartooning, and that from the beginning most cartooning has been fairly reflective of what's happening in people's lives, and that people want to see their own lives reflected back at them in what they are reading in newspapers today.
…Chuck Ayres, the artists who draws Crankshaft , understands that too.
When did you know you wanted to be a cartoonist?
Very early on…I became fixed on the idea that that would be a cool way to make a living.
When we lived in Akron my dad would read the funnies to me. It was fascinating to see what was going on in Dick Tracy and Flash Gordon and Prince Valiant. [Laughs] Wanting to know what was going on in those strips was a real impetus to learn to read.
The humanity of the writing was amazing… I think it was at a level of sophistication and maturity then that I don't think cartoons have reached since. Comics are still very capable of doing that kind of storytelling. The sad thing is that newspapers don't realize what they have and they don't encourage experimentation. They encourage writing and cartooning that won't get them angry letters [from readers].
Was there any one specific person who guided/mentored you into a career in cartooning?
My art teacher in high school [Jim Mateer] was helpful, though he wouldn't let me do cartoons. He used to keep his classroom open on Saturday for kids to come in and work, and once – this was one Saturday after I'd already graduated from college and was teaching art at Eastern Heights Junior High [in Elyria] – I went in to talk to him. I told him I was tempted to quit teaching and take a job in an ad agency and somehow make that lead to a career in cartooning. We had a long talk about it. He said that in their careers, people often get into situations where they kind of float or rise to whatever level they can in that environment or they are bulldogs and fasten on one thing and ignore everything else because that's the only thing they want to do.
…All I wanted to do was cartooning, and that conversation allowed me to just shut everything else out and go for it.
…He's been a character in Funky , the painter who painted the murals in Montoni's Pizzeria.
Who were the cartoonists who had the most influence on you?
Stan Lee! I went to Kent State for college, but I went to the University of Stan Lee while I was there. He was a great story teller. I was exposed to the work of a lot of great cartoonist – people like Hal Foster, Milton Caniff, and Chet Gould – but when I reached the age of reason, which was somewhere during my freshman year in college, Stan made such an impression on me. He'd grab you with his stories…He knew how to keep you reading.
…And then there is Charles Schulz. He's the cartoon god we all give a nod to every day. He definitely changed the direction of cartooning: today 95% of cartoons are driven by the writing. He opened the door for people who wanted to do more introspective work, not just gag-a-day strips of people slipping on banana peels or falling through manholes…But he also changed the medium…[because] he gave people the idea that the art wasn't that important, that the elegant, yet simple, drawings he did were just “simple,” and that the idea and writing carried the cartoon.
You came of age in the counter-culture '60s. How do you think that's shaped your work?
That whole time was inspirational for all artists…[T]here was an explosion of creativity in popular art, poster art, fine art. It was an amazing time and all these people were stepping in and taking their shot.
In your strips you've tackled serious social issues, including teen pregnancy and suicide and racial discrimination. Did the '60s and '70s hone your social awareness and “politicality.”
Yes, but it took a long time for it to manifest itself, to reach that level of maturity. Getting started, I was pretty naïve and very focused on what I wanted to do, so that kind of stuff didn't come until much, much later.
How do you think that “maturity” shaped the content of your cartoon strips?
It's helped form my approach so that I wasn't doing the kind of strip that simply repeated things over and over again. It's helped me create comics [strips] that are alive, that grow, that change, that reflect the lives of the readers.
Funky Winkerbean started out as a gag-a-day strip, then it morphed into a sit-com because everything was set up on a weekly basis, then it became a “movie,” with extended story lines and more involved plots. The “hero” went from a gag-a-day character to a cast of behavioral- and situational-driven characters. This made it more challenging, but it's also allowed me to take the strip “someplace” else.
…It was the same with Crankshaft , which is drawn by Chuck Ayers, who used to be the staff artist and editorial cartoonist at the Akron Beacon-Journal …We met at Kent State – we were both there at the same time – and get together every two weeks, most of the time at Luigi's in Akron…I bring work and we go over it, then he goes back to his studio and draws it and I don't see it till two weeks later at our next meeting. [Laughs] Chuck hasn't got a fax.
When you went to college, you got a dual degree – art and education. Did you teach?
I taught in Elyria at Eastern Heights Junior High. Junior high students certainly aren't lacking in energy, so it was fun. I taught arts and crafts.
How did what you were doing, seeing and experiencing as a teacher shape your cartooning?
When I graduated from Kent, I went to New York City to try to get a job with Marvel or DC Comics…They both turned me down – though Marvel did tell me to come back in the future with ideas – so I went back home and started teaching.
Thinking about what the people at Marvel had said, I thought it would be good to build a resume, so I went to the Elyria Chronicle-Telegram with my sketchbook, figuring they might hire me to do some spot art [illustrating] for the paper. When the editors saw the sketch book – I had a study hall at Eastern Heights , and I'd do sketches of the students and put captions on them – they asked me if I'd be interested in doing a weekly cartoon for the new teen page the paper was starting.
[Laughs] Timing is everything . Rapping Around, was an anti-Archie strip. It dealt with the tiny little traumas that high schoolers were experiencing – like Les [Moore] who was stuck up a rope in gym class. The strip looked at the “other” side of high school, the one no one had written about. That's where the influence of Schulz came in.
I started out writing what I knew. And it's the same with Crankshaft , where I'm writing about things that are only about a quarter-inch removed from real life.
I didn't start out planning on doing what I'm doing. I fell into these wonderful strips – and partners – that allow me to, in essence, grow with the job. I'm as satisfied – esthetically and artistically – doing what I'm doing now at age 61 as I was when I started at 24.
If you hadn't become a successful cartoonists, do you think you'd still be teaching art?
Probably. Teaching was the first job I had that I really enjoyed. I would not have minded at all to be a teacher, but I'd signed on – early on—for the bulldog thing: there was only one thing I really wanted to be, and that was a cartoonist. Still, the second-best job I could have would be teaching.
When did you know you'd made it as a cartoonist – that you could quit your day job?
Those two things didn't come together. You have to accept that you are always going to be insecure as a cartoonist…Charles Schulz said it best: “You are always worried about losing newspapers.”
Quitting the day job was almost a necessity. I was teaching and working on Funky Winkerbean, which started in March of 1972. Over the spring break, I realized that I couldn't work two full-time jobs, so I resigned. This was the only shot I was going to get and I decided to give it everything I had, and since I couldn't do justice to both [jobs], I left the teaching job.
[Laughs] I was married [to Cathy], but it was still a nerve wracking decision.
How did you meet your wife and what does she do?
We met in high school…She was my high school sweetheart. She's an elementary teacher, and she taught till our son [Brian] came along in 1980.
How much of your wife and your son, Brian, turn up in your cartoon strips?
Some, but not a preponderance of things. I'll use a specific incidence, but I don't want to put them in too much. [Pause] And I really don't need to. I'm making stuff up.
Your first comic strip was Funky Winkerbean . When and how was that strip “born?”
No, the first strip was Rapping Around for the Elyria Chronicle-Telegram , but it more-or-less evolved into the strip idea I took to the syndicates when I went back to New York in [1971]. Funky Winkerbean was launched in March of 1972…My style and the story lines have changed tremendously in 36 years.
My old high school art teacher realized, even before I did, that being in a school and working with kids was crucial…to the type of strip I was doing, so early on he invited me to come in and hang out in his art classes. That allowed me to keep my feet grounded and the strip grounded, too, thought I also do other things to keep it grounded…One of the things that's become clear – over the years – is that thought there are superficial changes in how kids dress and talk, deep down, on the individual level, kids are still dealing with the same things, the same insecurities, the same problems. That's important to remember.
Where did the name Funky Winkerbean come from?
That name is a mixed blessing...I went to my [art] classes and handed out pieces of paper and asked them to write down whatever they thought was a funny name. My wife and I sat at the kitchen table going over the names and out of all those suggestions came Funky Winkerbean …[Laughs] Someone's definitely got a royalty coming, but had I known I'd be doing the strip 36 years later I'd have spent more time on its name.
Crankshaft was “launched” in 1987. How did you come up with the idea for that strip? And more to the point, why did you come up with a strip about a crabby, cantankerous geezer?
I was on a book tour – in Seattle – and just leaving a TV station where I'd been interviewed when I got a call from a lady who'd seen the show. She said I should add a school secretary and a bus driver to the strip…She was right and I added both. I called the bus driver Ed Crankshaft.
He's based on a bus driver I'd had. In most cases, I have to take a person's personality and blow it way out to create a character, but with Ed Crankshaft I had to back off, because he was “that” kind of bus driver. He was a cranky. He was a grouch. He excelled in making kids miss the bus.
But there was a kind of magic associated with him. Almost immediately, even when he was a one-dimensional character, I started getting mail about him. That made me think that there was enough to sustain a strip on its own if I were to pull it out [of Funky Winkerbean ].
It didn't take a whole lot to get Creators Syndicate [now part of North American Syndicate] to agree to syndicate the strip. And now that he's the central character of a strip I've opened him up more, so readers see more facets of his character, but I have to say that for Ed, hacked-off is the new happy.
…Though 95% of strips today are writer-driven, I think Crankshaft is an exception. When Chuck [Ayers] gets the story and ideas for the strip, he takes it to another place. In Crankshaft there's a clear partnership.
Crankshaft runs in almost 300 papers and consistently polls as a top-rated comic strip. What do you think it is about Crankshaft that has made the strip so popular?
[Laughs] You can't think about it too deeply, but I think some of the reason for its popularity is that it's the third strip I've done so it's benefited from experience. Also, it's very focused: Crankshaft is the main character and everything flows off him. Also, I think it hits home for a lot for readers. They either have a parent like that or they are starting to reach that stage themselves. And finally, I think it does exactly what it's supposed to do: It takes a slice of life and reflects it back to people each day.
Do you ever think about the fact that Crankshaft appeals to two generations of readers: adult children and their aging parents?
Absolutely. Crankshaft's daughter Pam and son-in-law Jeff Murdoch are Boomers. But, at the same time, I'm writing into the future. We are all going to be in Crankshaft's shoes some day.
You have a really good handle on caregiving in Crankshaft – Pam and Jeff are dealing with the whole spectrum there. Have you or Chuck been caregivers?
I was involved in seeing that my mom got care before she passed, when she and my dad were both living up here, and I saw things then that have turned up in the strip. I'm involved, remotely, in caring for my father. He lives in a house, next to my sister's, where he's receiving 24-hour care. And I'm listening to my friends, too. So many are dealing with it [caregiving]…And Chuck was dealing with a lot of situations with his parents before they passed.
Your story arc about Alzheimer's was superb. Where did you get your info and insight on that?
A lot of it was anecdotal, from friends who'd gone through it [with their parents]. That's the kind of information you internalize. And I did quite a bit of research. I read many books and got information from the Alzheimer's Association.
We collected the strips into a book because there were so many requests for the material. I've reread it a couple of times and when I'm done I'll say: This is really good. Who wrote it? Sometimes ideas take on a life of their own, and that one definitely did.
Ed Crankshaft is fit. He's working. He gardens (well, sort of). He's got an active social life. He's definitely his own man. Do you think – in the alternative universe where he “lives” – that he thinks of himself as having aged successfully?
[Laughs] The honest answer is that he's like all of us. He probably doesn't realize he's aged. I don't think he even thinks about it. He still thinks of himself as the baseball player he was before he was drafted in World War II. And that's probably a good thing. It keeps him moving.
Most of us don't realize we are the age we are, and I've written a number of things with him to point that out. When people look in the mirror and ‘see' who they are, they ask: When did this happen? That – the aging and the asking – is part of the human condition.
What do you think “successful aging” means to Crankshaft?
I don't deal with that with him. I tend to write about his struggles, how he's meeting the situations he's encountering. For instance, he'll get up with a bad back and can't straighten up immediately. Still, I think for Crankshaft that successful aging is simply the ability to keep doing what he's doing. He's still driving the school bus. He's still active. And that's successful…As much as he gripes about things – in fact probably because he gripes about everything – he keeps on going. For him, that is aging successfully.
You were a finalists for the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning, American journalism's highest award. What were you nominated for?
The nomination was for a series of strips on Lisa Moore, one of Funky Winkerbean's main characters who died of breast cancer. You get a limited number of really special stories to tell, and that story was one of them. And I never saw it coming. When I created the character of Lisa [1985], she was just a girlfriend for Les [Moore], someone I could do girlfriend jokes with…I never knew where her story line was going to take me. In the beginning, she was not based on anyone in particular. But when she became Lisa – with a capital L – she took on the strengths of a lot of strong women, particularly my wife, Cathy. [Laughs] Actually, whenever I saw a woman being strong, I'd steal it and give it to Lisa.
You're 61. You just time-warped your characters ahead 10 years and into middle-age. Are you/they thinking about retiring?
[Laughs] I fully intended to age the characters. I just forgot to do it. I looked up from the drawing board one day and thought “Whoa, 20 years have gone by and I haven't aged them.”
And am I thinking about retiring? Not yet. I'm having fun with my work, really enjoying it. [Sighs] But the thing that will retire me, someday, is the idiocy that comes with cartooning. Recently someone out in California got an e-mail campaign going to the L. A. Times because of a Crankshaft strip. It focused on Rose [Jeff Murdoch's mother, who was in the process of moving to an assisted living facility] and her home care aid, who, in that day's strip, was being somewhat sarcastic in dealing with Rose.
The e-mail campaign said caregivers wouldn't behave like that, and that what I'd shown in the strip was elder abuse. If anything, in that strip the caregiver was being abused by Rose. But there are people out there who won't let you write in character, and the caregiver was totally in character.
…When I can no longer write about real people, about real situations, about the real world, that's when I'll retire.
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