about the strip

Chatham, Massachusetts-based illustrator and author Bob Staake has always enjoyed overhearing things. In the spring of 2007, Staake started paying particular attention to the comments he'd overhear -- both the weighty ones and the frivolous -- and began toying with them. He'd hear an otherwise throwaway comment at the local cafe, he'd bump into someone at the bank who uttered something interesting, he'd overhear someone in a local bookstore talking about this or that. But could he create a cartoon feature built around the simple idea of overheard comments? Staake approached Cape Cod Chronicle editor Tim Wood with the idea for 'The Heard', and the paper enthusiastically agreed to start publishing it. The cartoon remains very much an experiment between words, sketchy images and unintentional eavesdropping. "What I like about doing 'The Heard'", says Staake, "is that I can go about my daily business around Chatham and these comments just find their way into my ears. Nobody knows that what they say to me find its way into a cartoon -- and then on the pages of the Cape Cod Chronicle.'