Hilary B. Price is the creator and cartoonist for the Rhymes With Orange comic strip. Recently, Hilary won Cartoonist of Year at this year’s Reuben Awards, which are the Academy Awards for the cartooning industry. In 1995, she became the youngest-ever female syndicated newspaper cartoonist.

I asked Hilary the 10 With Tom questions, to get into her head.

TOM: Hilary, when did Rhymes With Orange start, how did you end up being syndicated? Did you send the work in to syndicates? Were you “discovered” somewhere?

HILARY: Hi Tom. I got syndicated in 1995, as you mentioned. There used to be a printed book called The Cartoonist’s Market that had all the magazines and syndicates addresses in it. I sent packages of 24 toons off to the different syndicates and got a note back from the editor of King Features saying, “Send us 14 more. You’ve got two weeks.” This happened several times before they offered me a nine-month development deal.

TOM: I remember The Cartoonist’s Market, I think I have an old one lying around the house somewhere. Anyway, how the name Rhymes With Orange come about?

HILARY: When I was a kid my aunt told me no word rhymed with orange. I tucked it away. When it came time to name the strip I liked that there was already a joke in the title.

TOM: Do you work digitally or still with pen and ink on paper?

HILARY: In the interest of efficiency, I draw on an iPad using Procreate, then color in Photoshop.

TOM: Where do you get the most readers these days Newspapers, website, Instagram, Facebook, etc.?

HILARY: The honest answer is I don’t know. I only know we are at the mercy of declining print media and fussy algorithms. We swim in rough seas. There’s one recent glimmer, which is that a reader can now subscribe solely to Rhymes With Orange on the Comics Kingdom site, and get the strip emailed daily. It’s kind of like a Patreon for us if people subscribe just to our strip. (Of the three bucks per month, Comics Kingdom gets half and Rina and I split the other half.

TOM: Speaking of Rina, Rina Piccolo (who I interviewed some years ago) is now part of Rhymes With Orange, why did you feel you needed a partner cartoonist in creating the strip/panel?

HILARY: Society loves the myth of a solo creator. I think it’s more fun to be part of a team, and after 22 years, I wanted company. These last seven years, Rina’s brought energy and a boatload of talent to the strip.

TOM: Do you share ideas with Rina or just stick to your own creations? What I mean is do you come up with something and tell Rina and she then draws it up and vice versa?

HILARY: We collaborate!

TOM: Tell us about your studio/workspace?

HILARY: I still have a studio space in an old converted toothbrush factory building, but I do most of work in my office at home. I live by a river and visit it daily.

TOM: Other than your own, which comic strip or panel (current or past) would you like to crawl into and spend the day?

HILARY: I have two. I’d crawl into Edward Gorey’s book The Doubtful Guest, then hang out with B. Kliban’s fat cats in red sneakers.

TOM: Friends or Seinfeld?

HILARY: Neither. The characters in Seinfield were way too mean to each other, and Friends didn’t grab me, except for Phoebe’s “Smelly Cat” song. My favorite network comedy is “The Good Place.”

TOM: Ugh, I never understood The Good Place, I could never get into it. Speaking of “a good place,” if you could live anywhere in the world for a year, where?

HILARY: A place with lots of snow and lots of trees. Winter is my favorite season. Snow, for me, is both calming and crazy fun.

TOM: Thanks, Hilary!

More on Hilary and Rhymes With Orange here:
Website: rhymeswithorange.com
Comics Kingdom: comicskingdom.com/rhymes-with-orange
Instagram: instagram.com/rhymeswithorangecomic
Facebook: facebook.com/RhymesComic

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