I ran across this old cartoon from the 1996 archives, which I’ve been mining lately, and given the A&J comic strip running in newspapers today I couldn’t resist using it.

I was going to talk more about color. Surprise, surprise: I’ve always belonged to the old school on this one. I’d just as soon not have the daily cartoons, those appearing Monday-Saturday, colored at all. I’d prefer they be shown, on the Web and in newspapers, in black and white. When I concieve an idea, I see it in black and white, and, since I’m the cartoonist, I think you should see it in black and white, too, as I do. Having said that, I have always accepted colorization as a fact of life. First, it was for the United Media Web site; then, those same colored versions were made available to newspapers, many of which eschewed this option early on and continued to print the comics in traditional form. Increasingly, however, more and more newspapers want and expect color. I understand this. I suppose if I am to undergo a change in attitude about color, it would be from passive acceptance to active participation, to regard color not as a necessary evil best left to others but as a creative tool in my own pencil box. I’m not making any promises.