ON STAGE AGAIN:LEONARD STARR REVISITED

One of the sobering aspects of aging is reexamining a lot of the material that thrilled us when we were younger.  As your tastes develop and your vision of the world changes, there is so much of what moved us in earlier days that has lost that magic. So it is always a treat when you see a Hitchcock film, hear Harry Belafonte sing, or reread Raymond Chandler and discover that it still holds up…and in many cases there are layers there that you couldn’t appreciate on your first introduction to the material.

In comics, that always held true for me with both of my childhood idols, Joe Kubert and Leonard Starr.  With Joe’s work there is an emotionalism that drew me into the stories then, and still does today. Because of his work in comic books and the impact of his school, Joe remains a household name among fans. While he probably had more visibility at the time with  the popular On Stage newspaper strip, younger fans are for the most part fairly ignorant of the talented Mr. Starr…until they get a chance to see some of the work.

I often asked myself why as a ten your old kid, I couldn’t wait to get the Sunday Detroit Free Press to read a soap opera?  Yes, a soap opera. This wasn’t Terry and Pirates or Mandrake of the Phantom…but I was gobsmacked every time  I saw an installment. It’s not easy to impress a young lad with a soap opera…but Leonard always managed to do it.  Rereading the work today I can understand why. 

So here’s a few installments from some of the very early years for your enjoyment. You’ll like the fact that the artist used his neighbor, a young Larry Hagman, as one of the characters. And who could miss the similarity between Pete Fletcher and the late, great Jim Gardner. We miss them both.

Next time a Mad Mummy Update!!!

MICHIGAN SKETCHES

(Here's the cover for the third issue of Mad Mummy which heads out to iVerse later this week.)

Just got back from a quick  weekend trip I took to Michigan to visit my two sisters. I also saw a few old friends and drove by the house my parents lived in. So much changes, so much remains the same.

I did do a LOT of sketching. I usually pack three different pads. One is about 3” x 4.5 and I keep it in a pocket when I’m out walking and I see something of interest. I also keep a 5” x 7”  book in my car; whenever I have a trip to the doctor or know I’m going to be waiting a bit, I pull it out and doodle away. I also take my formal sketchbook that 11” x 14” that I take to life drawing class. Whatever sketches I do in class I tend to enhance with other drawings that turn them into more complicated compositions. Sometimes it’s a bit of landscape, roughs for planned illustrations, or just doing copies of photos or illustrations that have caught my eye. 

Oftentimes I will hear from folks, many times other artists, that they wished they had more time to draw. Like anything else, you have to find the time, of which there is rarely a shortage, and do the work. It’s all about love and practice. Of course, I’m fortunate enough that I don’t have a “smart” phone to continually distract me so I can use all that spare time to draw and record.

(Here is the frontpiece for issue 4 of Mad Mummy...

you can see the little rough I used to plan it out above.)

The first two issues of the books are available through iVerse/ComicsPlus at:
http://digital.comicsplusapp.com/publishers.php
Then type in AV Publishing or Mad Mummy in the SEARCH button.