Read the Tale of Tatters here

In many ways, Tatters is an example of missed potential. The Kid would sketch and drawl often in his youth, doodling his caricatures on whatever paper was handy at the moment. It might be drawing paper or it might be in school notebooks. This is why some of the drawing have horizontal lines running across them. He called the collection, "Tatters" because it was made up these bits and tatters of gathered paper. Perhaps it deserves the title as the tattered end of his possible art career.

In his teens The Kid saw an ad that said, "Draw me!". So he did the drawing and wheedled his mother into letting him sign up as a student of Art Instruction, Inc. (endorsed in their ads by Charles Schulz, himself and The Kid was a big "Peanuts" fan). The Kid's own comic strip, "Who's Who at the Psycho Zoo?", certainly shows the influence of Schulz.

The Kid had grown up reading the cartoons in "The Saturday Evening Post". He wanted to be a cartoonist and took the art course with that in mind. The school was teaching commercial art; however, and after two years he grew tired of drawing lamps, vases and cookware as practice and dropped out.

Although he continued to do sketches through most of the eighties, he gradually drifted away from art and as he turned into the Old Goat has most likely lost the skills. In other words, The Kid wasted his talent and potential and all he has to show for it are these tatters.