About the Artist
I have been drawing pretty much since I could pick up a pencil. My oldest brother gave me his collection of Peanuts comic books when I was a little kid, and like so many other cartoonists out there, that’s what got me started drawing in the first place.
I created a cartoon character called “WonderBrat” for a class assignment in the fourth grade. WonderBrat was a boy superhero (his alter ego, the mild-mannered Harold Wilson, eventually became the main character of Hamster Tails). I drew a whole bunch of WonderBrat comic books as a kid, and I even got WonderBrat into my college newspaper, The Daily Kent Stater, for a couple of semesters. Once I get a little more ambitious, I’ll post samples of all of my older stuff here. It’ll be great. 
Anyhow, my dream job was always, of course, to be a syndicated cartoonist, so I submitted WonderBrat and another strip to the syndicates, and, lacking both confidence and ambition, promptly stopped submitting any more strips when I got the inevitable rejection letters.
In the meantime, I got a little work as a freelance cartoonist, but eventually, I knew I wanted to draw my own comic strip. I had played with the idea of having a comic strip online for quite a while, but laziness prevented me from doing very much about it. Then a couple of years ago I got married, and eventually found just enough confidence and ambition to launch Hamster Tails. And here you are.
In everyday life, I work as a proofreader, a job that, other than cartooning and my college job, which wasn’t a real job, is probably my favorite job that I’ve had so far in life. I live in a cozy little place with my fantabulous wife and three cats and a dog. You can email me at gary at hamstertails dot com.
About the Strip
Anyone who’s seen my old WonderBrat strips will instantly recognize Hamster Tails. It’s all the same characters. I chose the name “Hamster Tails,” frankly, because I could never come up with a name I liked any better.
You will likely notice my characters’ physical resemblances to the kids from Peanuts, although their personalities are different from the Peanuts kids. You will see hints of Calvin and Hobbes occasionally, one of my favorite strips of all time. I’m also influenced by Bloom County and The Far Side. I see those four comics as the gold standard that I measure all other strips by (including my own).
About the Characters
Harold Wilson
The only kid in the strip with a last name, Harold is the straight man of the group. He is the long-suffering best friend of Jimmy, and also the owner of George, the hamster after whose tails the strip was named (although he only has one).
Jimmy
What Jimmy lacks in common sense and gray matter, he more than makes up for in loyalty to his best buddy Harold. If you were on the Titanic, Jimmy would give up his seat on the lifeboat for you. You just wouldn’t want him rowing the lifeboat for you.
George
George is Harold’s pet hamster. He is inspired by an actual hamster I owned named George when I was a kid. Like most hamsters, the cartoon George is nocturnal, sleeps a lot, and likes to stuff food in his cheeks. His favorite pastime, though, is trying to escape from his cage, which he does with alarming regularity and ease.
The Mighty WonderBrat!
WonderBrat is Harold Wilson’s superhero alter-ego. As superheroes go, he’s an extremely reluctant one. He is much more likely to be found watching TV than actually helping people. And when he does actually help, his recipient often wishes he hadn’t.
Mr. Whittle
Mr. Whittle is Harold and Jimmy’s teacher. Much like Jimmy, he’s more than a bit absent-minded, but well-meaning. Certainly not the kind of guy you might imagine would turn into….
The Amazing Zitman!
Zitman is the crime-fighting alter-ego of Mr. Whittle (see above). Zitman subdues the bad guys with handfuls of his patented Acne-Dust™. How he spontaneously breaks out in acne (and muscles) whenever he turns into Zitman, however, is anybody’s guess.
Benji
Benji is Harold’s kid brother. He’s a tag-along and a pain in the patootie to his older brother and sports a classic Moe Howard haircut. And he is in no way, shape, or form patterned after me as a kid. Not even in the slightest. Really.
There are a few other background characters floating around, and as soon as they do something to distinguish themselves, I’ll highlight them here.
