News Release

The Argyle Sweater Launches Today with Impressive Client List

Kansas City, MO  (04/07/2008)  “The Argyle Sweater,” a comic panel by Scott Hilburn, makes its premiere today with a list of more than 130 print and Web clients — an impressive number of placements for any new comic.

Some of the newspapers that have signed on to carry the panel include the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Houston Chronicle, Washington Post, Minneapolis Star Tribune and the New York Daily News.

Kyrie O'Connor, Houston Chronicle deputy managing editor for features, said, "Argyle Sweater is refreshing, because it's odd and funny without being snarky.”

The Independent Mail in Anderson, S.C. called “The Argyle Sweater” “irresistible” and “LOL!”

From the time Universal Press Syndicate starting showing the comic panel, people have referred to its similarities with “The Far Side,” by Gary Larson. An early posting on the blog site of Dena Rosenberry, feature editor of the Colorado Springs Gazette reported, “ … many times we hear ‘Such and such is the next Calvin and Hobbes’ or ‘This comic is the next Far Side.’ This may be the next Far Side.”

The Houston Chronicle echoed that sentiment with its coverage stating, “At first glance, Argyle Sweater resembles Far Side, which Gary Larson stopped producing for dailies in 1995, and Hilburn acknowledges similarities in the humor.” The Deseret Morning News, described it as a little edgier than Larson.

"There's no doubt that I was heavily influenced by Larson. He's one of the greats," Hilburn, 36, told the Houston Chronicle in an interview. "Most single panels do get compared to Far Side, and mine is no exception. I also take a lot of influence from the New Yorker cartoonists and the old National Lampoon cartoonists," he said, mentioning Sam Gross, Tom Cheney and Jack Ziegler.

"I want someone who is looking at my panel to see it as a window, and they're looking in this window at the precise moment something silly is going on in another world," Hilburn said.

Hilburn remains humble about his good fortunate although he has achieved something that few new cartoonists right out of the gate rarely accomplish — a calendar deal with Borders even before his syndication started. "I just got lucky. I was at the right place at the right time, and the people who saw it thought it was funny," he says.

First a comic hit online, “The Argyle Sweater,” Hilburn's cartooning career kicked off in the fall of 2006 on the Web group Comics Sherpa, managed by uclick, the sister company of Universal Press Syndicate. Online, he was able to get feedback and network within the cartooning field. In December 2006, he made the jump from Sherpa to gocomics (considered a good step toward print syndication) and was met with rave reviews and Web traffic that rivaled more established features. A short time later, it was placed under development by Universal Press Syndicate.

“Scott’s been making a big pot of humor stew where he stirs together dogs, cats, cops, bees, wolves, game shows, bears, telephones, sports, zebras, nursery-rhyme icons and cavemen, topped off with the occasional evil scientist.What comes out of the pot is a grown-up’s comic inspired and drawn with childlike imagination,” says John Glynn, vice president of rights and acquisition editor for Universal Press Syndicate.

Hilburn has worked most of his adult life creating interactive media for telecommunication companies. He started his career at FlightSafety developing programs for flight simulators, then moved on to MCI where he won a silver award for his work in interactive media. Currently Hilburn works for Fujitsu Networking Communications as a flash developer. This is the Texas native’s first comic strip.

Hilburn has an A.A.S. (digital arts) degree in Computer Animation and Multimedia from the Art Institute of Dallas, a B.A. in Psychology and has worked toward a M.A. in Professional Counseling/Clinical Psychology from Argosy University. Born in 1971 and a single father of two daughters, Hilburn has lived always in the Dallas area.

Creator(s):

Contact(s): Kathie Kerr

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