Rip Haywire by Dan Thompson

Todd Dolce over at BOING! interviewed me a couple weeks ago, It was a lot of fun, and is now posted on BOING!  If you look in the dictionary under “Rambler” there’s a picture of me.

Todd is an excellent interviewer, and also has interviewed some legends in cartooning, animation, and illustration. So far he’s corralled big names like Gene Deitch, Bob Scott, Lowell Hess, and Joe Harris.

If you head over to his Blog, there are nice write ups and art samples of his interviews

Todd’s Blog behind the lines

and the Podcasts are Here:

BOING! the Podcast.

Todd is a very talented cartoonist, and his cartoon tastes are right up my alley. I wish Todd the best, he’s super good at this! Also, in the opening of my interview Todd added an old Dick Tracy toy advertisement…that alone is worth listening in for a little while.

Scott Nickles is a writer/editor at Paws, Inc., Jim Davis’ creative studio in Indiana. And also a freelancer, and creator of the comic strip EEK! and artist on the short lived “Triple Take” comic strip syndicated by King Features. Scott has put together a stack of 20 question interviews with some great cartoonists like Jerry King, Rick Stromoski, Peter Bagge, Todd Clarke ect. and I’m on there too.  check it out if you get a chance

20 Questions

Rodd Perry who is co-creator of the daily & Sunday comic panel Brevity added Rip Haywire to his feature in a funny way today. Thanks, Rodd!

When creating Rip Haywire I knew I needed a man of action.  A Man who would throw you through a window and ask questions later. One that saw the world in black and white, knew the difference between right and wrong, and would die before he ever thought of running from trouble.

Comic strips were created to sell newspapers, and to grab the eyes of new young readers to newspaper just as much as grabbing the eyes of adults.  The adventure comic strip grabbed everyone by letting them tag along on a wild ride of danger, action, and mystery. Loading up the stories with cutthroat villains as dark as night, and at times as beautiful as a sunset. The reader was strapped in and ready to go because they knew the hero would somehow find a way to stop the bad guys plot to victimize the innocent .

Here is a sampling of two fisted cartoon heroes who loved the action and plot twists of running towards danger, daring villians to kill them, and laughed at the thought that they were actually moments away from death! These men were the role models for Rip Haywire.

Buz Sawyer:  Roy Crane’s second great adventurer Buz Sawyer was happiest in the middle of danger. He was very smooth with the ladies, and very hard on men who tried to get in his way. Sawyer’s first 10 years were a roller coaster ride of War in the Pacific to trouble shooter/ soldier of fortune for airlines, and oil companies. Buz always found trouble and women who gave him trouble. Buz eventually went back into the Navy, settled down had a family but still found danger around every corner.

While I agree with comic strip historians that Captain Easy was an amazing strip, I’m really fond of Buz Sawyer and his adventures.

Steve Canyon: Was a two-fisted pilot who had to take jobs that were dangerous in order for his company Horizons Unlimited to stay afloat. Steve traveled all over the globe, people knew him in every hanger from Cairo to the North Pole. An everyman, he was tough, could give as good as he got,  and the ladies threw themselves at him…Can’t ask for more than that in a comic strip hero.  Caniff’s artwork was always superior than other artists, he always stayed cartoony enough for my tastes even with his realistic bold inking style. He was so brilliant with his moods and settings.

Pat Ryan: I don’t know a ton about Pat Ryan as Caniff strips can be a long read, and I put the latest book of Terry and The Pirates down for awhile, but I do know he was tough, had an Irish temper to rival John Fords, and the ladies drooled over him. He was always in the thick of it, and always came out on top I like what I’ve read so far.

Dick Tracy: Man O Man this guy is the icing on the cake for me. Dick Tracy swears over the dead body of Tess TrueHeart’s father who was viciously murdered by robbers that he will never stop until he catches them, and every other thug who crosses his path. Dick Tracy didn’t know the meaning of the word quit, and with his detective skills, and his sharp mind he always hunted down the bad guys. I really admire  Chester Gould and how he was able to spin a suspenseful crime story, add humor, and fun cartoony art that would leave you gripped wondering what would become of our Bloodhound Dick Tracy.

Chester Gould could write the most suspensful and action packed out of the three cartoonists I admire, and for that he’s tops, I love Caniff’s epic stories, his women, and soapy love triangles. Roy Crane’s suspenful sometimes scary and tragic adventures where Easy or Sawyer would find love, and danger bundled up in a fist ready to punch your lights out. These are the heroes from the cartoonists I most admired and helped me shape Rip Haywire.

It says it all…HELP! Tot Winters horrific death came out of no where, and it was amazing! Tot was Buz Sawyer’s girl until another girl in his home town named Christy caught his attention, and Roy Crane had a problem.

Tot Winters was Buz’s girl when he was in the Pacific during WWII and when Roy Crane’s strip first began. My guess is Crane moved fast on developing his cast of characters, and Tot was a typical girlfriend for a Buz Sawyer, but when the war was over and Buz became a civilian,  the strip had to make changes, and Tot was first to go. If Buz was to settle down like so many G.I’s after the war, he’d need a gal who’d go places and like some sense of adventure. Tot didn’t like adventure, she was possessed by hitching her wagon to Buz, and making him her trophy husband. Her socialite family approved because he became a war hero. While Buz was seeing Christy, and Tot, there was another woman in his life, she was a Princess whom Buz nicknamed “Sultry” she was from the South Pacific, and one wild hell cat! A woman who always got what she wanted, she wanted Buz, and she didn’t want Buz seeing Tot. Tot Winters got pushed off the penthouse roof of a building in Manhattan by Sultry’s tiger. Sultry after realizing what she started quickly flees the states and I think that’s the last we ever see of her. This stroke of genius killed off two characters in one felt swoop, and cleared the way for Christy. Genius! Genius!

Problems like this are always fun to work your way out of. Tot, and Sultry were becoming repetative, and weren’t giving Buz anything but grief and so Roy Crane created a solution. Plus, killing off a character is always a good promotional device.

Another funny Roy Crane story is :  Roy Crane hated Buz Sawyer’s perfect face, because he had an awful time drawing it, so the first chance he got he “uglied him up” and busted his nose. Buz then became easier to draw. That’s why creating a comic strip world is fun.

When creating Rip Haywire I knew I needed a leading lady who could hold her own with a guy like RIp.  A woman who not only had to love the thrill of adventure and blindly follow him into every dark corner of the world, but she had to be beautiful to boot.  So, of course I tried my best to make Cobra Carson a hot babe in the mold of all the hot Babes who have graced the comic strip page.

Comic strips were created to sell newspapers, and to grab the eyes of new young readers to newspaper just as much as grabbing the eyes of adults.  Publishers knew Dad bought the paper so while giving  the young readers something fun to look at, they also gave Dad something fun to look at which mixed the elements into fun for all.

Here is a sampling of beautiful cartoon heroins who loved the action and plot twists of running around with their heroes, looked great doing it, and most of them did pretty good without their man trying to save the day. These women were the role models for my Cobra.

Christy Sawyer: Buz Sawyer’s wife. While Buz had his fair share of women falling all over him, Christy was the one for him. (I think Rip would of chose Sultry.) Roy Crane could create great women, not just beautiful ones, ones with great character.

Modesty Blaise: To find a woman who kicks butt and takes names you don’t have to look any further than this English femme fatale. With Beautiful Alex Raymond styled staging and photo realistic art. Modesty was a strong heroine who took dangerous jobs only for her own pleasure, and had a tough sidekick who answered only to Modesty. She’s one tough Babe!

Burma from Terry and the Pirates: Oh man! The name alone sounded exotic and dangerous! What a character! She was cut throat, manipulative, but had a conscience, and a heart of gold. While I haven’t gotten to the end of my Terry and the Pirates collection yet, so I don’t know everything there is to know about Burma, but she made quite an impression on me in Volume 2.

Lastly, Tess TrueHeart: I Love Tess, How can you not love Tess TrueHeart? I think they wrote the song “Stand By Your Man” about her. Any gal who has put up with the trials and tribulations of Dick Tracy , the kidnappings, the attempted murders, and lived to tell about it, never mind the fact that she had to wait almost 2 decades before Dick had a free minute to marry her. Tess is one Babe who without a doubt is an adventure heroine to be reckoned with. I could actually talk for hours about Chester Gould’s Dick Tracy (but i won’t ) Chester Gould has a strangle hold on me, I can’t stop reading the collections being put out today. What a storyteller!

Next: The Heroes who shaped Rip Haywire!

I’ve screwed up the forbidden dance! Who does this? I mean it’s forbidden…It’s like Hurley’s numbers you forget to punch into the Hatches computer!! I’ve just blown up the island!

The worst part is I know the Lambada is the forbidden dance. I heartily laughed aloud at the stupidity of a dance being forbidden let alone becoming the latin version of the movie “Dirty Dancing” but STILL Macarena popped into my head when I did this cartoon.  AH well. I just pray that my Arthur Murray lifetime membership has not been REVOKED.

This is really very cool, and hopefully successful for distributing comics on the web . United Media’s comics.com has created widgets for desktops, blogs and websites that hold most of the line up on comics.com. United Media is a newspaper syndicate that is home to popular comic strip features Dilbert, Get Fuzzy, Pearls Before Swine, and new features like Rip Haywire.

I added one to this page as you can see above…this widget fit my index section but they range in all typed of size…check ‘em all out here!

What’s a widget? go here

I’ve met a lot of cool people over the past couple of months since Rip Haywire launched in papers nationwide, and one of them is John DeAngelis from Arizona who is also a cartoonist, and he let me create a cool poster of Rip and Co. on a movie poster print machine he has…I leapt at the chance…It proudly hangs on a wall in my studio and I think it is really cool!  Thanks, John!

Sjors Trimbach an artist in the Netherlands Europe who enjoys reading Rip Haywire sent me some cool images of his version of Rip Haywire while doodling at a meeting at work. (Hopefully, Sjors’ boss didn’t catch him) Very Cool! I always appreciate stuff like this…Thanks Sjors!