The Morning Report
Get the news and information you need to take on the day.
Comic-Con is traditionally a chance where cartoonists who normally live a solitary existence get a chance to meet their fellow artists and their fans face-to-face.
That’s what Andrew Feinstein, one of the co-authors of the syndicated strip “Girls & Sports,” gets out of it but he also gets something more: Potential material.
Feinstein, who does the strip with Justin Borus, says that even though there are a lot of industry meetings during the Con, he always tries to make a few visits to the Gaslamp District in order to do a little reconnaissance.
“There are a lot of sports bars there so a lot of the comic strip could BE set in the Gaslamp. So I go to some of the bars and listen in on the conversations.”
He must get lots of material because “Girls & Sports” is in 200 newspapers, including the military newspaper Stars & Stripes.
“We get some e-mails from soldiers in Iraq but their time is very limited so we’re probably not their first priority.”
When Feinstein isn’t combing Gaslamp bars for material, he can be seen all over Comic-Con, including a panel at 2:30 p.m. in Room 1A called “Producing a Daily Comic Strip -How Hard Can That Be?”
The panel will draw on topics such as the type of pen to use, deadlines as a creative tool, and coming up with 365 side-splitting gags a year.
Feinstein will be joined by Brian Walker (“Hi and Lois”); Jeff Keane (“Family Circus”), Dan Piraro (“Bizarro”) and San Marcos resident Greg Evans (“Luann”) and he’s amused he’s with these illustrious comic strip artists because he’s only been doing the strip for two years.
“A few years ago, I was asking these guys the same questions the fans will be asking us.”
Feinstein has been doing the strip for two years after a successful career as an animator at Warner Brothers and admits he’s a little amused.
– DAVID MOYE