News Release

Real Life Adventures Celebrates 15 Years

Kansas City, MO  (03/24/2006)  As the adage reminds us, “It takes one to know one.” When it comes to average Joes, nobody knows them better than Lance Aldrich and Gary Wise.

Aldrich and Wise, long-time cohorts, advertising partners and self- proclaimed “prototypical schmos,” are the sardonic voices who bring the panel Real Life Adventures to the comic pages of more than 200 newspapers every day. As they celebrate their 15th anniversary this year of syndication, the duo admits that they remain as average as ever.

One day, when there was apparently nothing to do at the ad agency they worked for, the two men realized their shared boredom with the comics in the paper. They set out immediately to try their own hand at cartooning, thinking that surely even a couple of fairly bright professionals like them could produce something better than what was currently available. After creating a dozen panels and sending them out to syndicates, the comic panel caught the eye of editors at Universal Press Syndicate, and Real Life Adventures made its premiere on March 24, 1991.

Aldrich and Wise, after working with each other for 21 years, have developed an unconventional approach to collaboration: They stay away from each other. Working together through a series of faxes and phone calls between Aldrich’s home in rural Michigan (he is now retired from the advertising business) and Wise’s office in Detroit, the pair much prefers the detachment of their method to conventional team work.

“We have tried working in the same room and decided it was a bad idea,” remarks Aldrich. “It was like a bad date: You’re stuck staring at each other with nothing to say, and both of you can’t wait for it to be over.”

It is just as well that Wise and Aldrich do not work directly with each other because their approaches to the cartoon are vastly different. Aldrich, a graduate of Michigan State, who writes most of the panels, will sit down for a few hours each day and work on the comic. “My attention span is too short to commit to working on it for too long,” says Aldrich.

Wise, who draws the panels, much prefers the procrastinator’s method. “I spend most of my Sundays behind the drawing table,” says Wise, who graduated from Center for Creative Studies in Detroit.

Cartooning seemed to come naturally to these advertising industry veterans. “They are actually pretty closely linked disciplines,” says Wise. “In fact, there have been times when we have applied comic ideas to ads and vice versa.”

Real Life Adventures became a haven from their careers for the duo. “I would just think of jokes when I couldn’t think about Dodge anymore,” adds Aldrich. “It was a matter of keeping my mind sharp. I guess that jokes and advertising are kind of symbiotic.”

For some cartoonists, inspiration must be sought after. For Aldrich and Wise, inspiration seems to throw itself in their laps every day. “I’ve always amused myself with the tedium of everyday torture,” says Wise, “so it’s pretty easy for me to find ideas in my daily routine.”

Though they admit that the constant pressure can be a bit daunting, the pair always manages to find some aspect of reality that has somehow gone without being mocked. “Even after 15 years, it can be a little scary looking down at a blank page and thinking that you might be all out of creative ideas,” says Aldrich, “but a lot of the time a single word can restart your creative drive.”

Real Life Adventures seems to strike a chord with readers everywhere. The comic is notorious for its “refrigerator appeal.” “It’s the little peculiar things that people respond to,” says Wise. “People can relate to the humor because it’s focuses on the things that people encounter every day.” “I think it’s the greatest compliment that we could receive when people say that the comic is like looking through their window,” adds Aldrich.

Aldrich and Wise are content with the success of Real Life Adventures. “It’s been the opportunity of a lifetime for us. Why would anyone ever want to quit?” says Aldrich. “We just want to keep doing this until people don’t think we’re funny anymore” Adds Wise, “…or until we become senile. Whichever comes first.”

Creator(s): Lance Aldrich and Gary Wise

Contact(s): Kathie Kerr

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