Jules Feiffer was a real force in comics and movies for generations. I know I read an interview where he said he made more money from movies than cartooning, but I am so glad he was driven to draw. He had done it all: The Spirit, The Village Voice, graphic novels, children's books, plays, movies. He wrote the first book about comic book history in 1965: The Great Comic Book Heroes. He won the Pulitzer. Go look at the Gene Deitch's cartoon adaption of his Munro graphic novel, which won an Oscar in 1961. Or go see a young Jack Nicholson in Mike Nichols' movie adaptation of his Carnal Knowledge play. I guess everyone knows he wrote the screenplay for Robert Altman's Popeye movie. Look at these cartoons about Nixon from The Village Voice. There is so much material.
He started as a kid, taking a subway train from his family apartment down to the office of Will Eisner to ask for a job. Eisner was blunt, telling him he needed to work on his drawing skills. This did not daunt Feiffer, who would work as a gofer for Eisner, then began to write plots and soon, whole scripts for Eisner's Spirit feature. Within a decade, he was drawing the regular weekly feature "Feiffer" for The Village Voice in 1959. It would be syndicated in 100 publications. He won the Pulitzer in 1986 and would continue drawing it until 2000.
I had a couple of experiences with Jules Feiffer. One of the best things I ever heard about comics was when he had a Powerpoint presentation at a National Cartoonists Society convention and he showed an old Segar Popeye Sunday comics page of a big fight that Popeye had in a boxing ring. He talked about each of the panels and enthusiastically described the thrill he had when he was a little kid, reading this for the first time. Popeye gets knocked out of the ring in a spectacular punch and flies way over the crowd. This, of course, just makes Popeye determinedly mad and he gets up waaaay in the distance and begins walking forward, treading on the heads of the onlookers, back to the ring to deliver a masterful blow. The enthusiasm that he had for this mindblowing strip was just as fresh decades later. If anyone has a scan of the strip, please let me know and I will add it here.
I did get drunk with Jules Feiffer and then, suddenly, ran it off
in Midtown, chasing after him. Here's the time, place and story:
It
was 2005, and we had a big National Cartoonists Society get together at
the Overlook Bar in Midtown. For weeks I called any cartoonist whose
phone number I had and invited them to a day-long event where
cartoonists drew on the walls of the bar in exchange for food and booze.
(The Overlook guys were kind and generous in this respect for sure as
cartoonists tend to put away a lot.)
The media
was there; TV stations and newspapers. The Times called it "the Sistine
Chapel of cartoon art." So many great cartoonists drew on the wall:
Bill Gallo (who helped organize the event and was one of the cartoonists
featured on the older cartoon wall that was drawn opposite of the
then-new wall back in 1976), Don Orehek, Adrian Sinnott, Sam Gross,
Irwin Hasen, Sy Barry, Stan Goldberg, Victoria Roberts, Nick Downes, Sam
Norkin, Andy Eng, Arnie Roth, Mell Lazarus, Frank Springer, Sal
Amendola, Guy Gilchrist, Peter Porges, John Caldwell, Chris Browne, Dan
Piraro, John Klossner,
Mort Gerberg, Anne Gibbons, Robert Leighton, Nick Meglin, Ted Rall, Bill
Kresse, Ted Slampyak, Arnie Levin, Al Jaffee, Rina Piccolo, Sam
Viviano, Mort Walker, Bunny Hoest & John Reiner, Taylor Jones,
Al Scaduto, Irwin Hasen, Henrik Rehr, Joe Edwards and many more.
Among
the attendees was Jules Feiffer, who had come a little late in the
afternoon. Regardless, he drew on the wall and helped himself to the
buffet and some drinks, which were still flowing. I was exhausted and
relieved. I had, along with the great Bill Gallo, organized the event
and it had been a success. I had, also, been maybe doing more drinking
than eating and so, was a bit tipsy. Cartoonists were leaving, but a
few, like Jules Feiffer, were hanging around. I wound up sitting with
him to one side and on the other, the Daily New editorial page editor
(and Little Orphan Annie writer) Jay Maeder. I was happy to be silent. I
am not sure how it happened, but Jules and Jay began talking like this:
Jay: Cigarette Sadie?
Jules: Dick Tracy. ... What about Barney Google?
Jay: Bunky. ... Colonel Potter and the Duchess?
Jules: Blondie. ... Herby?
Jay: Smitty ... Little Iodine?
Jules: They'll Do It Every Time. ... Spooky?
Jay: Smokey Stover. ...Mr. Jack?
Jules: Little Jimmy.
It
took me a minute to figure out what the hell they were doing. This game
went on for a while, with each naming a newspaper comic strip and then
recalling its secondary additional, or "topper" strip that would run
above it in the Sunday paper. The knowledge, since it was absolutely
obscure comic strip knowledge, deeply impressed me.
Jules
had to leave. He had an appointment and from the sound of it, it was
anywhere nearly as interesting as drinking and playing this game at the
Overlook Lounge. But, off he went, down 44th Street, in the direction of
Grand Central. After a minute, Jay asked me what "that" was next to me.
It was a leather bag full of papers, obviously left by Jules. I grabbed
it, ran out of the bar and down the street. I could see Jules, way down
at the end of the city block, about to cross Third Avenue. I ran and
yelled his name. It took until Lexington Avenue, but he heard at last,
turned and looked at me, surprised. I held up his bag. He still looked
confused. "You left this!" I told him. Finally recognizing me, he smiled
and grabbed it and thanked me profusely. I was out of breath and felt
sick, but I had averted a potential crisis. Who knows what was in that
bag? A new Feiffer graphic novel? Heavens. I wish I knew. Anyway, the
good news is that I did not throw up and the running really sobered me
up for my trip back home to Brooklyn.
In
2018, the NYC chapter of the NCS had another drawing on the walls event
that I was happy to NOT plan, but be a part of. That makes for many
cartoon drawings spanning from 1976 to 2005 to 2018. I can't wait for
the next one.
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