Spooner (comic strip)

Spooner was a comic strip created by Ted Dawson. It was syndicated by the "Los Angeles Times" Syndicate and ran in newspapers from January, 2000 to July, 2002. In it, newlyweds Spooner and Roxanne tried to adjust to the ups and downs of marriage, and to each other. A book, Spooner: Love is Strange, which collected the first seven months of newspaper strips, was published by Astonish Comics in 2004. Spooner also had a website where past or current strips could be seen.

Main Characters

Spooner is a young new husband who frequently gets in trouble for saying the wrong comments to Roxanne, his wife. Spooner's personality is like that of a teenager: He hangs out with kids and plays video games. Spooner is also a big comic book fan; in one strip, Spooner wears a Spider-Man costume made by Roxanne, and gets mistaken for a Halloween trick or treater. He spends a lot of his spare time with Cisco, his pet dog.

Roxanne is Spooner's wife, who tries to mold him into the perfect husband through long talks and "Emotional Inventory" in order to start a family. In one strip from Love is Strange, Roxanne tries to convince Spooner to be more romantic. She is afraid of getting fat (she accuses Spooner of saying she has a big butt after he calls her curvaceous during a shopping trip), and of getting old, as it could make her lose Spooner's affections. She also abhors skimpy clothes, as it makes Spooner ogle her, although she does wear a swimsuit to please Spooner in one Sunday strip (she writes "I'm with Stupid" on it, though). Roxanne is an avid reader and a big Nora Roberts fan. Roxanne's occupation is not revealed during the strip, but she spends a lot of time making reports from her job. Despite his blundering, Roxanne loves Spooner very much.

Cisco is Spooner's dog. He mostly provides comic relief. One strip from "Love is Strange" reveals Cisco's acting skills, as he uses his big eyes to compel Spooner to take him out on a walk. Cisco was based on Ted Dawson's dog of the same name.

Lenny is Spooner's brother. Featured in another strip, "Wild Blue," by the same author, Lenny is an advocate of bachelorhood as he was not impressed with marriage. Ironically, Lenny has a girlfriend, Cindy, who wants to get married. After 9/11, Lenny joined the US Air Force. Wild Blue ran exclusively in the weekly Air Force Times newspaper from February, 2003 to April, 2005.

Cal is Spooner's next-door neighbor. A sage figure, he gives Spooner advice about dealing with women — advice he had learned from his three previous marriages, the first of which, as revealed in Spooner: Love is Strange, ended when he gave his wife a piece of paper for their anniversary.

During Spooner's first year of syndication, the "Tribune Co." bought the "Los Angeles Times" and absorbed the eighty features of its syndicate. In 2001, Dawson moved Spooner to United Features Syndicate, and in 2002 decided to self-syndicate Spooner. Unable to compete with the syndicates, Dawson retired Spooner in June 2002.