Brewster Rockit by Tim Rickard for December 02, 2009

Point, Dr. Mel…

He’s sharp, today.

Chief Sitting Duck have thought: why not go dominate Dirk Raider instead?

Gonna need more than three robots, Doc! What exactly is his job on the ship?

If you’re mad, three is plenty.

“Mad without Power”, I think that describes a majority of people in the world. It certaintly describes most of the people I interact with on a day to day basis.

As Don King used to said about Mike Tyson, Dr. Mel has “Double shock powa !”

“Hey that line is from the Simpson Movie.” D’OH! Time to come clean. I’m Tim Rickard, Brewster’s creator. I tried to remain anonymous here so no one would feel the need to pull any punches. I came up with that line legitimately, but I knew it sounded familiar (that happens a lot). For the life of me I could not remember where I might have heard it. So, I used it. NOW I remember. I did see the movie. After over five years of doing this strip this has probably happened more often than I’d care to know. I’ve even inadvertently ripped myself off (Once used the same gag twice, never remembering having used it the year before) And I’ve seen this happen to other cartoonists. (I’ve even seen ideas from my strip used before) And sadly, it probably will happen to me again. I can say no cartoonist would ever intentionally steal material as it would be impossible not to get caught. But, my apologies for this. And for any future miscues. And now, back to your regularly scheduled comments. Rockit-On!

It’s still funny - excellent for a daily chuckle!

OK, now we have to spend the rest of the day (week? month? years?) figuring out if that post is really from Tim or a poser.

The comments certainly sound genuine!

Even if Mel has an army of those things, I have a feeling they’d go down like dominoes during a battle… and the last one would land on Winky.

BTW, does that kid have a last name? If not, how about naming him Winky Aaughmyspleen (and telling people that he’s Welsh)?

“Mad with power” means you can do pretty much what you want. “Mad without power” just means they lock you up in a padded room.

I’d rather be “with power,” thank you.

Nice meeting you, Tim. So, you’ve ruined the whole thing. Now that we know you’re reading the comments, we will all be pulling our punches. Yep, just like we do with Dick Tracy, Brenda Starr, Garfield…

BWA-HA-HA-HA-HA-AH!!!

Wow, Rickard has the name of my favorite character for his username! That’s cool!

It’s nice hearing your commentary, and hopefully you’ll come back to give us more on your work!

Will you be doing a art book with sketches? You’re style is actually quite detailed compred to other cartoonist, then again, your trying to emulate the pulp-science stories of yester-year.

Sure, you can be noticed if you’re mad without power. That’s why nobody sits near you on the bus and they all keep an eye on you.

“I’m mad. You’re mad. We’re all mad.”

“Dr. mel”, that happens to authors a lot, too. One of my favorites, Christopher Moore has run into that problem, and discussed it on his blog. Writers of all kinds are very sensitive to the phenomonon. It’s a matter of their integrity, after all. And most want people to know they don’t do it on purpose, just like you. Probably happens to song writers, too.

Time was, dr.mel, when borrowing ideas from others was not only allowed, it was encouraged as a form of tribute to the source. Somewhere along the way, the otherwise good idea of “intellectual property” has become subverted into a servant of a desire for absolute novelty - the joke there being that in the end, “there is nothing new under the sun”.

Anyway, it’s good to hear at last from the creator of this strip. But if you think that’ll change anything in our comments, think again. If anything, we’ll be more eager than ever to comment. BWA-HA-HA-HA-HA, indeed. :))

Ariel Baron: Your request for more material reminded me that a few years ago, we were entertained at a corporate event by Scott Adams, creator of Dilbert. He was a HUGE hit, especially when he showed us the strips that never make it past his syndicate censors. What a HOOT! He also told us about the ONE time that Dilbert appeared with his tie not rolled up in the front. Scott was not the polished presenter but he was actually more popular than Colin Powell who appeared later at that same event.

Roger: I seem to recall something about when Dilbert’s tie became unrolled, it was a signal that he had finally lost his…ummm….innocence. True?

Tim Rickard, if that is really you then thanks. If not, then no thanks.

I’m pretty sure that’s Tim. In the past he’s given us links to strips he thought wouldn’t show up here but did show up elsewhere.

for those of you who need more evidence, just click on Dr. Mel’s name and it will take you to his profile page. There, click on his past comments. Many mysteries will be solved!

So, Dr Mel is the real deal. It’s nice to know that the Creator reads our comments. And, no, we’re not going to pull any punches, Tim, knowing that you’re reading our every thoughts.

Touche

“You on it, Melly Mel!!!”

That’s the way it is around me.