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Contact the Artist
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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) of Pat Brady |
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 Q. When did you first start drawing cartoons?
A. I began cartooning at age five, and began submitting cartoons to editors at age eleven! My first drawing table was a church pew. My first characters were heads with feet on the bottom and arms sticking out from where the ears should be. : )
Q. How do you pronounce "Pasquale?"
A. Pasquale is pronounced, "Pah-Skwah-Lee." It rhymes with tamale.
Q. Are you a man or a woman?
A. I'm a man. I'm not embarrassed by the question unless I'm asked in person. : )
Q. Who were the cartoonists who most influenced you?
A. I loved the work of Wallace Wood and Will Elder in the early MAD magazines and paperbacks. And Jack Davis! The first time I saw a MAD magazine I thought I was in Heaven.
Q. How did you get your professional start?
A. I got my first syndication contract in 1980 for a comic strip I created titled "Graves, Inc." The action took place in a business setting featuring a tyrannical boss (Winston Graves) and cowering employees. It ran for three years but never got into many newspapers. I would have kept it going with only ONE newspaper if the syndicate would have let me! : ) Within a year after "Graves, Inc." ended, I created "Rose is Rose," which began running in newspapers on April 16, 1984.
Q. How would you describe your style?
A. I would describe my style as "desperate" because I'm always desperately trying to improve my art. : ) I think I've tried every art material ever sold, and have shown my characters in every pose and from every angle imaginable. There is a definite improvement over my early "Rose is Rose" work, but I'm still trying harder every day.
Q. Where do you get your story ideas?
A. I sometimes get story ideas by doodling on a pad of paper, and writing down any words that pop into my head. It's as though I go fishing for ideas inside my mind, like going fishing in a river. Eventually I get a bite, and I try to reel in the idea. Sometimes I keep it and sometimes I toss it back. Once in a while I catch a good one. : )
Q. How did you come up with your characters?
A. Pasquale is definitely myself as a boy. The rest of the characters took shape from quick, random doodles and were fashioned after no one in particular, although they all feel familiar. It's as though they just appeared one day, showed up on my doorstep so to speak, and I kept them.
Q. Which are your favorite characters in your strip and why?
A. I love Pasquale and Peekaboo. They seem very real to me. I feel close to them and enjoy drawing them.
Q. Do you create on a daily basis?
A. Do you prefer to work in the morning or at night? Usually I write in the morning and draw in the afternoon. But that's only because I begin most days with no ideas. On the rare occasion when I already have an idea from the day before, I start drawing first thing in the morning, which is the way I like best. Most weeks, I work six days.
Q. What materials do you use to draw your comics? Do you use a computer?
A. Presently I'm using 3-ply smooth-surface bristol board as a drawing surface, a non-photo blue pencil to rough in my lines and lettering, and permanent black markers for final inking. My daily originals measure about 4" X 14". I scan my daily strips and, working with a Macintosh computer and Photoshop, I add shading. My Sunday originals measure 14" X 20". For Sunday strips, after I finish my line work I make a Xerox copy and I color the copy with colored pencils. The syndicate (United Media) provides me with a color chart that has corresponding numbers for various colors. I write the numbers on top of each color on my colored Xerox copy. Then I send the line art and the colored Xerox copy to my editor at United Media. The syndicate then sends everything to American Color, a group of excellent computer graphic artists who take what I've done and turn it into the final color version that you see in the Sunday newspaper.
Q. Do you have any suggestions on how to become a professional cartoonist?
A. Just keep drawing cartoons any way you want, using any materials you like, and keep sending copies of your cartoons to editors and newspaper syndicates. Lots of information is available at the National Cartoonists Society web site: www.reuben.org.
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To contact Pat Brady, write to:
Pat Brady
c/o United Media
200 Madison Avenue
New York, NY 10016
Your letter to the cartoonist will be forwarded via snail mail
To contact Don Wimmer please e-mail him at:
wimmertoon@aol.com
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