It was at the age of 14, when I made that clear conscious decision that
I wanted to be a cartoonist. I
wrote letters to the
names of people who drew the comics on the pages of my hometown newspaper
to ask questions about how to get started in the business. Of all the empty
responses & suggestions to try another career, there was one letter
that made the biggest impact on my life in cartooning- simply because the
letter was hand written.
That cartoonist is California Public Education Hall of Famer, Morrie Turner.
It's this particular care for detail that makes Morrie Turner, the creator of the first truly integrated comic strip, Wee Pals so successful as a cartoonist. His work pivots upon the issue of sensitivity to others. Awarded numerous awards for his work in cartooning, Morrie Turner's KID Power, Rainbow Club, Wee Pals characters are used to promote brotherhood & multi-culturalisim. Long before 'Multi-Culturalism' became the politically correct catch phase of the `90's Wee Pals presented that message as early as 1965.
Based in Berkeley, CA , Oakland native, Morrie
Turner began his voyage into cartooning as early as the age of 10. He
was comfortable with his drawing technique by the time he had enlisted in
the U.S. Army Air Corps in 1941, the year WW2 began for America. While stationed
in Kentucky, he published cartoons in the base newspaper. This early strip
was about a gold bricking GI he called 'Rail Head.'
After his discharge from the military in 1946, & the encouragement of his mother & family he began drawing and sending off cartoons to magazines. This led him to send in a gag cartoon to Baker's Helper, a baking industry journal in 1947 bringing him his first check for a drawing-- $5. "I must have sent out a thousand cartoons before I made that first sale..." (nowadays, Mr. Turner commands between $350 to $500 for a single drawing.) After that first success followed more of the same from various magazines, before finally "hitting it big." That big break at that time was a cartoon sold to Better Homes & Gardens for $75.
"This is where luck comes in," Mr. Turner said. "I had
sent the magazine a batch of cartoons, most of which... had [been] rejected
by other markets. By accident, I had included a cartoon drawn for an automobile
club magazine, a gag cartoon that was rejected, & never meant to be
sent to Better Homes & Gardens. But as it happens, the magazine
was planning an article on how women can repair their own cars, & his
cartoon happen to be about a woman fixing a car, & fit the topic.
After the war, he supported himself as a police clerk with the Oakland Police Department, continuing to freelance on the side. Once even trying his hand as a police artist- "I did some sketches, they'd say it looked like the suspect, but then the artist in me would refine the dawning until it no longer looked like the suspect. The job didn't work out." However, when one door closes another opens-- some years later the Oakland police began a community-wide crime prevention & safety program that called on the talent & notoriety of Morrie Turner & the Wee Pal crew.
An agreement was made to supply the department with a series of cartoons for use in brochures, decals, bookmarks & other public information to promote the program. As with so many attempts to reach the community, efforts all to often fall short in including communities of Color. The mult-cultural content of Wee Pals is made to include all people.
He recalls the earlier years. "I could not have
avoided drawing, if I wanted to," he comments. "Although I got
little encouragement from my teachers." "'Too bad he's colored,'"
he remembers an Oakland grammar school teacher telling another. "'That
kid has talent, but he'll never make it in the art world.'" In retrospect,
that remark, Mr. Turner regards as one of those hurts you suffer in life
that inspire you to go try harder.
Today, the talent of the student those teachers held little hope for is used by not only the Oakland school system, but as far and wide as San Francisco, Berkeley, Des Moine & New Jersey, to promote literacy, reading, staying in school, self-esteem & health issues such as HIV awareness. Many of the same things that the teachers of the time were perfectly willing to deny him the opportunity to achieve.
For a time in the 60s, Mr. Turner says he became
totally immersed in the "Black scene" using his drawings to convey
messages & to right the wrongs of centuries. "But the national
magazines rejected me cold," he said. He then began 'borrowing' from
the artistic styles of Charles Shultz, by doodling a Peanuts-like
strip with all-Black kid characters. The cartoon was called Dinky Fellas
which he sold for $40 a month to the Chicago Daily Defender.
Being a believer in integration, Mr. Turner soon discovered the 'Black scene'
was totally opposed to that belief. This lead to the creation of a new strip
he called Wee Pals
In 1961, a call came from United Features Syndicate with interest in Wee
Pals. At the time, Mr. Turner didn't believe his strip would catch on,
but agreed to a $50 a week deal with a nine paper appearance. After a few
months this grew to 60 papers. Mr. Turner sadly credits the 1968 assassination
of Martin Luther King Jr. as the force that carried the strip to national
syndication. Today it appears in 100 papers.
The first few strips had three central characters:
Randy (African American), Paul (Chicano) & Ralph (white
& often bigoted). Over time they were joined by new personalities including
Nipper (whom I'm told by the creator, to be Morrie Turner himself),
Oliver (overweight & intellectual), Connie (feminist),
Syblil, (African American) Rocky, (Native American) George,
(Asian) Jerry (Jewish) & of course General Lee (the puppy).
Although the order of their actual appearance is not known to me, this includes
Charlotte (disabled), Wellington, Diz, Mikki,
& Polly Esther (a parrot).
His sensitivity to all human rights shows in the Soul Circle portion of his comic strip offering a brief history of the contributions of all People of Color- not just African Americans. There is even a 1994 Multi-Cultural Woman's Her-story calendar that specifically names the contribution of women in the building of America.
Education is the job the Wee Pals crew fulfills now (& always had) Recently they have come alive on the stage in a musical adaptation that tackles issues of racism & illiteracy. " When I first wrote it (the performance) the problems in it were topical," Mr. Turner explains. "It's weird & a little scary that in 10 years' time the intolerance still exists..."
My work today as a social commentary (editorial) cartoonists is a result as childhood influence from comics of the National Cartoonist Society's Brotherhood Award winner, & Cartoonist of Color, Morrie Turner. Also a very personal salute to a mentor who always takes the time to write me back.