Dave Gilbert and Buckles Interview, Part IV

Today we conclude our interview with cartoonist Dave Gilbert (born 1971),creator of the comic strip Buckles.  As someone dog-sitting for the past four months (and with two more months to go), I can say that if dogs had opposable thumbs, they would rule the world by now….

How do you work with King Features?

I e-mail all of my work.  I draw classically, using an ink brush and Bristol board, and then scan it into my computer and color it there.  American Color takes care of the reproduction.   Bud Grace, the guy who does Ernie, also e-mails it in.  I think Ernie is terrific, it kind of reminds me of early MAD Magazine.

What about your fans?  Do you get a lot of mail?  Do they suggest stories?

I get a fair amount of mail.  I try to answer all of it, although sometimes I miss a few.  And the ones I miss always write me back, and remind me that I haven’t answered!  I find I have a hard time sometimes answering letters, and e-mail is easier.  I haven’t gotten ideas from readers yet, but very often they write to tell me that Buckles is just like their own dog.  And I like that, it’s what I’m setting out to do.

How long does it take you to draw an individual strip?

Depends on the action, on my mood, everything.  Some days I could crank a strip out, even when starting with no ideas, from beginning to end, in less than an hour.  And other days, it could take upwards of six hours.  It really depends.

I understand that Buckles has been optioned for an animated series.

Yes, through Hearst Entertainment, the same people who did the Bloom County special and The Tick.  I thought The Tick was brilliantly funny. 

Being a former animator, would you be working on the animation yourself?

No.  They asked if I wanted to, but I think I’ll focus my energies on the strip.  But I’ll put my hands into the show as much as I can.

Would you write it?

No, but I wouldn’t mind writing a few episodes, and I’m supposed to see everything before it goes through.  As the creator, I’m want to make sure it turns out as well as it can.  But, I haven’t talked to them in  while, and I don’t know the current status of the project.

And in your dreams, who’s the ideal voice for Buckles?

I don’t know!   I guess it’s mine, only a little faster.  I thought about that when Hearst brought it up. I know the voices have to fit the characters and the way they’re drawn.  I think Buckles needs to sound... eager, and kind of on the edge.

Have you been getting a lot of reader response?

When Buckles first came out, a lot of papers were doing reader polls on their favorite strips.  Happily, Buckles won a whole bunch of them, nearly five across the nation.  One in Burlington, Vermont, and one in Oklahoma, and a couple of others I can’t remember.  It was a good beginning for the strip.

Any plans for Buckles merchandising?

I would love it.  I always felt that I would know I had made it in the industry when I had a stuffed animal.  When I could hold one up and say here’s a 3-D, solid character.  Or a Buckles cup, that would be fun.  I might worry about over-merchandising.   I agree with Bill Watterson about purism, but I don’t know how far I would take it.  I’ve already done the poor thing, and it’s vastly overrated.  I do care about my characters though, and I’m very cautious about what could happen to them.  After something like Buckles underwear, I don’t know where it would go.  I think I would need a Buckles book, first.

Are there plans for a book?

Not anything solid, now.

Do you have plans for branching out into other strips? 

I don’t know.  I’m really happy with Buckles, and that takes up all of my time.  I don’t know how I could break up my time to do a different strip.  Maybe one day I would add a different part to Buckles, that would sometimes make it feel like another strip.  When Watterson did Spaceman Spiff in Calvin and Hobbes, he got to do a whole different strip.  Or Snoopy and the Red Baron.  And these things bring a whole new dimension to the characters. 

Any thoughts on a cartoonist’s life?

Yeah.  Even when I’m away from my desk, I’m still working.  The best part, though, is that I can roll out of bed and into my desk.  It’s not a long commute.  I don’t know what I would be if I weren’t a cartoonist.

Dave Gilbert and Buckles Interview, Part III

This week, we are running an interview I conducted some 18 years ago with celebrated cartoonist Dave Gilbert (born 1971), creator of Buckles.  We open with him talking about his first trip about a bird named Abercrombie, which never really went anywhere, and how it was later worked into Buckles…

How far did Abercrombie ever go?  Was it actually ever syndicated?

No.  I sent it off to the syndicates, and King Features was the only one that sent me any real feedback on it.  Jaye Kennedy sent my stuff back saying that it's a strong bird strip, but not strong enough to be syndicated.  He recommended making the old couple young, and I did that, and took some other suggestions, and it eventually evolved into Buckles.

Do you think dogs are funnier than birds?

I don't know.  I think Buckles has more personality than Abercrombie.  But birds are funny ... look at Shoe. 

I never think of him as a bird!  With his rumpled sports clothes and cigar, I always think of him as a person.

He's a person who happens to have feathers.  I have no problem with that, though, and don't mind it if it works for the overall premise of the strip.  I had tried another strip called The Back Alley, which had a whole bunch of talking animals and took place in a back alley.  It was about animals, but really they were just little people with fur on their faces.

So tell us about Buckles.  We know he's a dog, with real dog limitations...  What else about him?

He's a mutt, and the biggest thing about him is his insecurity.  And he takes his insecurity to the max.  He's very emotional.  I don't know if he's pretty much like every dog, or mostly like me. 

Do you think that tapping into that insecurity is something that's very ‘90s, and that helped the strip?  Is there something about Buckles that says something about us in the ‘90s?

Buckles, having a lot of my personality, is easy for me to write.  I have a pretty good idea of how I would react to most situations, and I guess I’m a pretty ‘90s guy.  I don’t know ... I guess my personality was marketable.  I hope it stays that way.

What about the other characters in the strip?  What about the couple?

They’re Paul and Jill.  Paul is pretty much the owner, and he sees Buckles as a dog. Because Buckles is a dog, Paul thinks Buckles should sit when he’s told and stay off the couch, that kind of stuff.  He’s kind of hard, but in a dog-owner kind of way.  And Jill, who is the softer, kinder one, treats Buckles like a kid and let’s him on the couch, things like that.  It drives Paul crazy.  There is a bird, too, named Arden, who used to be named Abercrombie.  He’s the backyard friend.  There’s also a flea, who you never see.  He’s very intelligent, and whenever Buckles is in trouble, or needs someone to talk to, he turns to the flea.  The flea’s the smartest of the two... he can read, and Buckles can find things out that way.

Hopefully that’s not based on you!  How far ahead are you on Buckles?

About at the deadline. 

Do you find that you’re composing the gag, and then drawing the strip?  Or drawing the strip and then coming up with the gag?  How do you work out your ideas?

There’s so many different ways to do it.  Sometimes an idea just pops into my head and it’ll be there.  Lately I struggle and struggle.  Mostly I get the idea or the gag first, and then I work around how I’m going to draw it.  The drawing is really important:  I like to put a lot emotion into Buckles’ visuals as well as the writing.

Do you keep a notebook of things to develop into ideas?

Oh yeah.  I’ve got several, and I always go back to them.

Are you always working on it?

I’m always thinking about it.  I have yet to figure out a way to stop thinking about it.  I set up a schedule that I tried to work by, but sometimes I’m at the drawing board at midnight after I’ve come up with a particularly good idea.  Even when I’m at the mall, or just trying to relax, I think that I should be working. 

Is there any one particular venue that’s good for ideas?  Do you get most of them from the newspaper, or television, or while sitting in the bathtub?

That changed a lot.  I would flip through books, like Bloom County or Calvin and Hobbes, and they would inspire me.  Or I’d flip through Newsweek, and for a long while I used to get ideas while taking a shower.  Now, I don’t know, it really switches.  I don’t know where they’re coming from, lately, I just sit down to think and hope they come!

More Dave Gilbert and Buckles tomorrow!

Dave Gilbert and Buckles Interview, Part II

Thanks to the thunderous response to our recent interview with comics legend Lee Falk (1911-1999), we pulled this interview with Buckles cartoonist Dave Gilbert (born 1971) from the archive.  I have also been dog-sitting for the past four months, and my temporary pet, Orpheo, hopes that you enjoy this insight into a dog’s life….

So you started cartooning in school? 

Yes.

Did you have any formal art training?

No, not really.  Just the usual stuff in high school.  I tried taking art classes, but with mixed success.  I took a cartooning class and practically failed it. 

Really!

Yeah.  The teacher told me not to pursue cartooning:  I had no talent and no future. 

What kept you from listening?

I liked cartooning too much. 

So what made you think of Buckles?

He's a dog that I would draw as a warm-up exercise, something I would doodle when I sat down at the drawing table.  Before I draw I always have to doodle first.  Originally, he used to have his ears up.  Then, one day I just put the ears down, instead of upwards, and somehow his personality just kind of came out.  He was this insecure little dog with big eyes, and slightly neurotic.  And he started taking on a life of his own.

And when was this?  While you were still in school, or when you worked as an animator?

It was just after my first year of college, and when I worked in animation.

Was Buckles based on a dog of yours?

Actually, he's based on me, and my whole personality.

So you're Buckles?

Yeah, pretty much.  My friends say that.  They go as far as saying I look like Buckles, but I don't get that.

Do people think you’re funny?

(Thoughtfully)  Gee, I hope so.  At least, I haven’t had any complaints.

Was Buckles your first shot at a strip?

No, I had another strip called Abercrombie, which was about a bird.  There was a dog in it that was just like Buckles, but the bird was the main character  Buckles, who was called Scruffy in this strip, lived with the bird in an old couple’s backyard.  All the characters were there, I just kind of rearranged them for Buckles.  I made the couple younger, and I made the dog the main character because I always thought he was funniest one in it anyhow.  But I was hesitant to do a dog strip because there are so many of them out there already.  Having my own, syndicated strip was something I wanted my whole life.  I just turned 26 this year, and I was syndicated at 24, which made me the youngest syndicated cartoonist at the time.

I think there's something about dogs ... because they are so human, or because they have so many human traits.

I know what you mean, so I've tried to make Buckles different.  He's a dog, but I try to write him as a human.

You do things in your strip to keep him dog-like, rather than making him a human in a collar and leash.

He still has limitations.  He's still a dog.  The fact that he “talks” is that his owners know him so well they know what he means without his saying a word.  But he can't open doors, and he can't read. And there are other limitations that he's aware of, that he can't stand about himself, which is also an insecurity about him. 

What made you consciously set out thinking about his limitations as a dog when most other cartoonists treat their canine characters differently?  Was this your way of distancing Buckles from the rest of the pack?

When I first conceived Buckles, I did some strips and sent them to the syndicates, never thinking that it would go anywhere.  I thought a dog strip would be too limiting.  And I guess that's where the notion of keeping him more like a dog came from, of taking his imitations and turning them into an advantage.  It really works for him not to be able to do certain things, even though it's harder to write.  When he's walking down the street, for example, he can't read a STOP sign.  And since he can't read things, he has to find out information in other ways. 

But it also underscores that he's really a dog. 

Right.  You don't lose sight of the fact that he's an animal.  In most animal strips, they really don't look or behave like animals, just like funny-looking people. 

More Dave Gilbert and Buckles tomorrow!

Dave Gilbert and Buckles Interview, Part I

We here at The Jade Sphinx have been dog-sitting since November for the world’s greatest canine, a Lab-Chow mix named Orpheo.  He is 16 years old, sweet tempered, and the best canine companion a man could have.

This is bound to amuse longtime friends of yours truly, as my hatred of pets of all kind has been the stuff of legend.  For years my immediate response upon touching (let alone petting) an animal was to wash my hands and control my breathing until a sense of cleanliness returned.  So when the notion of Orpheo staying with us for six months first came up, I balked.  But after several months of walking Orpheo, bathing Orpheo, playing with Orpheo and feeding Orpeho … I simply can’t imagine not having him nearby. 

Thinking about Orpheo inspired me to pull another story from the archives – and since we had such a positive reaction last week when we ran our interview with legendary comic strip creator Lee Falk (1911-1999), we decided to resurrect another interview with a celebrated pen-and-ink man.  The following is an interview we conducted in 1996 with cartoonist Dave Gilbert (born 1971), creator of the popular King Features comic strip, Buckles.

Orpheo and I hope you enjoy it.

Dave Gilbert made history when he was only 24 years-old.

It was then, in March, 1996, that King Features Syndicate first distributed his comic-strip Buckles, and Gilbert became the youngest cartoonist ever to write and draw a national strip.

Early success is something Buckles shares with his creator.  The plucky pooch quickly found national distribution in more than 100 newspapers, and went on to win reader polls in Oklahoma City and Salt Lake City (where he garnered a higher percentage of the vote than did Gov. Mike Leavitt in that year’s gubernatorial election).

Blond and blue-eyed, Gilbert looks more like a college kid than a nationally syndicated cartoonist.  Much of the Gilbert’s thoughts on life creep into his strip, and his fresh and sometimes quirky philosophy has been embraced by readers of all ages.  A recurring motif of the strip chronicles Buckles’ “romance” with a fireplug.  Because the fireplug is an inanimate object, Buckles projects all kinds of qualities and charms into it.  “Which I guess,” Gilbert says, “Is just my way of saying relationships are what you make of them.”

We caught up with Dave Gilbert at his home and studio in Syracuse, New York.

    

You were born and raised in Syracuse, New York?

Yep, I’ve been here all my life.  I don’t know if I want to stay.  The best thing about being a cartoonist is that I can work anywhere.  I could just pack up my computer system and go anywhere I wanted to.  But I think I’ll just stay here until I figure it out.

What first got you interested in comics and cartooning?

I guess I was always interested in them.  Disney animation was a big thing for me when I was a little kid.

Are there, or were there, any particular Disney movies that really did it for you?

No, I pretty much like them all.  I wanted to be an animator for the longest time.  In fact, I worked for an animation company here in Syracuse before I was syndicated.

What kind of work were you doing at the animation studio?

I was everything from a cleanup artist to an assistant animator.  I was also an animator, too, but not quite a full-blown one.  Then I discovered syndication, which I like much more.  Doing a syndicated strip, I have no boss...

Were there particular comic strips, or artists, that in some way inspired you?

Oh yeah.  Obviously Bill Watterson’s Calvin and Hobbes, Berkeley Breathed’s Bloom County, and Fox Trot.  They were my three major inspirations.

And what about that work lit your fire?  Was it just the medium, or the art, or what?

I think it was the characterization, and the way these guys wrote and drew.  I don’t think Fox Trot was as well drawn as the others, but the writing on that strip was just incredible.  There was something about all three strips that made them come alive.  Especially the characterizations of Calvin and Opus, they power both of their strips and make them fun.  They have a lot of life to them, and that's what I wanted to recreate in my own work.  I’d love to meet Berkeley Breathed, I hear he’s terrific.

I think Calvin goes back to a long tradition going back to Little Nemo in Slumberland, actually, with the sort of thing that a kids sees but other people don't.

Yeah.  That’s even in Walt Kelly’s Pogo to a degree, and he was another one of my major influences.

More Dave Gilbert and Buckles tomorrow!