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Interview #759: Theoryland: An Hour with Harriet McDougal Rigney, Entry #17
Matt Hatch
So after you had left the home, obviously your mother couldn’t stop you from going to the drugstores to pick up those comics later on. What authors did you read in that genre?
Harriet McDougal
Well, I loved Stephen King, of course, and Ramsey Campbell. K.W. Jeter and I worked on some of his stuff, and he gave me credit for turning him around for horror, that that was what he should be writing. I haven’t read any in a while. Tomorrow I’ll wake up remembering lots of other names. And I also came out of childhood with a real love for cartoons and comics. My best friend’s mother was very cute, and when I was nine, she would say now, “Explain this cartoon in The New Yorker to me.” So I had this tremendous ego boo about cartoons. And I did edit cartoons—cartoon collections—at Tempo, and I loved that.
Matt Hatch
What were your favorite strips?
Harriet McDougal
Well I loved Hagar the Horrible , which was new at that point, and Tempo had Beetle Bailey —that was the one that sold best and I paid the most for—and I liked the guy who was selling rights to King Features. At one point, we had a lunch that lasted a long time, and he called me the next morning. He said, “Harriet, did I leave a package with you at lunch?” And I said, “No, I’m sorry John; you didn’t.” And we were talking later, and I said, “Did you find that package you lost?” He said, “Yeah, I left it at my bookie’s.” (laughter) So anyway, then along comes the sell piece for Hagar the Horrible , to pitch the strip, and I called up—and I was supposed to go through a rigamarole getting approval for what I bought, and how much I was to spend—and I just called this guy up, and said, “John, I’ll pay you what I’m paying for Beetle .” And then I said I’d done it. Fire me; I don’t care. And of course it was wonderful. And so Dik Browne came and called on me, and I said, “Oh hi, how nice to meet you!” And he said, “Well, nice to meet you! I have come to take you out!” And he took me to a wonderful—The Palm restaurant which was covered with drawings by cartoonists, that is they scrawled all over the plaster. It was fun, and I love cartoons.
Matt Hatch
Still today?
Harriet McDougal
Yeah, I do. I do.
Matt Hatch
I grew up on cartoons, and Hagar the Horrible .
Harriet McDougal
It’s wonderful. Chris Browne isn’t as good as his father was. It’s okay, but not what it was.
Matt Hatch
I’m partial to Calvin and Hobbes .
Harriet McDougal
Yes! Absolutely. Bloom County ?
Matt Hatch
My kids don’t have the same appreciation any more, for cartoons. It’s a different world. I mean, it’s probably my fault, for not offering it to them…
Harriet McDougal
What, for not locking them in cages? (laughter) Times change.
Matt Hatch
Yeah, that’s right. I mean, cartoons are different; they’re 24/7 now, and we don’t get a weekly newspaper…it’s not the same.
Harriet McDougal
I like Pearls Before Swine . Do you get that? It’s a newspaper strip. It’s funny.
Matt Hatch
No. I’ll have to look it up.
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