Now he Needs to Feed

I threw together a new strip for my old cartoon feature, "Mr. Weems," as mentioned in a previous entry. It's the feature I showed to Berke Breathed. Here it is:

I still can't draw as well as I used to.

The idea behind the strip was that Weems had a miserable life, and I tormented him constantly. Otis, on the other hand, sat around doing nothing, and everyone loved him, and he felt like he pretty much deserved it.

I had two strips in development for syndication, and both were eventually killed by my editor. "Mr. Weems" bought it because the editor refused to let me keep Otis, who was the funniest character in the strip. The rationale? The local editors who buy comic strips would not accept a strip with a talking or thinking animal.

I assume he knew what he was talking about, after decades of dealing with idiots at local papers, but without Otis, the strip was awful.

I do miss him. He was completely self-absorbed, he was always upbeat, and he had what I consider to be an ideal existence. I wish I could be Otis the pig for a few months.

I may draw a few more strips.

More

I just realized something. Marvin is Otis. But he was born about eight years after Otis was created.

Maybe he's the Dalai Otis.