Deon “Super Dee” Parson is about to make history with his cartoon “Rosebuds.”
After years of hard work and honing his craft, the 29-year-old cartoonist from Anderson, Indiana will see his comic series “Rosebuds” syndicated — or regularly published in local or national newspapers — in Sunday newspapers across the country Sept. 1.
“It’s so fun, like being able to do this, because, like, my career path is so weird,” Parson said. “Next year will be at least 10 years since I first started my first comic professionally. So, this has been a long time coming for everyone that’s been following me and my work.”
Parson grew up in Elwood, Indiana — a former sundown town — in the early 2000s. His family was the only Black family living there, as Parson’s father was a retired marine and worked for Red Gold as a truck driver. As the only Black kid in his classes, Parson said the students and teachers were not very fond of him, and he had trouble making friends.
Instead, he turned to art. Inspired by Jim Davis’ “Garfield,” he created original cartoons with gel pens and printer paper to make his friends laugh.
It was in 2013 after a friend “tricked” him into creating several comic strips and taking them to a local newspaper that Parson knew he could make a career out of his art. He spent several years working on and developing his characters and storylines, and in 2014 he was invited to visit Paws, Inc. in Muncie to meet Jim Davis.
Davis mentored him and helped get his comic into local newspapers in 2015 — which ultimately kick-started his career as a professional cartoonist.
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Parson’s soon-to-be-syndicated comic strip “Rosebuds” is about three sisters — Rosa, Maria and Maricela Gonzalez — and the daily antics of their sisterhood and the good and bad between it. The characters come from a project he started developing in high school but eventually had to shelve. Parson brought the sisters back for a graphic novel in 2020 but ended up switching to a comic strip series.
“I have two sisters. I’m the middle child of three, so I have a lot of insight on sibling relationships because I was almost always in the middle of it,” Parson said. “The core part of the strip is just that despite a lot of the differences they might have with each other, that deep down, they really still love each other and will be there for each other.”
“Rosebuds” was initially picked up for Andrews McMeel Syndication and GoComics website in March of this year. However, after a bidding war, Parson said King Features Syndicate picked it up to publish in the Sunday editions of local and national papers across the country — including some in Indiana.
Unfortunately, the industry of creating cartoons and comic strips for newspapers is not very saturated. Fewer artists enter the industry each year, and those who are syndicated are even fewer. Parson, however, is making history as the first Black cartoonist in Indiana to be syndicated since the 1920s.
“I’m honestly very proud that I didn’t give up,” Parson said. “This industry is very, very, very small. It’s not given to just anybody … So, to have someone as young as me — actually the youngest in the nation — to actually still be very passionate about this craft, it really strikes that there’s still life to be had in this.”
For more information about Parson and his work, visit suprdee2.com. To view “Rosebuds” online, visit comicskingdom.com/rosebuds
Contact Arts & Culture Reporter Chloe McGowan at 317-762-7848. Follow her on X @chloe_mcgowanxx.
