I started cartooning about 1981 – 1982 (sixth grade). Recess was rained out, so I tried drawing “Garfield” out of bordom. I couldn’t. So with the colaborative help of my friends, we came up with this strange bird “Clyde”. The other kids lost interest over time, I did not. I started developing a comic strip based on Clyde outside using blacktop as a drawing board. The punch line was usually about this aquatic bird sinking. The teachers were encouraging at the time.
In seventh grade (82′-83′) I kept on drawing every chance I got trying to draw as many different characters as I could. My best friend wanted me to draw comic books, but I really didn’t read many myself since I could rarely afford “the habit”. I was actually more interested in comic strips. But it did not stop us from brainstorming ideas and characters for a comicbook. All this silliness did help me try drawing things I would not have considered before.
I submitted my first strip, which I called “Bandit”, to a paper called “The Winsted Phoenix”. I was fifteen. The editor fancied him-self the ‘fount’ of trivia and recommended I change the name to “Kabloona”.
He said it’s a sled dog and Kabloona sounds more “cartoony”. He also said it was an eskimo word which meant stranger. So I changed the name, was signed up and made my first promo. I got the going rate too! $10 a strip. I did not feel terribly confident about my lettering after this first attempt, so I used prefab rub-on letters.
In 1986 the “Phoenix” closed up shop. Oddly enough a few months later another paper called “The Winsted Courier” popped up and I sold the strip to them.
During this time I started using a drafting tool called a “Leroy” for lettering and I drew Volkswagons alot. I was feeling a bit more comfortable with drawing, but sadly, not unlike the previous paper, it’s lifespan also was limited. What struck me most a little while later is how many kids I met later on missed the strip. I guess being busy doing it, I’d never realized how many people’s lives it had become a part of.
Kabloona & Elliot by ©Scott Lincoln
These gag strips represented a time when “Garfield” was a primary influence on my work as “Peanuts” had been before it. Later, I had started to follow “Bloom County” and its popularity showed me that comic strips could be written with more abstract expressions. Around this same time “Calvin and Hobbes” showed up in local papers and I was very impressed by its expression both subtle and grand.
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In the late 80s to early 90s and I really didn’t pursue cartooning. I kept sketching and drawing Kabloona, Elliot and now Cassanda trying to figure out how to use these characters together. Although I had no real goal, I kept writing down ideas on napkins and scraps of paper. I just couldn’t seem to get cartooning out of my system. Dispite the fact that I had no real portfolio, I still managed to get accepted to The University of Hartford Art School and took a few classes under tuition abatement. This was short lived. Somehow in the process of trying to figure out what I was doing, I managed to get married to a stunning woman too intelligent to be a trophy wife and yet clearly out of my league. She would, there after, constantly encouraged me to do something with my drawing abilities. Wendy is still to this day by far my biggest help and supporter.
After a few years of this, I actually scraped together enough material to submit to a syndicate and was soundly rejected. It should have been, too. I tried again, and again was rejected. I wasn’t sure about the time I was spending on cartooning and after a few rejections I wondered if I indeed was going anywhere. My lovely wife reminded me that there was a nationally syndicated cartoonist near by, so why not go talk to him? After about five years of reminding me, it finally sank in and I met Guy Gilchrist at a talk he was giving at a local library. He felt the samples I showed him had some sort of merit and asked me to call him to discuss things a bit more. This was very exciting news! And it was then (2001) that he asked me if I would like to assist him on a part time basis, and he would guide and mentor me in the process. I felt tremendously blessed since Guy produced comics of such style and detail as to genuinely inspire me. I started by penciling blanks and inking borders, and eventually, background work and color for “Nancy” and also color and composite the “Night Lights” Sunday Feature and many other assorted duties.
While working with Guy, the syndicate DBR Media was looking for new features to try out. Guy had been doing an inspirational strip called “Your Angel Speaks” and DBR had expressed interest in it, but was unable purchase it. He suggested I try sending in an inspirational strip for submission. I was some what dubious as to the interest an inspirational would generate. However, I figured Guy knows a bit about cartooning, so, I set my mind to figuring it out. Originally, “Solomon Road” was to be a literal illustrated verse. I like to have contrast though, so I decided to use modern families and King James verses. I also set it up as a panomime to express more of an emotional parallel. Now, of course, I only had some thumb nails and the deadline was three days away. Fortunately one of those days was the 4th of July, so I worked all morning, all day, all night into next morning to make deadline. I sent in the samples and nine months later DBR started distributing “Solomon Road” in March of 2003.
Solomon Road – Psalms 34:14 ©Scott Lincoln
Solomon Road ran for about two years and was published in about a dozen papers nation wide and even one in Veitnam. By this time I had been working for Guy about four years and Guy had decided to start a Cartoon Academy, so teaching became part of the routine. We taught a variaty of things, but when ever anyone of any age started becoming bored, we would teach them a lesson about drawing an alien and it always got everyone’s attention.
One night while teaching with my friend Brian I started adding a uniform and personalizing “the alien”. The kids were very enthusiastic and Brian said he should be the class mascot, we should give him a name. So I thought a minute and wrote, “Ralf the Destroyer” under it.
Ralf the Destroyer ©2006 Scott Lincoln
So here on this web site I proudly present to you, Ralf the Destroyer…
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