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Chatting with Sam Hendersonby Edward Carey

September 2008

Sam Henderson has been working on the comic strips Magic Whistle andScene But Not Heard since 1993. The Magic Whistle started off as a self-published strip, collected into books by Henderson, and now published by AlternativeComics. Scene But Not Heard is Nickelodeon Magazines longest-running comicstrip, a wordless strip about two characters that are noteasily described.

I never had names for the characters, and I'm not evensure of the species of the animal character. When Idiscuss the strips with my editors, we usually refer tothem as man and bear, said Henderson.

Like so many cartoonists, Henderson started out doingself-published mini-comics, but was creating them at theage of twelve in his hometown of Woodstock, NY. Hepublished a book called Captain Spaz with friendBobby Weiss up until he left for New York City to go tothe School of Visual Arts. They published a few issuesafter he left, but then lost touch.

During high school, they distributed comics through akind-of phantom network which included Small Press

Comics Explosion, a nationwide magazine distributed through comic shops thatspecialized in showcasing and exposing small press comic books and fanzines.

They had other people in high school doing zines, so wed trade with some of them.They were mostly superhero parodies, but I think everybody outgrew thateventually, said Henderson.

He liked superheroes, but was more influenced by Mad magazine and undergroundcomics like Robert Crumb and Gilbert Shelton.

There was a store nearby where the person would sell underground comics to

minors, said Henderson.

Henderson also had an affinity for Tex Avery cartoons and Peanuts. As anelementary school student, he borrowed so many Peanuts books from the librarythat they initiated a rule that you could only take out 3 books at a time.

Man and Bear from Scene ButNot Heard

http://www.indyworld.com/henderson/http://www.indyworld.com/altcomics/index.htmlhttp://www.indyworld.com/altcomics/index.htmlhttp://lambiek.net/artists/c/crumb.htmhttp://www.indyworld.com/henderson/http://www.indyworld.com/altcomics/index.htmlhttp://www.indyworld.com/altcomics/index.htmlhttp://lambiek.net/artists/c/crumb.htm

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He created a character in college called MonroeSimmons, what he liked to call a hypotheticalautobiography. I guess Monroe Simmons is/wassimilar in the same way Charlie Brown was likeCharles Schulz. I had him working at an office

without ever saying what he actually did. In some ofthe earlier strips he was an aspiring cartoonist but Ieventually lost that. There never was a girl at theoffice to have a crush on like in some of the strips,said Henderson.

The office Henderson worked at in real life was atThe Daily Freeman in Kingston, NY, where heworked in the composing room back in 1989 betweensemesters at the School of Visual Arts. He used x-actoblades and border tape to cut and paste pages and ads,

putting together the layout of the paper, and shootingstats of pictures, all of which is now done oncomputers with programs like Quark and Photoshop.

I learned more that summer than I did all four years at art school, even though itsnow obsolete. What I learned about was what went into production of a publication. Idon't think the composing room even existed a few years after I left, said Henderson.

He began doing Magic Whistle as a mini-comic in 1993 and Alternative Comicstook over publication of the books in 98, deciding that it would be a regular comicsold in stores, a real quote-unquote comic with color covers and slicker paper.Alternative Comics was founded by Jeff Mason, a criminal defense attorney inGainesville, Florida.

Even after 15 years, Henderson never tires of the strip because hes given the freedomto work at his own pace and come up with new ideas.

If I do try something else, thats just the next issue of Magic Whistle. Its justwhatever I feel like doing and once I have enough for an issue, a new issue comes outabout every year or so. Jeff Mason is pretty generous in that department, but the onlything is, I do all the production work myself. Its a pretty good trade-off, because hepublishes a lot of the work kind of sight unseen. He also has a lot of enthusiasm forcomics and publishes a lot of stuff that otherwise doesnt get seen. Hes publishedpeople like James Kochalka and Dean Haspiel, who have gone on to bigger and betterthings, said Henderson.

Latest issue of Magic Whistle

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He plans to go back to 32-page issues so that hes notforgotten about.Initially, I thought they'd give me more credibility in thebook world, but they've actually kept me out of the publiceye since they come out less often. So, when I do a bad

issue (like when you finally get someone to watch a TVshow and they end up seeing the worst one, reaffirmingthe negative impression they've always had) another onewill come along, said Henderson.

In 2000, Henderson found work in animation, writingscripts and doing storyboards for SpongebobSquarepants.

I went to college with a guy who was the creativedirector for Spongebob Squarepants and he had been

following my work since then, even though we had beenout of touch. He was a big fan of Magic Whistle, so hehired me to work on [Spongebob] for a few months.The final animation was done in Korea and it requiredsending finished drawings for the Korean animators to work from, said Henderson.

When asked how doing storyboards differed from drawing comics, Henderson said itwas hard to imitate someone elses style.

Doing something like a licensed property forces you to imitate somebody elsesstyle, which is kind of harder for me. I equate it with, I suppose Robert Crumb had aghost writer and the strips had to look exactly like he had done them. I believe youcan do stick figures and as long as everything is placed right and recognizable thatsfine, but a lot of people in animation disagree, said Henderson.

Henderson has also drawn Hanna Barbera characters for DC, like Yogi Bear and TheJetsons, after the Hanna Barbera library was acquired by the Cartoon Network.

Cartoons from the past 40 years or so, I havent been into. I used to rush home everyday, up until high school, to watch Warner Bros. cartoons, said Henderson.

He almost got a job with Adult Swim and even wrote a spec script for Sealab 2021.Apparently, I didnt work there. Maybe I dont get stoned as much as then. Also,they tried to keep as low budget as possible. I met some of the people who worked onthe shows there. They have crews of about four or five people. Usually, with showsits a crew of about 50 people, said Henderson.

As Henderson said, a crew usually consists of writers, storyboard artists, trafficcoordinators, the creators, and their assistants. The animation is done in Korea orother countries where the standard of living is such that $5-10/hr is middle-class.

First issue of Magic Whistle

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He likes some of the Adult Swim cartoons, but gratuitous violence in and of itself asa joke has never done much for me. I like some of their stuff, like redubbing some oftheir old cartoons. They should have done fewer episodes than they actually did.

When hes not working on Magic Whistle or Scene But Not Heard, he doesfreelance work as well, though many of the venues where he obtained work are notaround anymore.

Sometimes it's hard to make ends meet so I have to have a temp job to make endsmeet. I just finished illustrating a book of poems based on SAT words for a subsidiaryof Highlights and will have a 'Scene But Not Heard' collection, both of which arecoming out next year, said Henderson.

From Scene But Not Heard

from Scene But Not Heard