FUNNY BUSINESS:Despite hitting the big time, cartoonist won’t ever leave Alaska

WASILLA — Giving directions to his home in a subdivision east of Wasilla, Tundra cartoonist Chad Carpenter says to look for the truck pumping his septic tank.

It’s a pretty quotidian piece of life in the Valley, but Carpenter can’t resist.

“We’re having a fresh shipment of toilet humor delivered,” he says.

Three months ago, Carpenter’s comic strip entered its 500th newspaper. It was a big milestone for Carpenter and the rest of the Tundra team — his wife, Karen, marketing guy Bill Kellogg and longtime helper Zack Lamphier. It’s also kind of amazing considering Carpenter hasn’t left Alaska but for a brief few years Outside.

“I get a lot of people who are shocked that I live in Alaska,” Carpenter said, even at events in the state.

Carpenter grew up all over Alaska — dad was an Alaska Wildlife Trooper — but landed in Wasilla sometime around the fifth grade. He went to high school here.

He’s been cartooning all his life. He remembers Garfield coming out at about the time he hit Wasilla. It’s still one of his favorite strips, what really made him decide that “this is what I want to do.”

After high school, he moved to Sarasota, Fla., where he had an uncle who owned an art gallery and knew Mike Peters of Mother Goose and Grimm and Dik Browne of Hagar the Horrible. Both cartoonists were big inspirations.

“(Browne) gave me the advice that all good writers give — write what you know,” Carpenter said.

What he knew, Carpenter said, was Alaska. He moved back to the state, living in Anchorage for more than a decade and making a go at cartooning. Tundra is populated with bears and salmon, moose and at least one lemming.

Early strips had three recurring characters; four if you count Carpenter himself, who often appeared in the strip. Those early strips were often very Alaska-centric. Even the humor was pretty Alaskan, some of which outsiders might not get right away.

“I realized very quickly that I would never be more than an Alaska thing,” Carpenter said of those strips. So he started broadening the humor.

The next step came in 2005. Bill Kellogg, his marketing guy, who until then had been in the Alaska souvenir business, asked Carpenter if he’d like to make a go at taking the strip national.

“I was thinking in Canada it would do fine,” Carpenter said.

But Kellogg had the whole of the United States in mind. It was a $10,000 investment and not an easy decision to make.

“That was scary, but I thought if I don’t do it I will always wonder what if,” Carpenter said.

That first trip of Kellogg’s scored Tundra publication in one Outside paper.

“None of the big papers wanted to be first,” Carpenter said. Tundra was to be self-syndicated, meaning he had no big company behind him keeping him on track. What little experience big papers had with self-syndicated cartoonists wasn’t positive.

A big break came in 2006 when Tundra landed in the Los Angeles Times. As papers go, very few are bigger and the only one that is — The New York Times — doesn’t have comics. That break opened a lot of doors.

“It’s been a fun ride, we’re in papers I never thought we would be in — Hawaii, Jamaica, Trinidad,” Carpenter said.

Going big nationally has meant that he’s had to tone some of his humor down. Dead animals, for instance, can be tricky. Case in point — one strip featured a bear with a smoking gun standing over a dead deer and remarking to a second bear, “You’re right, that was easier.”

Alaskans wouldn’t — and didn’t — bat an eye. But it landed Carpenter an honest-to-goodness death threat from someone in L.A.

Carpenter said he won’t send out a strip that might cost him a newspaper, but will still draw it. Those go in books or on greeting cards. It’d be a shame to waste an idea. Coming up with them is a constant struggle, one of the hardest parts of his job.

Carpenter has a little thinking nook off of his studio with a too-narrow doorway and a big beanbag chair. He sits there and writes down ideas, sketching them only rarely. Carpenter doesn’t do a lot of drafts or sketches.

“I’m pretty lazy,” he said of his process.

In his time in Wasilla he’s done some charity work here and there. His studio contains plaques from little league teams who count Tundra and Associates as sponsors and his distinctive round-bellied animals with vanishingly small eyes can be found in the logos for a few businesses and organizations.

“It’s always hard to say no,” Carpenter said. “It’s just hard to find the time.”

And cartooning isn’t the least of his commitments. He’s got a family to raise. A lot of weekends and a big chunk of the summer are spent at fairs and at weekend markets. Carpenter said the merchandise — books, greeting cards, calendars, playing cards — is really where the money is. If you want to support a family you’ve got to do it.

The cartooning world is a pretty small community. Carpenter has managed over the years to meet many of the people he idolized — Garfield’s Jim Davis sent his youngest son a strip when he was born, he’s good friends with Mason Mastroianni, who took over B.C. when his grandfather, Johnny Hart, passed away. Browne has passed away, but he’s still close to Peters.

“I started getting to know these guys and it was really surreal to me,” he said. “I still feel like I’m faking it.”

He meets these people on trips Outside at awards ceremonies for cartoonists and other convention-type gatherings. Carpenter said he’s reluctant to leave the state at all and won’t ever move. He said he just can’t part with his quiet time and the opportunities Alaska gives to be alone, away from people.

An hour after he started chatting, as the conversation winds down, Carpenter checks out the window. Yep, the septic truck is still there. What does that say about cartoonists?

“Apparently we’re full of it,” Carpenter said.

Contact reporter Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.

Who: Chad Carpenter is the guest speaker.

What: Beta Sigma Epsilon Chapter of Phi Theta Kappa silent auction fund-raiser, 7 to 9 p.m., March 30. Dinner is at 7:30 p.m.

Where: Mat-Su Career and Technical High School, 2472 N. Seward Meridian Parkway, Wasilla.

Cost: $15 for students and family and $25 for the general public, including dinner.

Contact: Chris Wetzler at cdwetzler@alaska.edu, or 746-0674.