Scrambled Eggs is the longest still-running series here. It's been around since January of 1990, so it's as old as The Simpsons(if you don't count the Tracey Ullman years). You're looking at a blowup of issue #2, the oldest surviving Scrambled Eggs comic. As you can see, it's so old, it's got liver spots. So, you could say that there was barely an Internet at all when SE made its debut (there was a Net, but it consisted of nerds who had the capability to do such a thing). As for me, I was 7 and in second grade. George Bush SENIOR was in the Oval Office, and his son was finally graduating from high school. I'm a little worried you're going to try to figure out what's going on in this cover, so here's the rundown...Harvey has just finished making a snowman and is basking in the fruits of his effort when suddenly the sun comes out and melts the thing. He turns around and yells at the sun, "KILLJOY!!" In the corner box you see Tuan sailing on a paper airplane, in conjunction with the feature story inside, where Tuan entered a paper airplane contest. This was also the issue that introduced Tommy, but not Michelle. You'll know who these people are soon enough...just keep reading.

HARVEY Harvey has never served much of a purpose in the series. He's usually just there to react to everyone else. The first issue of Scrambled Eggs focused on Harvey, however. But that didn't matter, because I only drew 2 pages of it and then lost it. You'll notice he still looks kind of like Henry from Henry and Jennifer...well, that's not intentional and they're not related. Back then, I couldn't help it. I didn't have many tricks to make people look different from each other.

JULIA Case in point: Julia looks like Jennifer! For the most part, all the boys had flat hair and all the girls had curly hair in drawings of this age. I just kept the styles...what else could I do? The first person to have radically different hair was Michelle, whom you'll meet later on down the page. Anyway, Julia is Harvey's little sister(and he's got 2 other siblings here). At first, Julia was kind of a hyper loudmouth, but now she's more normal. She serves her purpose, but not as much as...(here comes the big one...)

TUAN Tuan is adopted from Vietnam, and was my first Asian cartoon character ever(in a decade, he wasn't going to be so alone). He's also the star of this show. In the series' beginning, Tuan was still learning the American language and talked in broken English. He also had this habit of saying "No kidding!" to every sentence he stressed as important, due to a communication error where Harvey had to explain what "No kidding" exactly meant. Tuan has talked normally since 1992, but he still says "No kidding"(and he can't stop doing that, it's his trademark). More on Tuan when we get to Quint.

QUINT He's Harvey's older brother. Quint is always trying to prove how smart he is, yet every time he gets beaten by Tuan, without Tuan even trying usually. Tuan has been in TV ads, invented major products, won the Nobel Prize and been involved with Hollywood and major politicians in various issues, oftentimes without warning or explanation. It's a running gag that drives Quint nuts.

Every so often, the school will host a science fair, and this is where their rivalry is most intense, with Harvey often partnering with Quint. Quint still hasn't won a science fair, and Tuan may have to build an addition onto the house to hold all the trophies he's won soon... Quint also has a pet gila monster.

MICHELLE This girl lives next door to Tuan's family. Michelle is, in one word, dumb. An airhead blonde, to describe the stereotype more accurately. Equally dumb is her little brother Tommy, but he might just be repeating what he learned from her. When I came up with Tommy and Michelle I had never heard of the concept of the "wacky neighbor" before, or that it's used so often. But it still works. Some things are still wanted no matter how many times they're done. People still demand that every river scene end in a waterfall, that the hero and princess always fall in love, and that there be Wacky Neighbors. Michelle has a Leap Year birthday, and every four years, a story has to appear where Tuan and co. are dragged to her party and must suffer through it.

This series has had many running themes over the years. In addition to the science fair(often hosted by a famous media personality), I've also had Tuan with a camcorder making videos often, the adventures of "Sherlock Harvey"(and his partner Datsun, who is Tuan), Scrambled Mail(my first faux letter column--many more would follow), the Space Editions(issues with sci-fi themes), and Tuan's guides to various things(the Internet, the Super Bowl, etc).
Will Scrambled Eggs ever end? Well, several times through the 90's I thought it was gone for good, but then I just started doing it again. Now it's gone on so long that I think I'll probably just push it until I'm dead and see how long it can go on. Besides, if I were to start another cartoon series right now with hopes it would last as long as Scrambled Eggs has, I'd have to wait 14 years. Forget that.....

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