About "The Gentleman from Lickskillet"
"The Gentleman from Lickskillet" is a satirical
comic strip by writer Steven J. Allen and illustrator Kevin Tuma.
The featured characters are Randall Dill, a member
of Congress, and his family, staff, friends, and constituents.
Dill's daughter, Maggie, a precocious ten-year-old, appears
frequently. Also
featured are politicians, bureaucrats, media figures, and others
intended by the strip's creators as representatives of political and
cultural orthodoxy.
The strip is updated daily, Monday through
Saturday. Most of its
storylines are broken into six-strip arcs.
The strip debuted on January 12, 2009, with a
sequence satirizing plans for the Inauguration of President Barack
Obama.
The Web site ConservativeHQ.com licenses the strip
for daily publication, but the strip's creative team is editorially
independent of the site.
[UPDATE: Due to
a change in plans for ConservativeHQ.com, that Web site ended its
sponsorship of TGFL on February 2, 2010.
The creators of "The Gentleman from Lickskillet" are
currently seeking new sponsors.]
As with most other comic strips, a version is
available for print publication.
"The Gentleman from Lickskillet" has a conservative/libertarian viewpoint. It has been described as an attempt to create a conservative alternative to liberal/progressive strips such as "Doonesbury" and the strip-turned-animated-cartoon "The Boondocks." The creators also list "Li'l Abner," "Pogo," "Bloom County," and "Dilbert" among their influences, along with television programs ranging from "South Park" to "The Andy Griffith Show."
The strip's writer, Steven J. Allen, was press
secretary to U.S. Senator Jeremiah Denton, senior editor of
Conservative Digest, and vice president for communications of
the Progress & Freedom Foundation, a K Street think tank.
He has a B.A. and an M.A. in political science from
Jacksonville State University, a law degree (J.D.) from Cumberland
School of Law, and a Ph.D. from the College of Science at George
Mason University.
The strip's artist, Kevin Tuma, illustrated comic
book adaptations of "The Twilight Zone," "The Green Hornet," and
"Dan Turner, Hollywood Detective."
He has drawn cartoons for Cracked, Cybercast News
Service, The American Conservative, and publications of the
Cato Institute.


