These comics were rendered using a ball-point pen--a method I threw out about five minutes about finishing the second one.

When I invented the vulture "Voltaire," I had named him "Mortimer" and his worm companion "Riggs."  I wanted Mortimer to be sensitive and Riggs to be his exact opposite.

When I added a jackal (see an earlier post), the play on words (Riggs + Mortimer = rigamortis) was over--for the better, I think.  Thus, Mortimer became "Voltaire," and Riggs became "Warren."

This (^) was a characteristic thing that Mortimer would have said, so I finally decided to put the words into the beak of Voltaire.

(Eastern Echo, 30 Mar 2009)

Dr. Spot, however, has a beef with Voltaire for eating her pet flower.  It seems they were both tender-hearted idealists, but in different and conflicting ways.  I had wanted to work this joke into my comic for a long time.

(Eastern Echo, 3 April 2009