In which my comic strip predicts the future.

(May 1999). I was realllllly proud of both of these. My cartooning wasn't half bad, the jokes were working, and I felt like I had something to say about things that were happening politically - plus I was contacted by a syndicate who wanted to come to Tucson to meet with me. More on that later.

Part of the problem with the size of the strip was that I wanted to tell more complicated jokes - as in these two, where I'm ripping off Life in Hell instead of Fox Trot for once. This was the first time I remember really feeling constrained by the size, and wondering if there was a better way to say what I wanted to say. (Spoiler alert: there wasn't).

This entire cartooning experience was before Facebook, Twitter, or really, anything but the most basic of email services. I did no promotion of this at all and by this point it was in three papers, and by the summer's end would be in two more (including U Magazine, geared towards college kids). I think a more savvy Tiger would have really worked this angle: but, again, more to come.

RICKY MARTIN. I wasn't even making fun of whether or not he was gay, just the constant speculation about famous people. In the almost two decades since, coming out and its levels have become even more complicated - but at least Mr. Martin finally admitted what I was hoping and praying for, for years. Tad also has a huge Ricky Martin crush, conveniently enough. :)

One last thing: there was a bit of a to-do over my using the word "homo" in my strip. One of the other cartoonists, whose strip was about a fraternity guy in a world of bimbos (ugh) had used the word and nearly lost his strip over it - he complained that I should lose my strip for doing the same thing. Now that I think of it, the following year we swapped strips for April Fool's Day, so we must have made up at some point.