Thanks, Kevin!

I have made it no secret that I love to read the “educational” portion of the newspaper. I am referring, of course, to the comics! A few years ago, when I started my blog, I even devoted a blog to them and talked about many of my favorites. You can read about that here:

The Comics

One of my favorite strips is Drabble by Kevin Fagan. I feel like I have been reading it since it first came out (1979), and that may very well be true. As I stated in the above blog, I found that I related to those characters a lot. The relationship between the father (Ralph) and the son (Norman) reminded me a lot of the relationship I have with my dad.

Over time, I have found that I relate a bit more with Ralph now. Kevin has drawn some very funny strips about golf featuring Ralph. They always seem to be very close to an experience I’ve had while golfing.

I don’t recall when I found that Kevin was on Facebook, but I sent him a friend request and he accepted it. He and I even had some brief conversations on messenger. I was really surprised that he would chat with me.

Since becoming friends on Facebook, I have learned much about him. He shares a lot of great stories, most of which I had never heard before. He was friends with Charles Schulz, the creator of Snoopy, Charlie Brown and the Peanuts gang. You can read that story in a biography for gocomics:

https://www.gocomics.com/blog/2810/kevin-fagan-drabble

Fans of the strip can subscribe to the “Daily Drabble” where Kevin features old strips from the past. He shares a lot of the background inspirations for those strips and talks about the evolution of the characters, too. I have loved seeing so many of those really early strips. They are still funny!

He has a brand new book out that features the Drabble’s dog, Wally.

Subscribers to the Daily Drabble had the opportunity to receive a copy of the book from Kevin. He was more than happy to autograph them for subscribers. Today, mine came in the mail. He even drew a picture:

How very cool to have this! What an honor it is to call Kevin a friend!

For 43 years, Drabble has been making readers laugh. It remains fresh and funny today. Just like a good sitcom, I connect with the characters and enjoy the various story lines. I’m happy to add another Drabble book to my library and encourage you to pick one up for yourself!

The world seems to grow a bit darker every day with war, inflation, political nonsense, death, disease and many other depressing things. It is nice to know I can count on a laugh from Ralph, Norman, Wally and the gang on a daily basis. Thanks again, Kevin for a comic institution.