Before the propagation of online news, opening the Sunday newspaper and seeing a fresh, full page of color cartoons was the highlight of any weekend for many kids. Today, only 26 percent of U.S. adults regularly read print news. As a result, comic strips are rapidly fading from public view, despite their long history of social and political significance. 

While some newspapers continue the section today in full, the Record falls in the majority that rarely feature any cartoons. A look back into the newspaper’s archive, however, reveals a long history of comics strips and hand-drawn advertisements, often covering entire pages. 

During his time at the College, Robert Moreland ’87 produced a weekly comic strip titled Pep. For Moreland, creating and developing Pep was an integral part of his College experience. Moreland’s nearly four-year-long career as a cartoonist began with an early and eager request to the Record board. “There had been a strip before I was at Williams, and the person [who wrote it] graduated,” he said. “And [I was] like, ‘Well, I want to do that,’ and, like so many things at Williams, they actually let [me] do it!”

Formatted in a traditional, four-panel style, many editions of Pep featured pen-and-ink depictions of Moreland’s life at the College. “I did a couple about my friends [from] across the hall,” he said. “We were all young knuckleheads, and they had a fridge in their room [that] they weren’t cleaning out. After a while … there was a third roommate who grew from the unprocessed food stuff in the fridge after it broke down. So, [the comics] were just ideas of things that are happening around [me], outside in the world or just in [my] crazy imagination.”

Some versions of Pep included fictitious characters, like the semi-autobiographical ‘Euro Bob,’ a depiction of Moreland during his semester studying abroad in Spain. “Sometimes I would start with a character [I knew], and sometimes I would just invent a character,” he said, explaining the suave new addition to his comic strip. 

Even before he cemented himself as a regular Record cartoonist, Moreland explained his world in pictures. His current notebook, he said, opening the book to a random page, is filled with characters. “I’ve always been a compulsive doodler,” he said. “I’m pretty much constantly drawing stuff.” 

Despite his natural interest in creating images, Moreland said that he views realism as neither a necessity nor a goal. “My business partner, Keith [Graves], always says the lack of ability is the mother of style,” he said. “Not being able to draw certain things … becomes your style. So [when creating Pep,] I was definitely limited by what I actually knew how to draw.”

After its inception, the comic rapidly gained notoriety around campus. Each week, fellow students would reach out to Moreland to let him know how much they enjoyed reading his piece, he said. Not only students read Pep, though. “Some professor pulled it out in a lecture and used it as a talking point,” he said. “I was so touched.”

 Despite its positive reception, Pep was occasionally somewhat controversial. “[Friends would] tell me that they really liked it,” Moreland said. “But sometimes they’d come up and say, ‘Oh, man, you’re really gonna get in trouble with that one.’” His comics often commented on school culture, including the irony of complaints about student protests against South African apartheid. “Anytime humor has a point, someone’s gonna disagree with it,” he said.

Though inspiration was never in short supply, working creatively on a deadline posed specific challenges. Writing, drawing, and inking Pep took time and energy. “[Deadlines are] the problem with having a weekly comic,” Moreland said. “Because I had to do one every week, and I was busy, … sometimes I just had to kick it out.”

Learning how to complete the work under pressure gave Moreland practice for his postgrad career in film and television production. “As a screenwriter, I’ve always had to be working those deadlines,” he said. “It’s a career of having to finish a certain number of pages in a certain amount of time.” 

Currently, Moreland uses his visual storytelling skills with a younger audience. Along with his friend, Keith Graves, he founded a production company specializing in animated children’s entertainment. Like his work at the College, Moreland’s new creations aim to be both funny and cerebral. “We’re trying to create something that might either be useful to learn about anxiety and how to cope,” Moreland said. “Or just to be funny, because we think good spirited, warm comedy that [makes] everyone laugh together — parents and kids — is a really positive thing.” 

For much of the mid ’80s, Pep brought humor — including some much-needed wry commentary — to the College. “I just did dozens and dozens of [cartoons]. It was so cool that people could enjoy them,” Moreland said. “That I had a chance to [publish Pep] was kind of amazing.”