This Day in Drabble History: March 17th, 18th, 19th & 20th

1982, 1996, 2000, 2019

Hi everybody!

I came across another memory in my studio. This sheet was sent to me by April, who worked in the publicity department for United Feature Syndicate. It shows a couple of newspaper clippings announcing the arrival of Penny in the Drabble comic strip! Hard to believe anyone would make note of it.

I remember talking to Mr. Schulz about my idea for the new addition to the Drabble family. He said “Aren’t Ralph and June kind of old to be having a baby?” Yeah, maybe. So I started making them slightly younger in the strip. Years later, I was working on a Drabble musical with David Benoit. (I’ll tell you more about this project sometime.) We showed it to a Broadway theater agent, who expressed concern that Mrs. Drabble seemed outdated in her appearance. (I had always made her that way intentionally because in my mind, Drabble was a throwback to the black and white comedies of the 1950’s.) So a few years ago, I again started to make her look a bit more contemporary. These are problems cartoonists have to deal with when they’ve been around for decades. I don’t know how Blondie does it!

March 17, 1982

March 18, 1996

March 18, 2019

March 19, 1982

March 19, 1996

March 19, 2000

March 19, 2019

March 20, 1982

March 20, 1996

March 20, 2019

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—Kevin Fagan