Before developing his successful comic strip, “Agnes,” Tony Cochran had to take unusual steps to keep doing art.
“I never quit,” Cochran said. “I painted the whole time but also worked at a body shop as my day job. In the shop, I would secretly draw on the undersides of fenders when inspirations couldn’t wait till the evening studio. If you had a Dodge repaired in the 80’s, you might want to pull the panels off and see if you have an original Cochran inside.”
Currently, Cochran writes and draws “Agnes,” a daily comic strip about a “slightly cynical” young girl who faces various childhood problems alongside her best friend, Trout, and her grandmother.
“‘Agnes’ is not like any other comic strip being produced today,” said Lucy Shelton, curator of the Cartoon Library.
“It is different,” Shelton said. “I think it stands alone because she is herself. She has her own voice.”
“It’s very popular,” said the Community Relations Manager at Barnes & Noble where Cochran will be appearing this weekend. “He’s written something that resonates with people.”
Cochran created the character when he ran out of canvas one week and was doodling on regular paper.
“‘Agnes’ showed up more frequently in the margins than other characters,” he said. “I decided to build a strip around her before I knew the odds of it ever making the papers. There are more players on the NBA roster then syndicated cartoonists.”
The character, while not based on anyone in particular, is a conglomeration of people.
“‘Agnes’ is based on every cool woman I’ve ever met,” he said. “All of their insight and confusion and hopes and dreams and incongruity. If you distill that through a middle-aged man like me, it becomes a comic strip.”
Cochran enjoys addressing a wide variety of themes with his strip.
“The themes I enjoy the most in the strip are confrontation with authority, the big idea gone awry, friendship, introspection, spirituality and religion, capitalism, ad infinitum,” he said. “‘Agnes’ tries on themes like most of us try on new pants. They have to fit and not need dry cleaning.”
Becoming a professional artist was always a goal of Cochran’s.
“I always wanted to make a living as an artist even when I was still in high school,” he said. “Sometimes it takes a while to find what your born to do instead of what you want to do.”
Cochran began his artistic career doing painting in the 1970’s that “ran the gamut of many different subjects.”
“The more successful ones were of beautiful women in big hats with a kind of 18th century flavor,” he said. “Some of the others were a bit more quirky. I have one of a lanky fellow being executed with jelly donuts. These didn’t sell as well.”
Cochran, however, was unable to completely support himself with his art and spent 15 years working as a mechanic before developing “Agnes.”
He considers the people in his life to have bigger influences than any particular artist.
“I could name famous artists whose work I admire and cite wonderful paintings that I wish I could emulate, but the truth is, the main thing that influences my art are my relationships with people,” he said. “If you let other art influence your work, it tends to mimic rather than be truthful.”
Cochran said doing a daily strip presents its own unique set of benefits and challenges.
“I enjoy being in the papers every day because I can say I am in the paper everyday,” he said. “It’s a real rush. As far as the work itself, I love to write every morning down by the river. I love to draw little pictures. I love to color Sundays (strip). I do it all the old-fashioned way so that I can still smell burning erasers and spill coffee on my Bristol board.”
Another challenge, he said, is keeping the audience day after day.
“The challenging part of the format is that you are in the paper every day. You have to be good every day or they quit reading,” he said.
The first collection of “Agnes” strips, “Agnes: I’m Far too Young to Look This Hot,” is currently available. Tony Cochran will be doing a lecture and book signing at 2 p.m. Saturday at Barnes & Noble in the Lennox Town Center.
