*Western New York is home to two popular syndicated cartoonists.

*Back in 1954, Brad Anderson started drawing single-panel cartoons about a family that was overwhelmed by its own huge dog. What he wanted to eat, he ate. Wherever he wanted to sleep, he slept. When he wanted to take off running, no leash ever made could hold him. His name was Marmaduke.

*The early Marmaduke was foreboding, even frightening, with his constant glare and his coiled muscular stance. Over time Anderson learned to soften him, in part just to open opportunities for more gags, but also to make him more likable. Nowadays great dane Marmaduke rules the roost just by virtue of his vast size and vaster enthusiasm, rather than dominating through intimidation and the hint of danger.

*Brad Anderson was from Jamestown, and he freely reported that his home region often entered into Marmaduke’s world. An early cartoon includes a road sign for the old U.S. Route 17. “It wasn’t easy to make up characters and names for people in the cartoon, so I decided to use real people I knew in western New York. I could relate to them and it helped to establish the characters.” Even the original for Marmaduke lived in Jamestown, with Brad’s mother.

*The cartoon started syndicating in 1954. Brad Anderson continued it until his death 61 years later, and since then his son Paul has taken over, and it’s still going strong. During Brad’s lifetime his work brought him a Reuben Award (from the National Cartoonists Society), the Milton Caniff Lifetime Achievement award (also from the cartoonists), and the George Arents Pioneer Medal from alma mater Syracuse University. Besides a daily panel and a Sunday strip, Marmaduke has also been in TV cartoons, and in a live-action movie. On his 50th anniversary, 660 papers were carrying Marmaduke.

*John McPherson, who now lives in Saratoga Springs, came from Corning originally, and went to Corning Community College before heading on, like Brad Anderson, to S.U. (and later Bucknell). Also like Brad, McPherson does a panel cartoon that appears in well over 600 newspapers. It’s called “Close to Home.”

*People either like it a lot, or dislike it intensely. Personally it ain’t my style, said Casey, but I laughed right out loud at the shocked farmer’s wife reading “Fifty Shades of Hay.” That alone has to make up for a multitude of sins.

*Apparently they love it in Norway, judging by John’s listings for art credits in the Grand Comics Database (www.comics.org). The GCD only lists one U.S. collection, and I put that one in myself: “McPherson’s Sports and Fitness Manual,” a 1993 book of sports cartoons. One on-line source says he’s done 20 books, which I think must be true. His Facebook page shows that he also does calendars and the like.

*Many people make comparisons between “Close to Home” (debuted 1992) and “The Far Side” (ended 1995). Both are panel cartoons, both employ a deceptively slapdash look in the art, both emphasize weird or goofy humor. But while “The Far Side” often took flights of wild fancy, “Close to Home” pretty much stays where its title proclaims it… with people, and people at that who are… well, certainly not ordinary, but not at all high-flying.

*Unlike “Marmaduke,” John McPherson’s panel does not feature a recurring character, and so has never developed the warm following that the great dane and his exhausted family enjoy. But “Close to Home,” in a day of collapsing print media, still appears in almost 700 papers. Not too many can top that!