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Contact the Artist
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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) of Brooke McEldowney |
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 Q. When did you first start drawing cartoons?
A. I don't know when I started drawing cartoons. I can't recall a time when I didn't draw cartoons. Some of my earliest recollections are of poring over cartoons in Punch and The New Yorker. I can still remember the gloss of the paper, the smell of the ink.
Q. Who were the cartoonists who most influenced you?
A. Most influential on my way of thinking were, and are, H.M. Bateman, Ronald Searle, Gerald Scarfe, and Jean-Jacques Sempe. Among syndicated cartoonists, Charles M. Schulz (of course). When I was in the eighth grade, the polar star was Don Martin (I often tried to make my toes droop down over curbs in homage to "Fester Bestertester" and "Carbuncle"). Nowadays I can't heap enough praise on Pat Brady, a true and rare humorist.
Q. How did you get your professional start?
A. The professional start lies in one's earliest efforts to plagiarize one's favorite cartoons. These are not the first cartoons that sell, but the fundament for those cartoons. They are the cartoons that infest the margins of spelling and arithmetic books, school desk tops, passed notes, and the slips of paper one's teacher confiscates as evidence of one's unscholarliness. However, the first cartoons I sold were to Punch. When I got the letter, I immediately ascended to heaven.
Q. How would you describe your style?
A. Mine.
Q. Where do you get your story ideas?
A. From the deepest ganglions in the tangle of my mind. It's a very peaceful, shady spot, in constant disarray. Oh, and there are lawn chairs.
Q. How did you come up with your characters?
A. They evolved out of a necessity for each other. Once they were all together, the strip started to chug, and it has been dragging me along ever since.
Q. Which are your favorite characters in your strip and why?
A. Juliette, I guess, would have to be my favorite. She is the center, and, of all the characters, she echoes and reflects me.
Q. Do you create on a daily basis?
A. Do you prefer to work in the morning or at night? Mostly I do what I can during the day. After all my brain glucose is gone (in the evening), I find myself just staring, like the sphinx, but with a stupider expression.
Q. What materials do you use to draw your comics? Do you use a computer?
A. I use pen and ink for magazine work. I use a computer for the strip. It entirely depends upon where the cartoon is intended to appear.
Q. Do you have any suggestions on how to become a professional cartoonist?
A. With the given that you must have the desire and the talent, you must never never never never never never never never never never never never never never never never never never never never never never never never never never never never never never never never never never never never never never never never never never never never give up.
Q. Are you a woman?
A. No... at least, not the last time I looked.
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