A Life in Cartoons – Growing Up and Working in the Cartoon Business

Cartoonist and longtime Wilton resident Brian Walker will give a PowerPoint presentation about growing up and working in the cartoon business. He has written, edited or contributed to forty-five books on cartoon art, including the definitive history, The Comics, The Complete Collection, as well as numerous exhibition catalogues and magazine articles.

Brian is part of the creative team that produces the comic strips Beetle Bailey and Hi and Lois. The setting for Hi and Loisresembles Wilton and often features familiar settings such as The Silvermine Market, Cobbs Mill Inn, Orem’s Diner, Scoops Ice Cream and the Silvermine Tavern.

Brian Walker has a diverse background in professional cartooning and cartoon scholarship. He is a founder and former director of the Museum of Cartoon Art, where he worked from 1974 to 1992. He taught a course in cartoon history at the School of Visual Arts from 1995 to 1996. He has served as curator for seventy-five cartoon exhibitions including three major retrospectives, The Sunday Funnies:  100 Years of Comics in American Life, at the Barnum Museum in Bridgeport, Connecticut, 100 Years of American Comics at the Belgian Center for Comic Art in Brussels and Masters of American Comics at the Hammer Museum and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles. He was Editor-in-Chief of Collectors Showcase magazine from 1997 to 2000 and is the founder and current chairman of the Connecticut Chapter of the National Cartoonists Society.

Speaker suggested by Gehr Brown

Speaker  Summary

Brian took us on an historical and often nostalgic journey through his, his famous father’s (Mort Walker), and his family’s lives as cartoonists focusing on the creation and sustained success of the Beetle Bailey and Hi and Lois comic strips. Interestingly, these two strips are “related” since Lois’ character was created as Beetle’s sister. Mort created Hi and Lois after the Korean War when he wasn’t sure how an army-based strip would perform in a post-war world, so he conceived a family-based strip for the times. In the end, these two strips were the only two of the nine he created over his lifetime that had sustained success. Along with his brothers, Brian has carried on the work of creating these strips.

Brian discussed his involvement in the development of an ill-fated Cartoon Museum and its progression through three stand-alone locations before ultimately finding a long-term home as part of the larger art museum at Ohio State University. As it turns out, the Cartoon Museum was Brian’s entry into the cartoon business. He had no intention to follow in his father’s footsteps (in fact, his college degree was in East African Culture), but he was “recruited” by his father to help create, manage, and curate the museum. This evolved into a career creating cartoons and writing books and curating exhibits about cartoons.

Brian shared that his father’s interest in cartoons began as a young child in Kansas City and grew into one of the most successful cartoon careers in the industry. Beetle Bailey grew out of Mort’s experience in army boot camp and the Sarge character was based on his own drill sergeant. He talked about the critical nature of being “true” to the characters the readers come to know and how this impacts what is and isn’t acceptable in a “gag” (the cartoonist’s word for a strip’s storyline). He also noted that Beetle never left Camp Swampy/was deployed because his dad didn’t think there was anything funny about warfare and the real work of the military.

Hi and Lois is a strip about family situations everyone can relate to. It is heavily based on the Wilton, CT area and locales (restaurants, stores, etc.) from his own life as a resident there. Brian noted that Fairfield County has always been a hotbed of industry talent with many well-known cartoonists making their homes in the area and feeding off each other as a powerful creative community for the genre.

Brian ended his formal talk with a video created by his son that provided an interesting insight into the process of creating comic strips. It was an informative and heart-warming look at how Mort Walker and his sons created their strips, starting with “gag conferences” to review and select storylines and ending with the final “inked” strip. It was interesting to note that each branded strip has a very distinctive style – in the case of Beetle Bailey, right down to the shape of the word/thought balloons.

Brian’s talk was followed by an extended Q&A session in which topics like the economics of the cartoon industry, how changes in where we get our news have impacted how and which strips are distributed, and an interesting discussion of how the movie studios have tried to translate strips into longer form cartoons with mixed results. Brian closed with a touching reference to being lucky to have worked so closely with his dad for most of his life and that he greatly admired that his dad, despite his success and acclaim, was known and respected for being a normal, nice guy.

Video Presentation 

Egalitarianism’s Muddle over Equality, Equity and Equal Treatment

Individual freedom for all law-abiding citizens, alongside equal rights and equal treatment under the law, are the prerequisites of true and sustainable democracy. Egalitarian theories and the quest for some definition of Equality are the subject of infinite debate and writings and even the most respected English language dictionaries struggles with, and differ in, their views and definitions of Egalitarianism. Against this imprecise background of semantics and interpretations, there is plenty of room for confusion, muddled thinking and misconception pertaining to these notions. DMA member Flemming Heilmann will try to bring some clarity to this confusion and offer some thoughts on solutions on how to address the challenges of trying to ensure equality, equity and justice for all.

Flemming was born in Malaysia to Danish parents and studied at Cambridge University, where he graduated with degrees in economics and law. He has since held executive and CEO positions in the manufacturing sector focused on the consumer goods packaging industry, mainly public companies listed on the Johannesburg, Toronto and New York stock exchanges, and has most recently been associated with investment in and management of buy-outs of distressed businesses, with multiple directorships in public and private companies in South Africa, Western Europe, Canada and the United States.

In 2017 Flemming published Odyssey Uncharted, a memoir of World War II childhood and education on four continents, set in mid-20th century history, and in 2019 published his second book, The Unacceptable Face, charting a career on three continents under apartheid, extreme socialism and disparate iterations of capitalism.  His translation of Halfdan Lefevre’s The Men in Denmark’s Freedom Council was published in February 2022 by Telemachus Press.

Arranged by Tom Igoe

Speaker Summary

Flemming combined perspectives on two of his “hobby horses” to provide an informative and thought-provoking talk about critical aspects of a modern democratic society and specifically applied them to the current situation in the United States: the confusion about equality, equity and equal treatment; and the role of education in preparing the average youth to participate in democracy.

Flemming argued that, while providing equal opportunities and treatment (equity) should be givens and are fundamentals for a democratic society, the notion that we can create equality is not feasible since equality is inconsistent with the realities of differences based on biological characteristics and abilities. Equality assumes that we can make humans identical/exactly the same, but that defies biological reality. He used the obvious example of trying to enable everyone to run as fast as Usain Bolt to help make his point, but the realities of human inequalities apply to other characteristics as well, driven by genetic and biological differences.  On the other hand, you can codify a means to give everyone the same opportunities and rights and that should be the focus of our egalitarian efforts. As part of the Q&A, Flemming questioned the phrase that it is “self-evident that all men are created equal” as stated in the Declaration of Independence, not to question the importance of providing equal rights and opportunities, but as a misstatement about everyone being created equal.

As his talk progressed, Flemming integrated thoughts on the critical role of education in ensuring the health of a democracy, arguing that an uninformed citizenry cannot hope to have the knowledge needed to understand the issues facing the nation to effectively participate and make informed decisions. He bemoaned the poor knowledge of civics, the low voting turnout rates and, the abysmal literacy rates in the United States, especially compared to other leading democratic nations. He also touched on the misconception that everyone should pursue a college education, talking to the role and opportunity of the trades and apprenticeships in meeting the employment needs of the nation (and how these are handled in other nations).  Flemming focused great attention on how your “zip code” should not impact your educational opportunity with an emphasis on the need to allocate/reallocate resources and funds between higher and lower income zip codes to improve the opportunities for those in poorer areas (and he noted that this is as much a rural America problem as it is an inner city/urban issue). He made it very clear that he rejects the notion that our educational system can’t be fixed and that he is pessimistic about our democracy if we don’t address this educational gap. Flemming then spent some time discussing the program he has been involved with in Queens that has dramatically improved and impacted the literacy rates and opportunities for its participants as an example of how the appropriate use of resources to provide equal opportunities can make an important difference.

An engaging discussion and Q&A session followed Flemming’s prepared comments and reflected how his thoughts had struck a responsive tone with the DMA membership.

Video Presentation

Good Vibrations: Music and Well-Being

Speaker Summary

Music therapy professor and licensed clinical music therapist Heather Wagner took the group through an enlightening and stimulating session on the power of music to enhance your life by impacting you physically, emotionally and psychologically, with a goal of helping people use music intentionally to enhance their well-being. She noted the universality of music and how all people, all cultures and all times have had musical behaviors. She then went into a brief discussion of how music impacts the brain in multiple areas, which helps explain the many ways music can be used to help with therapies for many health and wellness problems.

Heather talked about the physiological, chemical, physical, and emotional responses that music generates. To demonstrate some of these responses, she played different types of music (quiet/sedative, stimulative and emotional) that helped us experience the responses to different styles of music. Of note was watching the involuntary toe-tapping response to the stimulative piece throughout the room as soon as she played it.

Heather emphasized how your music can be especially impactful. Music that reflects your preferences and that is especially relevant in your life for any number of reasons can be particularly powerful in impacting your responses to music. So, your personal music can be especially useful in a range of treatment/wellness situations. She also noted how music contributes to your identity, with what you liked/listened to between the formative years of 16-25 is especially salient and helps tell your life story.

Wagner then shared the definition of music therapy in a clinical context, the 4 types of music therapy methods and how it is/can be an alternative to more traditional talk therapy to meet individual needs. She also discussed her work to elevate the discipline including licensing of music therapists in CT and the challenges of getting insurance funding as a treatment.  Throughout her talk, Heather gave powerful examples of how music can play a role in the treatment of many conditions including strokes, comas, end-of-life, dementia, and Alzheimers, as well as dealing with psychological/emotional conditions.

During the Q&A session, Heather shared thoughts on how you can intentionally use music in your life via active music making and music listening.  She closed with thoughts on how you can write your own “audiobiography” to determine what music tells the story of your life. Anyone who would like Heather’s slides on these two topics can contact Frank DeLeo for copies of them.

Video Presentation 

U.S. Senator from Connecticut, Chris Murphy, will provide his perspectives on key issues currently facing the United States 

Chris Murphy is the junior United States Senator from Connecticut. He serves on the Foreign Relations Committee, the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, and the Appropriations Committee. Prior to the Senate, Murphy served for three terms in the U.S. House representing the state’s fifth congressional district. In Congress, Murphy is acknowledged as a leading voice for stronger anti-gun violence measures, a smarter foreign policy, and reform of our nation’s mental health system.

Before being elected to Congress, Murphy served for eight years in the Connecticut state legislature. Murphy graduated with honors from Williams College in Massachusetts and received his law degree from the University of Connecticut School of Law. He is married to Catherine Holahan, an attorney, and they have two sons, Owen and Rider.

Speaker Summary

Fresh out of a Foreign Relations Committee briefing on Ukraine, U.S. Senator Chris Murphy provided thoughts on the war in Ukraine and the recent Hamas attacks and Israel’s response to them, followed by over 30 minutes of Q&A on a broad range of subjects that were on the minds of the DMA members.

He started by explaining his position as being essentially “anti-war” but that he is willing to supports “just” wars, and that the war in Ukraine is such a war. The senator commented about the impact on the world order if Russia succeeds and how what happens in Ukraine could impact how China perceives its opportunity to invade Taiwan. So, he sees our support to ensure Ukrainian victory as a wise use of resources, especially since it involves funding and materials but no ask for us to involve our troops in the fight. Regarding Israel, he talked to the barbarism of the Hamas attacks and the need to hold terrorist groups accountable while expressing concerns about civilian losses and working to minimize this aspect of the response. He discussed the differential funding needs for each war and the challenges — and his frustration — in gaining congressional support to fund both efforts due to Republican efforts to tie the funding to other policies/programs having nothing to do with these emergency funding needs.

He closed his prepared remarks by thanking us for giving him the opportunity to serve in his position and stating that he prides himself in taking a leadership role in working in a bipartisan manner to find solutions to problems facing the country.

A robust Q&A session followed in which Senator Murphy provided his perspectives on the state of the current immigration crisis including the change in the “mechanics of migration” and the worldwide market for immigrants, as well as his thoughts on what the key elements of meaningful immigration reform would include.  These are: an increased standard for fear for asylum seekers; increased resources to facilitate more rapid processing of asylum applications; and the need for easier/improved access to temporary work visas to meet the needs of those seeking to enter the U.S. primarily to work (versus for asylum), which will also help address our need for more labor.

Among the other topics that were addressed in the Q&A were: how the challenge of approving hundreds of government promotions when tying these to policy disputes has undercut the logistical realities of getting the promotions approved; how the power of lobbies and campaign funding impacts the ability to find solutions to budget/deficit reduction issues like entitlement reforms (and how it talks to the need for campaign finance reform); how gun violence is about an environment of fear in low-income areas in addition to loss of life;  his belief that there will be substantive progress on assault weapon bans and universal background checks (although he talked to a 10 year horizon for these changes); and that there are some “easy” gun safety changes that can happen sooner (like raising the age to purchase an AR-type gun and requiring licenses).  Like Ken Bernhard, our recent speaker on the 2^nd Amendment, he talked about the intention of our founding fathers to empower and enable the states to regulate gun ownership and use.  Murphy noted how the breakdown in intelligence that occurred in Israel was not a surprise (while often right, intelligence is also often wrong), but that the real lesson learned is that intelligence to avoid attacks is not a substitute for policy that addresses the root cause of the issues that leads to them (and, in the case of Israel and the Palestinians, he believes a two-state solution is integral to that solution).

Interestingly, when asked about the challenges and risks to our democracy due to the extreme degree of current political partisanship, Murphy pushed back and talked to the number of pieces of bipartisan legislation that have been recently passed and that, while not naïve about partisan politics or defending the current situation, he believes the narrative is worse than the reality. He also noted that this is worse in the House than the Senate, where he sees more effective bipartisanship. He also attributed some of the problems in the House to issues around redistricting.

The senator ended with an appeal for all of us to be vigilant and sensitive to the needs and dangers in Jewish and Muslim communities in the U.S., for our need to support them, and to report threatening actions to the appropriate authorities.

Video Presentation