Very early in my career as the creator of Arlo & Janis, I ran afoul of my editor, Sarah Gillespie. The comics syndicate at that time was in New York City, where Sarah was born and raised. In a strip, I made a reference to eating black-eye peas on New Year’s Day. If I had said “gafelda fish,” Sarah wouldn’t have batted an eye, but she’d never heard of a tradition of eating black-eye peas on New Year’s. She was concerned newspaper editors would cast Arlo & Janis as a “southern” strip. Of course, Sarah was right to bring this up. It was her job, and she had a point I had never considered. Sarah was a sweetie, and ultimately she passed the peas reference. However, the little incident made me, a greenhorn, conscious of such things going forward. Today, my largest concentration of readers and, from what I can tell, enthusiasts is in the Northeast. Second would be the Midwest. Thank you, Sarah!
