Interviews Conducted by Robert J. Beck

a scene they’d like spoofed. I do a comic strip for my church bulletin (which is now being published in about 220 churches across the world) where the pastor emails his sermon mid-week, then my wife and I brainstorm ideas over coffee. Once, I have the idea, I pencil the strip, ink it over a light box, scan the black and white inked version, convert the cartoon to vectors and colour it in Coreldraw.

Do you have a favourite strip that you've done?

I don’t know if this is the funniest cartoon I’ve ever drawn but I have a real soft spot for one particular strip. The comic strip is Terrible Twos, about my two year old daughter, and the storyline was where she adopted a pet ladybird she found in the backyard – then her upset reaction after it escaped. Maybe it’s just parental sentimentality but I most enjoy reading back on my Terrible Twos cartoons because they even more than family photos capture the essence of what my daughter was like back then:

Do you ever find it hard to come up with a new idea for a story/joke?

Of course. I have a methodology when I’m stuck for ideas though – generally what I do is 1. pick a place/location/setting. 2. write a list of things/people/creatures you’d find at this location. 3. go through the list and brainstorm unexpected combinations or actions. This is a useful way just to get the creative juices flowing – once the pen gets moving on paper, things usually start happening.

You take an unconventional approach with your comic and take jokes from readers, why do you choose to do this?

I like the idea of an interactive website where readers contribute content. It takes you in unexpected directions, particularly when you do running storylines. In one Pits storyline, I started a storyline with no planned ending and let the winning punchline at the end of each strip decide the direction of the story. What unfolded was one of the main characters died which led to some readers boycotting the cartoon in protest. But seeded in one of the winning punchlines was the hint that this was actually a fake death and he later miraculously came back to life. I think the emotional scarring left on some readers still hasn’t healed though.

Your comic has been going for almost 15 years; do you ever get bored of it?

To be honest, lately, I’ve been very distracted. Being a physics graduate and well, a nerd in every way imaginable, I’ve taken a great interest in global warming science and created a website, www.skepticalscience.com, about it. That’s been consuming so much of my time of late that I’ve been neglecting my cartoon website shamelessly of late, just barely getting the minimum requisite of cartoons drawn each week. Hopefully I’ll get some more focus in the near future.