Meet KC Remington:
K.C. Remington, who lives in Micanopy, created the strip “Webbster” a year ago. The title character, a philosophical canine inspired by Remington's dog Mindy, pals around with a cat named Button, whose real-life counterpart was originally named Butt-in-face (his favorite petting position). “That name didn't stick to such a regal cat!” he laughed.
The two characters enjoy fishing, although they’ve never been known to catch one, and walking on the country lanes of their idyllic town, which often resembles Remington’s corner of rural Micanopy.
“Webbster is much more literate than Button, who would rather sit around and look at a lava lamp than read Thoreau,” Remington said. “Button is more of an idea cat, but his ideas are rarely practical.”
Webbster likes to read and quote the classics, a point that Remington is proud of. “I want kids to notice that Webbster is a reader and that he gets a lot of pleasure from it. That’s why I often show him with a book or newspaper in his hands, I mean, paws,” he said.
Remington started drawing cartoons as a child, encouraged by his father, a carpet designer who painted in oils on weekends. He went on to study at the New York School of Visual Arts, where “Tarzan” cartoonist Berne Hogarth was his anatomy professor. “He’d draw a torso in a minute and a half, and you just wanted to throw your pad in the air and never come back. He was one of the best,” Remington said.
He majored in film, and upon graduation made documentaries until The Vietnam War intervened. Remington was drafted, but his cartooning skills got him out of a tank division and into the U.S. Army Pictorial Center.
“I did some cartoons on Baimbridgeboard for decorations at a high brass retirement party. After that, they were so happy with me, they signed my transfer to The Army Pictorial Center at U.S. Army Europe. I wound up filming everything from the Russian May Day Parade in East Berlin to Generalissimo Franco at the palace in Madrid. There were guys with machine guns everywhere! And they weren't smiling!”
Remington eventually returned to the States and worked on movies such as “Five Easy Pieces,” “Easy Rider” and “War Games,” and TV shows like “The Love Boat” and “Dallas.” Remington returned to the Northeast, then found his way to Florida in search of better weather. "The choice between mowing grass and shoveling snow was a no-brainer," he said.
He is now an independent stock trader, working from his home with three dogs and seven cats while developing “Webbster.” “All were orphans,” he said. “Mindy was adopted from the New London CT Humane Society, and Button was adopted from the Humane Society in Sarasota. The others came by Divine Intervention.”
Although the pressure of coming up with ideas for a daily comic might seem daunting, Remington said it's his highest hope for the strip.
“I asked Fred Laswell, who does ‘Snuffy Smith’ and must be pushing 80, what a typical work week was like for him. He said, ‘Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday we think up ideas. Thursday we draw ‘em, and Friday we mail them off and head for the bar.’
“I thought, ‘Well, I can do that!'”
 

Article reprinted from the Gainesville Sun.