Tank McNamara celebrates 50 years!

Congratulations to creator Bill Hinds on the 50th anniversary of Tank McNamara. Bill will be honored with the Gold T-Square Award at the 78th Annual Reuben Awards in San Diego on August 23. This award is given to cartoonists who reach 50 years as a professional cartoonist. He is only the fifth person in history to reach this milestone, joining the likes of Rube Goldberg (1955), Mort Walker (1999), Arnold Roth (2018), and Garry Trudeau (2020).

For those of you new to the strip, “Sports is Tank McNamara’s beat, his livelihood. A former professional football player who’s now a TV sportscaster, Tank McNamara reports on the breaking sports stories of the day: the hot players and angry coaches, the pending lawsuits and drawn-out strikes, the constant roar and ever-increasing hype that make organized sports one of the world’s most lucrative businesses.” Check it out on GoComics. Bill took some time to participate in a Q&A in honor of the anniversary. Get to know him and the history of the strip a little better by reading the interview below.

What do you think it is about Tank that has made it so popular with readers – and editors – for so long?

Sports are popular, and that world is constantly offering new material. When we started in 1974 the long lag time between the creation of the strip wasn’t that much of a problem, but then with the arrival of ESPN and 24-hour sports talk radio and now the internet, Tank is competing with the 24-hour sports news cycle.

What has been your favorite part about creating this strip and these characters and for 50 years?

I have always enjoyed drawing, but I have really enjoyed writing for the past 12 years. 

Do you have a favorite strip that you’ve created? If yes, what one?

Yes–many. I liked the 11-25-2012 Sunday strip where the Devil appears in a puff of smoke in the stands of a football game to offer a comeback win in exchange for the souls of the fans. In another puff of smoke, Danny Morton, the team’s VP of season ticket sales, appears to say they have already sold their souls for the season tickets. The frustrated Devil disappears. One guy steps up and says, “Jokes on him, I’m in my uncle’s seats.” It was one of the first strips I wrote.

Tank started as a collaborative strip with your longtime co-creator, the late great Jeff Millar. Can you tell us about if working on the strip and your approach to it has changed since you became the sole creator? And, if so, how is it different these days?

In most ways it was a very easy collaboration. He trusted me enough to not see what I drew until we got the proofs. That lead to at least one quirky strip that called for “bat’ Night at a baseball game and I used the creature bat instead of the baseball equipment bat. Jeff loved my mistake and expanded on the notion of a vampire “Bat Night”. 

Jeff was a wordsmith. I am a cartoonist. After working together for 38 years, I had a feel for Tank McNamara’s humor, but my approach is much less wordy. 

By the way, it is much much easier to draw something originating from my brain than from someone else’s.

How has your experience been working with Andrews McMeel?

It has been excellent. 

Jim Andrews and John McMeel understood Tank from the start. Our working title was “Jocks”. Back in 1974 that was a bit to edgy to sell to America’s family newspapers. They also wanted the comic strip to be based on a main character. Tank was in only one of the original strips, but they said, that’s the guy. 

There is some dispute over who came up with the name Tank McNamara.

I have had a great team of handlers that have worked to keep me on the right side of deadlines for 50 years. They worked hard.

If you launched Tank today, what would you do differently?

Yikes. Newspaper deadlines aren’t conducive to success in our instantaneous sports commentary world. I would probably base the strip on Tank’s personal life.

Or make it a weekly online animated feature.

What is one thing readers don’t know about Tank?

His back story is a little wobbly. When I took over writing Tank, I shaved about 20 years off of his age. Also, I changed him from a former defensive lineman to an offensive lineman. It made more sense that he was friends with quarterback Buck Baker.

Another secret is I base the image of Murray the Agent on a grown-up version of my SIKids character Buzz Beamer.

What’s the best compliment you’ve ever received about Tank?

I always like to hear people tell me that that day’s strip was funny. When I first took over the writing I was very nervous. I had already had experience writing strips like Cleats and Buzz Beamer, but this was going to be judged by long-time Tank fans. One of the comments on that strip about the devil was, “…one of the best strips I remember ever reading. Well done.” My knees stopped shaking after that.

What do you hope to see in years to come with Tank?

A Tank television series would be nice. A Broadway Musical would be a stretch. Maybe off-Broadway.

Is there anything else you would like to add about the strip, or about your life as a cartoonist?

I sold my first cartoon in 1970. As an adult, I never did any other kind of work. I can’t think of any other career I would want.