Brian Crane

Brian Crane is an American cartoonist who created Pickles, a comic strip featuring a retired couple, Earl and Opal Pickles, their family, and their family pets, Muffin (cat) and Roscoe (dog).

Brian Crane
BornBrian Crane
Twin Falls, Idaho, U.S.
NationalityAmerican
Area(s)Cartoonist, Writer
AwardsInkpot Award (2014)[1]
www.picklescomic.com

Born in Twin Falls, Idaho, Crane grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area.[2] He began drawing at an early age, according to accounts by his mother, and hoped to grow up to be a comic strip artist. Crane served a mission in Uruguay and graduated with a BA degree from Brigham Young University in 1973.[3] As he got older he didn't think he had the writing talent or sense of humor to be able to come up with material for a daily comic strip, so he became a graphic designer and art director, working for publishing companies, art studios and advertising agencies. When he got near the age of forty he began reminiscing about his childhood dream of doing a newspaper comic strip, so he created Pickles, a strip about an elderly couple, their daughter, their grandson, and their pets.

Career

Pickles was syndicated by The Washington Post Writers Group in 1990, and today appears in nearly 1,000 newspapers around the world.[4] In 2001 it was awarded the prize for Best Comic Strip by the National Cartoonist Society. In 2005 and 2011 he was a nominee for Cartoonist of the Year by the same group. In 2013 he won the Reuben award for cartoonist of the year from the National Cartoonists Society. Crane creates Pickles by hand from a studio in his home in Sparks, NV. His daughter Emily colors the daily and Sunday strips for him. Brian and his wife Diana recently celebrated their forty-fifth wedding anniversary and are looking forward to the birth of their 18th grandchild in October.

Bibliography
  • Pickles (Taylor Trade Publishing, October 25, 1999, ISBN 978-1563525100)
  • Pickles, Too: The Older I Get, the Better I Was (Taylor Trade Publishing, 1999)
  • Still Pickled After All These Years (Andrews McMeel Publishing, April 2004, ISBN 978-0740743405)
  • Let’s Get Pickled (Andrews McMeel Publishing, October 1, 2006, ISBN 978-0740761928)
  • How Come I Always Get Blamed for the Things I Do? (Baobab Press, 2010, ISBN 978-1936097012)
  • Oh, Sure! Blame It on the Dog! (Baobab Press, October 8, 2013, ISBN 978-1936097043)
  • 25 Years of Pickles (Baobab Press, 2015, ISBN 978-1936097104)
  • Grampa, Will You Tell Me a Story? (Baobab Press, 2018)
  • Pickles Tails (Baobab Press, July 2020)

Awards

He received the National Cartoonists Society Newspaper Comic Strip Award for 2001[5] for his work on the strip. In 2013, in a tie with Baby Blues co-creator Rick Kirkman, Crane received cartooning’s highest honor, the Reuben Award for Cartoonist of the Year, for Pickles.[6]

Personal life

Crane married his college sweetheart, Diana Long, and they have seven children.[2] He is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) and sometimes draws LDS temples or periodicals as background props in the Pickles comic strip.[7] Crane lives in Sparks, Nevada.[4]

References
  1. Inkpot Award
  2. Smith, Andy. "For creator, ‘Pickles’ satisfied craving; comic strip debuts in Journal", Providence Journal, 17 January 2016. Retrieved on 10 March 2020.
  3. Winters, Charlene Renberg. "The Art of Making Pickles", BYU Magazine, 2011. Retrieved on 10 March 2020.
  4. Flynn, Anne-Gerard. "Cartoonist Brian Crane's popular 'Pickles' family joins The Republican", The Republican, 1 April 2020. Retrieved on 10 March 2020.
  5. National Cartoonists Society Newspaper Comic Strip Awards
  6. Cavna, Michael. "‘PICKLES’ ’ BIG WIN: Creator Brian Crane reflects on inspiration, affirmation — and almost letting his dream die in his desk", The Washington Post, 28 May 2013. Retrieved on 10 March 2020.
  7. Shill, Aaron (2008-03-11). "LDS cartoonist enjoys life with "Pickles"". Mormon Times. Retrieved 2008-07-28.
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