Suburban Fairy Tales

As all my loyal readers know, in my comic strip Goldilocks is the second most popular girl in school after Rapunzel.  But when Goldilocks first appeared in Suburban Fairy Tales back in March 2009, she was actually supposed to be Alice from Alice in Wonderland.  Crazy, huh?

As you can see from this first picture,  I originally drew “Goldilocks” with straight hair, not the curly “locks” that she has always been depicted with in the original fairy tales.  Why did I design her this way?  Well, that’s because she was Alice!  It wasn’t until I was cleaning up in the artwork from her first appearance in Photoshop that I realized Alice just wouldn’t be a good sidekick for Rapunzel.  I needed a fairy tale character who was more self-centered and snobby.  Then I thought about Goldilocks and the Three Bears.  In the original fairy tale, Goldilocks apparently had no qualms about breaking into the three bears’ house, sleeping in their beds and eating their food.  A character as self-centered as THAT would definitely be a much better sidekick than Alice.  So in Photoshop I changed all references of her as “Alice” and made them “Goldilocks.”

The only problem with the quick name change was that it was too late to change the artwork. Suburban Fairy Tales’ Goldilocks didn’t really look anything like classic Goldilocks and that kind of annoyed me.  So with each subsequent appearance I gradually gave her longer hair and “curled” it to give her the appearance of having “golden locks.”  This second image of her was from her latest appearance in December 2011.  I’m much happier with my new Goldilocks’ character design.

So why does any of this matter?  Well I wanted to use this as an example to show that I’m not above making corrections to my strip.  Sometimes I look back at my work and think about how I should have done things differently.  One good example of this is coming up in a future storyline.  I don’t like my Prince Charming — I don’t like this personality or his character design.  So I’m going to introduce another Prince Charming.  Oh, don’t worry, there will be an explanation… but I don’t plan on spoiling it here!

You may or may not have heard the sad news, but Bil Keane, creator of The Family Circus, passed away at the age of 89 on November 8.

Love it or hate it, The Family Circus is one of the most famous and treasured newspaper comics of all time. Yes, I know many people consider The Family Circus to be corny, but the strip has had a major impact on the funny pages since its launch in 1960.

I had the pleasure of meeting Bil Keane back in 2000 at the Reuben Awards held at the World Trade Center in New York City. He was a very nice man and actually very funny in person.  He was kind enough to draw me a quick sketch, which I would like to share below.

Bil Keane will most certainly be missed by many fans around the world.

It was a long weekend — Thursday through Sunday, but I have to say that it was definitely a success.  The place was packed!  105,000 people showed up to fill the halls of the Jacob Javitz Center in New York City and Suburban Fairy Tales had a great presence.

Suburban Fairy Tales was in the Small Press area, booth #2841.  We were right next to Artists’ Alley, so we had a great location.  It was so busy at times that you couldn’t even move!  I was lucky enough to meet some current fans face to face and I also made a bunch of new ones.  Oh, and I also got interviewed by a puppet.

The newest Suburban Fairy Tales book, This Little Piggy Gets Even, was being sold at the booth and came with a free sketch.  Let’s just say that I couldn’t draw the sketches fast enough!

I want to thank all the fans who came to the booth and supported the comic strip.  You guys really are the best!  I’d also like to thank the people who helped me run the booth.  There’s no way I could have done it without you!  Special thanks to Alina, Stephanie, Pete, and my wife LeeAnne.  And another thanks to Chris and Eric, who shared a small section of my booth in the beginning, until they happened to get a booth of their own.