Interview was conducted in March 2002 So when did and how Larry Leadhead comic strip start? Doug: It started back in 1996, when the first cartoons appeared in a local wargame club newsletter, but it could have been said to be started much further back in time. When I was six, I remember... OK, maybe that's too far back. However, one evening I had just finished painting some World War 2 figures and was sitting looking at them when Susan, my wife, asked what are they? I responded, "a light machine gun". To which she shook her head in mock exasperation and replied, "a light machine gun? What does it kill a third less people?" At the time much of the advertising for food emphasized less calories and fat content in their products by using the term "light". I thought it was really funny and immediately wrote it down. Now I cannot recall when or even how I came to think to create cartoons but I do recall trying to come up with a distinctive name. I came up with "Leadhead" as a variation to "Deadhead", the followers of the Grateful Dead, music band. The inference was that my character's thoughts were always of lead (as in miniatures). Okay. But I needed a name for the main character. Susan came up with "Larry", whom I immediately liked, thus Larry Leadhead was born. Wow, Larry has been around since 1996? I did not know that. I guess Larry has changed quite a bit, since, as you said, Eric came on board to help with the artwork? Doug: Understatement of the year I would suggest yes, Eric has really improved and professionalized the product. Eric approached me and asked if he could help with the illustrating of Larry. I knew Eric for a long time and knew he is a good person and as well as an exceptional artist. With collaborations the quality of character is as important as all other factors. You have to admire a fellow who says, "I really think your humor is very good. Your cartoons are funny, but #*%# Doug, you just cannot draw!!" Isn't that how the first conversation went, Eric? Eric: Yes, pretty much so. I first saw the Larry Leadhead comic strip when I was visiting the publisher of Mars Magazine. He had a bunch of papers scattered all over a worktable in his basement and in among the heap was a copy of "The Best of Larry Leadhead", which comprised about 20 stapled 8.5" x I I" papers. I saw the name, Doug Hamm on it, so I immediately knew who he was. The publisher stated that Doug Hamm asked if he would like to have Larry Leadhead appear in his magazine, but the quality of the artwork kept it out of the magazine. I said I would be willing to redraw the cartoon, but alas, Mars Magazine did not have the budget for such things and so my first opportunity to get into Larry Leadhead was lost. About a year later, I met with Doug and he showed me his comic strip again, and gave me a copy of the 20-page booklet again. This time I took it home and read through it carefully. I then gave it to my girlfriend who also read through it I went back to my illustration work, and in the background I could hear my girlfriend giggling as she read through the strip. By this time in our relationship, my girlfriend had met a few gamers and knew most of the humor I thought that if she liked the comic strip, then others would too. Is it just the two of you who work on the Larry Leadhead comic strip? Doug: Yes, just the two of us. With Larry Leadhead now on the web, most of the work is borne by Eric as he performs all the uploading and web page work. Actually, I should really qualify that, Eric's friend Leo helps in the web page work doing the coding while Eric does the graphic design. Perhaps I should let Eric explain. Eric: My friend Leo de Sousa works as a programmer at a local college and he was the logical choice to do all the html coding, while I can create the graphic elements, as this is part of what I do for a living. Leo is also a part time wargamer, although he doesn't get much of a chance to do any real gaming. I had Leo construct the site so I can upload new graphics that way I do not have to bother him all the time, and I can change the graphics at will It actually works very well and very smoothly. Where do you come up with all the ideas for Larry? I know you both have played tabletop games for a few years, but is this the only source for your comic strip ideas? Doug: Surprisingly, large portions of the concepts come from the people we game with, We are fortunate to be able to quote a few "live-wires" and humorous club members who shall remain nameless (lest they want credit for the cartoon ideas!) and who unwittingly contribute to the idea pool. Comments are made during the banter normal in social settings, which are funny at the time and then forgotten. 1, and now Eric, merely note these comments for later use. I also must admit I review old gaming magazines for funny lines and expound on them as well as doing the same with newsgroups, which hold my interest on the Web. One time, the humorous exchanges were such that a cartoon virtually wrote itself using the typed lines from three of the participants. I referred the newsgroup to www. LarryLeadhead-org and received several positive emails and hopefully some new regular readers of "Larry" It isn't a little unusual for two or more people to work on a comic strip, although I have heard that relationships between authors will vary from strip to strip? What do you do Doug, on the Larry Leadhead comic strip Doug, and what exactly do you do on the comic strip, Eric? Doug: Really, I believe we are even moving closer together in terms of what we want "Larry" to be. Is that what you think, Eric? Eric: Yes, without a doubt. I find it strange that both Doug and I can go off into our corners, come up with comic ideas and then present each other with these ideas, and rarely have either of us said, "No wait, that's not Larry." Doug and I both have a strong idea of who Larry is and what he is all about, and we haven't strayed from that original concept. What my job exactly is, is a little vague. Basically, I take what Doug gives me, which is usually a lot of ideas typed out onto a number of pages (sent to me via e-mail). I then sift through these ideas and pick out the ones that I feel are the ones that appeal to me right off I then draw the rest out over a period of time. A few ideas are still sitting on the back burner, either because I feel they are not quite ready, or because they will take up a little too much time rendering and I really don't have that sort of time available right now, Doug will often come up with seasonal, or time sensitive comic ideas that must be pushed to the forefront, and these are rushed through to meet Doug: On how exactly we split the work process is a little more complicated. I briefly touched upon this previously, but basically I come up with most of the captions and pass them to Eric to illustrate and ultimately create the web upload and maintain the web site. Interviewer: He seems to do the lion's share. Doug: Uh huh... as I sheepishly look to my shoes.... Interviewer:Anything to add to that admission, Eric? Eric: Doug comes up with most of the comic strip ideas, but I add a lot too. I have come up with many of the ideas for the comic strip. I am not just an "inker", as someone called me the other day. It's almost as if "Inker" is a bad name. I come up with between 3 0% and 40% of the comic strips ideas, so you can see that Doug comes up with the lion's share. However, many of my comic ideas and Doug's comic ideas get changed when Doug and I discuss them and rework them - rarely anything will remain in its original form. When Doug and I get together to discuss new comics we often will alter the comics as we find better ways to deliver the punch line, or often add on an additional punch line. It's a fun process. Often a comic will change simply because we have to get it to fit into a 3-panel format, and that often takes a bit of work. How Icome up with Larry ideas is that while I am drawing out one of the comic ideas, I will start putting Larry in odd "gaming" situations. On the news, while I was working one day last year, there was the controversy about cloning, and I got to thinking, how cloning would impact Larry's club? At first it seemed unconnected, but wait, what if someone started cloning club members in the effort to get the membership numbers up... and that is how the cloning series got started. Doug is a very flexible person and doesn't have a big ego, as long as the ideas relate well to Larry and his friends, the sky is the limit. Because of this, Doug and I have batted ideas back and forth freely in our informal brain storming sessions. We usually just reminisce about games gone past, and then without knowing it, we hit upon a funny cartoon idea - in this hobby, its not as difficult as one might first think. I noticed that Larry's gaming group, or at least the people he games with, is a fairly large group of diverse souls. How many characters are in the comic strip so far? Are any of these characters based on real people in your gaming club? Eric: Well, I did a head count the other day and found that we have over 40 characters in the strip, with many of these only appearing once or twice. There are about fifteen characters that appear regularly in the strip. Doug feels that this is too many, whereas I feel that most clubs have people coming in and only playing once or twice and leave never to be seen again, so it doesn't bother me as much. That is just how life is in a large club. I noticed that Larry Leadhead has a wife. How close is the character to your wives, and/or girlfriends? Doug : When "Larry" was first created, "The Wife" was, and continues to be, very predominate in Larry's world. My real wife has a rapier sharp wit and can be very sarcastic and I have quoted her in many of the cartoons. In truth, she does not mind my hobby , and I have such a self-deprecating sense of humor as to laugh with all her "comments' 1. It is all in good fun. And, no, she does not look like the cartoon version... she is better looking and with blond hair. We call Larry's wife "The Wife" without giving her a name for two reasons. First, most men do not call their wife or girlfriend by name in conversation with other men. It is usually, "I've got to finish the game 'cause the wife wants to go out tonight." Secondly, and more importantly, by not naming her, the reader can add the name of their own significant other because, as we hear so often from our readers, Larry's domestic situations are so close to their own as to be scary! We made Larry's wife supporting while poor Stan has the intolerant spouse Usually, we have found females fall into one or the other category. Interviewer: Eric, which category does your girlfriend fall into? Eric: My girlfriend is odd because she loves playing one game, and that is my World War One air combat game (Canvas Eagles), mainly because it is a simple, fast play system, but she hates everything else. She feels that some people spend way too much time and effort on the hobby, but she can see playing once in a while. I guess this is better than nothing. She painted a lot of my WWI aircraft models for my air combat game, and she did a great job too. You should see the Russian Ilya Muromets four-engine bombers that she built, painted, and decalled for me last year - few people believe me when I tell them that my girlfriend made those. Just how popular is Larry so far? I heard that you guys get over 14,000 visitors a month, which isn't too bad for a relatively new comic strip on the Internet. Doug: I can honestly say Eric and I are happy with the readership support we are receiving. I started the cartoon for fun. When Eric came to help my poor illustrating efforts, we both continued to do it for fun. We have had nothing but positive emails from literally around the world. One in particular stands out in my mind. I have it here. David Williams wrote, "You have a gentle sense of humor even though you know you could be cutting and bitterly satirical if you were of a mind. I thank you for that, especially since I saw myself in several of you strips. It was nice to have you pat me on the shoulder and say, "We understand. We're there too." Rather than, "you jerk, get a life!" That is what we hope "Larry" is all about. Eric: Larry is fairly popular out there. We get fan mail all the time and it surprises me that people are keeping in touch with Larry (and his website) from some remote places on the planet - who do these guys play with? I received an interesting e-mail last year from a guy (Bill Currie) who lives in Winter-peg (Winnipeg, Manitoba Province, Canada). This sums up Larry's popularity: "I was on a too-short vacation in northern Europe earlier this month visiting a friend who has been living in Holland and gaming with some fellows in the Tin Soldier Club in Antwerp, Belgium. He took me to their weekly games night at their private clubhouse (no kidding) and I was eagerly welcomed as another Canadian and fellow gamer. To top it off one of them told me of his delight in the 'Larry Leadhead' series of cartoons that you produce and publish on the web. Evidently you have hit a chord with miniature gamers all over the globe, keep up the great work." What do you think the future holds for Larry Leadhead? Doug: Eric and I are publishing a compilation book for the early Larry Leadheads in the near future. Our website at www.LarryLeadhead.org will have more specific information. If I were to dream, perhaps we will become famous enough to be invited to a major gaming convention as honored guests. Doing talks and such... Oh don't give me that look Eric, you want to have that happen too! We can fantasize can't we? But really, we hope to continue to produce a professional, high quality, humorous cartoons, perhaps earning a few dollars to feed our addiction... I mean... hobby! The book will come out shortly, right Eric? Eric: The book is going to be a major venture for Doug and myself, and I am looking forward to seeing it in print. The book will contain the first years worth of comics, that is to say, all of our comics that were e-published at the web site from September 2000 till September 2001 (fingers crossed here), Back to MWAN #119 Table of Contents Back to MWAN List of Issues Back to MagWeb Magazine List © Copyright 2002 Hal Thinglum This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com