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| A
Little Quigmans History
| Hello. I'm Mike
Stanfill, a commercial
artist living in Dallas, Texas. You might be wondering what
connection I have with the Quigmans and how I know that Buddy
Hickerson, their creator, recycles so many of them. Well, here's
the straight skinny. |
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| I met Buddy
Hickerson during the early days of 1978 (Yes, over thirty
years ago) while
studying commercial art at East Texas State University. He
and I were assigned to the same quad and, being a couple
of fellow
art-freaks, immediately hit it off. We spent a lot of time
together that year trashing the foyer and alarming the
coeds. I left
college short of graduation in late '79 to immediately pursue
a career in illustration in nearby Dallas. Buddy stuck
it out
until graduation in 1982 and decided to test the commercial
art waters in Dallas. His first apartment was just down
the
road from where I lived so we started hanging out again. |
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In 1984 Buddy moved to Denver
to take a job with the Denver Post and, while there, developed
and sold the idea for the Quigmans comic strip to the LA Times
syndicate. He immediately called me and asked if I'd like to
provide gags for the strip, something I was all-too-happy to
do. My job was to provide about 24 new gags a month, of which
Buddy would pick a choice few. In the beginning I didn't care
if he gave me public credit for the jokes or not, but later
we experimented by using an enigmatic
icon next to his name. My reasoning for this was since it
was his strip I should stay in the background
like a good little collaborator. It was only later that it became
clear to me how important I was to the Quigmans. Specifically,
by 1990 I realized I was writing over half the jokes that were
being printed, oftentimes as many as three-quarters of them.
That was when I finally asked that my name be added to the signature
and Buddy was happy to oblige.
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Things were going well until Buddy decided to start re-using
old Quigman cartoons instead of developing new ones. His reasoning
was that since so few people had seen the earlier Quigmans he
was doing them a favor by reusing these old jokes. In my opinion,
he was just being lazy. It was all-too-easy for him to grab
an old Quig out of the pile and slap a new date on it. |
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| This tactic
meant I was basically just wasting my
time coming up with new material. But to me, the more important
aspect was that it cheated his fan base
by giving
them the same old thing they'd seen before. From my viewpoint,
this showed
an astonishing lack of regard for the very people that most
appreciated the strip. (Some visitors to this site have
written in
to say
they enjoy reprinted comics, but I think the real proof of
this is in the indifferent sales numbers for the Quigmans
books.
Of which there hasn't been a new collection since 1997....when
I quit writing for him.) |
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For this reason,
and many other personal slights I shan't go onto on this
site, I consequently bid Buddy farewell and
haven't
talked to him since. To no one's surprise Buddy has continued
to
re-use old Quigman cartoons and, more importantly, re-used
many of MY old gags. What's worse is that he stopped crediting
me
for my gags by removing my name from the signature, which is
approximately like McCartney removing Lennon's name from
all
their songs. It's an immensely slimy move, not to mention in
violation of copyright laws.
The actual sticking point on taking legal steps against
Buddy is that the amount of money he makes on the strip
is piddly measured against the legal fees required to gain
satisfaction. If I had unlimited resources,
which is approximately what
it
would take to sue someone in this regard, I'd litigate his
ass up one side of hell and down the other, whistling a happy
tune all the way. |
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For two years
after walking out on Buddy I read the comics section and
watched
him continue to steal
from me. Finally, I'd had enough and began this web site.
I've been running this site since 1996 and it's very revealing
that Buddy hasn't contacted me once about this web site.
Not once.
That's not surprising as he'll never change the way he works
so the site will continue, as is.
(Update: He called me 12-7-2007 to mumble incoherently and
attempt to schmooze me back into his confidence. Fat chance.
He also said he was going to shutter the Quigmans. As you can
see, didn't happen. Read the blow-by-blow on the Quigblog
2007 page).
Since he's done nothing to change his business or creative
practices as a result of this site's illumination it's
clear that Buddy doesn't care about his reputation, and he
definitely doesn't
care about you, the average Quigmans fan. My opinion, of course. |
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| Well, that's
it. You can choose to accept or reject my little tale of woe
but I think the heavy weight of evidence on this site speaks
for itself. So if you think this whole thing stinks to high
heavens do us all a favor and contact your local paper or
Buddy's syndicate
and tell them what you think. You can also write and complain
to Buddy himself
or, if wouldn't mind having your thoughts prominently displayed
on the "Cranks" page, send me
some email expressing your thoughts about all things Quigman. |
Thanks
for stopping by.
=mike stanfill= |
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