http://www.hirezfox.com/km/co/index.html

I've been drawing cartoons for as far back as I can remember, and "Carry On," specifically, since 2004. The characters are all drawn from facets of my personality, or are based on people I know and admire. Over the years, I've progressed from simple black and white drawings in ballpoint pen on typing paper, to more complex, multiple-layer images processed in Photoshop (although I still start with an ink pen on typing paper--it's archival ink, now!)

The main character, Kathy Grrsn, debuted in my husband Scott Kellogg's strip "21st Century Fox" as a wedding guest, and shortly got her own spinoff series, which evolved into the comic strip I draw today.

I draw "Carry On" for my own enjoyment, but also in the hopes of making other people laugh. I like getting feedback from the readers, letting me know how the characters and situations have affected them, and it pleases me to know that my strip is read by people from around the world.
I'd like to grow my audience. My comic strip is a humorous adventure/romance, with a touch of the absurd, and just enough peril to keep things exciting. I'm not into "dark" storytelling, so you can be pretty sure that everything will work out all right in the end. I'm also not into diatribes, although I do try to make a few not-so-subtle points about cultural differences in the societies I've created.

"Carry On" has been nominated several times for the Ursa Major Award for "Best Comic Strip," which is always an honor, and we have won the 2018 Ursa Major Award, against some very strong competition.

I'm always trying to improve the strip, both in the artwork and in the storytelling. It's a fun challenge to figure out a new technique to create a visual or a texture--recently I've been experimenting with how to depict the four elements, with landscapes, clouds, fire, and moving water, along with the lighting effects for time of day and weather conditions. I've been doing research into African landscapes, animals, and architecture to try to get the "look" of the backgrounds right. I've also been studying hyenas in order to incorporate their body language into the characters.

My heroes are spotted hyenas--not usually a species seen as particularly heroic. The research I've done on hyenas has made me a huge fan of Crocuta crocuta--their intelligence, their social structure, their bizarre biology, and their personalities amaze and fascinate me. I'll admit that when I started out, I knew almost nothing about spotted hyenas, but now I hope to share my admiration of the species with others, because they really are incredible animals. And they make great cartoon characters--in fact, spotted hyenas are pretty much God's gift to cartoonists. The jokes write themselves! I guess that's why they're called "laughing hyenas."