High School Stuff...

Above is some sampling of my work from high school. The photograph is of me from the yearbook, doing my best to look like a real cartoonist - even if the following samples of my work betray me.

The next two images are from the school newsletter. I was on staff, as the art editor. Which, in retrospect, was akin to putting the Hatter in charge of his end of the table at the Tea Party. However, Patricia Gazda Grace, who was the faculty adviser, was nothing but supportive and gracious. The co-editors-in-chief (Leon Cosler and Ray Ashman) were very tolerant of me as well. I was allowed to cartoon merrily to my heart's content. As I recall, the only cartoon she, and they, ever rejected was a large, multi-panel piece. I forget exactly what it dealt with (after being rejected, it accidentally fell into the trash, mysteriously crumpled and torn). But I do seem to recall some cartoon character in a stall in the school's boy's room, singing lyrics from Alice Cooper's "School's Out" (specifically, "School's out for summer, School's out forever, School's been blown to pieces") and something in the last panel that might have been "Ka-BOOM!"

I learned a couple of things by that experience. One, show a rough sketch before going ahead and doing the finished drawing in ink and zip-a-tone. I could have saved myself a lot of time. And Mrs. Grace might have been able to guide me so we'd both been happy. Two, don't be surprised when you get rejected. Three, save the rejected stuff - what I wouldn't kill to have that now. Four, "Ka-BOOMS!" - even more that thirty-years ago - isn't really something to joke about happening in schools.

The remaining two panels are from the school yearbook. Faculty adviser Larry Feltham was one - is one - of my favorite teachers. He treated us all like young adults (even when we - I - didn't act like it or deserve it). Like Mrs. Grace, Mr. Feltham was wonderfully encouraging of someone like me who might have had a modicum of latent or rudimentary talent.

He and the editor, Tom Farnetti, had me do the double-spread division pages throughout. The whole thing was on a Native American theme (we were the "Indians" after all - the school has since become a junior high school and the "new" combined/consolidated high school across town - our former rivals, the "Bulldogs" - and became something neutral... and safe and inoffensive... I want to say the "Patriots. But don't quote me) and it was the Bicentennial year as well. So the whole thing was played up big. It looks, as I flip through the book, that I had just discovered the fine art of stippling and went wild with the technique.

I also did the advertisements in the back of the yearbook. For the most part, all the ads were hand-lettered by yours truly with the occasional appropriate cartoon illustrations. It was Tom who gave me the idea of "Earth Pig"... for then, as now, I love to eat... Tom started calling me "Earth Pig" after I polished off a whole plate of Mrs. Feltham's delicious cookies while working on the yearbook at their home one night.

I was a surprised as any of them that no-one else got any.

Anyway, the thing then evolved into a character and a comic strip over the balance of the school year. I've heard that Tom is now an accountant, in Syracuse, NY, I believe. I like to think I had something to do with that. If Tom had been counting that night, somebody other than me would have had the chance to taste Mrs. Feltham's cookies.