Brian Crane (Pickles)
by GoComics
The GoComics "Meet Your Creator" series brings you firsthand insight into the lives and careers of your favorite cartoonists. Each week, we hand over the keys to one of our talented creators, who share their inspirations, achievements, creative processes, studios and more! Read on to hear from this week's featured cartoonist: Brian Crane of Pickles
Doing a daily comic strip is something I dreamt of as a child. My dad would read Li'l Abner and Pogo to me in the Sunday papers. I amused my friends and annoyed my teachers in elementary school by drawing funny faces on my papers. I remember showing one of them to my friend Lloyd in the lunchroom one day. He started laughing so hard milk came out of his nose. I was thrilled.
By the time I got into high school, I had abandoned the idea of making a living drawing a comic strip, mainly because I didn't think I had the talent for it. It wasn't until I was in my late 30s that the dream kind of came back to me. I guess you could call it a mid-life crisis. Instead of buying a red sports car, I picked up a pen and started drawing cartoons again.
I filled my sketchbook with different cartoon characters, looking for some idea that would inspire me with clever ideas. Nothing really tickled my funny bone until I drew this senior couple. They reminded me of old people that I knew and loved, and I could imagine them getting into all kinds of trouble.
Pickles launched in April of 1990 by the Washington Post Writers Group. I was 40 years old at the time, and when I would show up to give speeches to service clubs and other groups, people in the audience, having never seen me before, somehow expected me to be the same age as my characters. I would always get the comment, "Gee, we thought you'd be a lot older!" Now, 25 years later, I never hear that comment anymore. I kind of miss it, but I guess I have grown into the part. And that's a good thing. Nowadays it takes much less imagination to write for my strip because I'm mostly just writing about my wife and me.
