Lee's new project

You've been enjoying Lee Glickstein's limericks in the blog comments here. Now he's looking to branch out into a crossword-themed comic strip and needs a collaborator who can draw:

Humorist/crossword constructor seeks artist(s) for collaboration on a crossword-themed comic strip.

Background: Former stand-up comedian, now professional speaker/coach who teaches presence/magnetism (www.SpeakingCircles.com), author of Be Heard Now! Tap Into Your Inner Speaker and Communicate with Ease (Broadway Books). Contact: lee@speakingcircles.com.

Constructing crosswords the past six years has been a great exercise in writing humor to fit precise parameters. Recently (re)discovered the limerick form as another precise frame to inhabit and through which to deliver punchlines.

The frame I'm ultimately drawn to is the parameter of the daily comic strip, and I have an idea for a strip about a crossword family that would appeal to the crossword crowd yet be clear and funny to any reasonably intelligent reader who doesn't do crosswords though knows of their existence. It would feature wordplay, but not inside jokes and industry jargon.

This project calls for a simple, elegant, cartoon style in which characters come through as semi-real (I'm thinking Luann). I have a couple of representative strips of dialogue (three panels) that would give an opportunity for interested artists to play with a treatment.