Left handed cartoon characters

While most cartoon characters are either right-handed or change hands to fit whatever makes the best pose for a particular frame, we have noticed that there seem to be quite a few cartoon characters that are clearly and consistently left-handed. Examples include:

• Bart Simpson, Ned Flanders and Mr Burns from The Simpsons (and, occasionally, Marge)
• (The show’s creator, Matt Groening, is himself left-handed)
• Chuckie from Rugrats
• Link – the sword-wielding hero from The Legend of Zelda
• Chris Griffin from Family Guy
• Doug Funnie from Doug
• Arnold from Hey Arnold!and if we include puppets as well:
• Kermit the Frog from The Muppets
  (a creation of the late Jim Henson, also left-handed)
• Bear in the Big Blue House

We are sure you know many more examples and if you do please add them as a comment to this article below and if you can put a link to a page where there is a picture of them being left-handed that would be great and we will build up our list.

What is it that makes the artist or animator draw a left-handed character? We would be very interested in your thoughts:

Is it because the artist is left-handed?

Are there more left handed cartoon artists than you would expect from the 10% or so of left-handers in the population?

Is there anything special about animation that makes a left handed character easier to draw than the right handed ones?

Is it because when a cartoonist is drawing them he draws their writing hand on the same side as his writing hand (his right, their left)?

Are there deliberate reasons for making some characters left-handed – to seem a bit “quirky” or rebellious (Bart?)

Left handed puppets are interesting. The Big Blue Bear is left-handed on the show; he seems to do most things with his left hand. This is because the head controls are important and a right-handed puppeer’s right hand is busy moving the head and mouth and has to do other things with their left hand. In a similar fashion, a lot of Muppets are left-handed, because their puppeteers are right-handed, so the right hand is almost always used to operate the puppet’s head.

What about left-handed puppeteer’s – is it really hard to do as the puppets are designed for right-handed use?

We would also be interested in inks to cartoons about being left-handed. Here is one page we found (though not particularly funny!)
http://www.cartoonstock.com/directory/l/left_handed.asp
Here are a few more – I am sure we can find funnier cartoons than these?
http://www.shereebradfordlea.com/coollinks.html

(Source: anythinglefthanded.co.uk)