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Ramblings & Reviews Sally Forth

Appearing in a Comic Strip While Black

Something as innocuous as Hillary and Duncan going to a school dance together in the Sally Forth comic strip seems to be riling up certain readers.

“…having Hillary going with a black kid to the prom was too much for me. I guess you are trying to make some kind of statement or something but again this is a Comic Strip. Please stop trying to teach life lessons and get back to something I can laugh about.”

And before this strip even came out…

“I hope you are not going to get Hillary into an interracial affair. If so then I will boycott your comic strip.”

Suffice it to say that comic strips aren’t “For Whites Only.” That this has to be even stated in 2018 seems surreal to me.

And yet it reminds me of the statement by historian Barbara Fields at the end of the Ken Burns documentary the Civil War.

“The Civil War is still going on. It’s still to be fought and regrettably it can still be lost.”

-Jim Keefe

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Francesco Marciuliano Sally Forth

Francesco Marciuliano on 20 Years of Writing Sally Forth

Check out Francesco Marciuliano’s blog Medium Large
as he looks back on twenty years of writing the Sally Forth comic strip.
It Was 20 Years Ago Today

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Sally Forth

Letters – Washington Post

A reader’s response to the recent Sally Forth storyline featuring Ted’s Dad dying – from the Washington Post.

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Sally Forth

NCS Thanks & Giving Auction

Would you like to own an original Sally Forth comic strip?
Click on image to go to the auction.

Sally Forth comic strip for November 23, 2017

The National Cartoonists Society has partnered with Heritage Auctions for the NCS Thanks & Giving Auction. All proceeds from the auction will be sent to Direct Relief, a charity that specializes in providing humanitarian aid to victims of natural disasters. The strip offered is from Thanksgiving day, and is written by Francesco Marciuliano and drawn by yours truly, Jim Keefe.

It’s your chance to get some comic art AND support a good cause all at the same time! Auction ends November 30th – so check it out soon…

-Jim Keefe

UPDATE:

Many thanks! As mentioned all proceeds from the auction will be sent to Direct Relief.

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Francesco Marciuliano Sally Forth

Ted’s Dad Dies

A little behind the scenes on today’s Sally Forth strip.

First, Francesco Marciuliano’s script for this strip.

Monday
Scene: ONE PANEL. Interior, Hospital Hallway. Same Day. Long shot down the Palliative Wing Hallway. In the distance we see Ted and his mom hugging. They are crying but we don’t see really see their faces or any cartoon tears.

Original art.

Dot screen and lettering done digitally in Photoshop.

Color specification mirror inks.


The decision for the halo of light around Ted and his Mother was decided on as I had already done a hallway scene on October 22 where I tried to convey how you can feel all alone in a crowded hallway.

For the November 6th strip with Ted and his Mom I didn’t want to show the hallway completely empty (hospitals never are), but at the same time how the rest of the world goes away at that moment.

Hopefully it read that way for the readers as well.

Francesco has given me a lot of leeway on how to portray these scenes throughout.
I appreciate the trust he has in me in doing so, and hope the decisions I made in the illustrations did the story he beautifully crafted justice.

-Jim Keefe