November 6th, 2020

Timeline – 2012 Part 3

by Brian

This is another example of an autobiographical gag. For many years, I habitually took a two-mile walk from my home in Connecticut to the Silvermine Market to get the Sunday newspaper. The two men in the lower left-hand panel are Scott and Lou, owners of the Market. For 25 years, my studio was in a room above.

In 2013, I served as curator for the opening exhibit at the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum in Columbus, Ohio. I wanted to have a display that showed how a comic strip was produced from start to finish. Chance Browne provided me with his preliminary drawings for the Sunday page above. These were on view in a glass showcase.

It started with my gag sketch.

Chance plans the layout with drawings in pencil and ink. Here are four panels in rough form.

The final page is drawn in ink.

Chance then does a color guide for the printer.

This is what the full page looked like printed in the newspaper.

Hi and Lois is now produced digitally by Eric Reaves, so the process has changed considerably from these traditional methods.

– Brian Walker