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Everybody at Animotion was very encouraging to me and were all happy to read my most current ideas that I developed for submitting for syndication.

It was in September of '94 that I sat down at my drawing desk and drew the first image of Buckles. He was derived from a dog that I always drew as a warm up exercise. At this point the dog was very wolf-like with standing ears and confident eyes. This time I drew his ears downward and gave him larger eyes. Buckles almost immediately jumped out of the paper.

An insecure dog, naive to the world made me laugh. I developed his personality by putting mine into him. Every quirk that I didn't like about myself became very funny and the writing of the strip became even easier.

 

This was one of the earliest Buckles
pictures I ever drew.

I began drawing Buckles comic strips and within a very short time had enough for a submission to the syndicates.

I truly didn't want to do a dog strip. I always felt there were already so many dogs in the comics, but Buckles made me laugh and I felt good about him. So, I began sending him off to the syndicates on the notion that I just wanted to know what they would say about him.

Three syndicates respond back with the interest of syndicating Buckles and I ultimately chose King Features out of all of them.

On March 25, 1996 Buckles first appeared in the newspapers across the country.

 

The very first printed strip of Buckles.

Being able to work on Buckles as a full time cartoonist has been a complete joy for me, and I would not trade it for anything. Though some days can be less enjoyable and mentally exhausting, I try never to forget how lucky I am to be able to be a part of a profession where I can continue with what I've loved since I was five years old.

- Gilbert

 

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