SPRING 2021 17
Bear with Me the old-fashioned way, penciled
on Bristol board and inked with a Winsor &
Newton brush. Over the years my day job has
become more and more computer-based, so I
really love putting pencil to paper for my strip."
While Scott derives different satisfactions from
each of his careers, they aren't completely
separate for him. "I would say my comic strip
art and animation career have overlapped
whenever I work in story. Both require writing,
staging, and clarity to tell a joke."
As for the jokes, they are at the heart of keeping
Bear with Me fresh, and he's always on the lookout
for new material. "When something strikes me as
funny, or I draw a funny sketch or I hear a funny
story, I write all that down. That is a good habit to
get into." But keeping things fresh also requires
another tactic: growing with his characters. "Over
the years … as I know them better, I know how
they will react to situations. Put Molly and Bear in
a kitchen with a bag of flour, and the strip writes
itself because the characters are so real to me.
They don't get stale; they expand."
He adds that creating the strip is something
he needs to do. "An itch that needs to be
scratched. It's also like spending time with old
friends, so there is a pleasant quality to it. Plus,
I have the constant challenge to improve, to
get better, to make the perfect strip."
A curated collection of Scott's comic strips, Bear
with Me (It's Been a Rough Day), will be published
by Hermes Press and feature an introduction
by Jim Davis. It is available at hermes-press.
myshopify.com/products/bear-with-me-pre-order.
opposite page, top: Bob Scott with comic strip sketches; opposite page,
bottom and this page, top: Strips from Scott's syndicated web comic
Bear With Me. this page: Poster for Comic-Con.
F R A M E X F R A M E
