I was portraying the family through my eyes. Everything that's happened in the strip has happened to me.

Some may look on my work as being corny or old hat and wonder if my observations on the typical family are passe, what with the single-parent family and mixed family units.

Even the strictest religious person from the strictest religious sect allows a little levity. Today, they congratulate you for carrying the Christian message into the comics.

We are, in the comics, the last frontier of good, wholesome family humor and entertainment.

Many of the network television shows have done takeoffs on 'Family Circus,' including 'David Letterman,' 'Friends,' 'Roseanne,' and others, and, in my estimation the use of them is a compliment to the popularity of the feature, which just by mentioning it's name sets up the image of a warm, loving family-type feature.