Eyebeam (comic strip)

Last updated

Eyebeam
Author(s) Sam Hurt
Current status/scheduleConcluded daily strip
Launch date(first run) c. 1978–1990
End date(second run) 1995–2002
Publisher(s) Andrews McMeel Publishing, Blunt Books, Texas Monthly Press
Genre(s)Humor, gag-a-day, satire, adults
Followed byQueen of the Universe

Eyebeam was a daily comic strip written and illustrated by Sam Hurt at the University of Texas at Austin. Unlike most college strips, its popularity led to a print life past Hurt's graduation.

Comic strip Short serialized comics

A comic strip is a sequence of drawings arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions. Traditionally, throughout the 20th century and into the 21st, these have been published in newspapers and magazines, with horizontal strips printed in black-and-white in daily newspapers, while Sunday newspapers offered longer sequences in special color comics sections. With the development of the internet, they began to appear online as webcomics. There were more than 200 different comic strips and daily cartoon panels in American newspapers alone each day for most of the 20th century, for a total of at least 7,300,000 episodes.

University of Texas at Austin public research university in Austin, Texas, United States

The University of Texas at Austin is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the flagship institution of the University of Texas System. The University of Texas was inducted into the Association of American Universities in 1929, becoming only the third university in the American South to be elected. The institution has the nation's eighth-largest single-campus enrollment, with over 50,000 undergraduate and graduate students and over 24,000 faculty and staff.

Contents

Publication history

The strip ran in the college's The Daily Texan from 1980–1990, though examples from 1978-1979 exist. In 1983, Austin's daily paper, the American-Statesman , picked up the strip. Other newspapers around the U.S. followed suit, although Eyebeam's family of subscribers was never greater than a few dozen.

<i>The Daily Texan</i>

The Daily Texan is the student newspaper of the University of Texas at Austin. It is one of the largest college newspapers in the United States, with a daily circulation of roughly 30,000 during the fall and spring semesters, and it is among the oldest student newspapers in the South.

By 1982, Eyebeam's popularity was such that a monster character called Hank the Hallucination ran for the University of Texas Student Government presidency (campaign slogan: "Get Real") [1] and won. A figment of Eyebeam's imagination even within the boundaries of the comic, Hank received more votes than the two human candidates combined. After it was ruled that imaginary characters could not serve in the post, future Democratic adviser and CNN political contributor Paul Begala was the campus' second choice. Following his loss, Begala wrote a tongue-in-cheek complaint for the Texan, arguing "I cannot help but feel Hank's platform is illusory at best .... I must say that the candidate himself lacks substance."

CNN American news channel

Cable News Network (CNN) is an American news-based pay television channel owned by AT&T's WarnerMedia. CNN was founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner as a 24-hour cable news channel. Upon its launch, CNN was the first television channel to provide 24-hour news coverage, and was the first all-news television channel in the United States.

Paul Begala American political consultant

Paul Edward Begala is an American political consultant and political commentator, best known as the former adviser to President Bill Clinton.

The idiom tongue-in-cheek refers to a humorous or sarcastic statement expressed in a mock serious manner.

The strip developed a devoted enough fanbase to support a steady series of paperback collections, as well as ancillary merchandise such as T-shirts.

Switch to Queen of the Universe

In 1990, Hurt abandoned the comic strip, taking an offer from United Feature Syndicate to start a new strip based on the Peaches character, Queen of the Universe. [2] The strip was sometimes called Peaches, Queen of the Universe. Hurt's freewheeling style did not translate as well under the syndicated system, which was apparently hoping for a female Calvin character, and the latter strip was not a success. Hurt described the strip's demise as the result of "a printing accident... [it] drowned in a sea of red ink." Some readers felt the most Eyebeam-like sequences of the strip's run came at the very end, after Hurt had gotten the cancellation notice.[ citation needed ]

United Feature Syndicate is a large editorial column and comic strip newspaper syndication service based in the United States and established in 1919. Originally part of E. W. Scripps Company, it was part of United Media from 1978 to 2011, and is now a division of Andrews McMeel Syndication. United Features has syndicated many notable comic strips, including Peanuts, Garfield, Li'l Abner, Dilbert, Nancy, and Marmaduke.

<i>Calvin and Hobbes</i> comic strip by Bill Watterson

Calvin and Hobbes is a daily comic strip created by American cartoonist Bill Watterson that was syndicated from November 18, 1985 to December 31, 1995. Commonly cited as "the last great newspaper comic", Calvin and Hobbes has enjoyed broad and enduring popularity, influence and academic interest.

After Queen of the Universe

Sam Hurt revived Eyebeam in 1995, but as a weekly. A comic book series also appeared, combining reprints with fresh material. Hurt discontinued Eyebeam for a second time in 2002, and resumed it for a third time in 2006. As of 2008, the strip appears weekly in the Austin Chronicle as well as on Hurt's website.

Story and characters

Beginning as a fairly typical "college life" strip, Eyebeam quickly mutated into something more. Besides the title character (a bemused, rail-thin lawyer and acceptor of weirdness) and the aforementioned Hank, regular characters included Eyebeam's down-to-earth but sexually voracious girlfriend Sally, and his best friend, the conical ne'er-do-well Ratliff McNubb. Secondary characters included the slacker robot IM4U, the narcissistic Rod Rutherford, Rod's lovestruck girlfriend Beth, and Eyebeam's coworker Vernon (who seemed to be missing the top of his head). Much later, Ratliff's rambunctious niece Peaches burst into the storylines, which indirectly led to the strip's demise.

Style

A strip showing Eyebeam in the foreground, Rod and Beth in the background, and an object that changes from panel to panel: first a vase, then a pot, then a desk lamp, then a lava lamp. Eyebeam.png
A strip showing Eyebeam in the foreground, Rod and Beth in the background, and an object that changes from panel to panel: first a vase, then a pot, then a desk lamp, then a lava lamp.

Hurt's drawing style was thick and loose, and used periodically shifting backgrounds as were found in George Herriman's "Krazy Kat". A vase of flowers, for example, could be exchanged for an umbrella stand and then a fountain, without narrative explanation. The strip's logo was similarly ever-changing. Many of the strip's odder visual elements were accepted at face value, if discussed at all, such as Sally's endless jet stream of hair, Ratliff's sea-of-trash bedroom, or Ratliff's spherical automobile.

George Herriman American cartoonist

George Joseph Herriman was an American cartoonist best known for the comic strip Krazy Kat (1913–1944). More influential than popular, Krazy Kat had an appreciative audience among those in the arts. Gilbert Seldes' article "The Krazy Kat Who Walks by Himself" was the earliest example of a critic from the high arts giving serious attention to a comic strip. The Comics Journal placed the strip first on its list of the greatest comics of the 20th century. Herriman's work has been a primary influence on cartoonists such as Will Eisner, Charles M. Schulz, Robert Crumb, Art Spiegelman, Bill Watterson, and Chris Ware.

<i>Krazy Kat</i> comic strip

Krazy Kat is an American newspaper comic strip by cartoonist George Herriman, which ran from 1913 to 1944. It first appeared in the New York Evening Journal, whose owner, William Randolph Hearst, was a major booster for the strip throughout its run. The characters had been introduced previously in a side strip with Herriman's earlier creation, The Dingbat Family. The phrase "Krazy Kat" originated there, said by the mouse by way of describing the cat. Set in a dreamlike portrayal of Herriman's vacation home of Coconino County, Arizona, KrazyKat's mixture of offbeat surrealism, innocent playfulness and poetic, idiosyncratic language has made it a favorite of comics aficionados and art critics for more than 80 years.

Legacy

When the Comics Journal compiled its 2000 list of the greatest comics of the century, Eyebeam received one judge's vote.[ citation needed ]

Hurt remains in Austin, Texas where he does animation and sculpture.

Published collections

A three-issue comic book series, Eyebeam: The Complete Collection 1978-1989, was released in 1992. The first of a three-volume compilation of Hurt's Queen of the Universe strip was released in 2012.

Other uses

Eyebeam comics were extensively used in the American Bar Association's essay compilation Full Disclosure: Do You Really Want to Be a Lawyer? (Hurt received a Doctor of Jurisprudence degree from the University of Texas Law School in 1983.)

Characters from Eyebeam are animated by Sam Hurt in a music video by Brave Combo, "The Hokey Pokey." [3] Sally, Eyebeam, Ratliff, and Hank appear.

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References

  1. ↑ "Earliest Eyebeams". www.eyebeam.com.
  2. ↑ Sam Hurt, Biography Archived 2008-12-26 at the Wayback Machine ; accessed 2009.01.14.
  3. ↑ Brave Combo and Studio Eyebeam, The Hokey Pokey, 1995; accessed 2015.01.16.
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