Artisan
John Kovaleski
Born to be funny
By Adam Kulikowski
Photography by Chris Ammann
By his own account, cartoonist John Kovaleski held one of his best ideas in his left hand.
The 46-year-old Gettysburg resident angled the dark brown frame, exposing a clear view of the contents it surrounded. Beneath the glass, a black-and-white sketch of a woman stands facing a man down on one knee.
In the background, Kovaleski’s sophisticated primate character, Bo, watches. A speech bubble hovers over the head of the man on one knee.
Four words emerge.
As Kovaleski holds the comic strip, he begins to explain its significance. The tall bald-headed man in the drawing and the man holding the framed art are one—just as his wife, Jocelyn Swigger, and the woman in the cartoon are.
“It was one of the most solid things I’ve done,” Kovaleski says of the depiction.
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