Welcome! My name is Phil Berwick. Thanks for coming to the Tree Toon Stand. I would like to tell you a little about my characters, and then you will also know a little about myself. When we begin to know a little about us creatures and the creation in the same way, we begin to know a lot more about the creator.
Merferd made it out of high school with me.  I was always drawing on anything that had space to be drawn on.  Merferd survived thirteen years in the Elmhurst Forestry division in Illinois and then 3 years in a seminary in Hillsboro Missouri, and now 20 more years in the tree care trade with me ( See  livingtreecare.com . )  My wife Theresa and I always left an ink drawing of Merferd on a napkin with a word of encouragement and the tip tucked in at every restaurant for every waitress we visted over our 25 years together. In 2005 my grown tree guys wanted me to place Star the Sweet Gum character on their work t-shirts, and I did....and they wore her proudly. My four daughters, my daughters' friends, and every niece and nephew (and I have lots), wanted Merferd on shirts as well. At that point I decided to take Merferd off of office scrap and begin the path toward syndication. On that path Merferd and the Tree Toons have been published in the St. Louis Post Dispatch on occasion, and in other news papers and magazines. Someday the Merferd Man Band, along with Red Elm on the Keyboard will be animated and  performing some original Elm Tree Foot Stompin' Rag time Funk, but in the meantime you can take a listen to some of my songs at   philberwickmusic.com.

 Merferd and his friends the TREE TOONS are standing at the edge of the wood in our world at such a time as this. Merferd knows how to make this best out of a mess.
He is a PROPHETIC comic character with big hands, big feet, a big mustache, and a big heart.  Many  are chucking quantity for quality in our lives, and  our relationships.  They are going after purpose and knowledge of the forever,  appreciation of the now,  and becoming more in awe of each other, and less in awe with themselves .  Merferd and the Tree Toons have as one of their goals to help to save the printed page, be a presence on the ciber page, be messengers from heaven to earth on the tree toon wave length page and make new friends.

 Tree Toons have layers of wisdom, and rings of patience and understand from standing in the same place for over 150 years.  Along with Merferd's main side kick, there is also Quercus, Black Jack and Dog wood to mention the first ones.  More tree toons are revealed in our lives, but not until we venture deeper into the woods of our existence.
Although Red Elm is as resilient as a tree can be, having withstood over a century of winds, and storms, forest fires, lightning strikes, and earth quakes, there is one thing alone that he fears more than what nature throws his way....the DOZERS !
Red Elm is in reality a WITNESS TREE.  A Witness Tree was used for centuries to mark boundarys.  Ancient boundary stones could be moved by the devious, but a Witness TreeTree could not and cannot be moved.  Now a days a Witness Tree might have mention perhaps on a land platt, and one may even kick the ground and feel the remnant of the  stump that is left of a one upon a time Witness Tree.  Red Elm was one of those few Witness Trees to be still standing, and he makes the most of that.

 

 SAP FLOWS ON in the Tree Toon stand. Merferd is an avid comic strip reader when he is not busy being a comic.  He has been linking up with comic characters of the past and desires a coming together in unity to try and get humans to stop taking themselves too seriously, but to take EACH OTHER seriously!   With special permission from their creators or owners, Merferd likes to have special elder cartoon sages and guests in his comic life experience.

Where Merferd is a prophet,  Red Elm is a seer.  Saving the earth, people and the press is a large task, but not if one is as moved as a Merferd and as tenured as a tree.  Merferd is in the Merferd Man Band and Red Elm plays the keyboard. A favorite past time of the two is watching the stars for signs and the clouds for picture storys.