SERIOUS ABOUT COMICS.

Byline: Evan Henerson San Gabriel Valley Tribune

The hours are flexible and supervision is minimal. Deadlines, however, are strict, and while you can take a vacation, your work can't. Ever.

The life of a professional cartoonist.

``If you're fairly new to the profession, you're probably not burned out yet,'' said Robert Harvey, a former cartoonist and the author of ``The Art of the Funnies'' (University of Mississippi Press, 1994). ``The daily deadline is something people get very tired of. That's why (creator) Bill Watterson left `Calvin & Hobbes.' He didn't want to put up with it anymore.''

Cartoonist Greg Evans, whose 13-year-old strip ``Luann'' is nominated for the industry's highest achievement award, the Reuben, admits that the profession is a solitary one.

``I know that Mort Walker and the guys who do `Beetle Bailey' have gag meetings to throw ideas around,'' Evans said. ``Down here in San Diego, our chapter of the National Cartoonists Society will get together once a month, have speakers and talk cartooning. Other than that, we just sort of slave away in our garrets.''

And those garrets are everywhere. Where once the hub of cartooning was New York, now America's funnies-men and women are scattered around the country. Members of the National Cartoonists Society (NCS) - membership more than 600 - include sports and editorial cartoonists, newspaper comic strip artists, and magazine and comic book illustrators. They know each other personally and study each other's work through the daily newspapers.

The field is highly competitive even if cartoonists will never publicly wish each other anything but good fortune. Syndicated comic strip artists study newspaper reader surveys with great professional interest - and not just for inspiration. Generally, the size of the comics page does not grow or shrink; meaning that if a new strip gets added, another, less-popular one drops.

``You're fighting for your life in a newspaper,'' said Bill Keane, the creator of ``Family Circus.'' ``The one at the bottom is the one the editor will choose to drop. And if he gets a letter of complaint, he can always say, `This is the way it showed up in the survey. It's not my doing.' ''

Even so, cartoonists say, the profession contains little enmity.

``We're a very small club, and, surprisingly, we're all sort of good pals,'' said Jerry Scott, co-creator of ``Baby Blues'' and ``Zits.'' ``It's a difficult job creating something seven days a week.

``But rather than petty competitiveness, there's more like a healthy competition: `Gee, that person is doing really good work. I better ratchet myself up and try to be funnier.'''

This year, the ``club's'' annual reunion is in Pasadena, where the Ritz-Carlton Hotel will host the annual NCS Reuben Awards Weekend, beginning Friday with seminars and meetings. The conference concludes with a black-tie awards dinner Saturday night, during which cartoonists in 12 categories will be recognized by their peers. One strip will win the Reuben award - named after the NCS' first president, Rube Goldberg - honoring its creator as ``Cartoonist of the Year.''

Selected by membership vote, the nominees for the top prize include a strip about teen-age woes; another about a dreamy mother and her equally dreamy toddler; a strip about a cat and a dog; and pop culture's 300-pound gorilla, ``Dilbert.''

Because all four strips are widely syndicated, followers of the cartoon industry note that a victory will mean little as far as career advancement. Quite often, the Reuben is the cartoon equivalent of a ``lifetime achievement award'' at the Oscars rather than a stepping stone to a larger payday.

``(Winners) get a flurry of activity and interest,'' said Mell Lazarus, whose `Momma' and `Miss Peach' netted him the Reuben in 1981. ``It doesn't guarantee a career, but it doesn't hurt.''

Perhaps one of the nominees for the top prize is one of your ``must-reads'' as well:

``Dilbert'' - Scott Adams' creation is a cultural phenomenon, spawning everything from T-shirts to an animated series. The strip about a white-collar engineer working in corporate hell with his empire-building pet, Dogbert, is currently the fastest-growing comic in existence: appearing in 1,700 publications.

``Luann'' - the joys of teendom seen through the eyes of Greg Evans. Luann DeGroot, her family and friends work through the daily trials and tribulations of adolescence. Will dishy classmate Aaron Hill ever notice her? Will older brother Brad get a life? Tune in tomorrow. And the next day...

``Rose Is Rose'' - Suburban housewife Rose Gumbo has a husband named Jimbo, a toddler named Pasquale and an active imagination. Strip creator Pat Brady has created a gentler ``Calvin & Hobbes'' with a couple of shifting perspectives.

``Mutts'' - one of the newer strips among the nominees, is created by Patrick McDonnell. It features a dog and a cat who find their way into assorted mischief.

As 'toon junkies undoubtedly will recognize, the four strips represent widely different subject matters and drawing styles. Aside from sharing space every day on the comic pages of some newspapers, they have nothing in common.

Nor are they by any means the most popular cartoons among readers. Dilbert and his cohorts may have likenesses draped on everything from coffee mugs to stuffed animals, but Adams will need to draw for years if he expects to reach the status of ``Garfield,'' ``Family Circus,'' ``Blondie,'' ``Beetle Bailey'' and the gone-but-still-remembered ``The Far Side'' in reader popularity.

And then there's the empire of Charles Schulz's ``Peanuts,'' the most widely distributed strip in history, printed in 2,600 newspapers worldwide in 75 countries and 21 languages. It is estimated that in the nearly 50 years that Schulz has drawn the strip, Snoopy, Charlie Brown and the gang have earned their creator more than $56 million.

``Schulz basically understands a great deal about humanity, people and what makes the world go round, and it comes out in his work,'' said George Breisacher, a staff artist at the Charlotte (N.C.) Observer and president of the NCS. ``He is the Michael Jordan of cartooning.'' In rare cases, some of the most popular cartoons are also the edgiest. The overtly political ``Doonesbury'' has long been known to ruffle feathers in and around Washington, D.C. Creator Garry Trudeau won his first Reuben in 1995.

Similarly, as often as ``For Better or for Worse'' wins high marks on reader polls, Lynn Johnston's strip often riles readers by being occasionally a little too realistic.

In Johnston's strip, a character's coming out as a homosexual got people writing letters. When a family pet died, readers felt betrayed, according to cartoon historian Lucy Caswell, who maintains the NCS archives at Ohio State University.

``She bases her strip on what real families experience, and it rings true with a lot of readers,'' said Caswell, who also teaches classes in the history of cartoon art and political cartoons. ``That's why readers get so aggravated when she does something they don't expect. That says she's a good writer.''

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4 Photos

Photo: (1--2) With ``Rose Is Rose,'' Pat Brady has created a gentler ``Calvin & Hobbes'' with a couple of shifting perspectives.

(3--4) ``Luann'' creator Greg Evans admits that the cartoonist's profession is a solitary one.

Photos and art courtesy of United Feature Syndicate