Sgt. Snorkel - Mort Walker

On January 4, 1981 Bob Weber and I attended a seminar by Gahan Wilson and others at the Cartoonists and Illustrators School ( Formerly The School of Visual Arts ) in New York.

I remember the title of the seminar was " How to be funny for money ".
Gahan Wilson emphasized some good points when selling your work and meeting in big important executive's offices . . the most common mistake was not dressing properly.
To get respect and having a positive influence from the get-go of your meeting.

Times have changed a little and people dress more casual now, but I personally agree with Gahan even today. ( Of course there are exceptions . . if you're a genius cartoonist or brilliant writer or computer genius-geek or have a 300 IQ it doesn't matter, . . you can wear cheap rubber flip-flop shower shoes and a raggity T-Shirt and nobody cares . . part of the Whatever Mentality. ). None of these include me, so I go with Gahan's advice.

After the seminar, Bob Weber, Joe Farris, Frank Baginski, Mort Walker and I went down the street and had a couple beers at some watering hole. By then it was about 10:00 PM at least . .
Mort Walker then graciously invited us all over to his house for a snack and a nightcap.
Of course we all said Great ! Mort showed us a lot neat stuff and while there I asked Mort if he'd draw me The Sarge in Beetle Bailey, he grabbed a pen and in a few seconds I had Sgt. Snorkel immortalized in my trusty sketch pad!
This sketch is shown above. Thank You, Mort.