Author: Jim

Jim Keefe is the current artist of the Sally Forth comic strip. From 1996-2003 he was the writer and artist of the Flash Gordon comic strip. A graduate of the Joe Kubert School, Keefe likewise teaches Comic Art. Teaching and speaking engagements include SVA in Manhattan, Hofstra’s UCCE Youth Programs, and most recently the Minneapolis College of Art and Design.

Artist Spotlight Charles Schulz

Charles Schulz 1922-2000

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On the eve of his final strip being published, Charles Schulz passed away in his sleep at his home in Santa Rosa, California. He was 77 years old. When he was diagnosed with colon cancer in November of ’99 he decided to end the strip so he could concentrate on getting better. Deciding that the Peanuts comic strip would not continue without him at the helm, Schulz stipulated in his contract that the syndicate could not hire someone else to draw the strip in his place. The last daily appeared on January 3, 2000. The last Sunday, February 13, 2000.

I was fortunate enough to meet Charles Schulz at the Reuben awards in New York back in 1996. Some common ground we shared was that we were both native Minnesotans. When I mentioned that I had just started doing Flash Gordon but it wasn’t in many papers, he responded by saying that when he first started Peanuts he wasn’t in too many papers either.

He was an inspiration to me growing up, not only because of his enormous talent, but because he was a native Minnesotan – someone from the same background who made it, who drew cartoons for a living. When interviewed by Whoopi Goldberg back in the ’90s, Schulz once said, “I always wanted to be suave. Y’know, I’m from Minnesota… there’s no suave people in Minnesota, it’s too cold.”

He may have not considered himself suave, but he was definitely a shining example of someone at the top of his field. Schulz put his whole heart and soul into his art, and because of that, Peanuts is the gold standard of how good a comic strip can be.

He’ll be sorely missed.

-Jim Keefe

Cartoon I drew November of '99 for a get well card. — Cartoon I drew November of ’99 for a get well card.

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Company I

Lieutenant Richard Keefe – Nuremberg, Germany

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After the end of World War II my Dad was stationed in Germany until the fall of 1946 and eventually served as the Headquarters Company Commander, 1st Division, 3rd Battalion, 26th Infantry. A point of distinction was that this put him in command for a time of the motor pool for the International Military Tribunal at the Nuremberg Trials.

Here’s an excerpt from a letter home to his sister Pat from April 1946.

I think I told you I am now commanding officer of the Court House Motor Pool.

I have so much property it isn’t funny. I am signed for over 200 vehicles. Everything from 4 ton wreckers worth $20,000 to Packards, Buicks, Fords, Jeeps, 2 1/2 ton trucks, 100 civilian box’s making over 300 vehicles. I’m waiting for me to mess things up and then it will be a toss up to see if Goering or I get hung 1st.

Sunday I went through the prison. All information about it is so secret so I will stop here. It was very interesting and after it is all over I’ll tell you about it. No press men or correspondents can get near the Place.

We are very short of officers in the Battalion now and are kept very busy. I’ll close now as Johnson just came in from the Grand Hotel and is talking to me so I can’t concentrate.

Love to All,
Dick

The folowing are picture found on the internet of Nurenburg circa 1946.
Note: Pictures are linked to their source when called for.

Grand Hotel - Nuremberg, Germany, 1945-1946. — Grand Hotel – Nuremberg, Germany, 1945-1946.

The Palace of Justice on Fürther Strasse - East wing. — The Palace of Justice on Fürther Strasse – East wing.

Hermann Goering at the Nuremberg Trials - 1946 — Hermann Goering at the Nuremberg Trials – 1946

The Palace of Justice in Nuremberg on the day the judgement of the International Military Tribunal was handed down. Nuremberg, Germany, October 1, 1946. — The Palace of Justice in Nuremberg on the day the judgement of the International Military Tribunal was
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handed down. Nuremberg, Germany, October 1, 1946.

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The following are videos that were taken about a year earlier than the timeframe my Dad served in the 1st Division. As Nuremberg was considered the ceremonial birthplace of the Nazi Party, hosting the Party’s annual propaganda rallies, it was considered a fitting place to hold the war trials and mark the Party’s symbolic demise.

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Company I

Schmölln, Germany – Then and Now

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The following are pictures of Schmölln, Germany, a town my Dad’s Infantry Company occupied in the waning days of World War II. The pictures from July of 1945 are from the photo album of Donald Katz, the Captain of Company I-304-76. The pictures from 2010 are from my nephew Dave Keefe, a US Marine who visited the town to honor his grandfather’s service in the War.

Note: Click on pics to see larger.

The last two pics are of the mess hall. Here’s a close up shot with 1st Lieutenant Richard Keefe on the left (my Dad) and 2nd Lt. Jay Hamilton on the right.

The lettering on the window states “International Casino” because their cook was a chinese-american.

Back in 2002 I interviewed Frank Mucedola, the Tech Sergeant for Company I’s 3rd Platoon, and he had this to add.

“I don’t know whether you can read what it says on the window or not but it says “Company I International Casino – Dine and Dance: $65.” The gimmick there was that regulations during that period of time were that the troops, meaning the American troops, could not fraternize with German women, or fraternize period, with any Germans – of course most of them were German women. Now, if you got caught fraternizing it cost you one month’s pay. Now the basic pay in those days for the private was 65 bucks. So my pay in those days was $114, so if I got caught I’d be fined $114. If you’re father got caught and his pay was $200, he got fined $200. So the private, his pay was $65, he got fined $65. So that was the gag “Dine and Dance $65”.

With Germany’s defeat, the German civilians in Schmölln considered themselves relatively fortunate to be in American hands, as towns east of Schmölln that were being overrun by the Russians were being devastated due to the a fierce hatred that existed between the two countries during those war years.

In 2003 the people of Schmölln installed a plaque in remembrance of the Americans who occupied their town that half century ago.

For more on the plaque go to:
German City Honors 76th Infantry Division

To end with, here’s a Then and Now pic of Richard Keefe (1945) and his grandson, David Keefe (2007).

To see the artwork of David Keefe, check out davidkeefe.net

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Tags Company I, David Keefe, Schmölln

Company I

Robert Lee 1925-1945

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During WWII my Dad, Richard Keefe, served in Company I, 304th Regiment of the 76th Division. A close friend of my Dad’s was Robert E. Lee, 1st Lieutenant, Company E. They went through Officer Candidate School together. The Mass card shown above is one my Dad kept with his personal belongings. For decades to follow my Dad would add his fallen friend’s name to the list of those to be Commemorated on All Souls Day.

What follows is an account from the Regiment history of his final moments. Robert Lee was 19 years old.

The rest period ended for the men at noon on the 1st of March when the troops were ordered to relieve the 3rd battalion southeast of Gilzem. Easy Company spear-headed the advance through this town, which was in friendly hands, and bore the brunt of the attack on Kunkelborn. Immediately after arriving at the front lines, E Company supported from the left rear, with G Company advancing through a draw northeast of the town.

The 3rd platoon was the assault element followed by the company weapons platoon and, as they approached, they ran into a hail of rifle fire. Lt. Robert E. Lee, (0551073) the weapons platoon leader, ordered the machine-gun section into action but, turning, discovered that he had only one of the two guns and that only one crew-man remained. Instantly he fed the gun and directed 1st fire until he was fatally wounded. Sgt. Thompson then Pfc., picked up the hot gun in his hands, moved to another position and finished the mission. As a result of their action sufficient covering fire was laid upon the enemy to enable the assaulting riflemen to overrun the positions. . .

What struck my Dad about Robert Lee dying was that Lee was one of the best. They were young and thought themselves invulnerable – which of course wasn’t the case.

The casualty rate for Company I was one of the highest in the battalion. The following is a list of the men killed in action from the Company in remembrance on Memorial Day.

JOHN H. BRADY SR., Pvt.
CALVIN R. CRAIG, Pfc
ROBERTSON DEWHURST JR., Pfc.
FOSTER G. FELKER, T/5
GEORGE L. GAREY, T/5
ROBERT L. GRAVES, Pfc.
KENNETH L. HOBBS, Cpl.
HERMAN W. HOORMANN, Pvt.
HURSHEL JOBE, Pfc.
JOHN A. KLIMOWITCH, Pvt.
CHARLES M. KLINK, S/Sgt.
GUY R. LABER, Pfc.
STANLEY J. LOCKE, T/5
JACK McKENNA, Pfc.
RICHARD A. NEISLER, S/Sgt.
WALTER M. NOGAS, T/Sgt.S
EDWIN L. PETERSON, Pfc.
EDWARD R. PINA, Pfc.
EVAN D. ROADEN, Pfc.
LAWRENCE B. STANDIFER, Pfc.
EUGENE TINKER, Pvt.

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Tags Company I, Memorial Day, Richard Keefe, Robert E. Lee

Artist Spotlight Artists - Cartoonists Daisuke Higuchi

Daisuke Higuchi – Whistle!

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From 2004 -2010 I lettered a book for Viz Media called Whistle!
The story and art were by Daisuke Higuchi. I lettered pretty much the whole run and in doing so became a big fan of Higuchi as a storyteller. The following is a brief bio that ran in the series’ final issue.

Daisuke Higuchi’s manga career began in 1992 when the artist was honored with third prize in the 43rd Osamu Tezuka Award. In that same year, Higuchi deputed as creator of a romantic action story titled Itaru. In 1998, Weekly Shonen Jump began serializing Whistle! Higuchi’s realistic soccer manga became an instant hit with readers and eventually inspired an anime series, debuting on Japanese TV in May of 2002.

In a nutshell, Whistle! is about a young middle school boy named Shō Kazamatsuri who’s one and only dream is to play soccer but because of his small stature he has to overcome adversity after adversity to do so – he also serves as an inspiration to to his friends and teammates, drawing them closer together – classic underdog story.

Whistle cast with Shō in the foreground.

Note: For the uninitiated, the accompanying pages are read right to left – not left to right..

Page that starts out each volume if you open it the wrong way.

The following pages show a great sense of design as Daisuke Higuchi freezes a moment and shows different aspects of a scene. In the scene on the left, the opposing team has just made the winning goal. In the scene on the right, Shō’s teammate Hiroyoshi has accidentally made a goal for the opposing team.

More of the same, but in these two cases the focus is on characterization…

The following is from a particularly strong sequence from Volume 12.
First a little back story from the previous issue; Shō has just made a near impossible shot tying the game – but the coaches see something else…

The scene that follows opens with Shō and his friend Tatsuya showing up at Tatsuya’s father’s house (who he is estranged with). Tatsuya’s father is a soccer coach for a rival team and has some old soccer footage he wants Shō to see – at the same time some other coaches are meeting for lunch, and Akira (the female coach) echos Tatsuya’s father’s sentiments.

There’s so much to love in that scene.
• The way the dialogue bounces back and forth between the two characters speaking.
• The look of sheer joy on Akira’s face as a young girl followed by the more reflective aspects as an adult.
• The projector on the bottom of page 42 seen as just a glowing light.
• The end shot of Shō as he stares entranced at the footage of a father he never knew.

Beautiful stuff.

Stephen King in his book “On Writing” states, “I think the best stories always end up being about the people rather than the event, which is to say character-driven.”

There are a million underdog stories out there, the ones that resonate come not from the story construct but from how deeply you’re invested in the characters. Higuchi’s strength as a storyteller is her engaging cast of characters.

You can check out Whistle! at your local library’s manga section.
To purchase, go to Viz.com or Amazon (to name a few).

Tags Daisuke Higuchi, Whistle!