FULL CIRCLE: Valley cartoonist’s Tundra Comics to appear in his hometown paper

PALMER — Monday afternoon Chad Carpenter sat in his Alaska State Fair booth surrounded his Tundra Comics merchandise. But that’s not all that’s on Carpenter’s agenda this week. Carpenter, the Valley’s most noted cartoonist, will see his Tundra Comics appear in his hometown newspaper, the Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman, for the first time.

There will be a launch party at Bearpaw River Brewing Company Thursday from 5 to 7 p.m.

“I’m really pleased that we are able to add Chad Carpenter’s “Tundra Comics” to the Frontiersman Sunday edition,” Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman Publisher Dennis Anderson said. “I had quite a few readers ask me to publish his comic strip but because of contractual obligations we couldn’t in the past. We were able to work through that hurdle.”

On Monday Carpenter was his booth, selling and signing Tundra comics and merchandise, including calendars and board games at the Alaska State Fair in his usual spot. He unveiled his booth at the fair two years after launching Tundra Comics. A lot has happened since then. Now, alongside books filled with mischievous cartoon animals are live action movies locally made in Carpenter’s stomping grounds with the help of a quirky but enthusiastic community with varying talents and resources. “Moose the Movie” and “Sudsy Slim Rides Again” seemed to have made quite the buzz around the Valley and Carpenter wants to make more movies if possible.

“I like to do things that people can relate to, either as humans or from around here,” Carpenter said.

The Anchorage Daily News was the first paper to pick up Carpenter. Now, Tundra Comics prints in about 650 newspapers across the U.S. The strip was born right here in the Valley in 1991, after Carpenter found himself in the “right place at the right time.” Sometime after graduating from Wasilla High School, he moved down to Sarasota, Florida, to move in with his uncle. Carpenter worked out of his uncle’s art studio as he was honing his craft.

“It was the best time of my life,” Carpenter said.

As luck would have it, Florida seemed to be quite the epicenter of famous cartoonists like Chris Browne creator of “Hagar the Horrible” and Jim Davis, creator of “Garfield.”

These people were his idols and he had a creative and inspirational hub of sorts around him while he was shaping out his own style.

“A lot of my heroes were down there,” Carpenter said. “The 1980s seemed to be where the cartoonists congealed. I was at the right place at the right time.”

Carpenter said that he still remembers that “ah-ha moment” in his youth, the day he decided to become a cartoonist.

“I remember that emotion,” he said.

He was 10 years old. One day in school, he heard his friend laughing in the background. He asked what was so funny and found, hot off the press, the first edition of Garfield Comics, by Jim Davis. That irreverent, orange cat sunk his claws sunk deep Carpenter’s pre-pubescent heart. He was instantly hooked. Davis was his hero from that day forward and the graphite started rolling.

Now, 40 years later, Carpenter’s classic, single-strip panel, “Play Dead” remade with Garfield’s tail sticking out of the bear’s mouth instead, Jon and Odie in the background yelling, “Play dead!”

“My little 10-year-old brain would explode,” Carpenter said.

Carpenter eventually met Browne and Davis while he was in Florida and he snagged some good advice from those two and other cartoonists during his time down there.

“That was inspiring,” he said.

During Carpenter’s interview, he was able to answer questions in-between customers.

For a brief moment after a wave of people, a young woman with special needs went up to the booth and saw the brightly colored comics. She accidentally walked away with one and her caretaker ushered her back to the booth, apologizing.

“It’s okay,” Carpenter laughed. “I knew she would be back.”

He signed that book and gave her the book free of charge.

“Don’t worry, I’ll charge the next customer double so I’ll break even,” he laughed.

During the launch party, the first 20 people who walk through door will receive free admission and parking tickets to the Alaska State Fair and a grand prize for two tickets to see Jim Gaffigan live on the fairgrounds Sunday.

“Chad’s story is awesome and it’s something the Mat-Su Valley should be really proud of. Now he’s in his hometown newspaper where he belongs,” Anderson said.