Mark Parisi (born 1961) is the creator of '' Off the Mark'', a comic panel which began in 1987 and now appears in 100 newspapers, as well as on

greeting card A greeting card is a piece of card stock, usually with an illustration or photo, made of high quality paper featuring an expression of friendship or other sentiment. Although greeting cards are usually given on special occasions such as birthda ...

T-shirt A T-shirt (also spelled tee shirt), or tee, is a style of fabric shirt named after the T shape of its body and sleeves. Traditionally, it has short sleeves and a round neckline, known as a '' crew neck'', which lacks a collar. T-shirts are genera ...

s, and more. ''Off the Mark'' is distributed daily by

Universal Press Syndicate Universal Press Syndicate (UPS), a subsidiary of Andrews McMeel Universal, was an independent press syndicate. It distributed lifestyle and opinion columns, comic strips and other content. Popular columns include Dear Abby, Ann Coulter, Roge ...

. Parisi's work is influenced by

Charles Schulz Charles Monroe "Sparky" Schulz (; November 26, 1922 – February 12, 2000) was an American cartoonist and the creator of the comic strip ''Peanuts'', featuring what are probably his two best-known characters, Charlie Brown and Snoopy. He is wid ...

Gary Larson Gary Larson (born August 14, 1950) is an American cartoonist, environmentalist, and former musician. He is the creator of ''The Far Side'', a single-panel cartoon series that was syndicated internationally to more than 1,900 newspapers for fif ...

and ''MAD'' magazine. Parisi has also said he admires the work of cartoonists

Jim Meddick Jim Meddick (born August 1961) is an American cartoonist. While attending Washington University in St. Louis, he won the Chicago Tribune Student Cartoonist Contest for a strip named ''Paperback Writer''. After graduating, in 1983 he became a pol ...

Sergio Aragonés Sergio Aragonés Domenech ( , ; born September 6, 1937) is a Spanish/Mexican cartoonist and writer best known for his contributions to '' Mad'' magazine and creating the comic book '' Groo the Wanderer''. Among his peers and fans, Aragonés is ...

, and

Garry Trudeau Garretson Beekman Trudeau (born July 21, 1948) is an American cartoonist, best known for creating the ''Doonesbury'' comic strip. Trudeau is also the creator and executive producer of the Amazon Studios political comedy series ''Alpha House''. ...

. In addition, Mark is the author and illustrator of the ''Marty Pants'' middle-grade novel series for

Harper Collins HarperCollins Publishers LLC is one of the Big Five English-language publishing companies, alongside Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, Hachette, and Macmillan. The company is headquartered in New York City and is a subsidiary of News Cor ...

Background

Parisi began drawing when he was very young, and frequently copied comic strips out of newspapers. Parisi said that after reading

' comic strip ''

Peanuts ''Peanuts'' is a print syndication, syndicated daily strip, daily and Sunday strip, Sunday American comic strip written and illustrated by Charles M. Schulz. The strip's original run extended from 1950 to 2000, continuing in reruns afterward. ' ...

'', he "immediately wanted to draw it." At

Salem State University Salem State University (Salem State or SSU) is a public university in Salem, Massachusetts. Established in 1854, it is the oldest and largest institute of higher education on the North Shore and is part of the state university system in Massac ...

, he changed his major several times before settling on Art, with a concentration in Graphic Art.

Awards

In 2008, 2011, and 2017 Parisi won the "Best Newspaper Panel" award for ''Off the Mark'' from the

National Cartoonists Society The National Cartoonists Society (NCS) is an organization of professional cartoonists in the United States. It presents the National Cartoonists Society Awards. The Society was born in 1946 when groups of cartoonists got together to entertain the ...

. He also was nominated for the award in 2004, 2006, 2013, and 2016. In 2013, he also won the "Best Greeting Cards" award from the National Cartoonists Society.

References

^ Scott Nickel (August 9, 2009). "20 Questions with Mark Parisi". 2.Jump up ^ Steven Ellis (May 2, 2006). "On the mark with lots of laughs". 3.Jump up ^ Joyce Bowen. "On the Mark". https://joyce-bowen.blog/2017/03/31/on-the-mark/ https://joyce-bowen.blog/2017/03/31/on-the-mark/

External links

''Off the Mark''
* http://www.gocomics.com/offthemark 1961 births Living people American cartoonists Salem State University alumni {{US-cartoonist-stub