This week on Here’s What We Know, our host Gary sits down with the one and only Tim Rickard, the brilliant mind behind the comic strip “Brewster Rockit: Space Guy!” Tim’s humor, storytelling, and passion for cartooning have made his work a staple in newspapers and online. From drawing on restaurant windows as a kid to crafting one of Gary’s daily must-reads, Tim’s journey is as entertaining as his comics. If you’re a fan of comics and storytelling or just need a lighthearted listen, this episode is for you!
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In this Episode:
- How Tim’s early love for drawing and comics like Peanuts and Calvin & Hobbes shaped his path
- The creative challenges and rewards of working on tight deadlines
- The evolution of fan-favorite characters like Brewster and Pam
- How sci-fi icons sneak their way into Tim’s work (yes, we’re talking Captain Kirk and Darth Vader vibes).
- Why flashbacks are one of his secret storytelling weapons.
Quotations:
“I always loved to draw. I love cartooning. So I always wanted to be a cartoonist.” ~ Tim Rickard
“Sometimes I start with the doodle and add the words. Probably more often than not, I start with the words and add the doodles. But I say, usually the words come first, but occasionally sometimes the images come first, and I just got to find the right words to go with it.” ~ Tim Rickard
“Too much coffee, lack of sleep, a combination of the two, that helps. Deadline pressures; you put those three in a mixer together and that’s my creative juice right there.” ~ Tim Rickard
“As far as the flashbacks go, I just want people to know that I’m not making this up. This was a real strip five years ago that I’m calling back to.” ~ Tim Rickard
“It’s great not having to solve things or wrap things up a lot of times. So I’ll get done with a story arc and I won’t even write a finish for it. I’ll just like, yeah, I’ve said all I wanted to say about this and I’ll drop an arc.” ~ Tim Rickard
“I don’t think I could do rocket science without all the new technology that we have, especially like YouTube and videos and stuff, animation that really helps explain a lot of things. I love science, but the thing is I’m not like an expert in science. So I’m learning these things I write about in rocket science. I’m learning them right along with the reader because a lot of these things I researched and they learned about as I was writing. I just had to pick things that interest me and that I find interesting.” ~ Tim Rickard
“The funny thing is I didn’t think I was capable of writing comics. When I was younger, I mean, I loved it and I did it anyway, just simply because I loved it. It looked like so much fun. But the more I did it, the more I kind of started getting better at it.” ~ Tim Rickard
“I thought, you know, if I’m going to get rejected, I might as well get rejected for doing something I want to do rather than doing strips I didn’t really want to do, just I thought would sell and that’s the one that they like, that’s the one they bought.” ~ Tim Rickard
Bio:
Tim Rickard is an award-winning cartoonist, illustrator, and graphic artist for the News and Record in Greensboro, N.C. He is a member of Mensa, which means his remarkably large brain houses all sorts of inane science-fiction facts. He lives in Greensboro, N.C.
Guest Contact Info:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tim-rickard-3a59619/
Read Brewster Rockit: Space Guy! on GoComics or Amazon