I’ve noticed some of you guys have a pretty amazing memory when it comes to the Bleeker comic archives. So, I thought let’s have some fun…let’s have a Bleekercomics.com scavenger hunt!

The above 7 panels are picked out of 7 different comics from the complete Bleeker archives found on this site. Your challenge is to identify the day and date of each panel in the archives…

1. Day__, Month________, Year____

2. Day__, Month________, Year____

3. Day__, Month________, Year____

4. Day__, Month________, Year____

5. Day__, Month________, Year____

6. Day__, Month________, Year____

7. Day__, Month________, Year____

Once you figure you have the correct list, email me your answers using the contact link on the right panel of this page (click on the white envelope below “Contact Jonathan”)

So, why would you do this? Prizes, that’s why! For this very first scavenger hunt the first reader with a correct set of answers will get an original Bleeker daily comic strip (pen and ink on bristol board) The following correctly submitted answers will be thrown into a hat and four lucky readers will get some original Bleeker artwork for their wall..

If this turns out to be fun we’ll make this a monthly event. So have a good time and start clicking and making that list. This scavenger hunt will end on Friday, June 22, 2012 with the winner(s) announced on Monday June 25, 2012.

(Hint~There is a clue in the number of panels you have to find~this could make searching a bit easier for you~Good luck!)

Well, after almost six years, there is finally an adult character in this comic. Comic strips are always (or should always be) evolving. Sometimes you just have a feeling another part is needed to balance out the other characters or to open up new story lines. I started thinking about adding a more senior character to the comic last Fall. I played around with different concepts but had the difficulty of explaining where Skip’s parents were. I’ve never wanted to add them. I always liked that Bleeker was their go-between and Skip was kind of floating off on his own (more opportunities for him to mess things up) However, I think Skip needed a character to balance him out and also the comic could benefit from a different voice from another generation.

Initially I came up with this couple. They were (and still could be!) two retired robots who were going to move in next door. Kind of the 1950/60 version of robots…lots of tubes and stuff. Perhaps retired from an amusement park ride or something. Unfortunately, at this point, it was just too complicated to work into the strip. So I started thinking about Skip’s grandma, who I’ve never really mentioned in the comic. (I have used his grandfather on the other side of the family)

I did a lot of doodling over the months to see what she would look like. Eventually she started to come into focus…

I can’t say I’m a hundred percent happy with how she’s drawn but there comes a time when you just have to put a character down on paper and see what happens. I imagine that a year from now Grammy K will evolve and look very different. Who knows, maybe she’ll even tell us what the K stands for….

I just saw online that Jim Unger the cartoonist behind Herman has died. Herman was a steady presence in our house growing up. It was on the front page of the Globe and Mail’s business section which landed on our doorstep every morning. My Dad (like most dads it seems!) loved the comic. When the first Herman treasury came out, someone gave it to him for Christmas. I had never seen anybody laughing that hard at a comic before. In fact, he was laughing so much and for so long that my Mom actually got a picture…

I was about 11 at the time and I can pinpoint that comic and that memory to one of the contributing factors of wanting to become a cartoonist myself.

Mr. Unger will be missed.