20 Years Later, Father Knows Best

When Kevin Fagan’s “Drabble” cartoon strip debuted March 5, 1979, the Orange County cartoonist, then 22, identified most with his hapless main character, 19-year-old college student Norman Drabble.

But as his strip approaches its 20th anniversary, the man once billed as the youngest syndicated cartoonist in America now finds himself identifying more with Norman’s middle-aged dad, Ralph.

“Norman is insecure and awkward and always embarrassing himself,” says Fagan, 42. “I got to thinking Ralph is the same way, except he’s older and just doesn’t care. That’s probably more like me.”

“Drabble,” which Fagan draws in a studio in his Mission Viejo garage, appears in about 200 papers, including The Times. (Veteran “Peanuts” cartoonist Charles Schulz calls it one of his “all-time favorite strips.”) Fagan now has a new collection of strips, his sixth, “Drabble: Mall Cops, Ducks and Fenderheads” (Nantier-Beall-Minoustchine Publishing; $9.95).

Fagan was going to mark the cartoon’s anniversary in the strip, but what he jokingly refers to as “an important story line” will run over the March 5 anniversary date: Ralph gets his head stuck in the doggie door.

But the self-effacing Fagan never planned to draw too much attention to the “Drabble” milestone.

“It’s not like ‘Garfield’ or ‘Dilbert’ or something like that,” he said, downplaying his own success. “I just feel lucky being around for 20 years. No celebration is called for.”

That’s not to say Fagan hasn’t been making oblique references to the cartoon’s upcoming anniversary.

Since the first of the year, he’s done more than a dozen strips in which Norman experiences what he refers to as “Drabblations”: suddenly remembering embarrassing incidents from his past as he approaches his 20th birthday.

Norman mentally dredges up these moments in an overhead cartoon balloon featuring scenes from old strips. Such as the time he and girlfriend Wendy were eating dinner and she pointed out to him, “You have a piece of coleslaw hanging on your chin.”

Since he began the “Drabblations,” Fagan has received e-mail from fans requesting favorite incidents from old strips, and he plans to continue recalling Norman’s embarrassing moments from time to time the rest of the year.

Fagan says he did the same theme in the strip a couple of years ago but without the cartoon “flashbacks” and the term “Drabblations.” He coined it after someone approached him at a book signing and said he experienced the same thing and wondered if there was a clinical term for remembering embarrassing moments in life.

Fagan, the father of three children, says he and his wife, Cristi, aren’t planning to do anything special to mark the strip’s anniversary at home. But then they never do. March 5 is also Cristi’s birthday, Fagan says, “so it’s totally overshadowed.”

When “Drabble” premiered, the original cast of characters consisted of Norman, Ralph, his mother (Honeybunch), his little brother, Patrick, and Norman’s girlfriend, Wendy.

Over the past 20 years, Fagan has added a few new characters: Norman’s younger sister, Penny, Bob the duck, Oogie the cat and the latest--Wally the wiener dog.

As for whether there are any new characters on the horizon, Fagan is considering the pretty girl Norman became infatuated with in the strip a few months ago, but never drummed up the nerve to speak to.

Fagan hasn’t even named the character yet, but he thinks he’ll have her hail from England. That should pay off with a few yucks in the Drabble household: Ralph, Fagan says, “still harbors resentment over the Revolutionary War.”

Kevin Fagan will do a cartooning demonstration and sign copies of “Drabble: Mall Cops, Ducks and Fenderheads” at 7 p.m. Thursday at Borders Books and Music, 1890 Newport Blvd., Costa Mesa.