Q: Your work is easily as good as most of what's seen on newspaper editorial pages. Have you approached any of the newspaper syndicates, to see if they'd be interested in your work?

FORKUM: So far we've only approached one syndicate. We were fortunate enough to have a contact at a syndicate that I thought was a perfect match for our work, because they had many columnists that our cartoons would compliment. But they turned us down. This was very early on, before we had a lot of work to show. We need to re-submit to them as well as other syndicates, but we've been too busy maintaining our blog and trying sell our self-published book, Black & White World.

COX: Before we tried our hand at editorial cartooning, Allen and I created Captain Speewak!, a daily comic strip that spoofed science fiction/adventure serials. It had ray guns, evil alien empires, idealistic heroes, disembodied tyrants and, of course, a large space ship shaped like a hand.

Sample Captain Speewak! cartoon. Previously unpublished.

None of the syndicates were interested in it. We still have a soft spot for the calamitous endeavor, so every once in a while it pops up in an editorial cartoon (e.g. "Leftists in Space"). Maybe Speewak will see the light of day when there's an audience for goofy space characters who do battle against intergalactic socialism.

Q: Ever think about doing much with color in your cartoons?

COX: When it comes to bold, exaggerated cartooning, color can be a distraction. Black-and-white work seems to have the most emotional possibilities. It's probably why I prefer black-and-white photography--and zebras.

Q: You don't cartoon full-time, so what do you do when you're not cartooning?

COX: I raise gerbils and set them free.

No, actually, I show my paintings at a local gallery and do caricature gigs at many corporate functions.

FORKUM: My background is in graphic design. I'm co-owner and art director of a small newspaper publishing company, which is where John and I first collaborated on cartoons. The newspaper needed a monthly gag cartoon to accompany a humor column in Automotive Reports by a guy named Buster McNutt. That was in 1990 and we've been doing it ever since. By comparison, the Buster cartoons were and are light-hearted: Gorillas in tutus. Amish vs. Technology. Drive-thru plastic surgery. That sort of thing.

Sample cartoon for Automotive Reports and Buster McNutt