Stephen Gilpin had a secret he kept from his potential bosses.
Gilpin was interviewing with publishers of Boys Life Magazine — the national magazine of Boy Scouts of America — in an effort to land the role of drawing the popular “Pedro, the Mailburro” cartoon series.
Gilpin likely could have let it slip at some point that in addition to his sterling artistic talent — he’s illustrated more than 20 children’s books and has drawn for such clients as Harper Collins, Random House, Simon and Schuster, Scholastic and the Wall Street Journal — he also was an Eagle Scout.
Surely the Boy Scouts of America would be impressed that one of their job applicants had attained the highest Boy Scout rank possible, right?
He didn’t think so.
“I didn’t tell them until after I got the strip,” Gilpin told the Register in a telephone interview. “I wanted to get this strip because I earned it.”
Gilpin took over drawing the monthly comic strip, dubbed “The Wacky Adventures of Pedro,” in January.
The son of Iolans Jim and Karen Gilpin sees several challenges in taking over a character already known so well to Boys Life subscribers.
“The challenge is to make the character my own, but to make it so the readers can still tell it’s Pedro,” Gilpin said.
The titular character is described by Gilpin as “goofy, with occasional strokes of genius, and who can make a mess of stuff.”
Naturally, Gilpin sees some of himself in Pedro.
“I remember reading a quote from Charles M. Schulz (creator of “Peanuts), and he said each character was a piece of himself,” Gilpin said.
Visually, Gilpin changed only minor features.
“The previous artist was more graphic and angular,” Gilpin explained. “I softened his features a bit, but he’s still drawn the same way.”
AN AVID fan of newspaper comic strips, including classics such as “Calvin and Hobbes,” Gilpin’s dream was at some point to draw his own strip.
The original plan was to draw the traditional, three- or four-panel strips, “but I found I really like doing the full-page strips,” he said — the format he uses for “Pedro.”
“When this opportunity came along, I just jumped at it,” he said. “This is something I’ve wanted to do for a long time.”
