Talking with Bunny Hoest and John Reiner of 'The Lockhorns'

No one can call Bunny Hoest a germaphobe. In fact, Hoest, the longtime writer of the popular comic ''The Lockhorns,'' has a box of germs — and gems — of ideas that she keeps in the studio of her sumptuous waterfront home in Lloyd Neck and uses for inspiration for the 11 panels she and her artist and collaborator, John Reiner, turn out each week for Newsday and other newspapers throughout the country.

"They trigger something that I can put down in a snappy caption," says Hoest, 92, who has worked for more than 50 years on the comic created by her husband, Bill Hoest, in 1968 as ''The Lockhorns of Levittown.''

Now the crown jewels of the past 20 years have been compiled in a hilarious book collection titled, "The Lockhorns: Someday We'll Look Back on This and Quickly Change the Subject" (Andrews McMeel, $14.99).

Hoest, 92, and Reiner, 68, who started working on ''The Lockhorns'' a couple years before Bill's death in 1988, will be at The Next Chapter in Huntington to talk about and sign copies of the book. Newsday recently met up with both at Hoest's home.

With 20 years of comics to choose from, how did you decide on the ones in the book?

Hoest: I can’t take credit for picking them. I have a wonderful editor at the syndicate who picked out about 200 comics and I went through them. They couldn't have done better. It’s embarrassing. I have written them over the years and I sat laughing out loud at this book. After 50 years of comics, you can’t remember every gag line, and I thought, this is really funny.

I find it so interesting how you and John work. You work in the studio by day and he works by night.

Hoest: We have a 24-hour studio. I’m an early morning person. I was up today at 5:03. John is a night guy. We just merged perfectly. The studio always literally ran 24/7. Back in the day you had to ship cartoons by FedEx, You really had to have things ready in the morning. We got used to running the studio 24/7 and we’ve been doing it ever since. And knock wood, it’s been wonderfully successful. And John is a peach. He's just a pleasure to work with. Flexible and brilliant.

''The Lockhorns'' is still drawn by hand. How come you've resisted doing your work by computer?

Reiner: The simple fact is I think there's something creative in the human element. When something is done by computer, it's the idea that it's so perfect, it doesn't really have any flaws to it, But I find flaws attractive in many ways. It just seems to make it better in terms of creativity. It's like the idea that if you're going to hear a symphony or violin concerto, however that musician can interpret it is what makes it that person's. ... And I really just like the idea of doing things the old-fashioned way.

Unlike Leroy and Loretta, your marriage to Bill was very happy, but did anything from your marriage work its way into ''The Lockhorns?''

Hoest: One thing that is commonly true is that I really am a terrible cook. That's the one thing I share with Loretta. That really was a hallmark of our marriage. I have been very unfortunate with my kitchen experiences. ... And Bill loved that. He thought that was hilarious and we made the most of it.

Obviously you ate out a lot.

Hoest: We put the restaurants in the cartoons. We just had a St. Patrick’s Day cartoon which featured one of our favorite haunts, the Shamrock Pub, which is in Halesite, and they were ecstatic. They framed the blowup and put a light over it. They’re stars.

Was there an aspect of Bill that worked its way into Leroy?

Hoest: Bill actually had a problem with alcohol. He had experience with that and was able to take that and make it humorous. At Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, people would bring in a ''Lockhorn'' cartoon and it would get people started talking. It made them able to laugh at their behavior instead of feeling ashamed and embarrassed. The counselors there said we love that these cartoons lighten the mood. It’s a chance to laugh at your foibles instead of putting them down. And I had that feedback from marriage counselors. They said it gives them a talking point and a laughing point where they can get something accomplished without making it a crisis. We’ve been lucky with the response we've gotten.