Chris Cassatt

Chris Cassatt was introduced to Jeff MacNelly by cartoonist Mike Peters in a sushi bar in Aspen, Colo. in 1992. Chris had Yellowtail. Jeff had a burger.

At the time, Jeff was looking for a way to use computers to ease the workload of his comic strip. By strange coincidence, Chris was one of the first digital cartoonists in the country. Together they figured out a way to streamline Shoe production giving Jeff more time to paint and sculpt. Chris remained his assistant until Jeff’s death.

Chris and his wife, Lauren, live on a horse ranch in Old Snowmass, Colo. When not producing Shoe, he does editorial cartoons for the local newspaper, The Aspen Times. Lauren is the librarian for Aspen High School. They have two children, Alex, 28, and Hayley, 25.

Gary Brookins

Gary Brookins has been the editorial cartoonist for the Richmond Times-Dispatch in Richmond, Va. since 1979. His cartoons are distributed by King Features Syndicate to more than 400 newspapers, and are frequently reprinted in periodicals, books and Web sites worldwide.

In February of 1997, Brookins took over the cartoon panel Pluggers from Jeff MacNelly. In June 1999, Brookins began working with Jeff MacNelly and Chris Cassatt on Shoe and, following the death of MacNelly in June 2000, Brookins, Cassatt and Susie MacNelly continued with production of the strip.

He and his wife, Janet, have four sons, two daughters-in-law, one grandson, two spoiled Bichons and a blind 35-year-old Amazon parrot.

Susie MacNelly

“On my planet, everybody has long, curly red hair and skinny legs. Even the guys. That’s what first attracted me to Jeff. He didn’t have either.”

Susie met Jeff MacNelly, the Pulitzer Prize-winning political cartoonist, in 1989 on a blind date at a bar in Washington, D.C. Jeff was poised at the back door ready to flee if he didn’t like what he saw. He stayed. To his amazement, Jeff immediately realized she was the wiseass Roz he’d been drawing in Shoe for 12 years. She was the bird of his dreams! It was love at first sight. They were soon married and took up residence on a Blue Ridge mountaintop.

As Jeff expanded his talents as a painter and sculptor, he saw the need to put together a crew of wiseacres to help with Shoe production. Susie was quickly appointed Field Marshal. Her first marshaling job was to round up the digital     cartoon nerdmeister-of-the-West, Chris Cassatt, followed by Gary Brookins and  his magic brush.

Little did Jeff know, he was assembling what would be the driving force behind  the continuing wit and wisdom of Shoe after his premature death in 2000 from  lymphoma.

Susie continues to live in the Blue Ridge Mountains and in Key West. She takes care of her expanding brood of animals and repairs Jeff’s ancient, beloved automotive relics. Everyday she, Chris and Gary breathe life into Shoe, Roz, Cosmo and the cast of characters that make Shoe the award-winning comic strip it is.