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Warped is a 'state of mind'
by Ann Ramsbottom
Battalion Staff
“Creating cartoons can be
both a fun and difficult ipb,”
said the author of Warped.
“Your best guiding light is to
keep yourself happy.
Scott McCullar, creator of the
daily Battalion cartoon —
Warped — said that the purpose
of his cartoon was for his and
others satisfaction and to pro
voke thought through editorial
comments.
McCullar, now in his third
year of producing Warped,
admitted that he was very for
tunate to be cartooning for the
Battalion.
“Timing has played an im
portant role in getting this posi
tion," McCullar said. “The
opportunity just happened to
open up.
"Working for the Battalion
has been a tremendously valu
able experience and an unusual
one too. Not many papers sup
port their own cartoonist,"
McCullar said. "In addition,
we're unrestricted in the mate
rial we use."
McCullar said that he felt for
tunate because he could enjoy
more freedom drawing for The
Battalion then with a syndicate.
"In a syndicated cartoon,
you're so far removed from local
happenings," he said. "In the
Battalion it's mine completely. I
can experiment with editorial,
single panel, graphic design and
artwork."
Cartooning is an important'
power, McCullar said. Editorial
news and opinion are presented
in an easily read form. "Readers
get the point without even
knowing it," he said. "It's eye
catching and you more readily
read comments that you might
otherwise overlook in a
column."
It takes little effort for McCul
lar to come up with cartoon mes
sages. "Ideas become habit,"
McCullar said. "There are so
many things that happen ...I
just single out the best. The idea
must be good enough for me to
go through the agony of
drawing."
McCullar's cartoons usually
take from one-and-a-half to two
hours to draw. He still considers
himself a developing artist and
admits he is a little slow.
"My ideas are part fantasy,
part dreams and neat ideas,"
McCullar said. “Things that
spring out of bull sessions with
friends.
“Not everyone has a knack
for cartooning," he said. "A
good idea can more then make
up for a poor drawing, but a
good drawing can't make up for
a poor idea."
McCullar tries any number of
characters with names and
appearances taken from people
he knows or would like to know.
"My cartoon mold is probably
a combination of Garfield and
Funky Winkerbean," McCullar
said. “Warped describes a sense
of humour."
McCullar confessed that he
had received some complaints
but said that they helped keep
him alive and humble.
"I have kept the critical let-
ters-to-the-editor in my scrap
book," he said. “I don't get
many compliments because car
tooning is an anonymous
trade."
Although McCullar gets some
compliments from friends, asso
ciates and people on the staff.
the biggest compliment for him
is to see his cartoon hanging on
someone's bulletin board. It
means they empathized enough
with the cartoon that they
shared his belief.
McCullar's first book — “The
Vest of Warped" — a collection
of his strips is now nearly a year
old. The collection of the best of
Warped was done primarily for
the exposure not the profit,
McCullar said.
Scott McCullar
ByScottMcCuH*
'dp is the sixth yell leader'
by Ann Ramsbottom
Battalion Staff
"I attended Texas A&M over a
hundred years ago and decided
then that that I wanted to be a
cartoonist, so I applied at the
Battalion," said Don Powell, au
thor of dp. "Jim Earl (Slouch) got
the job, and I didn't."
Powell, director of business
services at Texas A&M de
scribed his slow debut into car
tooning in his ever-witty way.
Powell got his first cartoon
into print as a student editor and
cartoonist for “The Commenta
tor", a University publication
for the College of Arts and Sci
ences. He then unsuccesfully
applied for a cartooning position
on The Battalion and later re
verted to one-shot cartoons in
various publications.
It wasn't until 1977 that
Powell began the dp series. His
inspiration to do a sports car
toon came as a result of his
strong support for Aggie sports
and his feelings toward the
sports cartoon that was being
used at the time. Powell felt that
the other cartoon was very poor
ly done.
Thus, dp was born. Though
the character of dp was not to
appear in all of Powell's car
toons, the cartoon series would
run in The Battalion twice a
week during football and bas
ketball seasons.
Powell developed the four
fingered, short-limbed character
whose initials are his own to
look like a cartoon-version of
himself as a kid. But the rest of
his characters have been greatly
influenced by former Dallas
Morning News sports cartoon
ist, Bill McClanahan.
McCLanahan, designated the
"father of the Southwest Con
ference cartoon mascots," illus
trated the league and its teams
in a refreshing style.
The character of dp has de
veloped from Powell's own per
sonal philosophy.
"We never lose," Powell said,
"We just run out of time."
dp is most noted for his strong
Aggie support. His primary pur
pose is to encourage Aggies to
support Aggie athletes.
“dp is kind of an extra yell
leader," Powell said, "maybe
the 6th man on the yell leader
squad.
"Athletics are very important
to a major university," Powell
said. "I'm really concerned that
more people don't come to bas
ketball or baseball games," he
said "We're all family and need
to be there, especially when the
team is outscored. I go to the
games to help the team win —
I'm a part of it."
Powell originally wrote his
cartoon anonymously.
"I've always felt strongly that
there's no telling how much
good you can do if you don't
care who gets the credit."
The biggest drawback with
Powell's original lack of identity
was that he never got any feed
back. Still, today many people
don't know who Don Powell
really is.
“My secretary's major duty is
to tell me what a cute cartoon dp
is each week," Powell said.
Ideas for Powell's cartoon
come rather easily.
"I usually reject more of my
ideas than I use," Powell said.
"As far as the art work, I can
pretty much draw what anyone
else can draw."
Powell explained the time his
cartoon was censored because it
portrayed an Aggie at a psycho
logist's booth, much like Lucy's
booth in peanuts. The cartoon
could not be used because it
looked too much like Schultz's
version.
Powell's favorite cartoon
themes involve the explanations
of how the Aggies can still win
the the championship, no mat
ter how far behind in the confer
ence they are. Powell also en
joys doing cartoon series.
“Drawing the cartoons is
basically hard and intense
work," Powell said. "I wish I
could do it all the time. In fact,
I'd do it eight hours a day if I
could."
Besides being a means of com
municating ideas, cartooning
has become a hobby for Powell.
He explained that at home he
had shelf after shelf of cartoon
books.
"The most satisfaction I get
out of cartooning, however, is
Don Powell
when someone says they en
joyed a cartoon and I made a
good point." Powell said.
“Especially when the comment
is made by an athlete."
Powell concluded that he
might someday put his cartoons
into book form. The year that
the Aggies had a championship
football team — of course.
Frank L. Cristlieb