Bored Panda reached out to Lonnie, who kindly answered our questions about him and his comics. First of all, Lonnie shared about his career as a comic artist: “I have been drawing cartoons professionally since 1995. My first cartoons were three-panel strips about a little dog named Ralph and his flea Julius. They appeared in newspapers in my hometown of Memphis, Tennessee. Since then, I came up with the one-panel cartoons that allowed me to write gags about whatever I wanted, not tied down to certain characters. I decided to call them 'Spud' Comics.”
The name "Spud Comics" has an interesting origin tied to Lonnie’s grandfather's nickname for him. The artist went more into detail explaining why he chose this name for the comics: “Since the panels are short and concise, I wanted a name that reflected that. What could be better than my nickname, which sounds kinda funny anyway? Plus, it would also honor my grandfather, who had his own particular sense of humor. Also, since 'spud' means 'potato' I had a built-in logo idea.”
One-panel comics require concise storytelling and impactful visuals. We were wondering how Lonnie approaches the challenge of conveying humor and depth within the confines of a single frame. He wrote: “I don’t know if I have a specific tactic. Usually, I just think of a topic or subject. It could be anything: giraffes, birthday cakes, street potholes - random stuff. Then I’ll try to decide what absurd thing can I combine them with or what situation can someone relate to that would make that random item funny. A giraffe driving a car hits a pothole and his neck juts out of the roof. Maybe not that funny, but that gives you an idea of where my brain goes.”
We asked Lonnie to share how long it takes for him to create one comic from start to finish. Lonnie replied: “As you can imagine, the idea for a comic, the writing, takes the longest time. Once I have the plan and any dialogue in place, it’s about two hours from penciling to inking to digital colors.”
In regards to the future, Lonnie shared his vision: “Some of the cartoons have already been collected in a series of printed books, but I would love to do one big treasury edition, printed in color, with a fancy cover. But other than that I’ll just keep drawing and posting ‘toons that I think are funny.”
Lastly, Lonnie added: “Just keep sharing, liking, and commenting whenever you see one of my silly drawings and it made you smile. It’s easy to get caught up in the actual work it takes to produce just one of these and ask yourself what is the point? But I’ve come to realize now, more than ever, we need a little laugh every now and then, and if I can help someone do that, even if it’s just a grin, then I’ve done my job.”
