[Austin-ghetto-list] Terry & the Pirates

[Connie Clark]

Amidst the posting of all the 'sturm and drang' of
late, I hope you don't mind this little cultural
'divertissimo'

I called to chat with my Cousin David.  A little
background: there were lots of us cousins in the south
Texas Clark clan.  On Sundays at the grandparents,
after Sunday School, and after fried chicken, biscuits
and gravy dinner, David would lay the Sunday comics on
the floor, and read with vocal characterizations and
sound effects to us little ones.  At his house, I used
to watch over his shoulder at his desk, while he
penned artwork that so impressed me because it looked
just like Dick Tracy.  20 years ago, when I moved to
Houston from Austin, I looked him up because I heard
he had a print shop, and I figured that maybe I could
earn a little extra cash that I needed to get started
here, doing typesetting or layout for him.  There I
learned that he was still quite passionate about the
old strips.  David had stacks of boxes of Sunday and
daily comics that he had collected by attending comic
book conventions and elsewhere.  He related as to how,
through the years, he had even managed to look up and
snare personal interviews with some of his favorite
comic strip creators.  

Today, in retirement, David has turned his collection
into a bit of an avocation.  He compiles complete
stories from series such as Smilin Jack and Joe
Palooka, and publishes them in book form.  Said he was
just about finished with Kerry Drake, but that he
wasn't going to do any more of them…even though it is
much easier now with computer graphics…he's just burnt
out on it.  Said he wanted to create a strip of his
own. What about?  The Texas Rangers, he said.
(confession: we had an uncle who was a Ranger in south
Texas in the 20s and early 30s, killed in action, and
thus a family hero). So, if David actually does create
this strip, I expect that the graphic and literary
style will be much like the old action/hero strips of
the 30s, 40s and 50s; and will also, most likely be
politically incorrect. (those scotch-irish lads should
never have come to Texas and took land away from the
Mexicans, eh?). Nevertheless, I'm encouraging him. Who
knows, maybe he will earn a Ventura badge of dishonor.
 By the way, Jaxon, if you don't mind, I would like to
send David your rant #4, 5, 6 and 9.  He is a fan of
your Texas history comics, and probably would be very
interested in your side of the artist-critic-publisher
review rebuttal clash.

Oh, yea, what I called David about: 

We chat from time to time, and sometimes talk a lot
about movies.  He is very fond of 'film noir'
(formerly called black and white "B" movies, I
believe).  So I asked him if he thought if comic
strips influenced film noir or the other way around.
(A question that I posed not long ago on the a-g-l
while sharing impressions of The Pledge.) He said
well, he didn't really know…but he's heard that Orson
Welles was highly influenced by the wonderful style of
the artwork in Terry and the Pirates, and reflected it
in his movie Citizen Kane.  Overall though, he thinks
that strips were greatly influenced by B/W movies…just
an opinion.

So there you have it.  No definitive answer from this
humble authority.  He said that he hadn't seen the
Pledge yet, but planned to. I know he'll like it.

For anyone interested in nostalgia comics, the web
site where he sells his comic strip reproduction books
is

http://web.wt.net/~clarkcom/

My apologies, hope this is not interpreted as
unabashed promotion of kin. Like Jaxon, he does it for
fun and because life's too short not to enjoy your
work.

peace,
Connie



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