W. Fred Crow:
A SHORT BIOGRAPHYI was born in a small, ramshackle cabin just this side of Manhattan, in a place called The Brooklyn Hospital. It was located somewhere just inside New York City, July of 1950. I remember it well. I grew up in a (mostly) clean tenement slum. My mother might disagree, but having little furry friends to play with that didn't require separate feedings did seem a bonus.
My life focus, outside of the dream of eventually working in a dull, drab, colorless, life-draining cubicle where I can push paper all day and watch technology magically appear before me, wasn't art. Rather, it was music. Still, it was a creative outlet.
I began playing the viola at the age of 6 or 7 and parlayed that energy in moving to a lifelong affair with the saxophone. Seriously, no kid in his right mind wants to carry a machinegun case through the New York halls of higher education! Not in the 50's! Fagetaboutit!
In junior and senior high school I really felt the need to take an art class. I had artistic tendencies, though the doctor was helping me clear that up. My stick figures looked anemic and pathetic and my "Killroy Was Here" motif was becoming a flop. So, naturally, I doubled my time in music, taking band, orchestra, performing in quartets and duets, and adding choral vocals to the list. Yep, that art medium had become my passion.
In 1974 I received a BA degree in Liberal Arts with emphasis on the Humanities. Living abroad my final year...um, make that, living in England my senior year, I once again focused on my true passion, art, and whiled away many an hour going to the opera and symphony and theater. Sigh, those were some amazing days. Oddly, it was when I was under the influence of the British Empire - it really was an empire back then - that I noticed a plethora of art galleries and museums showing the works of the greatest masters of paint. I was moved. I was touched. I was still stuck with anemic and pathetic stick people.
Time, that unfailing, unstoppable commodity, relentlessly moved on. And so did I. I ended up where my dreams could be achieved, at cubicle heaven in aerospace. Now married with twin daughters, I found myself artistically unfulfilled. Even after becoming a musical director. Countless stick people had died on paper and canvas and all I could do was laugh.
Then tragedy struck. Not as you might count tragedy. But I was forever changed. The world would never be the same. Gary Larson, of The Far Side fame, retired in 1995, followed by Bill Watterson, the Calvin and Hobbes creator in 1996. I realized then that almost every day of my life, from an infant roaming over the newspapers strewn on the floor to my adulthood, I had sought out and read the comics. I searched for everything humorous. I had a passion and need and read the funnies. I wanted to laugh. My Master's thesis for Psychological Counseling was going to be, "The Effectiveness of Humor As Therapy!" But, of course, I was enjoying my cubicle too much to meander back to class to make that happen.
Long story short - too late! - I noted that I was a bit off center and could laugh at the oddest things. And, I figured someone needed to replace these two icons of the public trust. Since no one immediately stepped forward, I jumped into the fray, complete with my anemic and pathetic stick people.
After a fruitless search for an artistic collaborator, including contacts in Florida, Los Angeles, and France, I was eventually forced to try my own hand at this comic medium of expression, the single panel cartoon. My first toon took a mere two weeks. Everything had to be perfect. Just right. These days, not so much. Now I seek the humor first, and the quality of the line art second.
I began writing art and theater pieces for the Milpitas Post and Fremont Bulletin (California) in 1998, and after a bit, I offered up my particular brand of drawn nonsense to those ANG associated newspapers. I was rewarded by seeing my bit of folly printed in the papers. First a by-line. Then my toons. How cool is that!
Now, wouldn't syndication be grand? It's the next logical step. Cartooning and making people laugh. What a way to make a living! A guy's gotta laugh and a guy's gotta have a dream.
Some hard facts: I've been married for 28 years to the former Susan Schofield. I work in aerospace manufacturing and teach scuba diving at a local junior college. I'm a music director and vocalist, and I narrate and direct commercial videos. And of course, I indulge my passions, writing and drawing humorous cartoons.
In school I played chess and honked the sax in the band. In life I played chess against Bobby Fisher and now direct musicians in many venues and various opportunities. I'm into artistic outlets and the promotion of talent in others.
I've traveled a quarter of the globe and have greeted two presidents and a king. Not bad for an unpopular geeky little high school nerd. Who'd have guessed?!
In the words of that great animated-orator, Winnie the Pooh, Have a happy everything!