Sunday, July 04, 2004
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Back to the Drawing Board

Mac King's new comic strip offers magic tricks, practical jokes and funny monkey

Bill King adds a finishing touch to his Mac King cartoon character. COURTESY PHOTO Mac King

Mac King is a magician, comedian, world record holder, husband and father.

Now, he's a character. Every Sunday, starting today, readers can see the Harrah's Las Vegas afternoon headliner starring in the comic strip "Mac King's Magic in a Minute," syndicated by Tribune Media Services.

The strip features Mac's cartoon persona demonstrating magic tricks to Lewis, a bespectacled, fez-wearing, cigar-smoking monkey. Each comic instructs readers how to perform a trick or play a practical joke, Mac said.

The strip, written and illustrated by his cousin Bill King using ideas from Mac, seems like a natural extension for the comic magician, and not because he's a funny, or funny-looking, guy.

No, turns out the cousins are following in the footsteps of their grandfather, Pax King. In the late 1940s, when Pax wasn't working his day job or performing magic tricks, he was drawing the syndicated comic strip "Tinker the Thinker," Mac said.

"He was just the greatest, the best grandfather in the world," he added. "He showed me my first magic trick. A grandfather who was a cartoonist and knew magic tricks was fantastic."

Bill, a freelance artist, came up with the idea for the comic strip about eight months ago, after a friend saw his drawings of Mac in their book, "Tricks With Your Head."

Since their book came out in 2002, the cousins had been looking for another project to work on, the cartoonist said. It was just a matter of finding the right project. They talked about doing a cookbook, because both men like to cook, or another magic book.

Bill noted he always wanted to do a comic strip but couldn't settle on an idea.

"My father had always warned me against doing one. He said it drove my grandfather crazy," he said.

Bill approached Mac about doing an instructional strip, featuring Mac and a monkey. A friend of Bill's connected them with Tribune Media Services and they were approved for syndication.

The cousins expect the strip to appeal to all ages and they also predict that the monkey will steal the show. Of course, readers might wonder why they decided on a monkey, instead of some other animal or person.

"The monkey was sort of my brainstorm," Bill said. "Mac and I are tremendous fans of monkeys because everything is better with monkeys."

Why?

"I couldn't really say. We had a conversation at one point and realized if you want to have comedy gold it requires a monkey," he said.

The monkey was inspired by Bill King's father, Lewis, who was Tinker in the "Tinker the Thinker" comic strip.

"He's a really cute, funny monkey," Mac added.