Editing Space Moose (section)

==Development==
''Space Moose'' was originally created for the entertainment of Paul Diedrich, a friend of Thrasher. Diedrich coined the name "Space Moose". Thrasher said "I drew this thing with all the stereotypes of a goofy character--lopsided googly eyes, buck teeth that hang out, and antlers."<ref name="FAQ"/> At first, ''Space Moose'' was a collaboration between Thrasher, Thrasher's friend Jason Kapalka, and Donald R. "Don" Husereau, a pharmacy student. After drawing one ''Space Moose'' cartoon, Husereau left the strip's production but continued to be an advisor. For the first year, Thrasher collaborated with friend Jason Kapalka. After the first year, Thrasher did the strip alone.<ref name="FAQ"/>

Originally Thrasher used materials from his mother's office to create the comics. As the comic progressed, he began using a black [[Sanford (company)|Sanford]] uniball to ink. The creator pencilled lightly with a very hard lead, such as a [[pencil|5H]]. The paper used was ordinary {{convert|20|lb|kg|adj=on}} sets of bleached paper. In addition Thrasher used a portable drawing board with a [[T-square]].<ref name="FAQ"/>

Thrasher said "My cartoons, more often than not, challenge the reader to think about things that are horrible, reprehensible and irredeemable. If I have achieved that, there seems to be only two possible reactions: anger or laughter. I aim for the latter and put up with the former."<ref name="FAQ"/>

Thrasher said that his influences include [[Scott Adams]], author of ''[[Dilbert]]''; [[Matt Groening]], author of ''[[The Simpsons]]''; and [[Gary Larson]], author of ''[[The Far Side]]''.<ref name="FAQ"/> Colby Cosh said "[h]e's glad they pushed the envelope to allow biting cartoonists such as him to thrive."<ref name="FAQ"/> Thrasher said "When I grew up, newspaper comics were sickly sweet."<ref name="FAQ"/> Thrasher believed that ''[[Family Circus]]'', ''[[Marmaduke]]'', and ''[[Ziggy (comic strip)|Ziggy]]'' were "offensively lame".<ref name="FAQ"/>

The first year of ''Space Moose'' had obscure references to many [[Edmonton]]-based [[bulletin board system]] participants. Cosh said "That's why those strips mostly make no sense. They're in-jokes that got into the campus paper for some reason. Quality control was a real problem then, as now."<ref name="FAQ"/> Cosh added "Adam would prefer that you just ignore the 1989–90 episodes of Space Moose. With respect to Jason Kapalka's gag writing, the real jumping-off point for "Space Moose" is the ingenious "[[Calvin and Hobbes|Calvin and Slobbes]]", the first strip of 1990–91."<ref name="FAQ"/>

Originally ''Space Moose'' had a head of hair. In 1993 Thrasher dropped the hair, because he felt the character looked better with a bald head. Thrasher added "Sometimes, the hair is useful--for example, in the "Summertime tips" strip, where he slicked it back to look suave, or in "Extreme Space Moose," where the mane looks like fire and adds intensity to the drawing."<ref name="FAQ"/>

The word "bee" often occurs in the strip, and sometimes a developmentally disabled man appears. This is based on Thrasher's experience while riding on a [[school bus]] with a boy with [[Down syndrome]]. The boy often sung softly; Thrasher later learned that the boy was trying to say the word "[[bee]]" using different pitches and tones. After the discovery, Thrasher decided to introduce the word in his vocabulary, with different tones leading to different meanings.<ref name="FAQ"/>