Comics History By a Comics Writer

By: Dave Astor Brian Walker brings an impressive set of credentials to authoring a just-published history of comics. The son of "Beetle Bailey" creator/"Hi and Lois" co-creator Mort Walker has helped write both strips since 1984, helped found the International Museum of Cartoon Art, curated more than 60 cartoon exhibits, taught cartoon history, and written or edited more than a dozen cartoon-related books.

Still, does the world need another history of comics? What makes The Comics: Since 1945 different? For one thing, Walker discusses both the business (including syndication and licensing) and artistic side of comics. But it's the book's title that offers the best clue to how it differs.

"A lot of people have written about the history of comics up to World War II," while devoting less space to the time after that, said Walker. The implication is that comics have gone downhill since 1945.

Walker, 50, said the pre-1945 era was indeed a golden age for such things as adventure strips and spectacular drawing -- art greatly helped by newspapers running comics bigger then than they do now.

"But comics, while they've changed considerably, are still a very vital art form," said the King Features Syndicate creator. "They're more sophisticated and wittier. The content is stronger. There are many talented people working the last decades."

Walker added that another positive development is the increased number of women and minority cartoonists in syndication. "It was a white man's business for many, many years," he said.

Published by Harry N. Abrams Inc., the heavily researched, 336-page, coffee-table-size hardcover includes historical information organized by decade and biographical profiles of many comic creators. There are also 776 pieces of art -- 210 in color -- provided by museums, libraries, collectors, syndicates, and the artists themselves.

Walker tried to give the book an elegant design. "People tend to look at comics as cheap entertainment," he said. "If you present comics with class and respect, people look at them in a new way."

Despite the pre-1945 comics histories crowding the shelves, Walker's next book will cover that very subject. He said The Comics: Before 1945 -- scheduled for 2004 release -- will cover more of the business side of comics than such histories usually do, include scholarship conducted since the last histories were written, and (as was the case with the post-war book) use the relatively untapped source of E&P issues archived in the New York library of the 118-year-old magazine.

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Editor: Coulter Not Reason ...

... For Departure From Pa. Newspaper

Did "firing" Ann Coulter lead to the departure of the editor who axed her?

"I don't think that had anything to do with it," said Bob Unger, who -- in what he described as a "mutual" decision -- stepped down Oct. 21 as executive editor of the Centre Daily Times in State College, Pa.

In early September, Unger dropped the Universal Press Syndicate-distributed Coulter from the newspaper's column lineup, saying that her commentary was "mean." This decision angered many fans of the conservative Coulter, though Unger said 80 to 85% of the more than 5,000 e-mails he ultimately received supported his decision. "I know that doesn't represent the general population, but it represented the people who wrote me," he told E&P Online.

So why did Unger and the Centre Daily Times part ways? Unger, who was reached at home, said there was "a difference in style and objective" between him and Henry Haitz, who became publisher of the paper several months ago. Unger declined to give specifics, noting that he was not allowed to do so under his separation agreement.

Unger, who had been executive editor for 2 1/2 years, said he had no immediate job prospects but was working on his second novel.

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Et cetera ...

DeWayne Wickham praised "The Boondocks" in his USA Today column last week, noting that Aaron McGruder's Universal Press Syndicate comic "is brilliantly funny and purposefully shocking. McGruder doesn't just want to make his readers laugh; he works mightily to make them think." Wickham added: "As much as it might pain some to hear this, the barbs offered by [Huey] Freeman -- McGruder's black everyman -- closely track the thinking of a broad cross section of African Americans."

An animated TV series based on the "Baldo" comic may start in early 2003. The show is from Univision, the Spanish-language broadcaster, and is being produced in Spanish and English. Also, Andrews McMeel Publishing released Night of the Bilingual Telemarketers, a "Baldo" collection by Hector Cantu and Carlos Castellanos of Universal. ...

Universal columnist Mary McGrory received a lifetime achievement award from the International Women's Media Foundation at an Oct. 24 ceremony in Los Angeles. ...

During his recent trip to entertain American troops in Afghanistan, actor/comedian Robin Williams held a T-shirt with an editorial cartoon by Gary Varvel of The Indianapolis Star and Creators Syndicate. It showed Uncle Sam carrying a World Trade Center victim.

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