Sharing My Story

Over the next several weeks I'm going to take a journey
down a special memory lane. In 1953 my father purchased
our family's first television set. That changed our home life
as nothing else before or aftter—for good or ill. The children
growing up in the 1950s were the first TV generation. As I
look back on it I realized how absorbed I was as a child into
the make believe world on television. I spent time reading
and playing outdoors with friends but television took up a
tremendous amount of my free time as a kid. In later years
many comics historians blame the near demise of the comic
book industry on the public reaction again the horror and
crime comics of the early 1950s (citing the role of such
public figures as Dr Frederic Wertham as instrumental in
the near collaspe of this segment of the publishing industry).
While no doubt there is truth in this I believe an equal or
even more importance factor was the rise of television.
This caused many readers of books and magazines
(including comics) to abandon the flat and lifeless world
of paper fiction for the glittering universe of the catode
ray tube pulsaling with life in their living room. As a kid
growing up in the fifties reading comic books and other
children's literature played a very poor second to television
viewing. Comics were an occasional fun diversion,
but television was a constant daily companion. I will be
taking a period period at a time.

1953-1956
I watched very early on were after school kids programs
like the accordion playing Stan Bornson, Sheriff Tex,
Captain Puget. These were all from local Seattle. Washington
stations and featured skits, songs, stories and cartoons and
were wholesome fare for youngsters. Captain Puget was
probably the first local program to show the Three Stooges
theatrical shorts from the 1930s and 1940s. As a 11 year old
kid I thought the Stooges were fantastically funny. When an
enterprising bubblegum company came out with a series of
Three Stooge cards I collected the entire set, over 100 cards
(the bubble gum tasted like cardboArd). These programs
competed with each other and were usually on after the
highly popular Mickey Mouse Club.

Some nationally televised kid programs that I watched
faithfully were the Adventures of Rin-Tin-Tin (1954), the
unlikely expliots of a young boy, Rusty, growing up in
Fort Apache, AZ in the 1800s with his German Shepherd
wonder dog.The Adventures of Sir Lancelot (1955),
the Adventures of Robin Hood (1955), the Adventures
of Jim Bowie (1956), Sergeant Preston of the Yukon
(1955) were all early adventure programs that I enjoyed.

Another kid’s program that I followed faithfully every Saturday
morning was Fury (1955), the story of a young boy and his
amazing black stallion, Fury. Some other Saturday morning
shows I faithfully viewed were Paul Winchell and Jerry
Mahoney (1950), Howdy Dowdy (1947, I remember
sadly watching the last episode in Sept. 1960. I realized
a TV institution was passing away) and much later
ridiculous, but very funny Soupy Sales(1959).

Perhaps the most prominent TV program that I
watched during the 1950s was Disneyland
(Walt Disney program) that started in 1954 as I
was just beginning school. The Disney show was a
wholesome variety program for the whole family.
Walt Disney was like a trusted uncle that you could
invite into your home once a week knowing that
he would tell stories that were morally upliftfing.
Disneyland had a dazzling array of different topics.
There were nature programs like the “Living Desert’
and others on birds, cats, dogs and other animals.
There were segments on the Disney cartoon
characters like Donald Duck, Mickey Mouse, Goofy
and Pluto (and Ludwig Von Drake). There were
science documentaries on space flight and possible
life on other planets. There were true life adventures
such as the Davy Crockett series(with Fess Parker).
Davy Crockett and the River Boat Pirates (with
Jeff York as river boat legend Mike Fink) was a
special favorite. I was very taken with Davy Crockett
were were millions of other kids and, yes, I did have
my own coon skinned cap.

Other adventure heroes like Zorro (with Guy Madison),
and saddle and six gun characters like Texas John
Slaughter and Elfigo Baca competed with the tidal
wave of TV western heroes of the time. There were
programs on how Disney did their animated cartoons
and feature films. Really something for everyone.
In our area it was on Wednesday nights on I believe
ABC and then years later it switched to NBC. The
Disney program had its early spinoffs. Most prominent
was the Mickey Mouse Club (1955) which aired on
weekday afternoons after school. I remembered
having mixed feeling about this show because of all
the silly dancing by both the cartoon characters and
the real Mouseteers. I thought it was a waste of time!
Time better spent watching a cartoon or a live action
adventure like “Spin and Marty.” Spin (a normal likeable
country boy) and Marty (the spoiled rich kid) were
two young teenagers (perhaps preteens) who met
at summer camp and were first rivals and later
became good friends. The Mickey Mouse Club started
in the fifties and had a fairly long run, but I remember
growing out of it and becoming disinterested in it

As I look back at what I’d written the last couple
of weeks concerning these computer graphic design
programs a question popped up. Why are these
programs important? Computer aided publication
design has basically sub planted the older method
of cut and pasting pieces of paper on paper (or acetate)
so as people like myself who have experience in both
are, I’m sure considered, somewhat antique.
Quarkxpress and its rival Adobe Indesign are used
to produce the majority of advertising circulars,
brochures, booklets, magazines, books and even
newspapers that come in and out of your life on a
daily basis. Abode Photoshop is the industry
standard for manipulating photographs and
even artwork. Photoshop can do things that
were no possible using old fashioned darkroom
methods. These programs are vital to the print
industry and even have important application
to the internet.

I find it interesting to be an older student
among lots of late teen and early twenties scholars.
These are young people who have literally grown
up with computers and other electronic gadgets
that populate our 21st Century existence. However
there are a number of folks in their middle years
who are also taking classes for any number of
reasons. A young man I sit near in one class is
a “power key” whiz—so much so—he plays
electronic computer pool while the instructor
is giving her “how to” lecture­ and he is usually
the first to complete his projects. The aptitude
for quick learning varies greatly in a class
involving computers with the older students
probably taking longer to catch on to the
electronic complexities than their younger
classmates. I’ll have to admit that not for my
experience in both Quarkxpress and Photoshop
I would have been lost several weeks into the
courses. Some students do struggle with
these programs.

The question that has been floating around in
my head recently— Are there actual jobs for
all the people taking Digital Arts courses?
Does the industry actually demand the number
of people who are becoming skilled at digital
arts through public and private learning institutions?
I suppose this could be asked of any college major
that has real world significance. Like any college
experience some will land in the industry they
have trained for and some go into other fields.

(To continue on with my life with desktop
publishing and Quarkxpress.) This computer
desktop publishing software changed my
professional life in the late 1980s. Before
computer desktop publishing the graphic
designer needed to tell his typesetter the
number of columns of type for magazine
articles (the size and style of type and so
forth). Then the designer would get the
columns of type and photocopy them and
make several thumbnail and dummy/mockup
layouts for the publication.

With the advent of desktop publishing and
Quarkxpress (and similar programs) the
typesetting functions were absorbed by
the designer. Instead of having a separate
typesetter the designer became his own
typesetter and was able to experiment
with different layout ideas before the
actual typeset copy was printed out
(at first through an out of house
service bureau).

Quarkxpress and other desktop publishing
applications operate by using text boxes
(for the columns of copy) and picture boxes
(for inserting of photos and artwork into the
layout). These programs have numerous very
complex typographic functions that are much
easier to use that the most sophisticated
typographical equipment of twenty years ago.
In recent years the computer graphics software
giant Adobe has entered the field with it’s
InDesign application which is giving
Quarkxpress some very stiff competition.

The other college course that I am taking
is one using the computer program called
Adobe Photoshop. This application is the
graphic design and photographic industry
standard for manipulating photographs and
artwork. Do you want to make your photo
a little darker in certain areas? Photoshop
can do it. Do you want to eliminate an object
or person from a photograph? Photoshop can
do it. Do you want to get rid of dust spots and
other visual imperfections? Photoshop can do it.
Do you want to increase focus and sharpen up
a photo? Photoshop can do it. Do you want to
height or even change a color in a photo?
Photoshop can do it. Do you want to colorize
black and white artwork. Photoshop can do it.

As with Quarkxpress the above projects took
long and very complicated darkroom procedures
(multiple layers of film masking) to produce
before the advent of Photoshop. This program
not only duplicated these procedures within a
desktop computer application but has gone
beyond what could be done in the darkroom.
The digital revolution as it was called in the
1980s and 1990s was truly that.

The classes I am taking are more than just
refresher courses as I’ve never had actual
classroom training in these programs. My
training has mostly been by reading the
manuals. Next week I give some observations
on college students of the 21st century.

Earlier this summer I came to realize that my home
business was at this time going to be an auxiliary
income source but not a primary one. The main
reason is the lack of a client base. At this point
I’m aiming at getting back into the job market
in the area of publication/graphic design which
was my occupation for an number of years within
the religious nonprofit arena.

In late August I became a student again. I have
seen the need to upgrade my graphic design
computer skills to make me more competitive
in the job market. Tucson, Arizona boasts a
private art college and a community college
with numerous graphic design courses. Because
of cost issues I’ve opted for the community college.
I’m currently taking two course each in computer
programs that are widely used in the graphic design
(or digital arts) industry.

For a number of years I worked as a traditional
graphic artist using cut and paste methods of design
to achieve the desired layouts. The layout were
produced as thumbnails, then full size dummies
or mockups and then the actual typeset copy would
be pasted (rubber cemented) to artboards for the
making of negatives and plates to be run on the
printing press.

In 1987 this all changed. That year the non profit
I was working for at the time purchased a MacIntosh
II computer and some desktop publishing software
called Quarkxpress. The Mac II was then state of
the art with 1 megabyte of RAM (more memory
that the room filling Univac computers of the 1960s)
and a massive 40 megabyte hard disc. With current
computers having 256 or 512 or more megabytes and
RAM of 80 gigabytes of hard disc this seems small
in comparsion and it is. But almost 20 years again
this computer was a wonder machine. Quark was
then an unstart competitor to the then dominant
Aldus (now Adobe) Pagemaker program.

Next week I’ll share more about my new student days.

(Concluding my remarks on the recent 2006
Phoenix Cactus Comic Con)
• There were many costumers roaming the halls
of the Mesa Convention Center that Sunday. Except
for a Wolverine or two most costumer’s apparel
were manga or fantasy influenced. At times it
seemed as if half the convention goers were
in costume.

• The convention had a full film sechedule and late
in the afternoon I checked in and they were showing
a number of amusing fan produced shorts like
Catwoman (Diamond Theft costarring Deadshot),
Power Girl -Classifieds and Chad Vader- Floor Manager.
These were quite well produced and acted and
wholesome and humorous. DC Comics apparently
gave their blessing to the Catwoman and Power Girl
films.

I left the convention around 5 PM and headed
back to Green Valley after an enjoyable day with fan folks.

• Before I left I signed up for the next Phoenix Cactus
Comic Con which will be happening the last weekend
in January 2007. This convention is probably about
1/50th (in attendence) the size of San Diego. It is a
convention that is developing some good programming
to supplement the dealer’s room and has potential to
grow into a very good convention.