June 10 CIDU

Loose Parts looks a LOT like a Far Side ripoff!

If not for Far Side, a lot of today's strips wouldn't exist. On teh
otehr hand, if not for Charles Addams, Far Side wouldn't have existed.

Bill Bickel

http://www.comicsidontunderstand/com
http://www.lawsuitoftheweek.com
http://www.billo.org

Hey! That sentence looks like a rip off of the other sentences used to
call Loose Parts a Far Side rip off.

blazek

Don't forget the late great B. Kliban. It took me years to accept Larson
as anything but a Kliban ripoff. Although I came to know and love Far Side
as innovative in its own right, I still prefer the Kliban klassics like
"Never Eat Anything Bigger Than Your Head."

--
Peter B. Steiger
Cheyenne, WY

If you reply by email, send it to pbs at com dot
canada (or vice-versa). All advertisements will be
returned to your postmaster, eh!

I think I may have said this before, but I can't remember where, so
bear with me. I'm not cavalier at all about Loose Parts' tonal
similarities to the Far Side. It bothers me that it bothers people. My
short answer is: I can't help it. I didn't come to cartooning by the
normal channels. I only became 'a cartoonist' just a few years ago. I
have no formal art training (yeah, like I have to mention that) so
it's not like I can draw a hundred different ways and chose this one.
The way Loose Parts is drawn is the only way I know how to draw. As
for the sensibility of the humor ... well ... once again, that's how
my brain is wired. I can do other humor – for a few years I wrote the
Dr. Katz comic – but Loose Parts is just the way I think. It's not a
conscious decision to BE that way. I just AM that way. Am I trying to
make Loose Parts as consistently funny and odd as the Far Side?
Absolutely. And maybe some sort of 'voice' will come out of that
process, but I'm not going to manipulate it to create an artificial
voice. Really, I'm no Larson. I'm just trying to be funny here. Hope
you'll stick around and watch that happen.

As for Kliban, Never Eat Anything Bigger Than Your Head opened my eyes
to the possibilities of comics. Could Kliban have done a daily comic?
Hmmm. I'd have to know more about him. If you have a brain wired for
weird thinking, you can do a book, or occasional magazine cartoon
using just the ideas that come to you. But to do a daily comic, you
have to use those ideas that come to you, and then you have to go
looking for some more ... or else you'll never meet the daily demand.
I'm not sure which of those Kliban would be.

blazek

Hm. I wonder how Gahan Wilson fits into this taxonomy? In my mind,
Wilson was really *the* precursor to the Far Side; I might have
written a paragraph identical to the one above with his name
substituted for Kliban's. And I guess Charles Addams is at the base
of that branch of cartoon history. What Larson brought to the party
was that he was prolific enough to do it for daily syndication, along
with having some horse sense about when far out was too far.

One other thing about Kliban -- if he was marginalized I'd say it was
more due to his latching on to the cat thing for all it was worth than
due to his association with Playboy. Most people who remember him at
all remember him for the fat cat that was on their old girlfriend's
coffee mug, and that's it.

JGM

Not to mention his long-standing association with Evergreen Review.
Talk about marginalization!
--
Paul L. Madarasz
Tucson, Baja Arizona
"How 'bout cuttin' that rebop?
-- S. Kowalski

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Ok Dave, you brought it up so now some questions.

How much input did Jon Katz have in the strip.
Did he write any gags for it?
How involved was Bill Braudis? Tom Snyder?
Who actually pulled the plug on it?
Were you glad to see it go so you could concentrate on your own strip?
If you were a native of the planet Zeetra what would your toenails look like?

D.D.Degg

Wow. There are people still interested in Dr. Katz? Very cool. Well,
the TV show and the comic strip were well along before I came on
board. Jon Katz and Tom Snyder were, of course, the full brains behind
the creation and execution of the TV show ... and Bill and Jon
breathed full life into the comic.

The way it was explained to me was this: Bill's standup career was
taking off back in the late '90s, and he was having trouble producing
for the strip while doing many other things. He's a funny guy. The LA
Times Syndicate was filing the hole with a stable of writers. Shortly
after Loose Parts was picked up by LATS, Anita Tobias asked me if I
would be interested in joining that stable. After a few months of
that, they said they wanted to whittle that down to one writer, and
they wanted that to be me. So, for about two years, I wrote the
Mon-Sat. comics, and Bill wrote the Sundays. (Although, there are
still a bunch of Sundays I did ... I can' remember how that came
about.)

As for your other questions ...

I believe Jonathan Katz watched the strip closely. Dr. Katz was, well,
him. But I think he made sure good people were doing it, and worked
more on the TV show. I spoke with him only once, and that was by
phone, as sort of my interview before they took me on. What was eaven
weirder than only speaking to Jon once, was the fact that I never
spoke with the artist. Yep, never by phone, e-mail, or in person. I
wouldn't know him if he walked in the room. I'd send off the scripts,
and only when I opened my home paper would I see what the characters I
wrote looked like.

As for who pulled the plug? My impression is that it was Comedy
Central all the way. Remember, there were a lot of people taking a
piece of this cake: Comedy Central, LATS, Jon, Bill, Dick Truxaw, me
... so though it made money, it didn't make that much money. But
still, LATS was full behind it, as was Jonathan. Someone at Comedy
Central told me there was a feeling there to ride South Park all the
way. There wasn't a seat in the car for Dr. Katz.

Do I miss Dr. Katz? Absolutely. I always liked Jonathan's work. (His
standup was very funny, too.) And I grew to love the characters in the
strip. On the other hand, between Dr. Katz and Loose Parts, I was
writing 50-60 gags a month while holding down a full-time job. Of
course, at the time, someone else was drawing Loose Parts. But the
same week, Katz was killed, my Loose Parts partner quit, and I started
drawing Loose Parts as well as writing it. So while I'm sad that Katz
died, I'm don't know how I would have written AND drawn Loose Parts,
and still had time for Dr. Katz.

But it was an enjoyable experience. The LATS was wonderful to me, and
Jonthan and company pulled me out of nowhere to bring me on to a
national profile comic. I have nothing but fond memories and gratiude
for the time.

As for the Zeetra thing. That was a trick question. I wouldn't know
what my toenails look like. I'd have no eyes. Three spleens though.

dave

Jonathan Katz is dead? When did this happen?

Alex

"If there is a god
you know you're on TV"
-Billy Corgan

Hell, yeah. It's second only to "Larry Sanders" in my personal
ranking of great TV comedies. When I read that you did that strip
(which I didn't see much), you became about a million times cooler in
my estimation; and I already liked your strip, even though maybe you
need an anatomy lesson or two.
--
_+_ From the catapult of |If anyone disagrees with any statement I make, I
_|70|___:)=}- J.D. Baldwin |am quite prepared not only to retract it, but also
\ / bal...@panix.com|to deny under oath that I ever made it. -T. Lehrer
***~~~~-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Dave, thank you for the answers.
It was an extraordinary gift to this ng's readers.
Again, thank you.

D.D.Degg

Ohmigod ... I re-read my last post. When I said 'Katz' was dead, I
meant Katz the strip, not Katz the person. Sorry Mrs. Katz. On the
other hand, this is a pretty good way to flush Jonathan out of the
bushes.

blazek
>

Phew! I had him on my list of people to collaborate with once I make it big in
the entertainment industry. :)

Hey, no problem. You can pay me back by checking out Loose Parts, and
recommending it to the friends you hate.

dave

And if not for Doctor Fun, Comics I Don't Understand wouldn't exist.