"Nuggets" - Strip

Before changing the name of the Freeze-Frame feature that ran up in Alaska newspapers for 15 years, I briefly tested out a new strip called "Nuggets" and starred the usual cast of characters that "peopled" the single-panel weekly cartoon. But this time I gave them all names and distinct personalities, so as to facilitate more of a character-driven context within which to explore, in theory, longer narrative arcs. Which is not to say I didn't resort to using the same old gags. As many of them, at any rate.

This was the second shot at submitting a proposed feature to the principle syndicates: after receiving the obligatory rejection letters for "Jerkwater," I then turned right around and sent in a new batch with this series. If the first letters had an actual person's name, I targeted that person with an "attention to" on the packet, hoping that would in effect establish a toe-hold. The brush-with-greatness reward came with a personally signed rejection letter from the then-chief editor of King Features, Jay Kennedy. As a side-note to his passing in 2007, the National Cartoonists Society Foundation honors his contribution to the industry with an annual scholarship.