Cullen Murphy's Cartoon Country offers a poignant history of the
cartoonists and illustrators from the Connecticut School
For a period of about fifty years, right in the middle of the American
Century, many of the nation's top comic-strip cartoonists, gag
cartoonists, and magazine illustrators lived within a stone's throw of
one another in the southwestern corner of Connecticut--a bit of bohemia
in the middle of those men in their gray flannel suits.
Cullen Murphy's father, John Cullen Murphy, drew the wildly popular
comic strips Prince Valiant and Big Ben Bolt, and was at the heart
of this artistic milieu. Comic strips and gag cartoons read by hundreds
of millions were created in this tight-knit group--Superman, Beetle
Bailey, Snuffy Smith, Rip Kirby, Hagar the Horrible, Hi and
Lois, Nancy, Sam & Silo, Amy, The Wizard of Id, The Heart of
Juliet Jones, Family Circus, Joe Palooka, and The Lockhorns,
among others. Cartoonists and their art were a pop-cultural force in a
way that few today remember. Anarchic and deeply creative, the
cartoonists were independent spirits whose artistic talents had mainly
been forged during service in World War II.
Illustrated with never-before-seen photographs, cartoons, and drawings,
Cartoon County brings the postwar American era alive, told through the
relationship of a son to his father, an extraordinarily talented and
generous man who had been trained by Norman Rockwell. Cartoon County
gives us a glimpse into a very special community--and of an America that
used to be.
