| Brian Basset | |
|---|---|
| Born | Brian Basset November 30, 1957 Norwalk, Connecticut |
| Nationality | American |
| Notable works | Adam At Home and Red and Rover |
Brian Basset is an American comic strip artist, with two daily strips, Adam At Home and Red and Rover. Previously, he worked as an editorial cartoonist for the Seattle Times.
Besides cartooning, Basset is actively engaged in animal shelter charity work.
Basset currently lives in the Queen Anne neighborhood of Seattle, WA.
Basset was born in Norwalk, Conn. in 1957. His father. Gene Basset, was a sports, theatrical and political cartoonist for over 40 years, retiring in 1993. His mother was a mental health administrator. He has one brother and one sister.
Basset attended Langley High School in McLean, Virginia where he was political cartoonist for the Saxon Scope, 1974-75.
In 1975, Basset enrolled at Ohio State University and drew comics in the school newspaper, The Lantern. There, he attended the Fine Arts program.
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After university, he landed a 16-year stint at the Seattle Times, where he drew editorial cartoons for the newspaper. It was during this career when he developed the comic strip "Adam" (later known as Adam@Home or Adam at Home). It was first syndicated in 1984 and focused on the life of Adam Newman, who Basset has admitted has eerie resemblances to his real-life self.
In 1994, Basset was laid off by the Seattle Times during a period of downsizing.
Following his layoff at the Seattle Times, Basset's wife was forced to look for work to help support their family, and Basset's comic strip reflected this changing reality as Adam Newman became a stay-at-home dad and the comic strip focused more fully on the role of men as care-givers and Adam's home office life.
In 1995, this change was noticeable as the comic's name became "Adam@Home".
Beginning with the February 23, 2009 strip, Basset handed over drawing responsibilities for Adam@home to Rob Harrell, former comics trip artist of Big Top.[1] Basset drew almost a month's worth of Sunday strips after that, with Harrell's first Sunday strip appearing on March 22, 2009.
In 1998, Basset began thinking about producing a second comic strip that had a more child-like quality to it. On Sunday May 7, 2000, “Red and Rover” appeared in newspapers for the first time. Red and Rover is a retro-feel comic strip about the unconditional love between a dog and his boy that captures the spirit and flavor of the early-1960s-to-mid-1970s. Red and Rover is auto-biographical in nature. According to Suite101, Basset calculates he spent over 1,700 hours developing Red and Rover between inception and its first appearance in newspapers. Originally distributed for the first 10-years by The Washington Post Writers Group, Red and Rover is currently syndicated in over 160 papers by Universal Uclick.