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Mort Walker: Conversations (Conversations With Comic Artists Series)
Mort Walker Conversations - Conversations With Comic Artists Series Author:Mort Walker, JASON WHITON When Mort Walker (b. 1923) was ten years old, he received an inscribed "Moon Mullins" cartoon from its creator Frank Willard that read, "Say Morton, those drawings you sent me were swell --- I'll bet you'll be a big shot cartoonist some day." For Walker that day came sooner than even Willard could have thought. By the time he was fifteen, Walker... more » was a comic strip artist for a daily metropolitan newspaper. By the time he was eighteen, he was chief editor of Hallmark Cards. In 1950, King Features picked up his strip "Beetle Bailey" for syndication. Four years later, Walker created a spin-off of "Beetle Bailey" called "Hi and Lois." Both strips continue to run daily, drawn and/or supervised by Walker, and "Beetle Bailey" is distributed to roughly 1,800 newspapers. Walker is one of the most widely read cartoonists in American history, and a legend in his own time. "Mort Walker: Conversations" collects interviews and articles that span from 1938 to 2004. In these conversations Walker shows how he has managed to keep his art and stories fresh for over seventy years of production. Walker's love of storytelling shines here, as he recounts anecdotes concerning fellow cartoonists such as Charles M. Schulz ("Peanuts"), Al Capp ("Li'l Abner"), and Walt Kelly ("Pogo"). Being almost a generation younger than most of his peers, he was often called "the Kid" by elder statesmen such as Milton Caniff and Rube Goldberg. His engagement with the Museum of Cartoon Art --- which he founded --- is discussed in these pieces, along with the politics involved in working with cartoonists' unions, artistic communities, and syndications.« less