My High School teachers didn’t know what to make of me, a shy hippie kid amongst the well-groomed children of wealthy Marin County families. I clearly hung out with the wrong crowd, but usually got excellent grades, and was the most creative student in school. I could have filled my own school newspaper with silly features (see the Sir Francis Duck), but also displayed a serious, highly literate talent for poetry and prose. Mrs. Houck, my journalism teacher, mostly gave me free reign; with a regular comic strip, satirical column, and a wide variety of humorous features. Sometimes, it appeared that half the paper was credited to that “grungy hippie kid.”
The Mayne Source (photos & illustration)
Inspired by Monty Python’s recurring gag, “And now for something completely different…” I came up with a different location for my journalism desk every issue. Soon I realized I could create much more exotic locations with my pen and ink (and a lot less work). Writing the columns was fun, but coming up with the featured images was vastly entertaining for me.
Nertz (my first regular newspaper comic strip)
Crudely drawn, and featuring no recurring characters, Nertz was more of an underground comic in a straight-laced school newspaper, where the journalism students typically won prestigious awards. Most of the students didn’t understand my humor, and gave me a wide berth as the “crazy artist” who walked down the halls with his odd briefcase.
Nertz (extras and outtakes)
I drew cartoons mostly to amuse myself, and some of the ideas were just too weird for a High School newspaper…
Features and Illustrations
Whenever there was space to fill, or a story that needed an illustration, I could be counted on to come up with something bizarrely appropriate. They let me have an old desk in the corner of the classroom, and once in a while the other students would drop by to see what I was working on. They usually walked away scratching their heads; making a mental note not to invite me to their parties.
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