Craig (finally!) gets the joke

Back in the summer of 1981, when only Jeff V. and I were left to staff the Minnesota Daily creative department, our primary task (along with annoying the account reps) was to create themes for the Coupon Bonanza supplements for each of the two summer semesters.

What we came up with will have to be the subject of a future post. Here's what didn't run. Drawing on inspiration from (I'm assuming) Tom & Jerry and Warner Bros. cartoons, Jeff tried to sell me on a comic strip he called Coupon Kitty:

Yes, I noticed that the mouse refers to Coupon Kitty as Q.T. Kitty here. These might not be the original drawings he did, but a re-drawing/tracing of the comic from some later date. Jeff will have to enlighten us.

At any rate, after he finished his original sketches, he excitedly put it under my nose and braced himself for the laughter sure to come. Instead, I think I gave him only a courtesy chuckle, saying it kinda funny, but didn't really do much for me.

And so, disappointed, he set it aside and we went back to brainstorming new ideas.

Then...

A full two weeks later, Jeff and I happened to be down in the production room for a meeting or checking proofs or something, and I started laughing uncontrollably. Jeff looked over at me and naturally asked, "What's so funny?" And I started replaying the Coupon Kitty cartoon to him, where the unfortunate feline gets run over by the steamroller and --

Gotta stop now. Laughing too hard again. Well, you get the idea.

JEFF V ADDS: Never mind Coupon Kitty's demise.... the same year, RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK came out and Craig saw it and was ho-hum about the film... only after a period of reflection (and my hammering) did he come around to viewing the film in a positive light.  An apt comparison, Coupon Kitty and a Speilberg film, eh?

The above cartoon is, in fact, a redo of the original... as the date in the second-to-the-last panel is 1983.  There are, however, some other Coupon Kitty artwork (never used) that does exist, drawn on the Daily's famous 11" x 17" layout paper!