The Man Behind Hagar

Bud Jones has been making thousands of people laugh every day for over 50 years. He was born in January of 1927 and is one of the world’s best cartoon gag writers; he is also my grandfather. Bud created his own comic strip called Mr. Abernathy and ran the strip for 30 years.  For the past 25 years he has been the head writer for the syndicated comic strip Hagar the Horrible, which currently appears in 1,900 newspapers in 45 countries.  His daily gags are translated into thirteen different languages.

“I grew up in Salem, Ohio, but then I got tired of the small towns so I moved to Euclid Ohio,” he said jokingly. “I always wanted to be a cartoonist and I admired the writings and drawings in the cartoon Peanuts, created by Charlie Schultz. So I drew as much as I could and I did some cartooning when I was in high school. But I started to do it seriously after I got out of college and got out of the Navy. I got a job in Cleveland at an art studio and began freelancing cartoons.” He crossed his legs and leaned back in his chair. “Finally I decided that New York was the place for cartooning – all of the syndicates and magazines were there so I went up to New York to go to Cartoonist and Illustrators school. During the night I tried to sell advertising cartoons to magazines. That’s how it all started.”

He sat up, took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes. “The first thing with a comic strip is you have to know the characters and how they would react under any circumstance. Through experience and knowing the characters, I know Hagar the Horrible and how he would react to his wife, to his children, and to the world.”

“I love all of the characters and I try to show my life through some of them.” He smiled and his turquoise eyes squinted. “A lot of my gags are actually based on real-life situations,” he said.  “For example, we had a pet Parrot for several years and our interaction with the Parrot gave me inspiration for a lot of jokes.”  In one gag, Helga (Hagar’s wife) asks Polly (the Parrot) why she’s been moping around for months.  Polly responds with:  “I HATE my name! ‘Polly’ is such a cliche name for a parrot” then “Why couldn’t you have named me Emily, Jennifer, or Alexandra?!”, which are the names of his grandchildren. Bud feels that this helps “make the cartoons come to life when they are based off people you know.”

“I’ve been writing for Hagar the Horrible for 25 years as the only writer.  That means 365 gags a year have to be written and printed,” he said nodding his head. “I write ten ideas a week and then I submit them to the editor and she chooses seven of the gags to be drawn up and reproduced. He closed his eyes to focus. “It then goes to Chris Browne who lives out in the Midwest and he draws the comic strip in pencil. Then he sends it to Dick Hodgins who is a cartoonist who lives in Wilton. He inks the comic strip, lettering, and the balloons.  He in turn sends it to the King Features Syndicate and they print it and distribute it to all the papers that carry Hagar.”

“It’s a very wonderful profession.  Its the best job in the world and I love being my own boss.” He coughed into his elbow and continued on. “With cartoons becoming less and less popular because people can just go online to read the paper now, I hope that the young cartoonists are able to have all of the opportunities I was able to have.”

    He leaned back in his chair and gave out a long sigh, “I just hope that in everyone's busy lives, the people who read Hagar can laugh a little bit.”