When longtime friends Rick Kirkman and Jerry Scott first discussed doing a comic strip about parenthood, Rick, at least, knew what he was talking about. He and his wife had their first daughter in 1984, and in 1987 their second daughter was born.
Jerry, who had no children, thought what Rick was going through as a parent was very funny. So he decided to write about what he saw at the Kirkmans' home — temper tantrums. Dirty diapers. Teething pains. When Rick added his superb artwork, Baby Blues was born.
The strip has enchanted new parents, grandparents and kids alike since it first appeared on the comics pages in 1990.
As the years passed, the list of newspapers carrying the feature has grown — almost as fast as the MacPhersons' kids! Baby Blues now appears in more than 1,000 newspapers worldwide, and the adventures of America's favourite first-time parents have also been chronicled in 23 anthologies and treasuries. In 1995, the National Cartoonists Society recognized Baby Blues as "Best Comic Strip of the Year."
By the way, these days, Jerry isn't laughing so hard about Rick's parental trials and tribulations. He became a first-time father himself in 1994. No wonder his writing's only gotten better.