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Bil Keane, 1922–2011 In the late 1990s I was in my thirties trying to make a name for myself as a cartoonist. I fervently wanted to make a comic that could be deemed literature. I believed the future of the medium was the graphic novel and had no time for the contemporary newspaper comic strip. Its format seemed tired and its content formulaic. Then I saw the above Family Circus panel. The elements still give me a chill. A leafless tree is silhouetted in what looks to be the stark lighting of sundown. An old woman, her back to the reader, peers over her shoulder. The setting at first seems intimate, as she is sitting on a bed, yet the wall behind her is impersonal and empty. Her expression is one of weariness and resignation. She is contemplating her death. Whom is she speaking to? Her son? Her husband? An apparition? Little Dolly? This one unpretentious panel had all the mystery and pathos I so wanted to see in my own work. I had a lot to learn from Bil Keane. Bil Keane passed away last year at age 89. He was a great cartoonist. Through his involvement with the National Cartoonists Society, Bil enriched the lives of so many other cartoonists. The editors of The Cartoon Crier respectfully dedicate this issue to his memory. — James Sturm THE CARTOON CRIER Volume 1 Number 1 Spring 2012 Publisher A joint publication of The Center for Cartoon Studies and The National Cartoonists Society Editors Cole Closser, R. Sikoryak, and James Sturm Art Director Max Riffner Worker Bees Gloria Closser, Hotspur Closser, Luke Howard, Valerie Fleisher, Michelle Ollie, Jen Vaughn, Al B. Wesolowsky, Kriota Willberg Special Thanks To Hilary Price, Tom Richmond, Rick Stromoski Assembled at The Center for Cartoon Studies PO Box 125 White River Junction, VT 05001 cartoonstudies.org Printed in New England at Upper Valley Press All contents of The Cartoon Crier are © their respective creators. Our Motto “You don’t get into cartooning, cartooning gets into you.” —Inky Solomon, 1954
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