Funny Picture

This is my very first Hey Arnold comic story, which was done for Nickelodeon Magazine back in 1996.

Even from the beginning of my relationship with Nick Mag, I had the opportunity -- and was encouraged -- to experiment with layouts... always trying to come up with an interesting way to tell the story.

It was always a huge challenge to try to tell a complete story in two pages, so it was really important to find a way to condense the storytelling. In the first panel, I wanted to establish the setting as well as really set up the emotional empathy between Arnold and the goldfish
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The rest of the first page is pretty standard stuff, but on the second page there are two panels that really stand out in my memory. The first one is a wide shot of the Japanese gardens... I really wanted to contrast this scene of openness and peace with the earlier panels that were crowded and confined.

There's no panel border here, and it helps emphasize the openness…


I also like to create a sense of depth wherever possible -- hence the foreground elements and the multilayered background.


The fifth panel on the second page is another one without a panel border. Again, I wanted to emphasize the new-found freedom that the fish has.



My favorite panel in the whole story is the last one; by showing Arnold and Gerald in the reflection of the pool, I was able to keep the emphasis on the most important story point. The irony of the last panel is that as much as the goldfish wanted to be free, it was totally afraid of its new wide-open surroundings. The clever idea that Arnold comes up with is to leave the goldfish in the bowl, and let the fishbowl float around in the beautiful pond.



I got to do about a dozen of these comic strips over the three years that I worked on the show. Supervision by Craig Bartlett, story and art by me, coloring by Steve Lowtwait.

Here’s the whole two-pager:

The Hey Arnold crew gathered in Woodbridge Park for a group photo right after we got our crew jackets in late 1995 or early 1996.

Standing: (L to R) Dave Lyman, Brian Mark, Kurt Dumas, Doug Appleton, Stark Howell, Caesar Martinez, Teale Wang, Donna Smith, Sherm Cohen, Heather Adams, Kelly Crews, Steve Socki, [?], Catherine Simmonds, Derek Drymon

Crouching: (L to R) Antoinette Stella, Karen Shaffer, Kenji Notani, Hugh MacDonald, Joey Paul, Steve Lowtwait, George Chialtas, Robert Cseko, Vito Curcuru, Lisa Fuson, Dawn HersheyRyan Slater, Jim Lara, Tim Parsons

Front: Hey Arnold creator and Fearless Leader Craig Bartlett!

Standing: (L to R) Derek Drymon, Rob Porter, Ted Seko, Bill Hutten, Dan Povenmire, Karin Stover, Mary Harrington, Jay-?, Larry Leichliter

Crouching: (L to R) Jim Lara, Tim Parsons, Miyuki Hoshikawa, Chris Robertson, Tuck Tucker, Chris Hink


Great show, great crew, great learning experience.



Hey Arnold was the first show where I was able to really grow creatively, from Storyboard Revisionist to Director over the course of the first three seasons.
Many from this crew went on to SpongeBob SquarePants (Derek Drymon, Jay Lender, Dan Povenmire, myself, Brad Carow, Teale Wang, Frank Weiss, Clint Bond, Tuck Tucker, Ted Seko)



…and Catdog (Rob Porter, Derek Drymon, George Chialtas)

Tricia Garcia spent the next 13 years directing on King of the Hill, and Caesar Martinez was a designer there, too!

Antoinette Stella became a prime-time TV writer, Producer…most recently Supervising Producer of Law & Order Criminal Intent (one of my favorite shows).

Kurt Dumas, Dan Povenmire and Chris Robertson have had long runs on Family Guy, and of course Dan went on to become co-creator of Phineas & Ferb!

Jamie Mitchell and Kelly James are working on Special Agent Oso for Disney

Lately, Derek Drymon, Kelly Crews, Nick Jennings and Larry Leichliter have been making Adventure Time!


And Hey Arnold creator Craig Bartlett has been making Dinosaur Train with Joe Purdy for Henson/PBS!

     …That’s a lotta talent!
I’m sure I’ve left out a lot, so please remind me in the comments!