That's super cute ^_^ an instant fave!

A lovely day, oui!

Hmm. That name rings a bell - I believe that was the name used by a BBS operator from Canada, now better known as Kratsminsch Skunk. Any relation, or was Hepzibah an existing chatcater that had her persona purloined?

Ma'm'zelle Hepzibah is from Pogo, I believe.

Ken Rosser used to use the Hepzibah role as the creator of The Trap Line. These days he prefers to play as Kratsmicsch -- perhaps for the best since Krats is his own character. Mlle. Hepzibah was a character created by Walt Kelly in the newspaper strip Pogo, and first appeared in the early 1950's I think. I used to be fond of her myself, when reading the funnie pages, though I wasn't so keen on Walt Kelly's idea of humour or poltical satire. She looked more or less as shown in this picture, except she usually wore a bouncy skirt. It covered nothing and there was nothing to be seen.

Thanks. Yes, I know Krats quite well, or at least well enough that Krats is generally campaigning against me for being the devil incarnate, when I'm not around, and pretending not to be when I am.
Silly skunky.

What? Good heavens! You're Kevin Duane?

No, seriously, I know Ken gets his testicles tied in a knot pretty easily, but I don't usually hear too much about his feuds on the muck since he knows I'm a totally without a clue about the people on it. If he came to me and said some guy named Cuthbert Curmudgeon was the greatest villain on Earth since Bill Gates inflicted Windows on the world, my reaction would only be "who"? I figure its better that way. I can make my own enemies and don't need his.

Ken in reality is not the bouncy happy skunkie he'd like to be. In fact he's not very happy at all, most of the time. But you've probably figured that out for yourself by now.

Yes. Actually, Ken's mad at me for entirely the wrong reasons - I was trying to help at the time but since there was rum involved, Ken sort of.... well. I think *WAAAAAAAH!!* sums it up. But since I know what's up, I cut him a lot of slack. I've never dropped the hammer on him for blackening my good name. *cough*
That said, Ken got himself into the WCOTP comic strip with his antics: http://www.graphxpress.com/cgi-bin/.....?date=20071216
I should point out, I actually only used to colour the strip, not write them.

And by "yes" I mean "no, I'm not Kevin Duane" - Actually I threatened to set fire to "assinio" if I ever encountered him.

Reading on...
OK, I'm British, the whole Walt Kelley/Pogo thing I suspect is bigger in the US than here. That said, I did get to colour up the Anthrocon 2007 con badges that used Kelley's artwork.
I think the perks of being AC's default go-to guy for setting up the badges is getting to colour the GoH's work, or at least, work with it.

And I'm Canadian, which may explain why Kelly's political satire was less than sheer genius to me. That and I was only a few years old when McCarthy was rampaging all over American civil liberties, and barely a teenager in Spiro Agnew's time. If it wasn't for the admiration I hold for his technique, I actually wouldn't have much interest in Walt Kelly. That and a certain petite moufette.

I refuse to believe that Spiro Agnew isn't an anagram of something dirty.

Actually, I thought it sounded something like a species of germ. A. Spiro.

I recall Agnew's name being used as a substitute for "that other word for feces" during a sketch on Bizarre (I saw some of the syndicated episodes years ago).

Richard Nixon was also used in the same sketch as a sub for...well I think you can figure that one out :)

"Spiro" is just ordinary Greek, but his last name, like Dr Strangelove's, was originally rather longer and not so easy to spell (something like "Agneuopolis" which I'm sure isn't right). "Agnew" is really an Irish name, amazingly enough.

"Spiro" is just ordinary Greek, but his last name, like Dr Strangelove's, was originally rather longer and not so easy to spell (something like "Agneuopolis" which I'm sure isn't right). "Agnew" is really an Irish name, amazingly enough.

Aha! Now I know why that picture looked so familiar!
http://cuprohastes.com/lj/kelly.jpg
I worked on Carolyn Kelly's art - It was nicely coloured so all I had to do was add it to the badge template I'd made (And add MINOR in Safety Orange, but that's an anecdote for another time)

Wonderful! I've been on a Hepzibah kick recently, so this is just what I needed. ^__^

honestly, it astonishes me that more furries don't know about her, much less draw her!

(And yes, I've tried to, and my efforts will be uploaded in time...)

Most furries are so young they think the ancient roots of the fandom are Minerva Mink.

For me, I wouldn't be a furry without Rescue Rangers and Tiny Toons. Although lots of little things, like Tex Avery's "Little Tinker", helped too.

Most likley furry fandom wouldn't have come into being without the Disney afternoon and similar Warner Bros. shows that first hit the air in the early 80's I think. There would have just been us old farts, who remember Krazy Kat and Francis the Talking Mule (dimmly at least). Whether or not we ever decided we made up a new fandom, it would have been a very *different* fandom from the one that is.

It's just sad that so much of the old stuff seems to have been buried under the rug. I mean, Hepzibah's a cuddly, amorous French skunkette! What's not to love!

Also, I wanted to get in some drawing practice of her because my real goal is to do a pic with her and Fifi together. Like, Hepzibah is Feef's grandma or nanny or something. Vast cuteness potential.

The difficulty of Hepzibah is that Kelly changed how he drew her over the years, and never had a succesful turn-around. She'd even change appearance from panel to panel sometimes, in a way that Churchy or Pogo never would. It was said that Hepzibah -- pretty girls in general -- was something Kelly never did become reallyu comfortable with. He used to do pin-up girls before Pogo, but they were quite generic and had as much character as so many eggs in a carton.

Hmm... That may be why I've found it so difficult to get a 'lock' on her.

^-^ Mega lovely! Sweet pic! ^-^

Excellent art, Taral. Hepzibah is uber cute.

She's too adorable.

Probably because he didn't have as much practice drawing Ma'mzelle as much as he did Pogo etc. I don't recall there were very many female characters with important roles in his stories: Miz Beaver, Ma'amzelle Hepzibah, Miz Stork (during the cowbirds episode), nearly all the rest being offstage for the most part.

Or maybe he cast his eye toward the future that was yet to be and say to himself, "Do I want those furry fans to get a fixation on this little skunk lady?" ;P

Hepzibah certainly didn't appear as often as Miz Beaver and few other older married women and spinsters in the searies. I think too, Kelly was more adept at comic expression, and Ma'm'zelle's character didn't lend itself well to gross excagerations, so he didn't know quite what to do with her.

Miz Beaver was married after a fashion, though from her description of the wedding ceremony (a Prohibition-era booze riot in the course of which her husband managed to disappear as the police closed in, never to return), it could be described as a very short-lived one.

There was that one odd episode when, while she was sternly lecturing (IIRC) Albert on the subject of allowing a stork to nest in his hat while he was wearing it, Miz Stork came swooping down with a suggestive bundle in her beak, causing Miz B to flee in a state of high panic. It was a bundle of sticks, not, y'know ... (gestures as if holding a baby) ... makes you wonder what else she was doing besides taking in other people's washing, heh.

There should be more fanart of Miz Beaver, I think. (gets out his pencil)

Hepzibah also visited a cousin once (a rather less fetching skunkette) who had about a gazillion children. But no visible husband. It's as though there were children in the swamp, but no PARENTS! (Just as there could be romance, and the "threat" of marriage. Perhaps actual marriage was too much like suggesting there was such a thing as sex?)

lovely picture!