Donna Barstow Blog #2 Posts

I’ve known Marty ever since I started cartooning. I was in some of Sam Gross’s books and Sam emailed me asking if I knew Marty and Fred Lucky, two great cartoonists out here. At that time, I knew NO other cartoonists, anywhere! Alone, all alone, in a wide wide sea. (There was a cartoon group, that had meetings, CAPS, but I didn’t find them for years because they didn’t advertise or have notices anywhere. They FINALLY have a website, nicely done, but no info about what happens at the meetings, to insure that they don’t get any new members, or any ex-members (like me) interested in coming back.)

Anyway, I had lunch with Marty and Fred, who were best buddies, and that was the beginning! Of course, they were very sweet and appreciative of my work – very kind of them!- but I was a little intimidated. They used to get together with all the successful guys, like Sergio Aragones, and with the animation guys, (animation was still going well then), etc? at extremely expensive meals that I couldn’t afford. There was always a handful of wannabes at these gatherings, and afterwards Marty and Fred would happily flame them and warn me that these were the guys who followed cartoonists, wanted to be them, and yet…never were. I never saw Marty be rude to anyone, but he always avoided sitting next to them!

Marty was the best mentor anyone could ask for, and he taught me more about cartoons than anyone or any book. Sure, he was grumpy a lot – especially after Fred Lucky passed away a couple years after I met him. I think he never quite got over that. But he was very positive about a lot of things I tried: greeting cards, syndication, my books, and even my political cartoons, which very sadly, he never saw, since they are mostly online. He was curious and supersmart, and we talked for hours about art and even more, what was going on in the rest of our lives. I would like to say he was like a second father to me, but my own father might be hurt. In any case, he was like an older brother, giving me advice about my car, editors, how to go into the outside world (we were both loners!), parties, his Chicago background, just about anything. It brings tears to my eyes to remember all that we shared.??