How to Be Funny: An Interview with Speed Bump Cartoonist Dave Coverly

HOW TO BE FUNNY

An Interview with SPEED BUMP Cartoonist Dave Coverly

BY KAREN DAY

A dog walks into a bar….

But wait! Dogs don’t walk into bars…

Of course, they do if you are cartoonist Dave Coverly. In his comical anthropomorphic universe, the canines, felines, and bovines exhibit more wit and self-deprecating humor than your best drinking buddies. Animals say the funniest things in Speed Bump cartoons and usually, we humans suffer the brunt of the joke.

Coverly, 56, is a born and bred Michigan man of unexpectedly serious thoughts in person. Perhaps, this can be attributed to the fact he channeled a double major in writing and philosophy into an unlikely day job as a single-panel cartoonist. This is a quixotic endeavor that requires a daily quest to create one 4 x 4 inch square that inspires thousands of readers to laugh. At themselves. Seven days a week. In 400 newspapers, including The Washington Post and Los Angeles Times. That’s some sobering math365 laughs a year, plus books, like his newest, “Cats are People Too”. Then again, as Coverly points out, what other

something I want to say. It’s not like I draw a dog walking into a bar and then think of something hysterical for him to say. The humor is metaphoric.” In other words, Coverly’s animals not only walk into bars, they speak in metaphors. But one thing they are not is political. “I can dabble in certain social issues without being too partisan. Right now, I’d really like to be more political, but people don’t open the comics page to see my personal opinions. They read comics to get a rest from editorial commentary. Still, why bother if the cartoon isn’t saying something purposeful? It’s a tough job telling the truth without making people mad,” says Coverly. Ironically, it was the pinnacle of incendiary cartoons, The New Yorker, that seduced Coverly into social commentary as art. “I started drawing for my high school newspaper. My journalism teacher brought in The New Yorker and suggested I take a serious look. The brilliance tipped me over into the realization that a great cartoon can deliver an ugly truth gently, with a smile,” Coverly explains. profession would a man who speaks for Serious- there’s that word again. intelligent animals be suited for? Gentle is another word Coverly uses

“A cartoon is not a stupid joke,” says more than once to describe his work. Coverly. “I start with an idea about “It’s a full-time job. Every day, I go to 36 www.idahomemagazine.com my office and start with an idea –(i.e. like an international affairs pedagogue who has never traveled that morphs into a cow cartography cartoon on the opposite page)- I gently push my thoughts in that direction. I call it purposeful daydreaming and my daily ritual. Did you know Beethoven used to get up every day, walk by the river, compose from 2pm-5, and then get drunk. That was his ritual. My point is- I’m not walking around the grocery store and BAM! An idea about a neurotic squirrel hits me and I run home and draw a great cartoon,” Coverly shrugs. “Besides, I’m not even that funny.”

Thousands of loyal readers of Speed Bump cartoons are sure to disagree. Seriously.

Dave Coverly’s work was named “Best in Newspaper Panels” by the National Cartoonists Society in 1995, 2003, and 2014. In 2009, the same organization gave him its highest honor, the prestigious Reuben Award for “Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year.” Coverly’s cartoons have also appeared in The New Yorker, USA Today, The New York Times, Newsweek, Esquire, Ranger Rick, Jr., and have been a regular feature in Parade.

SPECIAL THANKS to Dave Coverly for sharing his cartoons with IdaHome readers! Check out more of his bestselling humor at www.speedbump.com