Written by Francesco Marciuliano
Art, Lettering & Color Guides by Jim Keefe
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Sally Forth Sunday Pages
Category: Sally Forth
Categories
Craig MacIntosh – Mentor
Sally Forth 40th Anniversary Flashback:
Back in 2010 I began working as an assistant to Craig MacIntosh. It started with inking a few dailies which lead to a job inking and coloring the Sally Forth Sunday pages. When Craig decided to retire at the end of 2012 I worked up some samples (under Craig’s watchful eye) which were then submitted to King Features Syndicate. After navigating the proper channels the word was given from on high at King and I was given the green light.
I can’t say enough about how great it was working with Craig. He’s the consummate professional who makes the incredibly stellar work he does look easy – a great friend and mentor.
Craig Macintosh as the featured artist in the Rosemount Area Arts Council’s Fall 2021 Gallery Show at the Robert Trail Library in Rosemount, Minnesota.
If you’re a fan of techno-thrillers,
check out Craig MacIntosh’s books at
cjmacintosh.com.
Highly recommended!
Categories
Meeting Greg Howard
Cut to the Minikahda Country Club the summer of 1982 where a high school age Jim Keefe is busy bussing tables. The goal is to someday become a comic book artist, but there’s no clear path for that pipe dream.
The buzz Keefe overhears from the ritzy club members is about a local lawyer who had quit his well paying profession to become – of all the crazy things – a cartoonist.
The lawyer/cartoonist’s name was Greg Howard.
Pic by Alan Light from the
1982 Mpls Comic Con.
The comic strip, Sally Forth.
With the cartoon landscape of the early 1980s showing woman only in the role of housewives, Sally Forth would become part of a new generation of comic strips – along with Lynn Johnston’s For Better or For Worse and Cathy Guisewite’s, Cathy – that showed woman taking center stage in a more modern setting.
Because of this, and the fact that the strips were original and funny, success in newspaper syndication followed.
Jump ahead to 1998 and I would be working on staff as a colorist at King Features Syndicate when Greg Howard would decide to retire from his writing chores on Sally (now drawn by Craig MacIntosh). I sent him a letter relaying the Minikahda Country Club story along with a Sally Forth collection from the early days that King had in-house.
His reply:
Thanks for your nice letter and the copy of the first “Sally Forth” book. It was very thoughtful of you to pass it along.
It’s true that I sold Sally to King Features and have skulked off into the sunset. I’ve spent the summer enjoying the relief from the inexorable deadlines. You’re familiar with those. I’m not sure what comes next but haven’t grown overly anxious about it yet.
I enjoyed your story about the Minikahda club gossip revolving around my career change 20 years ago. Thanks for sharing it with me.
Greg Howard
I got to meet Greg Howard just once in 2012 before I took over the drawing chores on Sally Forth. Francesco Marciuliano was writing Sally by this time and I had been working as an assistant to Craig MacIntosh for a couple years. Craig suggested we meet with Greg in regards to working out me signing on with King as the new artist.
It was truly memorable as Craig hadn’t seen Greg for awhile and I got to watch two comic strip greats catch up and just shoot the sh*t over lunch. I had brought along a King Features sales kit of Sally Forth from back in the day and took the following pic.
Sally Forth is 40 years old as of January 2022 with Francesco Marciuliano at the helm writing and myself drawing. It’s a different comic strip than when Greg Howard and Craig MacIntosh were steering the ship, but Francesco and I wouldn’t have this gig if not for the bedrock of success Greg Howard’s original Sally Forth had. To that I say, many thanks – and hope Mr. Howard is still “enjoying the relief from the inexorable deadlines”
-Jim Keefe
As the Sally Forth Halloween story kicks into high gear this week, I have something kinda cool to help promote it. A promo piece with art by none other than horror master Stephen Bissette!
Stephen Bissette is an award winning cartoonist, teacher and publisher. He’s most notably known for his iconic run on Swamp Thing, Tyrant and the comics anthology Taboo.
And how did this creepy collaboration come about you may ask? Well earlier this month I posted a Sally Forth panel that I had drawn that had a wall full of demons (as sometimes happens).
The panel being part of writer Francesco Marciuliano’s Halloween story where weird things are happening inside the Forth home.
I also mentioned online that the inspiration for the panel came from a Stephen Bissette/John Totleben comic book page drawn during their award winning run on Swamp Thing (in collaboration with writer Alan Moore).
Shortly after that post I got the following message.
Followed by my reaction.
I immediately gave a thumbs up and then sent Stephen a rough of Hillary in the foreground with a demon doll and horrific creatures slithering in the background. In short order I was sent the following inks.
And THAT in a nutshell is how Francesco and I ended up with a very cool promo piece for the current Sally Forth Halloween story.
I want to give a special thanks to Stephen Bissette for taking time out of his busy teaching schedule at the Center for Cartoon Studies to do this – Greatly appreciated!
And with that said – Hope everyone stays tuned as our Sally Forth Halloween Story continues…
I wasn’t drawing my cousin Byrne per se, but the contractor in recent Sally Forth strips was certainly inspired by him.
The shamrock on the jacket is even in reference to my cousin’s remodeling company.
I told Francesco Marciuliano (the writer on Sally Forth) that unbeknownst to him, he pretty much summed up the relationship I had with my cousin Byrne in this current run of strips.
For proof, here is the gift Byrne got for me on my 50th birthday.
It’s poignant for me to give this shout out to my cousin as he died of a sudden illness back in 2016. Gone way too fast and way too soon.
So raising a glass to toast his memory. A beloved family man, he’s been sorely missed (especially that wicked sense of humor).
