Finding Dee is a weekly semi-autobiographical comic strip by Dee Fish. Dee was recently nominated for a National Cartoonists Society Reuben award, that’s the Oscars for cartoonists. I had the chance to ask Dee my 10 With Tom questions.
TOM: Finding Dee is done in black and white, why did you choose to go that route rather than color?
DEE: There are a lot of reasons for this decision. One is keeping the cost of print collections down, for sure. Another is honestly speed. I have a day job and a number of other projects on my plate at any given time, so keeping the strip in black and white makes it easier to manage the workload and even add days when an idea strikes me.
But the main reason, honestly, is that I really just don’t enjoy the process of coloring.
TOM: How long does it take for you to produce each strip? Do you work certain days of the week?
I generally work on strips Monday and Tuesday night after my day job. From script to finished strip with inks, letters and gray tones, however, I can usually get a complete “Finding Dee” strip done in about two to two and a half hours. Quicker if I’m in the groove and the concept is a simpler one.
Earlier this year you drew a couple of week’s (was it two weeks) worth of Dick Tracy strips. That must have been exciting. How did that come about?
Any time on Dick Tracy was AMAZINGLY exciting, and I’m very proud of the work. I started in May of 2023 working on inks for the artist, Shelley Pleger. She and I have been friends for years, and she needed someone to assist a couple of days a week inking her work. I did about 6 months of work inking her work, and at the end of that run, I was asked to provide full art for a two-week guest story. (Here is Dee’s two week’s work of Dick Tracy).
TOM: Regarding the Finding Dee strip, Where do you get the most readers — Instagram, Facebook, your own website, etc.?
DEE: I have modest audiences spread out across a number of platforms. The largest readership is probably still Tumbr, but I get the most interaction on Facebook. Bluesky is starting to get a little traction and I’m excited by the growth on Substack.
I dearly miss when it was JUST a website for this sort of thing.
TOM: What was the first thing you would seriously draw? Did you draw a character or have a favorite subject at a young age?
The first thing I can remember SERIOUSLY drawing was my first comic strip character, Dandy Q. Dog. I created him initially as a sort of Snoopy/Garfield rip-off when I was eight and in grade school, but have kept drawing him in different forms ever since. The most prominent was his run as my FIRST webcomic starting in 2001 at dandyandcompany.com.
TOM: How did you begin your career as a cartoonist? When did you start cartooning?
Dandy & Company. I have been making comic strips since the second grade, and have been self-publishing them in zines as early as 1994 before going online in 2001. I’ve made a bunch of other comics like my superhero limited series Apparition, my fantasy-adventure graphic novel The Wellkeeper, or Marjorie of the Weirdlings as well. I keep VERY busy.
TOM: Tell us about your studio or workspace. Do you work digitally?
DEE: I have a studio in a spare bedroom in our house where I have my desktop setup for production work. Lettering, tones, page layout, colors, etc. It’s a little room filled with toys and books and lots of fun stuff to keep me inspired. That said, I do MOST of the actual creative work on an iPad in the living room.
Finding Dee is fully digital these days, and I draw the strip in Clip Studio Paint.
If you could crawl into any comic strip, present or past, for the day, which would it be and why?
DEE: Finding Dee is all about my actual life, so I kinda already LIVE in there. But to VISIT, I dunno. Peanuts, probably. Just to give Charlie Brown a much-needed hug and some reassuring words in a trombone voice nobody could understand.
TOM: Superpower if you had one?
DEE: Typical artist answer: The Multiple Man’s ability to create perfect dupes and reabsorb them at the end of the day. I could get SOOOO much stuff done that way.
TOM: What song is the theme of your life?
If I had a theme song to my life, or a theme song to a “Finding Dee” animated series, it would be “Don’t Let’s Start” by They Might Be Giants!
Thanks, Dee!
Finding Dee can be found here:
FindingDee.com
Facebook
Bluesky
Substack
SEE ALL OF TOM’S “10 WITH TOM” INTERVIEWS AT 10WITHTOM.COM
Originally published at 10withtom.com on August 30, 2024.
