Hector's Hectic Life #33 by Lem

My growing hectic life was beginning to interfere with Hector's Hectic Life by the end of high school in the mid-'fifties. I was going to IBM school and met Tom Newman. He and I were both studying art and both were interested in cartooning. We both admired Charles Schulz. In the next several entries in Hector you will see this influence as Charlie Brown's catch phrase "good grief" seeps regularly into Hector's vocabulary. Actually, Hector is disappearing at this point. Today's post really portrays the cartoon version of my wife and then I plinking pianos and reaction to each.

Hector's Hectic Life #34 by Lem

Hector's Hectic Life #35 by Lem

Hector's Last Days: The Mort Walker-Charles Schulz Tribute

In 1959, I went off to Philadelphia to study IBM TAB Equipment, its programming, wiring and operation. At the school I met Tom Newman. He was from Clementon, New Jersey and we had a lot in common. We were the same age, we were both in this technical school and we were both studying art with an interest in cartooning. I admired Charles Schulz and he was a fan of Mort Walker. One day he wondered what Beetle Bailey would be like if written by Schulz. I went home and drew the four panel comic that appears in Hector's Hectic Life today.

We continue Pacquin's attempt to connect with Charles de Gualle, who he think is his father, add the Kingston Trio to Tatters and another random image of America.

Hector's Hectic Life #36 by Lem

"That's what I Said. My client is suing them for character defamation."

This cartoon was not included in the original Hector's Hectic Life collection. I stopped drawing Hector around 1960. Although Universal's Frankenstein Monster image had been around for decades, the Beatles were not yet on the scene. This particular cartoon must date from 1964-65.

Hector's Hectic Life #37 by O'Heaney

"When I asked Crunchfield to make some sheepdip, this wasn't exactly what I had in mind."

Yes, that is correct, by O'Heaney. This cartoon was not in the original Hector's Hectic Life and was not drawn by me. It was done probably in 1961. O'Heaney is the pen name of me lovely part-Irish lass of a wife. We don't know if she is related to the poet Seamus Heaney.

Old Art Passing Away

We have come to the end of Hector's Hectic Life. Sad to say we are coming down to the last series in the Who's Who at the Psycho Zoo and the last sketches in Tatters. I drew a lot in my youth, almost as much and as often as I wrote. Much of my art is lost. Hopefully I'll stumble across some more of it somewhere.



What I have been posting here in the Garden of Art were three collections I had made long ago. You have to realize life began to get in the way by the 1960s as I moved into my twenties. Just as the title of the play Stuart Meisel and I wrote a couple of years ago says, Life Ate Our Homework. By 1959 I had a full time job. By 1961 I was married. By 1963 I was going to college at night. And by 1966 I was also writing for publications regularly. It was not unusual to be working 60 hours or more at my job and I was taking three or four courses each semester at college. My wife and I still managed a social life with a group of others who were in the arts fields. Something had to give and I guess drawing was it. After all, my writings were selling.



It is sad for me to see these three collections coming to an end. I wish I had kept at my drawing board longer, but I didn't so I can do nothing about that.



Random America will continue and I will find some other things to plant in the Garden, don't worry about that.



But for now say goodbye to Hector.