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Connecticut's Cartoon County

A page of the cartoon Prince Valiant
Jonathan McNicol
/
Connecticut Public Radio
A panel from a 1986 edition of Prince Valiant as drawn by John Cullen Murphy and printed in Cullen Murphy's book Cartoon County.

For a period of about 50 years, many of America's top cartoonists and illustrators lived within a stone's throw of one another in the southwestern corner of Connecticut.

Comic strips and gag cartoons read by hundreds of millions were created in this tight-knit group -- Prince Valiant, Superman, Beetle Bailey, Hägar the Horrible, Hi and Lois, Nancy, The Wizard of Id, Family Circus... I could keep going.

This hour, a look at the funny pages, and at Connecticut's cartoon county.

GUESTS:

  • Bill Griffith - The creator and author of the daily comic strip Zippy
  • Henry McNulty - A writer and editor who worked for the Hartford Courant for more than 25 years
  • Cullen Murphy - Editor-at-large for Vanity Fair and the author of Cartoon County: My Father and His Friends in the Golden Age of Make-Believe

Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter.

Colin McEnroe, Kevin MacDermott, and Chion Wolf contributed to this show, which originally aired January 11, 2018.

Jonathan is a producer for ‘The Colin McEnroe Show.’ His work has been heard nationally on NPR and locally on Connecticut Public’s talk shows and news magazines. He’s as likely to host a podcast on minor league baseball as he is to cover a presidential debate almost by accident. Jonathan can be reached at jmcnicol@ctpublic.org.

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