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About That New Carl Smell
The New Carl attacks the world from a different angle with each new comic. Cartoonist Carl Skanberg breaks things down with a critical eye and rebuilds them with some sturdy brush strokes. An oddly large percentage of guys in this alternate universe are named Carl. It’s a lush friendly landscape of ink and paper that invites readers to explore something new today.
“Let me explain. I have noticed how ‘Carl’ is a funny name to a lot of you: Commercials, TV neighbors, blue-collar nobodies, Gary Larson comics, idiot relatives, dopey cops. Basically, when a writer is thinking of the dullest, most unimpressive, dumb-guy name, ‘Carl’ is a common choice,” explained creator Carl Skanberg. “Don’t think I haven’t noticed. But I’m taking it back! I have decided to name all of the dumb guys ‘Carl’ in my comic. I am going to saturate the comedy market with Carl. Someday, it will be uncool to make jokes about Carl. I mean, unless your name is Carl, like me. Then it’ll still be cool. Clearly.”
Meet Carl Skanberg
Carl Skanberg’s first comic strip was published in Illinois State University’s student newspaper. It was a simple comic featuring a bear and bird and other animals. It was named Best Cartoon or Panel by the Illinois College Press Association in 1996. Skanberg drew it for a couple years at school and for a semester after graduation. People seemed to like it, but the cartoon syndicates had little interest, so he ended that strip. Every year between 1998 to 2005, roughly one new fully realized comic idea was rejected by all newspaper and syndicate professionals who saw Skanberg’s work.
Friends and coworkers continued to enjoy these unpublished comics, so Skanberg decided to create a webcomic for them. The Chicago White Sox had won the 2005 World Series and everyone was pretty excited about it, so his new cartoon became a serial comic strip story that followed the ups and downs of the White Sox through three seasons. Skanberg also self-published a book of the comics in 2009. A local suburban newspaper published the White Sox stories and a weekly panel, “Smells Like Mascot” about all Chicago sports until 2013 when the newspaper eliminated most original sports content. Skanberg started a daily non-sports comic panel for a general audience, and this one was good enough for GoComics, so “That New Carl Smell” was born.
Skanberg works in the printing and marketing industry and lives with his wife and four kids in the south suburbs of Chicago.