This week, John Hambrock of THE BRILLIANT MIND OF EDISON LEE is stopping by to tell us about Edison’s idiosyncratic Grandpa Orville, who lives with Edison and his parents. Thanks, John!
I named Orville after my 5th grade teacher, which I did for no other reason other than I liked how it sounded. Orville is the outlet for my lazy, clueless, junk food-loving strip ideas. All of the older family members I grew up around were nothing like him, so I can’t say he’s drawn from any of my early family experiences. I’m sure the reason I find him so easy to write for is because he’s a little like me.
I avoid any mention of Orville’s history outside of his current living arrangement with his son and daughter-in-law. Orville is a one-dimensional character, and I feel putting his entire life into perspective is unnecessary. From what I understand, he just showed up one day on Don and Carol’s doorstep and never left. The fact that there’s cable TV and a 7-11 right down the block may have had something to do with it.
Orville likes to surf the internet. In fact, it’s about the only exercise he gets these days. His two friends on Facebook are his son Don and Bob’s Used Tire and Donut Emporium. At one point he opened an email account, but quickly shut it down after he discovered that SPAM was not what he thought it was. According to Orville, Google is the greatest thing to come along since sliced bologna. Where else can a person fi nd out how to safely extract the creme fi lling from a Twinkie?
Like the great hunters of the Serengeti, much of Orville’s day is spent searching for food. After locating and consuming whatever it is he’s been able chase down, he’ll collapse into his La-Z-Boy and watch Bonanza, Gunsmoke, or the Ri eman. Bologna is the prey of choice, but if a Twinkie happens to wander into the vicinity it’s fair game.
No one knows for sure why Orville continues to wear his old 1970’s orange bowling jacket. He always wears it, and being the sedentary person that he is, the increased visibility it provides is helpful in keeping others from tripping over him.
Orville is one of my favorite characters. Any time I have a strip idea that borders on the ridiculous, I know I can count on him to step up and deliver the perfect punch line.
Every Friday, we put the spotlight on a supporting character from one of our comics! If you have a favorite secondary (or even tertiary) character whom you’d like to see profiled, please leave a comment here or in our forums.
Glad you guys picked Orville for the spotlight! He’s definitely one of the great secondary characters out there and I look forward to every time he pops up in The Brilliant Mind of Edison Lee.
Like John said, I love the fact that cartoonists have these “go-to” characters that develop and fill the wild card role. Orville is a prime example and really funny.
Orville is easily my favorite character in the strip … outside of Edison of course!