Sep 16, 2017

EDITORIAL | Scribbles "Officially" Turns 38

It doesn't seem possible that it was 38 years ago, on Labour Day weekend,  I sat down with a doodle pad, crayons, a pen and an idea. Make a digest sized magazine for my sister Jane to help her with school stuff like math and spelling and mix it in with stories and activities featuring Jim Henson's Muppets.

I was pretty good at drawing them and created stories (in tabloid style) featuring made-up adventures featuring Miss Piggy & Kermit (who got married and had three kids, Peter, Patricia & Pam who ran away to New York a lot ) plus Rowlf, Fozzie Bear and others.

Soon the math and other school related content was replaced with comics and stories about Jane, my family and friends. The Muppets stopped being a part of Scribbles as Jane was growing up and more people were reading each edition (a single copy magazine that you would read and give back to me. I would then bring it to someone else and so on.)

We started printed multiple copies of Scribbles in 1990 and at its peak we had a circulation of 60. That was 60 family members and friends who received a copy of Scribbles Magazines, which I had created, printed, collated and delivered. If I decided to colour a photo, graphic or headline text, it was done on every single copy. 60 times colouring a photo or highlighting text. I didn't want anyone to go to another Scribbles pal's home and discover that the friend's copy of Scribbles was coloured but the one they had received wasn't. There'd be none of that in Scribblesland.  It was all or nothing.

Our last multi-copy edition of Scribbles Magazine was printed in 1996. After a brief hiatus, Scribbles resurfaced. This time online in the format of a newsletter which was emailed to family and friends. I am not certain exactly when we became a website because this is Scribbles second site. It has been created using Blogger since 2011. Prior to that time, we used Piczo to create Scribbles.

Labour Day weekend was our official 38th anniversary, which means we can now say Scribbles is in its 39th year. Absurd! Who'd a thunk it??  Certainly not me, when I stayed up late watching the Jerry Lewis MD Telethon while creating the first Scribbles (then called Sunny Digest)

Here's to another year of Scribbles....created for you and all about you since September 1979.