Brad Gilchrist





[Visit Brad's CTFan website]

[Visit Brad's Greenhouse Comics website]

Brad is 44 and is a proud member of the National Cartoonist Society. He lives in Canton with his wife, Bethany and two daughters, Jayme & Carly. He has a dog, a cat (no, not THAT cat) and a large saltwater aquarium.

Brad began writing professionally in 1978 (after graduating from Avon High School) when he and his brother, Guy worked on a comic book for Weekly Reader Publications. In 1980, Guy and Brad tried out for and won the privilege of creating THE MUPPETS COMIC STRIP for Jim Henson and King Features Syndicate. The Muppets was read in over 800 newspapers worldwide from 1981-1985.

After writing the Muppets for 5 years, Brad and Guy struck out on their own to explore new opportunities. Brad free-lanced; writing books for Looney Tunes and Tiny Toons, assisting on art for many licensed characters, and tried his hand at toy inventing.

In 1990, Brad created a direct-mail program called TOGETHER TIME! In conjunction with Gomola Associates, he developed a fun-filled craft kit for parents of creative children. As a parent himself, Brad thought it would be nice to have a monthly kit which would contain ideas, materials and instructions that busy parents could use when spending quality time with their children. The kits contain a 16 page magazine, calendar/poster, stickers and craft supplies to create at least 3 projects. Together Time has been a big hit and at one timewas mailed to 50,000 families each month.

In 1995, Brad and Guy heard from fellow cartoonist & friend, Gill Fox, that United Features was looking for new talent to "revive" the classic comic strip, NANCY (originally created by Ernie Bushmiller). The idea was to return Nancy, Sluggo, Aunt Fritzi and friends to their classic 1950's style. Once again, the Gilchrists got the job and began the "retro Nancy" in September of 1995. (Brad writes the gags and Guy does the art.) Nancy is featured in over 300 papers worldwide. 2003 marks Nancy’s 79th birthday."

The Together Time kits sparked a new idea in 1997.

The Creative Learning Institute decided to create a Science based kit called, Discovery Time. Brad was asked to create new characters for this club and the kit debuted in November of 1997.

Brad’s also created the Ct Fan comic strip. Following, In his own words, Brad traces the origins and evolution of this “labor of love”.

”The idea for CT Fan was born at a rather boring Hartford Whaler's game in 1992. I told my friend, Bill Campbell, that someone ought to do something to increase the public’s awareness of this team and help them with marketing and merchandise. Well, that idea turned into a full-page color feature in each Whalers game night magazine, called CT Fan. CT Fan was a guy named Bill "Snow Cones" Jones, a Zamboni driver from Stamford, who got a job working for the Whalers. This premise gave us an insider’s look from an outsider's perspective into our state's only major league sport. A few years go by and we lost the Whalers.

What's a CT Fan to do? In May of 1997 the first CT Fan strip debuted in the Hartford Courant. Jeff Otterbein, the Courant's Sports Editor gave me space on the Sunday Reader Forum page primarily because he loves the CT Fan cat, who got his start by walking through the Whalers locker room. As a pun, I put a hockey shirt on him with the name, LeMew on his back. Today CT Fan appears in 6 papers on a daily basis and in the Hartford Courant’s Sports Section on Sunday. The cat still doesn't have a name and he wears various jerseys that tie into the daily gag."

More recently, Brad and Peter Menice have created Green House Comics, an environmentally-themed comic.