Thomas K. Dye

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A drawing by Thomas K. Dye, from a promotional episode of Something Happens.

Thomas K. Dye (born 18 April 1969) is an American webcomic artist, most noted for creating Newshounds, Something Happens and Manifestations. Dye was born in Reno, Nevada and currently lives in Los Angeles.

1 History
2 Other
3 References
4 See also
5 External links

[edit] History

He started creating cartoons in 1984, when he created Newshounds characters Kevin J. Dog and Alistair Katt (This stage is known as Mark I). In 1991, he created the strip Pet Sounds (which was published in Montclarion) and later a comic book The Boy Shop Pets, which were his first attempts to make a proper comic (Mark II). Pet Sounds was dropped in 1992. After this, Dye started to create new characters, such as Wolfram Blitzen, Sam Shepherd and Ferris the Rat. This steadly lead to the creation of Newshounds.

In his early Newshounds comics, Renata Fayre was a secretary and a cat called Abigail was the owner of KPET news. This was later changed so Renata was a co-anchor and Lorna Dilbrook, a human, was KPET's manager.

In 1997, with a new style (Mark III), and after several failed attempts to get Newshounds published in the printed media, he turned it into a webcomic, with the help of another web cartoonist, Albert Temple.

In 2003, the style of Newshounds was changed again (Mark IV), and is so far in this current style. In the same year, he created the online graphic novel Manifestations, with the help of Tim Tylor. Manifestations is a more darker work, using a character called Manny the Mink who appeared in Newshounds, who "died" when he was sucked into the internet.

In 2006, he started another webcomic, the satirical Something Happens, a series of unrelated cartoons. At the moment, Dye is concentrating on Newshounds.

On August 13, 2006, Dye announced on the Newshounds website that we would "Start working towards using art in a professional career."^[1] Newshounds would therefore start running as a Sunday-strip, though Something Happens will still be running normally.

[edit] Other

Dye has previously tried to be an actor, a musician and a novelist. He can play the keyboard, and is fan of the rock band Kansas. He also likes the band Jethro Tull, using the lyrics from Another Christmas Song in a Christmas edition of Newshounds.^[2]

Of all of his characters, Kevin is one that Dye identifies with most, whereas he considers Renata to be his favorite. He also considers Wolfram and Sam to be the hardest characters to write for.

Dye is said to be, "Influenced by Hanna-Barbera's Tom and Jerry and Charles Schulz's Peanuts."^[3] Apart from Albert Temple, he also admires D. C. Simpson, Bloom County, Alice in Wonderland and Monty Python.