Oliver Christianson (Revilo)

Cartoonist

Cartoonist / Writer "Revilo"Revels in His Backward Perspective

Oliver Christianson’s cartoons have been getting laughs for Hallmark since 1986, perhaps because he likes to look at things backwards. “Revilo” is “Oliver” backwards, a signature he took when he graduated from California State University, Long Beach, and began creating cartoons for magazines.

Christianson’s world revolves around finding surprise in ordinary things – and translating the mundane into amusement for many loyal fans.

“I work like a courtroom reporter,” Christianson says. “I observe the details of life, and then ask ‘what if?’ I pull a thread and see where it goes. I do cartoons to surprise myself. I like to do things that don’t turn out the way you think they will. I do what keeps me entertained.”

For example, Christianson created a top-selling character that has become known as “the ruffle lady.” She first appeared wearing a swimming cap and a bathing suit, with a little ruffle across the bottom. She’s standing alone on the beach – a little more than pleasingly plump – and asks: I think the ruffle really makes a difference, don’t you?

Christian tries to explain first the appeal and then the mistaken logic of the appeal.

“I know that people like to see girls in bathing suits – they even look at them in catalogs. If you take a table and put a table cloth with a ruffle on it – do people think it’s a little table?”

Every woman sees a part of herself in the ruffle lady, which is why the character is so popular, appearing frequently both on cards and in his books. Christianson, too, has a fondness for the ruffle lady and those she represents. He sees women as they really are – and loves them.

People who relish Christianson’s renderings recognize his work even before they see the “Revilo” signature. They also like his wit, his humor and his view of the world.

Part of being a cartoonist is also being a humorist and a writer, although Christianson claims he doesn’t do any writing.

“I just look and listen and write down what I hear and see,” he explains.

Hallmark has found that Christianson’s wide following includes both men and women, spanning a wide age bracket.

“If cartooning were a game of tennis, I’d work on the chalk line just barely in-bounds,” Christianson says. “I stretch what I can get away with, but I edit myself and don’t turn in work that I think will be rejected. I want to appeal to intelligent, educated consumers, but I don’t want to offend them.”

Christianson gets some ideas from his “wedding album” – a scrapbook of wedding and engagement photos from the Sunday newspaper, and he does a kind of informal psychological/ sociological study of them.

“I learn about people and their relationships,” Christianson says. “You can see who’s in control and who’s marrying their parent. They help me develop cartoon characters.”

Perhaps it was his time teaching fashion illustration at Brooks College in Southern California that draws him to the “society” pages of newspapers.

The “fashion” side of “Revilo’s” personality is evident in the way Christianson dresses – a nice Hawaiian shirt and slacks with expensive loafers. His fastidious grooming reflects the care he takes with detail in his art. However, he’s recently taken to creating self portraits for his book covers, typically with flamboyant orange hair and tinted glasses.

Before joining Hallmark in 1986, Christianson did card cartoons, as well as cartoons for publications such as National Lampoon and Esquire. Today, Christianson’s work appears in a number of Hallmark card lines. He has focused recently on creating books for the Gift Books From Hallmark line. Currently three are top sellers.

Christianson was named top greeting card cartoonist by the National Cartoonists Society in 2002 and was added to the NCS board of directors in 2003.