FREELANCER was a 1950s publication for people who made their living in the print industry, writers, artists, etc. Issue #2 features an article on Jack Cole and a short history of comics, #4 from 1957 has an article on the "suicide" of the comic book industry in 1954, and another on Mort Walker of "Beetle Bailey" fame.Dave Miller provided these scans from his copies of FREELANCER, and thanks, Dave!
I've also scanned a few pages from Mort Walker's 2000 memoir, MORT WALKER'S PRIVATE SCRAPBOOK, showing that his path to cartooning success was set early in life. He was something of a prodigy, based on these examples he did as a teenager.
FREELANCER Copyright © by respective copyright holders.
MORT WALKER'S PRIVATE SCRAPBOOK Copyright © 2000 Mort Walker.
Seems that comic books handled the suicide very well.
ReplyDeleteIn retrospect comics came out of the slump just fine. The little publishers were weeded out and the big boys took over. But in 1957 when the article was written the future of comic books looked grim.
ReplyDeleteGER APELDOORN, please contact me again about your request. I e-mailed you and the e-mail was returned as being sent to an invalid address.
ReplyDeleteI see this now and can't remember the request...! You can mail me at geapelde at euronet dot nl (and please remove this reply after using it).
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