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Brad Guigar (born April 9, 1969) is an American cartoonist who is best known for his daily webcomic ''Greystone Inn'' and its sequel ''Evil Inc.''


Early life

Brad Guigar was the eldest of five children and grew up in Bad Axe, Michigan. He attended
Alma College Alma College is a private liberal arts college in Alma, Michigan. It enrolls approximately 1,400 students and is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission. Alma College is affiliated with the Presbyterian Church (USA) and offers bachelor ...
where he received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree before he moved to Canton, Ohio to work for the newspaper
The Repository ''The Repository'' is an American daily local newspaper serving the Canton, Ohio area. It is currently owned by Gannett. History Historically, the newspaper had strong Republican connections, most notably with President William McKinley, who wa ...
as a graphic artist and
editorial cartoonist An editorial cartoonist, also known as a political cartoonist, is an artist who draws editorial cartoons that contain some level of political or social commentary. Their cartoons are used to convey and question an aspect of daily news or curren ...
. He left
The Repository ''The Repository'' is an American daily local newspaper serving the Canton, Ohio area. It is currently owned by Gannett. History Historically, the newspaper had strong Republican connections, most notably with President William McKinley, who wa ...
and moved to
Akron, Ohio Akron () is the fifth-largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Summit County. It is located on the western edge of the Glaciated Allegheny Plateau, about south of downtown Cleveland. As of the 2020 Census, the city prop ...
and worked for the Akron Beacon Journal. He formerly worked at the Philadelphia Daily News and is married with two children. Guigar wrote and illustrated ''The Everything Cartooning Book'' (2004), contributed to the book ''How To Make Webcomics'' (2008), wrote its sequel ''The Webcomics Handbook'' (2013), and maintains the site Webcomics.com.


Career


''Greystone Inn''

''Greystone Inn'' premiered on the Web on February 14, 2000. Later that year, the strip was added to the Keenspot line-up of webcomics. After updating daily for over five years, Guigar took his comics, including ''Greystone'' to Blank Label Comics. ''Greystone Inn'' appeared in the Philadelphia Daily News, the
Turlock Journal The Turlock Journal is a newspaper in Turlock, California. It is owned by 209 Multimedia. The Journal was a daily newspaper until 2004, when it was reduced to twice-weekly publication. It has a paid circulation of approximately 4,000. The managi ...
, the Stanford Daily and
The Maine Campus ''The Maine Campus'' is a weekly newspaper produced by the students of the University of Maine in the United States. It covers university and Town of Orono, Maine, Orono events, and has four sections: News, Opinion, Culture and Sports. It serves t ...
. Selected ''Greystone Inn'' strips on graphic design also appeared in the '' Computer Arts'' magazine every issue. Guigar makes money off his syndications by offering ''Greystone Inn'' for syndication at a certain rate, with a lower rate offered for college papers. ''Greystone Inn'' has had a spin-off comic written and drawn by Brad Guigar named ''Mondays With Mel''. It featured an old comedian named Mel who had been introduced in ''Greystone Inn'' as an old friend of Argus's. It worked by Mel setting up a joke and then allowing the audience to provide punchlines with the best one being featured in the strip. Since Guigar left Keenspot, ''Mondays With Mel'' has been on hiatus and is no longer available online. In May 2005 Guigar ended Greystone Inn and began a spin-off, Evil Inc., which focuses on a company of super-villains. Evil Inc. retains several Greystone Inn characters and has a similar style.


''Courting Disaster''

''Courting Disaster'' is a single panel cartoon about love, sex, and dating. It originally appeared every Friday in the Philadelphia Daily News accompanying a sex advice column. In 2015 ''Courting Disaster'' was revived for occasional release as a Not Safe For Work comic available to certain Patreon subscribers.


''Phables''

''Phables'' was a comic strip about life in
Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...
that appeared bi-weekly in the Philadelphia Daily News from 2006 to 2009. In May 2007 the strip was named "Best Local Column" by the Philadelphia chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. Later in 2007, the strip was nominated for the Eisner Award for Best Digital Comic, eventually losing to Steve Purcell's Sam & Max.


''Evil Inc.''

A spin-off from Guigar's previous project, '' Greystone Inn'', ''Evil Inc.'' debuted on the web on June 22, 2005. The strip chronicles the schemes and adventures of the eponymous Evil Incorporated, a business run by supervillains. One of the launch strips for Blank Label Comics until becoming part of the Halfpixel lineup, it appeared daily in
newspaper A newspaper is a Periodical literature, periodical publication containing written News, information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as p ...
s until 2015. Artistically, Evil Inc. initially followed the form of most newspaper comics with black and white line-art style, shades of gray used sparingly. The Strip has since begun using color. Most strips are formed of a series of panels which use a multitude of
camera angle The camera angle marks the specific location at which the movie camera or video camera is placed to take a shot. A scene may be shot from several camera angles simultaneously. This will give a different experience and sometimes emotion. The diff ...
s. The comic follows a strong story arc. In one, the corporation was bought, and subsequently brought to financial ruin, by the Legion of Justice (a
parody A parody, also known as a spoof, a satire, a send-up, a take-off, a lampoon, a play on (something), or a caricature, is a creative work designed to imitate, comment on, and/or mock its subject by means of satiric or ironic imitation. Often its sub ...
of the
Justice League The Justice League (also known as The Justice League of America) are a team of superheroes appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The team first appeared in ''The Brave and the Bold'' #28 (March 1960). The team was conceived b ...
and similar teams). However, the ruination of Evil, Inc. has also spelled doom for the Legion. Each strip maintains a self-contained joke, and the comic frequently parodies superhero comics and often uses
pun A pun, also known as paronomasia, is a form of word play that exploits multiple meanings of a term, or of similar-sounding words, for an intended humorous or rhetorical effect. These ambiguities can arise from the intentional use of homophoni ...
s. Saturday strips are usually unconnected to weekday strips (the strip does not update on Sundays) and include such themes as Evil Inc. character profiles called "Personnel Files" (which describe a specific Evil Inc. character, usually one featured in the previous week), customer service calls fielded by Lightning Lady (who answers the phone "Evil Inc., how may I harm you?", previously "How may I misdirect your call?"), or, recently, various characters approaching a door that has been altered to complement the sign next to it (for example, the December 4, 2010 strip shows a door labeled "Office of Bizarro"; in this strip, the doorknob is placed next to the door rather than on it). Evil Inc was nominated for the 2007 Web Cartoonist's Choice Awards in the category of Outstanding Superhero/Action Comic.


Webcomics.com

Webcomics.com is a paywalled website run by Guigar as a place for advice, discussing and job information relating to cartoons.


Charitable work

As a member of Alternative Brand Studios, Brad Guigar ran the AltBrand 2002 MDA Webcomic Telethon. It featured over 20 comic artists and raised $850. As a founding member of Blank Label Comics, Guigar also spearheaded the 2005 Webcomic Telethon for Hurricane Relief that raised an estimated $28,635 for the American Red Cross response to hurricanes Katrina and Rita.


References


External links


''Greystone Inn''

''Courting Disaster''

''Evil Inc.''

''Phables''

The Webcomic Telethon for Hurricane Relief
{{DEFAULTSORT:Guigar, Brad American webcomic creators Alma College alumni Artists from Akron, Ohio Living people 1969 births People from Bad Axe, Michigan