Peanuts, Pogo, and Hobbes: A Newspaper Editor's Journey through the World of Comics

by George Lockwood

Overview

In this memoir, Lockwood draws upon his forty years in the newspaper industry as a reporter and as an editor, offering a unique glimpse into the world of newspaper cartoon strips. He details the production and promotion of countless comic strips, while also providing his own assessments of the most iconic cartoonists of the last half-century. The book is filled with fascinating anecdotes about his relationships with some of America's greatest cartoonists and the syndicate reps who sold their cartoon strips. Peanuts, Pogo, and Hobbes uses the story of one man's obsession with comic book heroes to give voice to a larger narrative about comic strips, their creators, the newspaper industry, and the era of American history that encompassed them all.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780815610052
Publisher:	Syracuse University Press
Publication date:	07/08/2013
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	8.80(w) x 11.30(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

George Lockwood (1931-2013) spent forty years in journalism as a reporter and editor. A signal honor came when he supervised a three-part magazine series for the Milwaukee Journal on water pollution in Wisconsin, for which the newspaper was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1967 for meritorious public service. Lockwood was a distinguished professor of journalism at Marshall University in West Virginia and Louisiana State University. He is the editor of The Cartoons of R. A. Lewis, Milwaukee Journal.

Editorial Reviews

This entertaining and enlightening history of comics, from The Yellow Kid to Zits, is written by a former newspaper reporter and editor who witnessed the golden age first-hand. It is jam-packed with anecdotes about his career and provides a behind-the-scenes look at the business of syndication. George Lockwood has a unique appreciation of this great American art form.

author of The Comics: The Complete Collection Brian Walker

George Lockwood, a child of the Great Depression, never lost his love for the newspaper's daily black-and-white strips and the color Sunday comic inserts. When he became a newspaper editor of the Milwaukee Journal in the 1960s, one of his jobs was deciding which strips to add and drop. Because of that, he got to meet legendary comics artists like Walt Kelly (who wrote him into a strip by drawing his nick-name 'Ol' Journal George' on the side of Pogo's swamp rowboat), Al Capp, Milton Caniff, Bill Mauldin, Chester Gould, Charles Schultz, Garry Trudeau, and Bill Watterson. This book is his charmingly chatty 'comic strip memoir.'

Journal of American Culture

George Lockwood, a child of the Great Depression, never lost his love for the news-paper's daily black-and-white strips and the color Sun-day comic inserts. When he became a newspaper editor of the Milwaukee Journal in the 1960s, one of his jobs was deciding which strips to add and drop. Because of that, he got to meet legendary comics artists like Walt Kelly (who wrote him into a strip by drawing his nick-name "Ol' Journal George" on the side of Pogo's swamp rowboat), Al Capp, Milton Caniff, Bill Maul-din, Chester Gould, Charles Schultz, Garry Trudeau, and Bill Watterson. This book is his charmingly chatty "comic strip memoir" (xv).

Journal of American Culture - Stephen Curley Texas A&M University at Galveston

Draws upon the author's 40 years in the newspaper industry as a reporter and editor (chiefly at the Milwaukee Journal), offering an editorial glimpse into the world of newspaper cartoon strips. He details the production and promotion of countless comic strips, while also providing his own assessments of the most iconic cartoonists of the last half-century. The book is filled with anecdotes about his relationships with some of America's greatest cartoonists and the syndicate representatives who sold their cartoon strips to individual papers. After rising to become features editor for the Milwaukee paper, the author later taught at Marshall University and Louisiana State University.

Communication Booknotes Quarterly

Readers will enjoy Lockwood's love song to the comics. Peanuts, Pogo, and Hobbes offers a unique view, revealing fascinating anecdotes. This 'memoir' of his lifelong fraternization with the funnies is lyrical, entertaining and charming.

SirReadaLot.org

A memoir by a newspaper editor who loved comic strips and who had the opportunity to publish many of them and meet their creators, the book describes some of the author's favorite strips and sets them in American social history, while grieving over the death of the newspaper comic and the rise of crude and 'lousy' comics in their place.

Jack David Eller

Peanuts, Pogo, and Hobbes” is a fascinating personal examination of Lockwood's life, editorial vision, and genuine affection for the world of comics. He designed the Journal's funny pages with the care and attention they truly deserved. Other newspaper editors would be wise to follow his lead.

The Washington Times