| Paul
Hebert has been drawing in some form or another since he gained enough
coordination to grasp a crayon. During that early period in Paul's
artistic development it became clear that Paul had a talent for getting
in trouble with his cartoons. It used to be he would be yelled at
for drawing on the wall, and now he gets nasty letters for all sorts of
things.
BTSF, which has existed in some form since 2000 was picked up by
Niskayuna High School's school newspaper "The Warrior", a weekly
publication.
Paul spent a long time trying to come up with a name for his cartoon.
"Better Than Stick Figures" was eventually decided upon because it was
deemed to be the best of the names that The Warrior said it could print.
Most of the names Paul came up with were rejected based on
appropriateness. Some of the rejects include: Remedial Art,
Another Day in Detention, Off Grounds Without A Pass, 2 After School
Extended Detentions, Special Ed, and Stripping and Streaking.
The cartoon, originally scheduled to be an occasional
quarter-page strip in 2002 quickly grew in popularity. With the long
and ongoing series "Once Upon a School Night" BTSF grew to a page insert
that was known for causing controversy in the administration, and with
several students. After "Once Upon A School Nights" run was over BTSF
was quickly canceled upon request of the school districts
Superintendent. Several cartoons were published later that year, but
these occasions were few and far between.
(early sketch of Kinky Katt)
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In the Fall of 2002 BTSF took on a new format, one much smaller, and
with a focus more on politics BTSF was picked up by "The Spectrum".
"The Spectrum" is a tri-weekly publication with runs of 10,000 copies
each. In the fall semester BTSF, not noted as such, ran as the
editorial cartoon. Twenty-five BTSF cartoons ran that semester.
In the Spring of 2003 BTSF was given the honor of more space and
became a regular strip in the Spectrum. Controversy followed Paul
as several cartoons proved to be extremely controversial with both
students and teachers. For more information on those cartoons
check out the controversy section of this web site.
BTSF has run in every Spectrum issue, the
newspaper at University at Buffalo, distrubted tri-weekly and printed at
10,000 copies per run. It was was the most popular feature in the paper.
The cartoon moved farther away from it's political cartoon root and more towards developing
recurrent characters and more universal college issues.
Currently Better Than Stick Figures is no longer printed in the
Spectrum as Paul has taken a leave of absence as he studies for a year
in Ghana. He does however continue to develop Better Than Stick
Figures, though for the time being he is more focused on some of his
Side Projects.
Paul is a college student at the University at Buffalo where he
majors in English and desperately attempts to develop his
alcoholism so that he can become a famous and much loved writer.
If that doesn't work out, he's also looking for a famous and rich woman
who will give him much love.
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