Brian Basset is an American comic strip artist, with two daily strips, Adam At Home and Red and Rover

Red and Rover

Red and Rover or Red & Rover is a daily syndicated comic strip by Brian Basset that debuted in 2000. It is about a young boy and his dog....

. Previously, he worked as an editorial cartoonist

Editorial cartoonist

An editorial cartoonist, also known as a political cartoonist, is an artist who draws editorial cartoons that contain some level of political or social commentary....

 for the Seattle Times.

Besides cartooning, Basset is actively engaged in animal shelter charity work.

Basset currently lives in the Queen Anne neighborhood of Seattle, WA.

Basset was born in Norwalk, Conn. in 1957. His father. Gene Basset, was a sports, theatrical and political cartoonist for over 40 years, retiring in 1993. His mother was a mental health administrator. He has one brother and one sister.

Basset attended Langley High School in McLean, Virginia where he was political cartoonist for the Saxon Scope, 1974-75.

In 1975, Basset enrolled at Ohio State University

Ohio State University

The Ohio State University, commonly referred to as Ohio State, is a public research university located in Columbus, Ohio. It was originally founded in 1870 as a land-grant university and is currently the third largest university campus in the United States...

 and drew comics in the school newspaper, The Lantern

The Lantern

The Lantern is the name of the official, daily student-published university newspaper at The Ohio State University. It is one of the largest campus newspapers in the United States, reaching a circulation of 15,000....

. There, he attended the Fine Arts program.

The Seattle Times Years

After university, he landed a 16-year stint at the Seattle Times, where he drew editorial cartoons for the newspaper. It was during this career when he developed the comic strip "Adam" (later known as Adam@Home or Adam at Home). It was first syndicated in 1984 and focused on the life of Adam Newman, who Basset has admitted has eerie resemblances to his real-life self.

In 1994, Basset was laid off by the Seattle Times during a period of downsizing.

Adam@Home

Following his layoff at the Seattle Times, Basset's wife was forced to look for work to help support their family, and Basset's comic strip reflected this changing reality as Adam Newman became a stay-at-home dad and the comic strip focused more fully on the role of men as care-givers and Adam's home office life.

In 1995, this change was noticeable as the comic's name became "Adam@Home".

Beginning with the February 23, 2009 strip, Basset handed over drawing responsibilities for Adam@home to Rob Harrell, former comics trip artist of Big Top

Big Top (comic strip)

Big Top is an American comic strip written and illustrated by Rob Harrell that takes place in a wacky circus of the same name. Harrell has a history in the circus, as he used to be a sideshow freak, performing as "Zothar the Human Tree Frog." He also has a degree from the Ringling School of Art...

. Basset drew almost a month's worth of Sunday strips after that, with Harrell's first Sunday strip appearing on March 22, 2009.

Red and Rover

In 1998, Basset began thinking about producing a second comic strip that had a more child-like quality to it. On Sunday May 7, 2000, “Red and Rover” appeared in newspapers for the first time. Red and Rover is a retro-feel comic strip about the unconditional love between a dog and his boy that captures the spirit and flavor of the early-1960s-to-mid-1970s. Red and Rover is auto-biographical in nature. According to Suite101, Basset calculates he spent over 1,700 hours developing Red and Rover between inception and its first appearance in newspapers. Originally distributed for the first 10-years by The Washington Post Writers Group, Red and Rover is currently syndicated in over 160 papers by Universal Uclick.

Sources

• Brian Basset's About page