The Duke of Earwig, The Ambassador Bug

In 1976 shortly after moving to Seattle, I tried selling a comic strip idea to the local weekly (Seattle Sun) and was turned down. My brother Nathan was doing a strip in an Albuquerque weekly that he wanted to drop and proposed I take over. From October 1976 to September 1977 "The Duke of Earwig" appeared in the Seers Rio Grande Weekly.

All drawings and their digital images are copyright David Butler. Please inquire before using them.

01: Appeared week of Oct, 22, 1976


       

My brother Nathan did the cover image for newspaper the week my strip started. That's me in 1977.



02: Appeared Nov, 1976



03:



04:



05:



06:


The Wandering Borzoi first came from a story a friend (Sharon Albanese) asked me to illustrate. I sort of appropriated him for my own uses.



07:



08:


Hips and Shipley, the first spider and snake comedy act, was the strip that my brother Nathan had done for Seers. That would make Nathan and me the human conspirators.



09:



10:


See strip A1 at the bottom for the first take on this strip.



11:



12:



13:



14:



15:


This strip makes reference to a coffee boycott that went on in early 1977. I also used it as a segue to a gypsy reading tea leaves.



16:


Some may recognize a passing resemblence to an Herbal Essence Shampoo commercial. The clock radio was based on one that I picked up at Goodwill and had in my kitchen for years.



17:



18:


I have total respect for Jimmy Carter. I think he has proved himself to be a great human being. But being a recently elected president he lent himself to humor, deserved or not.



19:


This strip shows how Joni Mitchell's 1976 album "Hejira" had affected me.



20:



21:



22:



23:



24:



25:



26:


My brother, Nathan, was visiting me in Seattle when I was working on this strip. I think he did the pencils and I inked and lettered the strip.



27:



28:



29:



30:



31:



32:



33:



34:



35:



36:



37:



38:



39:



40:



41:


The words of the Slave equation (Eep Opp Oop) came from my friend Darcy Ercikson. If I was in the kitchen getting a snack and she said those words, it meant I had to get her a snack as well.

I believe the above was the last strip that made it into the paper before the strip was dropped. I usually stayed about 3 weeks ahead, but in this case was almsot 6 weeks ahead before I heard the news.



42:



43:



44:


I'm going to say it again: Jimmy Carter is a great and giving human being.



45:



46:



47:


Beginnings of the Duke


A1:


This was my first Duke strip drawn while living in Albuquerque. I'm not sure I had any plans for the strip. The gag was shortened and used in strip number 10. I first came up with the Duke of Earwig while living in Eugene Oregon and seeing earwigs for what I think was the first time.

David Butler Online Home page