Wednesday, May 31, 2000

Zits snags top-comic award - again

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Rare back-to-back win for Enquirer's Borgman

By Richelle Thompson
The Cincinnati Enquirer

        It's happened again: “Zits,” Enquirer cartoonist Jim Borgman's ode to teen-age angst, won its second consecutive Reuben Award, cartoonists' equivalent of the Academy Award.

JIM BORGMAN (BOTTOM) AND JERRY SCOTT (Enquirer photo) | ZOOM |

        “Zits” won the Reuben for the Best Newspaper Comic Strip at the annual conference of the National Cartoonists Society (NCS) Saturday in New York City.

        “Within our weird little profession (of cartoonists), this is as good as it gets,” said Mr. Borgman.

        Mr. Borgman partners with Jerry Scott of Malibu, Calif., who writes the strip and contributes rough sketches. Mr. Scott's other daily comic strip, “Baby Blues,” also was a finalist and is a past Reuben winner.

        “That's so unusual to win this two years in a row,” said Polly Keener of Akron, Great Lakes Chapter chairwoman and a syndicated cartoonist. “Twice in a row in a strip this new (three years) is unheard of — to be that intensely popular right off the bat. Jim is one of the stars.”

        Mike Luckovich, editorial cartoonist for the Atlanta Journal Constitution and third vice president of NCS, agrees: “It's so rare that the only other multiple winner like that I can think of is Jim Borgman himself some years ago for his editorial cartoons.”

        In fact, Mr. Borgman won the editorial category four times (including three consecutive years, a feat matched only by Pat Oliphant). After delving into NSC records, Ms. Keener discovered that there have been just two other back-to-back comic strip winners: Dik Browne for “Hi & Lois” and Brant Parker for “Wizard of Id.”

        “Zits” chronicles the life of 15-year-old Jeremy, from his teen-age foibles to the insecurities of growing up. Since its debut in July 1997, the strip has cultivated an impressive following. “Zits” is syndicated in more than 875 newspapers around the world. It is translated into at least seven languages, including German, Chinese, Spanish and Finnish.

        Three books of collections of the strip have been published; a fourth, Don't Roll Your Eyes at Me, Young Man, will be published this summer.

ON THE WEB

Borgman's editorial cartoons Zits site

        “This is one of the strongest comic strip debuts in the last 25 years,” said Claudia Smith, spokeswoman at King Features Syndicate, which distributes the strip. “The writing is excellent. The artwork is exemplary. I think the combination of the two is very, very strong.”

        The problems of teen-agers cross gender lines, said Janice Hunter of Western Hills. She reads “Zits” every day. And laughs every day, recognizing similar situations in the comic strip with her own daughters, ages 16 and 12.

        “It just really hits home,” Ms. Hunter said. “It's so realistic. It just personifies what it's like living with a teen-ager.”

        The comic strip deals with issues from the perspective of teen-agers and parents. “People tell us that it plugs right into their lives,” Mr. Borgman said. “I think a lot of newspaper readers are going through that demographic bubble where they have teen-agers in the house. We hear a lot: "You must have a camera in our house.'”

        Mr. Borgman and Mr. Scott talk daily, using each other as a test for which ideas work and which don't. They also occasionally count on Mr. Borgman's son, 17-year-old Dylan, to serve as an accuracy meter. “If we're not sure if something's honest or real, we'll run it past Dylan,” said Mr. Scott.

        Mr. Borgman said he's careful not to invade the privacy of friends or family in the strip. “There's a shield between what happens in real life and the way it ends up in the strip,” he said. Still, those “stories definitely fill the mill.”

        A daily comic strip means constant deadlines — even if the well is running dry that day. But that's one of the joys of the work, said Mr. Borgman. “You develop a conversation with the reader, and they know to come back the next day. Some days it will make it to the refrigerator door, and some days it won't. But it's always new the next day.”

        Jim Knippenberg contributed to this report.

       

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