South Gallery
September 7 through December 10
Reception: Tuesday, September 10, 6-8 pm, in the Trefz Forum; click here for more information.
(Reception kicks off at 6 pm, followed by a keynote presentation by cartoonist and comics historian Brian Walker starting at 7 pm.)
The State of Cartooning will display works by active members of the Connecticut Chapter of the National Cartoonists Society, including Greg, Brian, and Neal Walker, who carry the legacy of their father, Mort Walker, the creator of Beetle Bailey. Other featured artists include Ray Billingsley, Bob Englehart, Bill Janocha, Sean Kelly, Maria Scrivan, and more.
Founded in 1946, National Cartoonists Society (NCS) activities and events primarily took place in New York City until 1983, when the first Reuben Award Ceremony was held in Los Angeles. At that time, the NCS also began organizing a system of regional chapters for members to participate in. There are currently 23 chapters in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom.
Brian Walker started the NCS Connecticut chapter in 1993, involving many remaining Golden Age cartoonists. Meetings were held at local restaurants, including the Silvermine Tavern, Cobbs Mill Inn, The Redding Roadhouse, and Red Barn. From 1994 to 2017, a special Legend Award was presented to 22 Connecticut Cartoonists at their annual fall dinner. Although membership has decreased as the older generation has passed on, the Connecticut chapter is still active. The State of Cartooning displays works by some of the current members of the NCS.
Related: Westport Library Resource Guide: Cartooning in Connecticut
Bill Janocha is a cartoonist and illustrator who majored in Illustration at Syracuse University. He served as a studio artist at Walt Disney Productions and created comics for Marvel's Crazy Magazine. He was also featured in Mad Magazine and has written gags for the B.C. comic strip series, in addition to articles for Nemo, Hogan's Alley, Comic Book Artist, and encyclopedic bios for 100 Years of American Newspaper Comics. Janocha created characters and storyboards for Pee Wee's Playhouse on CBS and animated for Madonna's Who's That Girl feature film. His cartoons for Hearst newspapers have been featured in Best Editorial Cartoons of the Year series. Janocha has illustrated books, including Hooked on Hopium, A Most Unusual Farm, and The Life and Art of Mort Walker: A Survey of His Cartoons, comingout this fall. He lives with his family in Stamford.
Sean Kelly is an award-winning illustrator whose portfolio includes The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Entertainment Weekly, New York, Businessweek, Rolling Stone, and The Atlantic, among others. A frequent contributor to The New York Times, Kelly has produced many political op-ed commentaries. He has received honors from The Society of Illustrators, The Society of Publication Designers; and The National Cartoonists Society, who presented him with the Best Illustrator Award. In 2018, he illustrated Stephen Colbert’s Midnight Confessions. A graduate of Brown University who also studied at Rhode Island School of Design and was a Getty Arts Journalism Fellow at the University of Southern California, Kelly lives in Southport.
Ray Billingsley is the creator of Curtis, one of today’s most significant and poignant comic features. Billingsley draws inspiration from real life, combining the fresh quality of situational humor, melodrama, comedy, and pathos. Distributed by King Features Syndicate, Curtis is read in more than 250 newspapers nationwide. The strip depicts the urban existence of Greg and Diane Wilkins, a Black family that lives in a weathered brownstone. In recognition of his storylines in which Curtis tries to get his father to quit smoking, Billingsley has received numerous awards and recognition from the American Lung Association, including the Humanitarian Award from the American Lung Association of Southeast Florida in 1999 and the President’s Award in 2000. Working from his studio in his Connecticut home, Billingsley balances his life with his family, friends, and his faithful companion, Higgins the Basset Hound.
Maria Scrivan is a New York Times best-selling author, award-winning syndicated cartoonist, and speaker based in Greenwich, Connecticut. Her laugh-out-loud syndicated comic, Half Full, appeared daily in newspapers nationwide for a decade, and is available three days a week on gocomics.com/half-full. Scrivan licenses her work for hundreds of greeting cards for Recycled Paper Greetings, and her cartoons have appeared in MAD Magazine, Parade, Highlights, National Lampoon, and many other publications. Nat Enough, her debut graphic novel, was an instant New York Times best-seller and launched her critically acclaimed six-book series of the same name. She is also a contributor to Marvel Super Stories, released in 2023.
Bob Englehart attended Chicago's American Academy of Art, then began his editorial cartoon career at Chicago Today, before moving on to the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette, the Dayton (Ohio) Journal Herald, and the Hartford Courant. He has been an adjunct professor teaching “Cartoons in American Society” at Eastern Connecticut State University and is currently a freelance editorial cartoonist and writer. Englehart is the author of two cartoon collections, a memoir, and a novel. His cartoons are included in several permanent collections including the Connecticut Historical Society, the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library at Ohio State University, the Newseum in Washington, D.C., and others. His work has been the subject of many major solo exhibits, most recently at the Mark Twain House and Museum in Hartford and the Connecticut Historical Society. He is syndicated worldwide by Caglecartoons.com.
Chance Browne, also known as Bob, attended The School of Visual Arts and Park College, distinguishing himself as an illustrator, art director, and musician before eventually going to work for his father. After his father, Dik Browne, launched Hagar the Horrible in 1973, Chance stepped in to help with Hi and Lois, acting as primary artist on the strip in the mid-1980s. He also served as editor for Hagar the Horrible, which was drawn by his brother Chris. A true renaissance man, Chance still found time to paint, do freelance graphic design, and play guitar with a variety of blues bands and jazz ensembles. He passed away on March 1, 2024.
Eric Reaves started out his career as a high school art teacher, followed by his tenure as creative director for a top apparel manufacturer. There, he created artwork for Disney, Warner Bros., Nintendo, Barbie, and several other top brands. In 1994, he began cartooning professionally when he joined Paws, Inc., the studio of Garfield. As assistant cartoonist, Reaves helped draw the Garfield comic for 17 years. In 2009, he began helping Chance Browne draw the Hi & Lois comic strip. He joined forces with Browne Creative Enterprises full time in 2012. Having been a lifelong fan of Dik Browne’s art, Reaves describes drawing Dik’s characters as, “a humbling, yet daily thrill!” On occasion, he teaches as an adjunct professor at Indiana Wesleyan University, his alma mater. He and his wife of 25 years have five children, so his ability to relate to the Flagstons comes quite naturally! He enjoys engaging with his children’s multitude of activities, creating art in several different mediums, and he finds relaxation in a stream with his fly rod, catching large trout.
Brian Walker has a diverse background in professional cartooning and cartoon scholarship. He was one of the founders of the Museum of Cartoon Art and has served as curator for more than 70 cartoon exhibitions. He taught cartoon history at the School of Visual Arts and also served as editor-in-chief of Collectors’ Showcase magazine. He has written, edited, and contributed to more than three dozen cartoon-related books, including the recently published history The Comics: The Complete Collection for Harry N. Abrams, Inc. He has been contributing to both Beetle Bailey and Hi and Lois since the early 1980s. Walker graduated from Tufts University.
Greg Walker studied liberal arts and journalism at Syracuse University and has worked in film, commercial photography, newspapers, and graphic arts. He started his cartooning career writing and drawing comic books, including well-known titles such as Rocky and Bullwinkle, Barney and Betty Rubble, Underdog, Sarge Snorkel, and Beetle Bailey. He began providing gags to his father’s strips in the early 1970s, and in addition to writing, currently does the inking and lettering on Beetle Bailey. In the 1980s, Walker also collaborated with Guy and Brad Gilchrist on the Rock Channel comic strip, and with his brothers Brian, Neal, and Morgan on Betty Boop and Felix.
Neal Walker says, “Growing up with comics, I’ve never been able to imagine doing anything else.” He graduated with a BFA from Syracuse University in 1983. He collaborated with his brothers on the Betty Boop and Felix comic strip from 1984 to 1988 and produced the Beetle Bailey comic book for Scandinavia beginning in 1989. He has also worked in animation as an animator, studio assistant, computer operator, and editor for advertising, industrial film, and children’s educational video content. He designed a Beetle Bailey screensaver and sculpted a Beetle Bailey bronze statue, now installed at Mort’s alma mater, the University of Missouri. After Mort Walker’s passing in 2018, Neal pencils and continues to write gags for Beetle Bailey.
Mort Walker produced Beetle Bailey for 67 years, three months and 12 days — that’s 24,576 strips, the longest tenure by any cartoonist on an original creation. Dubbed the Dean of American Cartooning, Walker was one of the most prolific cartoonists in the comics business, with the creation of nine different syndicated strips credited to him during his lifetime, including Beetle Bailey, the third-most widely syndicated strip in the world. He served as president of the National Cartoonists Society and the Newspaper Features Council and was the founder of the Museum of Cartoon Art. His creation remains one of the most popular features in newspapers today and is continued by his sons Greg, Brian, and Neal. It is ironic that Beetle Bailey, the laziest character in the history of comics, was created by Mort Walker, one of the hardest-working and most prolific cartoonists of all time. Mort passed away at the age of 94 on January 27, 2018.
