Giving Gil Thorp His Flowers
New BEYONDTOPIA trailer featuring AGENT GALICA!
My first year of writing Gil Thorp is in the last chapter of “Coach of The Year.” That’s right! I am writing another year of Gil Thorp, as reported by The Daily Cartoonist on Wednesday. I don’t take this opportunity for granted—and not a day goes by when I don’t think about this job. I have a script due to Tribune Content Agency every Monday from now until the foreseeable future.
The Chicago Tribune’s Rick Kogan profiled the strip in honor of the character’s 65 years in the funny papers and spoke with Rod Whigham and me. I thought it was touching that Rick quoted an old high school football buddy, Ron Pen, to commiserate and reflect on the titular character:
“Gil Thorp was tough but he understood kids as jocks. He seemed more authentic than characters like Prince Valiant. He always seemed to be right about some issue that surfaced in the locker room. Gil resonated in a real way on the real football fields in Lincoln Park.”
The Gil Thorp newspaper comic strip will officially become 65 years old in September 2023—and a week before that we will be recognizing Jack Berrill on his centennial. Alas, Gil continues to coach his team Monday through Saturday in your local newspaper or at GoComics.
Today’s strip is a nod to when Charlie Brown gets completely undone by a line drive toward center field. Please give this link a click or ask your local newspaper to add the strip to your comics spread.
I have been trying to bang the preorder drum for a while now, but it’s going to get louder because the Final Order Cut-Off deadline for BEYONDTOPIA: LEGENDS VOL. 1 TP is this Monday. Please check out this trailer that co-creator Bryan Valenuza and his studio whipped up to feature one of my favorite stories in the collection. This volume contains issues one and two with an additional six unpublished stories that are currently available for preorder at your local comic shop, Bookshop, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and from my official webshop.
I’ve been writing a thing that involves 90s music, but I can’t say what it is until it’s announced. But I have been listening to a lot of music from the “post-Cold War decade,” and it’s been a freaking blast. I will leave you with one of my favorite songs that was featured in the 1999 classic racing Playstation game Gran Turismo 2.