Leigh Rubin, creator of the "Rubes" cartoon, will present his "Rubes Cartoony Show" at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Albany Public Library, 1390 Waverly Drive S.E. It's free and open to the public.

"Rubes" appears in the Democrat-Herald and more than 400 other newspapers worldwide.

Rubin, 51, lives in Nipomo, Calif., about halfway between Los Angeles and San Francisco.

His offbeat characters also appear on greeting cards, calendars, mugs and T-shirts. Copies of Rubin's books will be available for purchase and signing at the library after the program. For more information call the library at 917-7580.

Rubin describes himself as a sit-down comedian, presumably because he makes his drawings while not standing up.

The inspiration to create a new cartoon panel hit Rubin while he was surrounded by a collection of greeting cards.

"It was 1978, and I was walking through the card section of a pharmacy," Rubin said. "I just stopped in my tracks, looked at the cards and thought, 'Wait a minute. I can do that.'"

In 1979 he set up Rubes Publications, his own publishing company, to distribute his greeting cards.

Rubes, in the form that cartoon aficionados now know it, began appearing in newspapers in 1984.

His most recent series of books includes "The Wild Life of … Love, Cats, Dogs, Pets, Cows and Farm Animals."

Democrat-Herald