'NEXT GREAT CARTOONIST': Creator reveals 'IMOGEN QUEST's' (mostly secret) high jinks

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Here's today's "Imogen Quest" comic from Olivia Walch, the 21-year-old winner of The Post's "America's Next Great Cartoonist Contest." So, what's the deal with the Girl in The Green Shirt? Surely there's a story there.

"Okay! There is a story associated this one," Walch tells Comic Riffs. "For one of the weeks I submitted, I tried to make it so that one character or idea from each cartoon carried over into the cartoon that immediately followed it -- e.g., a girl in a green shirt in the background of one cartoon would appear as the subject of the next. This idea totally failed. No one noticed, and one of the cartoons didn't even wind up making it to the final 28, and all the remaining ones are running in a different order.

"But! This is one I drew specifically for the purpose of connecting the thematic element of 'brains' (in previous cartoon) to 'girl in green shirt in background' (me). It was the last 'link' I needed. Professor's outfit inspired by John Houseman in the 1978 television series 'The Paper Chase.' "

To which we can only add a twist on an ol' John Houseman line: "Olivia makes humor the old-fashioned way. She earrrns it."

If you have feedback about "Imogen Quest's" monthlong run in Style and on Comic Riffs, feel free to share your impressions.