4
Tuesday, March 14, 1972
University Daily Kansan
Griff and the Unicorn
—Of Whimsy and Dreams
Editor's note: In the fall of 1969 two improbable characters first appeared on the Kansas editorial page. They were, and remain, Griff and the Uncorn. Their creator, Dave Sokoloff, a junior majoring in advertising and editorial art, created the two sometimes whimsical and hapless characters way back in Chicago before coming to the University of Kentucky. And the Daily has appeared regularly since 1989 and daily since spring of 1971.
This is a collection of some favorite strips. His comments accompany the cartoons.
The phone rang very late one Saturday night and a voice asked me, among other things, where the ideas came from for "Griff and the Unicorn." That's a very awkward thing for me to explain even at a decent hour—never mind 1:30 in the morning. I guess most of my ideas come from just fooling around. Like I said, it's difficult to get across. For this article I chose those cartoons that I could connect to a specific source. There are a couple here that can't be traced to anything exactly, but are included because they're favorites of mine.
"This idea came about one night when my drawing of a bed looked like it had feet. I wondered what would happen if it started walking around. Griff was put on the bed and he took it from there."
"It seems like all the conversations between Griff and the Unicorn are taken from dialogues with myself. Mine is one of the few jobs where talking to yourself can be an occupational asset."
"Last summer I worked for a retail clothing store in the Chicago suburbs washing tuxedos. In the laundry room, a big, wiry, black steam-presser named Larry clipped his nails now and then—it drove me up the wall."
"Since mythical beasts are used in the strip, some research has to be done regarding fabulous animals. The Phoenix, a bird which has to set fire to itself to continue its species, seems to have been given a bum deal. But at least it made some material for a cartoon."
"This sort of thing happens to me too often—there is nothing to do but draw a comic strip about it."
"Believe it or not, this idea is taken from an actual conversation between my father and me, except the topic was the relative value of Dick Cavett as opposed to that of Johnny Carson. It was Dad who, as I remember, disparaged Cavett as an 'intellectual.' Griff has my line."
"I'm not sure where I got the idea for this one. I'm not sure I want to know."
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