About the Cartoon

Fred the Plant represented my wilder alter ego, perhaps in the same way that Hobbes is an extension of Calvin's mind.

Fred was a real plant that my freshman roommate had. We kept it on a window and we fed it Dr. Pepper. Nothing could kill Fred.

I started drawing a ton of cartoons, giving Fred a personality and lots of animated style and flare.

Eventually, Fred and I were hardly ever seen in the same panel. In some twisted way, Fred represted the darker side of my life at the time. Some of the cartoons appeared almost susicidal at the time. although that wasn't even on my mind.

The running joke was that if a girl I was interested in wasn't interested in me, and I was out of the running, then perhaps she would find Fred the Plant more attractive.

Perhaps if Fred could outright dispose of Walt, he'd could cut right into the business without being the fall back plan.

Fred disappeared for a few years, as things got happier, and I had little time to write about him. But then one day he popped up, and... Fred was happily involved.

We know my wife does painting, and for a while she would paint people. She wanted to paint me, but never got around to it.

Here we have Fred doing something I'd never do, and the concept of a naked plant was what I thought gave the cartoon its punch.

The idea was that the cartoons didn't actually reflect my life, but rather my life was the catalyst for the original ideas.

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