A number of years ago, before we had kids, we had two weiner dogs named Mingus & Maggie. They had distinct personalities—Maggie was old and kinda grumpy, while Mingus was younger and more goofy. On a whim I decided to see if I could draw them as a cartoon. I’ve always been a fan of single-panel cartoonists like Gary Larson (Far Side) and Bill Keane (Family Circus), and I thought it would be fun to take a swing at something like them.
Over the next few months I worked on getting a style together. Each panel is set up the same way, where Mingus (goofy) makes a statement, and then Maggie (grumpy) responds with the punchline. It was a fun way to see how the dogs might view current events and culture at the time.
After getting on a roll, I started putting together these calendars that I sold to friends and family. From there I started a website and Facebook page where I would post a new cartoon each week.
It was a lot of fun and helped to pass the time in an otherwise difficult time. You see, at that time we were trying to have our first child, and things weren’t going smoothly. But, eventually, it all worked out and we got our very awesome first daughter, and I was able to create a set of cartoons that still ake people smile. Guess it just shows that God really does know what’s up 🙂
