Poison Ivy Gulch

Welcome back, everyone! We had quite a month here in the gulch.

Our performance on Top Webcomics was exemplary. Every since our launch back in June, we have finished in the Top 500 rankings out of tens of thousands of entries and for October 2020, we finished in the TOP 400! That is incredible. Of course, I’ve been getting some hate mail recently saying that Top Webcomics is a fake website with their rankings being false; that site looks very real to me.

Speaking of mail, let’s get to the good stuff – MORE FAN MAIL! We got more mail on the recent stagecoaches so I’ll share them.

This first one is a postcard with a postmark from Denver, Colorado and this one reads: Hey, love your comic Poison Ivy Gulch. I sure miss Old West stuff. Mayor Sidewinder is a hoot. He looks like my third grade science teacher. Keep on drawing!!! Bob

Thanks, Bob, but I do assure you that any resemblance between Mayor Samuel Sidewinder and your teacher is a coincidence. In fact, any resemblance between Mayor Sidewinder and a competent mayor is a coincidence! Anyway, moving on, our next letter is from Sam out in Frankfort, Kentucky.

This one reads: I have to say I really enjoy your work. Dominic & Claire Circus is my favorite print book you’ve put out so far but I’m really looking forward to seeing Poison Ivy Gulch its own book too. I’m not sure if I really have a “favorite” character from P.I.G. but Lotta Doler and Mayor Sidewinder are the characters that really stand out to me. You have a real skill for comic strip story telling and I for one am looking forward to reading more of your work in the years to come. [sic]

Also enclosed was art of some kind of orc/goblin/ogre thing. He’d probably intimidate anyone in the saloon, even without six-guns or a Winchester. We have time for one more letter so here we are. This one isn’t actually a letter.

This one is art from Brenda in New Jersey. There’s writing on the back which reads: From one creator to another – Friendship through Art. Keep up the laughs & fun & enjoy this personal piece just for you friend.

Thanks for all the mail! Anyone wanting to send fan mail? Yyou can email me at poisonivygulch(at)aol(dot)com  or you can write snail mail to:

Poison Ivy Gulch, c/o DIFFERENT MOUSETRAP PRESS, 1100 19th Avenue N, #108, Unit J, Fargo ND 58102-2269

Be sure to vote for us on Top Webcomics and if you like my work, buy me a Ko-Fi!

Well, that’s all! See you back here in 30 days!

Welcome back, readers!  Just tie up your horse to the hitching rack and rest yourself a spell.  We got a lot to discuss today here in the writer’’s shack.  Now that we are well into the run of Poison Ivy Gulch, I might as well tell you more about how this comic strip came to be.

The main inspiration for Poison Ivy Gulch was the newspaper comic strip Tumbleweeds, published from 1965 to 2007 by T.K. Ryan (1926-2019).  Like Poison Ivy Gulch, Tumbleweeds is set in the Old West.  I noticed that there were very few Western genre comics out there so I decided to fill the gap.  In terms of art, the great newspaper comic Peanuts was the biggest influence.  My overall style of drawing is very simple; it is more iconic than realistic.  The cast of Poison Ivy Gulch is drawn simply and the backgrounds are quite sparse, much like Peanuts.  The reason?  The characters are the focus; drawing complex backgrounds is not only time-consuming but it would distract from the cast.  

The really big influences on Poison Ivy Gulch were probably the Wizard of Id (Johnny Hart & Brant Parker) and Beetle Bailey (Mort Walker).  While those strips have a simple art style much like mine, the real inspiration is the gimmick itself: Beetle Bailey isn’t a funny strip about the army – it’s ABOUT funny people in the army.  The Wizard of Id isn’t a funny strip about the Middle Ages – it’s about funny people in the Middle Ages.  In the same way, Poison Ivy Gulch is more about funny people in the Old West.

Also, something came in recently on the last stagecoach;  it’s our first fan letter.  This comes from a Chris Gobbett and I’ll share it here:

This comic is great, a classic throwback to the classic era of comics.  I can see influences from some of the great comics of that era like Tumbleweeds and Wizard of Id.  The artistic style and quick punchlines are reflective of that era.  I especially like Hermann the German, the hangman, he reminds me of the classic prison guard from Wizard of Id, taking a dark tone and contrasting that with levity is the brilliance of this comic.  Great comic, hope to see many more in the future. 

If you have a fan letter you want to send in, I might share it here.  As a reminder, I reserve the right to edit any mail made public for clarity and content.  You can email me at poisonivygulch(at)aol(dot)com or if you want to send snail mail, you can do so at:

POISON IVY GULCH

℅ Different Mousetrap Press LLC

1100 19th Avenue N, #108

Unit J

Fargo ND 58102-2269

Be sure to vote for us on Top Webcomics and if you like my work, buy me a Ko-Fi!

Well, that’s it for now.  See you back here in 30 days!