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Congratulations, everyone. You’ve successfully made it to this, the first Ben & Winslow comic of 2017! And because this is such a momentous occasion–certainly more exciting than presidential inaugurations or whatever movies came out today (seriously, I don’t even know)–I decided to make this comic a collaborative effort with a young up-and-coming cartoonist!
…Okay, so the cartoonist is totally my eldest son, who’s eight.
I’ve been drawing all sorts of comics during my winter hiatus, but I just had the idea for this one last week and decided to run with it. Everything Winslow says in the first four panels was originally written by me and then dictated to my son so he could write it down as he heard it–and I told him I wasn’t going to help him spell anything. So that left us with some amusing spelling and grammatical errors that we both laughed about afterward. Everything else in those first four panels–from Ben’s reactions to the characters’ expressions–were improvised by my son. He’s particularly proud of Ben’s expression in panel four.
After he finished the first four panels, I completed the fifth, leaving a blank space for him to draw Little Winslow. And thus, a new comic was born!
(My main reason for doing this? Aside from it being funny? My son has always been making little cartoons, often with suspiciously Ben & Winslow-esque characters. My wife and I also recently introduced him to Calvin and Hobbes and Get Fuzzy, which he’s been enjoying despite not understanding all of the jokes. This little collaboration was a great way to encourage him.)
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Andrew Kaye (known in some circles as AK) is the creator of Ben & Winslow and other questionable comics, many of which can be found in his deviantART gallery and his Tumblr. He’s also the editor-in-chief of this magazine. Duh.