Terri Libenson Reflects on a Comic Strip Career

Terri Libenson is retiring her The Pajama Diaries comic strip to concentrate on books.

From a young age, Libenson — a Kingston native — loved to draw and would get together with a friend down the street after school and create her own cartoon characters and comics.

Terri talks to the old hometown paper about her career as a comic strip cartoonist.

“In college, I had a newspaper comic strip and I really loved doing it,” Libenson said. “I started researching into how to become syndicated for newspapers, and that’s really when it all began.”

By the time she got her weekly strip, “Got a Life,” syndicated in 2000 with King Features Weekly Service, Libenson’s characters had become a true reflection of her personality.

Since cartoonists are so very proud of their early work:


above: from the last week of December 2000 (the first Got A Life?)
below: from the middle week of January 2003 (the last Got A Life?)

[Terri] came up with the idea for “The Pajama Diaries” when she was finished writing her weekly strip. While the weekly strip reflected her newlywed life, the “Diaries” comics were born from the pressures and challenges of modern motherhood.

“I thought, ‘Oh. That would make for a great cartoon situation and a great character,’” Libenson said. “This stressed-out mom who is trying to be everything to everybody. I could certainly see how it would relate to almost everybody I knew.”

Libenson said to be a cartoonist, you have to have a good sense of humor, a thick skin, and a “really good” work ethic because of deadlines. Libenson said it took her almost “two years” to get ahead enough so she could get sick and not fall behind.

Read the Citizen Voice article where Terri tells how she creates the daily strips and other secrets.

The Pajama Diaries ends January 4, 2020, but Terri informs:

ComicsKingdom.com will run The Pajama Diaries archives starting January 5, so you can see where it all began (in all its cringy glory!). You’ll also be able to read it in many online newspapers or link up to it from my personal website and PJD Facebook page.

The Pajama Diaries panels above from Terri’s Greeting Card line.

 



Got A Life samples from The Indianapolis Recorder.

 

 

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