This is the more polished, second version of Modern Ways. I re-drew a bunch of comics I had already done in another format. This format uses the dimensions I took from Lynn Johnston's "For Better or for Worse" original she sent me. I found it easier to work in.

You may find some of these still have their pencil lines, areas are not filled in with black, and may be unfinished in other ways. Those were not quite finished.

Click any cartoon to enlarge it.

But this strip began in a different format. I got this format from a book on cartooning. The strip was physically larger, and the drawing less fine.

Here's just three examples, which I redrew in the second format (above).

In 1982 I graduated from a one-year art program. During that year I was reading a lot of cartoon strips. Dailies. B.C., Peanuts, Wizard of Id, Garfield, For Better or for Worse. The writers of these strips were my heroes, and I dreamed of doing what they did.

In 1983 to 1984 I bent my entire soul to becoming the next big syndicated cartoonist. I created a strip about a pair of friends named Tim and Neil and I drew their exploits and their interactions. It was initially to be a techno-strip with most of the jokes centering on the trend of electronics in the marketplace - video games, television. But the characters grew to be so familiar to me that that theme simply became a sub-theme. Most of the best jokes were simple character interaction, and the caracters lent themselves well to this genre. Some of the jokes leaned towards meta-humour, referring to the comic strip itself, and although it sometimes made the strip uneven, the gags were funny. I called the strip Modern Ways. Man, what was I thinking?!?! While the strip never went anywhere I did get into a daily routine of drawing and writing strips and I was able to churn out a fairly good number of strips consistently.

During production of this strip I discovered Lynn Johnston lived in the same town as my girlfriend's sisters in Manitoba. I called her up out of the blue and asked her if she'd sign one of her books for me if I sent it to her. I also had the gall to ask if she gave away her original strips. She said that she didn't, that she sold them in a Toronto gallery for $150.00 each. Satisfied to get an autograph, I hung up (after a fairly long conversation, where she was very kind and considerate, and did not rush me off or hurry me in any way.) So I sent the book to her, with one of my original strips. A few weeks later I got a package back with the book, autographed to me, and my strip back with a note saying that I really would want this later in life. She also included... one of her original strips! I kid you not.


(Click the strip to find out more)

This led to months of writing back and forth. She even offered to critique some of my strips, so I photocopied some and sent them to her. She wrote comments directly on the photocopies and sent them back. At one point she even sent me pen tips. Speedball C-6 tips, the same ones she used. Naturally those were the pens I used to create the second version of "Modern Ways". I also used her strip to measure out my own format, and after that my work improved greatly.

 

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