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UPDATED: Oct. 15, 2020 at 12:26 p.m.

Robb Armstrong is the first Black cartoonist to have a comic strip run for 30 consecutive years. To honor the 30th anniversary of his comic “Jumpstart,” Armstrong held a virtual book signing discussion for Syracuse University, where he created some of his first cartoons.

Armstrong discussed the history of “JumpStart” on Wednesday during the Zoom event. The comic tells the story of a Black family that is balancing their careers and raising children. The comic began in 40 newspapers with a “small cast” of characters. Now, it appears in over 300 newspapers and, with over 30 characters, has one of largest casts for a comic strip.

Since launching in 1989, Armstrong has created around 10,000 comics. He is currently working on a possible live action comedy television show based on “JumpStart.”

Before his success with “JumpStart,” Armstrong studied advertising design at the College of Visual and Performing Arts and began his comic “Hector” for The Daily Orange his freshman year. “Hector” reflected Armstrong’s personal experiences as a college student such as his interactions with professors, a messy roommate and expensive textbooks.

Armstrong later became the art director for The Daily Orange, which paid $56 a week. To make extra money, he began a paste up job, which included gluing newspaper content to a large piece of paper and sending it through a printing press. Being a cartoonist gave Armstrong an extra responsibility as a paste up worker. Whenever a reporter didn’t fill their word count for an article and there was a gap on the page, Armstrong had to draw a cartoon to fill the gap in only 10 minutes.

“Without my experience of working for The Daily Orange, there is absolutely no chance that I would be a nationally syndicated cartoon artist today,” Armstrong said. “I watched people realize their dreams … I was able to tap into that energy.”

While on campus, Armstrong was inspired to get “Hector” syndicated. He found the contact for United Features Syndicate, a syndication service that has worked with the Charlie Brown and Calvin and Hobbes cartoon. When he sent in his work, it was rejected. He later went to New York City to meet with Bill Yates, one of the biggest cartoonists at the time.

Although “Hector” was rejected many times, Armstrong left college knowing he was going to be a successful comic artist. Armstrong said something inside him was nagging at him until he found his success.

“If you have a talent, and you have a passion, you are going to encounter rejection,” Armstrong said.

Armstrong also said that “JumpStart” includes racial discussion, and he is now exploring how the characters would react to the police reform following the killing of George Floyd. Throughout the creative process, he has grown very connected to the characters he created, two of which are based on his own children.

But Armstrong finds it important that his characters do not merely reflect his own opinions. His goal is that, if there were no pictures involved in the comics, readers would still be able to tell which character is which based on the dialogue alone.

“I have to be disciplined enough to let my characters evolve and develop a life that is different than mine,” he said.

CORRECTION: A previous version of this post misstated the the title of Armstrong’s major and the college within SU where he studied. Armstrong studied advertising design at the College of Visual and Performing Arts. The Daily Orange regrets these errors.

Published on October 14, 2020 at 11:22 pm