The Unified Theory of Mister Pitts # 11
Wherein I Meet George Turner - Staff Artist at The Amarillo Globe News
My idea was to become a syndicated newspaper cartoonist like my hero Charles Schulz. I didn’t have a clear understanding of what that entailed or how one would go about doing such a thing. I thought I would start by going to my local newspaper office and showing them my comics. Not bad logic, I guess, for a little kid.
I learned a little bit about how syndication worked from Mr. Izzard, the editor. But being introduced to George Turner, the staff artist for the paper, impressed me in ways that I didn’t fully comprehend at the time.
Mr. Turner had a job, in an office, making art. I had never known someone who did such a thing, or even that art could be a job like that. And his office, oh how I loved his office. It was a workplace, of course, filled with the tools of his trade (which he showed me and demonstrated). But it was also something of a museum, filled with cartoons and art of his own and of his friends and colleagues in the profession. Some of them were famous and I was thrilled to see and closely examine original comic strips and gag cartoons by the likes of Milt Caniff, Gahan Wilson (a very good friend of Mr. Turner’s), and even Charles Schulz!
This was a pivotal moment in my life.