Direct from the editor, Mort Walker Conversations
is a fascinating window into over 70 years of the art and business of Comic
Strips in America. A must-read for fans of Beetle Bailey, Hi & Lois, Boner's
Ark, and more! Filled with stories about Dik Browne (Hagar the Horrible),
Charles Schulz (Peanuts) and other cartoon luminaries. 267 pages. Soft Cover.
Published by the University Press of Mississippi as part of the Conversations
With Comic Artists series. Written and edited by Jason Whiton and Mort Walker, the
book includes interviews made especially for this volume as well as Walker's
own archive of interviews and writings about cartoon art. If desired, purchased
books will be signed/sketched by editor Whiton, creator of Spy Vibe, Miki Zero,
and the upcoming Son of Monster. Buyer pays 4.00 shipping in the US.
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." By the time he was fifteen, Walker 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. 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. In these conversations Walker shows how he has
managed to keep his art and stories fresh for over seventy years of production. Photo below: your Spy Vibe creator, Jason Whiton at the Charles Schulz Museum. BELOW: a favorite Cold War-era cover of Beetle Bailey #38: Beetle Bailey in West Berlin, published by Dell.
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