A word about today's cartoon strip...

A word about today’s cartoon strip…

Last night as I was drawing the strip, my little 6-year-old daughter came up the stairs behind me and quietly walked up by my elbow. The kids know not to pester daddy while he’s cartooning, but she came to ask if I would help her get ready for bed.

“Sure,” I replied, “as soon as I finish this one little thing.”

I was editing the text and I saw that she was standing there watching and reading the frame over my shoulder. For a moment she diddled with her tiny fingers and then meekly pointed at the computer screen.

“You see those three dots,” she said softly and indicating the spot where I had just inserted an ellipse at the end of the bubble’s text, “you should put three dots up there too at the end of the word “Well.” That will make it sound better.”

I looked at it for a second and then back into those huge brown eyes and said, “Okay, we’ll do it.”

With that I replaced the comma after the word “Well” with an ellipse.

 Danm if it didn’t read better.

“Ya’ see,” she explained softly, “it’s better.”

“Yer’ right sweetie,” I told her, “It is better. You just helped daddy write his cartoon strip.”

She took a small step back and looking at the monitor her eyes grew wide and sparkled as she smiled with a thrill.

“I never did anything like that before!” she chirped, “Let’s go tell mommy!”

Hand-in-hand we hurried downstairs to give mommy the news.

I’ve drawn cartoons for all sorts of reasons with countless meanings. Sometimes they only crack me up, sometimes I think they suck but other folks like ‘em, sometimes I make a profound point and sometimes I just take what my wife calls “that cartoon enema” and they come out just to meet a deadline. Today’s may not seem too special to most of you out there, but it is a very special cartoon for me, because it has my special helper’s ellipse in it to make it better.