Can anyone think of someone who would create a comic strip and call it "El Cheapo Comics?" Yeah, me neither. But I must confess with humility and shame that some 40 years ago, I did just that. If you happen to have a copy of the 1977 El Camino—the North Hollywood High School yearbook—then you can find a small ad that says "Read El Cheapo Comics." During my senior year, they sold something called an El CaminoGram. For just a buck, you got a 3 x 5 form on which you could write anything you wanted, provided that it was nothing offensive. Your El CaminoGram would appear in the yearbook for that year. A little shameless advertising on my part, but the white lettering on a black background stood out. After my ad appeared, my readership tripled to about three.
My foray into comic strips began sometime during my time as a Herald-Examiner carrier. Those of you who have been in the greater Los Angeles area for more than 25 years might remember the Herald-Examiner. The paper folded in 1989. (Get it? A folded newspaper...)
Anyway, sometime in the late '60s, I started reading the newspaper every day. As with most single-digit-aged people, the comics were my favorite part. I figured that if grownups could come up with stuff like Snuffy Smith, Bringing Up Father, Blondie and so forth, there was no reason for a young guy with a good sense of humor and questionable artistic talent not to have a comic strip of his own. So Dum Bum was born. Like his friend and sidekick, Morgan, Dum Bum was a stick figure. He and Morgan did all kinds of crazy things that ended up with explosions, being stretched into weird shapes, having to deal with odd characters, etc. Clearly the TV cartoons of the day had no influence on me or anything.
But I added my own little twist. Thanks to my interest in public transportation (in L.A. that meant RTD buses—no rail in those days), Dum Bum and Morgan found themselves riding "RTZ" (Rapid Transit Zombies) buses to reach their destination. RTZ was a parody of the old RTD. All of their drivers were overweight, nasty creatures whose apparent goal was to make their ride as miserable as possible. They also made sure that the guys had to pay the full fare instead of the student discount. As you might figure, Dum Bum and Morgan often got back at them in some way.
At some point, I quit drawing the Dum Bum strip. Either I had no time because of school and my paper route or I just plain lost interest. However, a few years later (early '70s), I got the itch to do more comics. So two new, but similar characters emerged. This time, Rob and Bob Zilch were brothers, but they pretty much picked up where Dum Bum and Morgan left off. They did the same kinds of things. Like Dum Bum and Morgan, Rob and Bob were my age. When I learned to drive, so did they. When I was in high school, so were they. I didn't want to call the strip "Rob and Bob" because that was blah and boring. I needed a name that was not only catchy, but would allow a broad range of characters should I develop any. Somewhere, I heard the phrase "el cheapo" and liked it. Bingo! I had my name.
The tagline "In 4 Colors" came from the fact that I drew my comics with a Bic 4-Color Pen on notebook paper. Not the best media, but it worked. I had a little fun with it in the strip itself. Jokes about how things in their world were only in four different colors. "Well, if Eric would get a pen with more colors..." one would say. For a little fun, I often picked on myself in my comics.
The holes in the notebook paper came into play, too. Wherever there was a hole, I'd have a dialog bubble that used the hole as a letter O. Nothing was wasted. But remember that I'm part Scottish. We're very thrifty, you know.
Coming up with a good ending was always a bit troublesome for me. My good friend and fan of my work, Dan Doggett, used to tell me that I needed to go to finishing school. Believe it or not, I never got that joke until years later. I continued drawing these comics till not too long after graduating from high school. Occasionally I did a special one, but it was fairly rare.
The '80s rolled on. My sister introduced me to a co-worker of hers, we went on a date, fell in love, and eventually got married. We even popped out a kid, and when you have one of those, it's tough to draw comics with so many things going on in your life. In the late '80s, I wanted to get back to drawing my comics. I got ahold of some fairly nice paper and set up a different, much easier to read format. Unlike my previous comics that ran on both sides of a single sheet of paper, this one used only one side, had larger panels, and went on and on and on and on. As I write this entry in my blog, that comic has grown to 57 pages, but is still not complete. And it may never be completed as long as there is imagination left in the world. (I may have heard that someplace...)
One thing that still makes me smile to this day is the fact that Diana enjoys my comics. Several times I've found her sitting with the box that I use to store comics, and she's reading one and giggling at something in the story. Yeah, Dad's a bit "out there," but she loves me anyway.
The comic itch is still with me. Unfortunately, due to glacial weather conditions beyond my control (yes, my use of "glacial" is sort of an inside joke), I do not have a place in my home to sit and write comics. At some point, that will change. Then you'll not only have blog posts to read, but after scanning a comic into PDF form, you'll be able to read those, too. May the Lord have mercy on your soul...
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