I'm currently working on a new comic strip, hopefully to be put into future editions of MR magazine.
Though I have most everything worked out, I have yet to name it!
My suggestions are: High Ball, Side Swipe, Highball n' Hogger, & Markers.
-''Highball'' & 'Hogger'' are 2 potential character nicknames
-''Side Swipe'' refers to 2 cars swiping, and would suggest at least 2 characters butting heads.
(feel free to add suggestions)
My scanner has been tempermental (scanner won't recognize editing software & thus won't work at all), and is why I'm currently unable to show you guys samples.
Here are a few:
Riprap
Boxcar Tourist
Shoo-Fly
Good Luck,
Wayne
Modeling HO Freelance Logging Railroad.
Rip track rejects?
or "Hotbox , Switch Picker, EyeCinder "
"The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination."-Albert Einstein
http://gearedsteam.blogspot.com/
I think MR has had 1 one-panel cartoon in the back for decades now, never had a regular comic strip that I can recall (don't have the 75 year DVD yet).I think the erstwhile Model Railroading had the comic strip "Boys in the Basement" by Don Lomax (who nowadays IIRC does ad graphics for Bar Mills, and I believe used to do illustrations for, um, gentlemen's magazines back in the day - and yes, that was a bit of a surprise to see since we're not talking classic Playboy here).And there was that comic strip in Railroad and Railfan Magazine, with a mouse of some sort - not sure if that's still running.
And...that's it?!? Can that be it over the past few decades?!?
In other words, perhaps the OP should start off with a Web comic...or maybe submit to a free web magazine that already has one comic with oddly retro graphics <cough>MRH<cough>.
"The Silver Plate Road" was a three-panel (or sometimes four narrower panels) that ran in MR during the transition era. The late Bill McClanahan was one of several artists. "Mister Van" ran his models in a starched shirt, bow tie and tails, aided by his butler, "Gwyl."
My favorites included the time they discovered a new weathering method (loco derailed into a full laundry tub) and their visit to a model rail who had loaded a smoke unit with bacon grease to give his diner the right smell effect, but the all-time top was Mister Van abandoning his wife during the Easter Parade to raid a trash can for the perfect piece of handrail wire!
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
The Silver Plate Road started way back in the late 30's or early 40's. . One thing I haven't uncovered is what happened to the original artist, John Kalbach. He was called up for WWII so they ran reprints until they found another artist at least one other before McClanahan took over. Bill McClahanan also did another series in the 50's "When Life Ain't Worth Livin'" There's definitely a 'tradition' of modeling-related cartoons in MR.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
Maybe 20 years ago there was a comic strip called "Thumbs", I can't remember if it was in the national NMRA magazine or just our Thousand Lakes region newsletter (may have been in both, I think the creator was from this area). I wonder if some of the cartoons are online somewhere??
I seem to remember MR running a single feature once with multiple entries from Lynn Johnston's "For Better or For Worse" strip dealing with the husband character's large scale railroading interest.
We still have one of her strips (where the wife quickly puts an end to the husband's more elaborate layout building plans) hanging on our refrigerator door. It was particularly funny at the time, and I still laugh at it.
MR sure treated "For Better or For Worse" as its "adopted" comic strip for several years.
Tom
Rod Johnston's 'layout' was featured in an article, which i why there was the connection between the comic and MR. He also had an ad for a while, since he sold equipment. Either 1" or 1 1/2" scale, I forget which. That's why I say 'layout' - it occupied a LOT of territory outdoors.
Laugh Tracks?
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
To the OP:
If you are truly dedicated to the print route to publication, perhaps it would be easier if you began with submitting several single panel cartoons to Model Railroader (not multi-panel comics), so that if they are good they can be run in the current one cartoon series in the back of the issue (I believe they use several different artists; at least the styles are different between cartoons).If these cartoons prove popular, you can then pitch Kalmbach your planned comic strip (does Trains run a cartoon series - I don't recall). Yes, it takes time and perserverance, but that's what being a good cartoonist is about (although not necessarily what being a POPULAR WEB COMIC artist is about - that's a different story altogether).
As for the Model Railroader one-panelers, for some reason my favorite remains the guy with a model train traveling around his car's passenger compartment on a loop of track, he being stopped next to a police car at a light with the cop eyeing him suspiciously, and the guy staring straight ahead and thinking to himself "Act Naturally, Look Ahead"
Come to think of it, I remember the Walthers catalogs from the 1970s and 1980s used to have a few single panel cartoons scattered around the book - I presume they were ones that had run in Model Railroader.
One name suggestion I have is Bob in the Bobber or Bobber Bob. (Bobber is another nicname for a caboose)
Lone Geep
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I also remember an MRR strip called "Norman" which starred a cat that drove his owner, a model railroader, crazy with his constant "interaction" with his owner's trains and layout. One episode I recall involved Norman roller skating on the layout room's floor. Turns out that the skates were O scale freight car trucks!
"I like my Pullman Standards & Budds in Stainless Steel flavors, thank you!"