Attention: Rare example of Buddy Hickerson commercial illustration found. And it can be YOURS! Really! See below.

An open letter to Creators Syndicate; 8-21-2010 Greetings, Creatorians; When I was seven years old a man offered me candy to get in his car. All I remember was that it was really good candy. Speaking of nightmares that never seem to end, today's Quigmans cartoon was formerly syndicated on 2-16-2000 and 7-13-2005. To put this in semi-perfect perspective this means that Buddy is essentially diving the LA Times and Tribune Media dumpsters and feeding his scroungings to you good folks at Creators. You probably deserve better. But, hey, some people like half-eaten apples and pizza so old it's become a physical part of the box, so who am I to judge? You getting tired of my bellyaching yet? Man, I hope not because Buddy seems to have no intention of meeting his potential. Or maybe he already has. Lower-case yikes. Cheers. =mike stanfill=

And so, the time has come.

" Hopefully one day The Quigmans will no longer be around and we can know that the world is a better place because of that." - Bryce Baker From 1996 to early 2010 this web site, quigmans.com, I.E. "Buddywatch", carefully noted each and every time Buddy Hickerson recycled an old Quigmans cartoon. This was by no means an inconsequential task as by 2009 his total output of original material had shrunk to about 40% a year, and a great deal of these new cartoons were written by other people, mostly friends and relatives (I.E., at no cost to him, the cheap bastard). Sometimes the cartoons were as much as twenty years old, and some had been syndicated as often as five times before. It is hardly the picture of someone in the comics business for the love of the game. It's a picture, rather, of someone who counts on his readers having the memory of goldfish. But I digress. As of today, March 11th, 2010, quigmans.com goes into stasis as I will no longer be updating it. (Update: I have updated the quigblog on two occasions since shuttering the site. I anticipate further updates.) I do this with some regret as I felt this website offered a valuable service, but it's become abundantly clear that the Quigmans are viewed by such a pitifully small audience (basically found only on the web and not printed in any major newspaper) that I was basically only entertaining myself. The piddling amount of time I used to waste daily on the Quigmans shall now be squandered in more significant arenas of life's rich pageant. More to the point, the Quigmans has become, over the past decade and a half, one of the worst comics ever to grace the funny pages. It's indifferently illustrated and the gags are, at times, simply vile. I wouldn't have read it if I didn't have to. To those of you who have just stumbled upon this site and wondered why I would bother to go to all that trouble for 15 years, start with the History link and go from there. To the confusingly devoted few of you who regularly visited this website, especially that one particular person from the wilds of east Kansas, I thank you all for your attendence and I wish you the best in coming years. If you still need comic snark allow me to recommend the following sites: The Comics Curmudgeon The Daily Comics Review Comics I Don't Understand Finally, a last bit of unreserved self-serving. If you have any memories of quigmans.com please share them with me here. If you require web design, Flash animation or commercial illustration services then please visit privatehand.com for a peek at my extensive portfolio. Also check out my cat site at infinitecat.com and my web comic, The Far Left Side if you haven't already. And because I love you all: buddyhickerson.com. Cheers! =Mike Stanfill=

PS, I couldn't leave without making one last and oh so deliciously salient point. The following Quigmans comic, by some divine act of coincidence, appeared on the very day that I shuttered this site, 3-11-2010. It perfectly sums up everything I've ever written about Mr. Hickerson and the Quigmans. The cartoon not only ungratefully bites the hand that once meagerly fed him but it's a gag criticizing the daily newspapers' comparative state of untimeliness, written by a man who would habitually re-use cartoons that were over twenty years old. What an oblivious dick.

Addendum: I've been receiving a small but welcome handful of emails regarding the shuttering of this site, all of which have been appreciative of my labors over the years. Here's a couple of them: Dear Mike; I have enjoyed the site over the years and have appreciated the efforts you put out for us to read. The funny thing is, I only read the strip to keep up with your commentary! Now that it is over I too have officially read my last Quigmans. Thanks again for all the laughs and good luck with all your endeavors. Eric H. ------ The online comic review community has lost a great site now that you are no longer doing what you do. We're all fans over at the DCR and if you'd ever like to write in any capacity on our site we'd be honored to have you. Hopefully one day The Quigmans will no longer be around and we can know that the world is a better place because of that. Bryce Baker dailycomicsreview.com

ATTENTION HICKERSON ART FANS!

5-22-05: So I'm doing an extra-thorough clean-out here at Casa Stanfill and I discover, deep within the bowels of my flat files, the following hunk of crapola:

It's a 17" X 14.5" mixed-media work created by Buddy in the late 80s when he was working for Westward Magazine in Denver. I've owned it since at least the early 90s. I'm not keen on keeping it any longer so I thought I'd give you, the Quigman-faithful, first crack at it for the amazing low price of $500. It's signed at the bottom in Buddy's then-florid style and appears to be rendered in acrylic and colored-pencil. The board-stock is Crescent #1 though the heavy backing has been removed, typical of the printing processes of the 90s. My photography has picked up the grain of the board but rest assured that the surface is in pristine condition. You can see a larger version of the illustration here. Keep in mind that very little of Buddy's illustrative artwork is available to the public so this is pretty much once-in-a-lifetime deal. It's in beautiful condition and will look great framed... if you like that sort of thing, you sick, twisted bastard. Email me with any questions. Yes, I take Paypal. Addendum: Is this illustration really worth $500? I don't know, but as Don McLean once famously put it "The more you pay, the more it's worth", so come and get it, suckers! To be honest I don't expect to ever earn a dime from this illustration as no one really cares enough about Buddy's crappy artwork to fork over their hard-earned simoleons. So, basically, this is just an exercise to show how embarassingly little regard Buddy has even from his fans. Sometimes you can laugh even when you're not going to the bank.

And now.... On With Our Web Site!

Welcome to Quigmans.com, AKA "Buddywatch".
Bringing you the finest in comic strip ass-kicking for fifteen frenetic years.
Featuring the only comic strip that smells like soup.


IT'S OFFICIALLY A RECORD!
Total number of recycled Quigmans comics in 2009 = 185
That's the most ever in a single year.
Congratulations on your appalling indifference, Buddy.

For Even More Free Spleen-Venting Fun Visit the Catharsis Archive!

Whither Buddywatch? Quigmans.com exists primarily to accurately illustrate, ala my humble opinion, a portrait of the world's second laziest and lousiest comic artist, Buddy Hickerson, creator of The Quigmans. The honor of First Place for the most avoidable comic strip goes to Jim Davis, he of Garfield fame, who seems to have been sent by Satan himself to single-handedly rip the heart out of the comics industry. (Although major kudos to him for allowing the "Garfield Without Garfield" variant of his abysmal strip to continue to amuse us all.) No other comic strip has quite the same odorous pedigree as a Quigmans cartoon. If Buddy's not writing it, he's not drawing it, and on the occasions that he may or may not be drawing it he's either using jokes that may have been used as many as FIVE times before or is using the gag in a way that violates U.S. copyright laws. Sometimes he neither writes nor draws the days strip and in these instances you have to say to yourself "What's the fucking point, Hick?". In almost all cases the joke  is never actually funny, inciteful, or inventive. You can also forget ironic, conceptual or provocative. But if you need a joke about fat people, Bud's your man. My opinion, of course, but I'm not alone in them. Let me put it another way... used car salesmen rank in popularity just between "lepers" and "ex-lepers". They're sleazy, do-anything-to-turn-a-quick-buck kinda guys who wouldn't bat an eye to send your granny off the lot in a death-trap if it meant a commission large enough to pay their tab at the local titty bar. Buddy, by way of apt comparison, is a used-cartoon salesman. He'll plunk a 1997 Yugo in your lap and swear it was this year's Lexus. I mean, just look at the date... the one on top of all the White-Out, that is. I've been notating Buddy Hickerson's particular brand of sloth for fourteen years now, a number to which I attach modest personal pride, but a quick click of the History button will lay bare the reasons for one man's marginal obsession with this fourth-rate comic strip. You can also view the Proof and Catharsis pages for actual examples of Buddy's sloth. Consider yourself warned. This site is bound to disillusion many starry-eyed acolytes to all things Quiggish but if you decide a point has been adequately presented then feel free to contact Buddy, his syndicate, or me by visiting the contact page. I'd be delighted to hear from you. Buddy or his syndicate? Not so much. Thanks for dropping by, have fun exploring the site, enjoy the snark and I hope your time spent here leaves you a wiser consumer. =Mike Stanfill= Click here to view site in French. I mean, why not? This site is not affiliated with Bunky "BMX!" Hinkerton, the Quigmans, Creators Syndicate, NAMBLA, the NAACP, the NCAA, AARP, The Wobblies or Wall-E. Save the Panamanian golden frogs. "The Quigmans" are copyright ©2010 the "former" Buddy Hickerson and the Creators Syndicate with all rights reserved and all that legal stuff. Who are you and where have you hidden my Panamanian golden frog?

Site hosted by bluehost.com