Since the day I'm writing this blog just happens to be my father's birthday, I see it as only fitting that the first "Character Study" be about Jeremy's Dad.
Those who have read the comic strip, "Jeremy And Tim" know that Jeremy's Dad is probably the character who gets the most face-time after the namesakes (Jeremy and Tim). This is probably because my real father (who became the reference for Jeremy's Dad) played the biggest role in helping me create so many of the earlier strips.
I have a number of memories of Dad and me, sitting at the dinner table, or perhaps driving somewhere in the car, when we would begin thinking together about an otherwise mundane, ordinary circumstance that we might be able to use as the basis for a comic strip. They weren't always great ideas, but they were almost always great times. We would volley perspectives of how a situation might play out, and the conversation that would need to ensue to lead up to the punchline, and then work backwards to pair down the words to the very minimum necessary to fulfill the storyline.
Looking back, as I consider the "ingredients" required to generate a comic strip, I don't know that I could imagine a better breeding ground for "Jeremy And Tim" than my childhood home. The individual skill sets of my parents, it seems, almost destined me to write and draw comic strips. I could write an entire Blog on my parent's influence on the strip (and perhaps some day I will), but I think that its important that I give a brief description of their interests and how it not only had to lead to the creation of a comic strip, but also eventually influenced the characters within the strip that took their likenesses (and in some ways, event their personalities).
My mother, a very talented sketch artist and painter, always encouraged me to look at things differently; with an artistic eye. She taught me the value of capturing a visual that represented so much more than just the subject itself. "Everything is interesting" she would say, "you just have to know how to picture it".
My father, a well-spoken and educated man, is one of the very few individuals on this planet who has made a successful career out speaking to large groups of people. He leads a church of around 700 people who rely on him weekly to study a multitude of topics - sometimes which are very complicated and layered - and present it to them in a concise, easy-to-understand message no more than about 25 or 30 minutes. And whether the congregation would admit it or not... they also rely on him to keep their attention by making his presentation interesting - and even "entertaining".
So, really, whether I knew it or not as a child, I had the perfect environment to become a cartoonist. My father's talent for entertainment by way of the spoken word made him the perfect copy-writing assistant. But it also (by proximity) made him an oft-used character in the strip. Those who have seen both the strip and my father would have no problem making the visual connection between the two Dads' likenesses. The distinguished baldness and signature mustache made creating a character patterned after my dad very easy. Tying in his love for books and a few of his hobbies/interests were easy too. But really, that is where the similarities end.
Jeremy's Dad is much more extreme in the way that he interacts with Jeremy in the strip. The main reason for this is simple:
Reality is rarely entertaining.
So when you are trying to write and draw a message in 4 panels or less, you need the characters to be extreme in almost everything they do. That's what makes them entertaining. The difficulty is in trying to create extreme characters that readers can still identify with and relate to. I fear that occasionally, I may have run right up to that edge sometimes with Jeremy's Dad. I'm afraid that at times - out of necessity for the strip - Jeremy's Dad comes off as someone who (yes, makes for a funny punchline, but) really is only a shadow of the guy I think of now as my dad.
This is unfortunate, because I feel like dad's involvement in the strip (and, more importantly - my life in general) should be made clear, and that everyone should know what kind of a guy he really is.
SO... in light of his birthday today, I will make sure that everyone knows just that!
I can say with certainty that my dad was - hands down - one of the best dads that a kid could've asked for. Thinking back on life with him as a kid, he always had time to hang out with me. He came to all of my sporting events and taught me how to fish; y'know... all the typical "dad stuff". But more than that, he encouraged me to do that the things that inspired me. A perfect example of this is the comic strip itself!
Without my father's encouragement, involvement, and talent-lending, I am sure that Jeremy And Tim would not be what it is today. So for, I wish to thank him with more than just the cut-and-dry character that shares his likeness in the strip...
Thanks, Dad.
And HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
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