Meeting Marc Jackson, by George Fiala

Almost a decade ago, I got an email from someone in England who was interested in contributing a monthly cartoon. A pre-requisite for becoming part of the Star-Revue team is asking. The next is to keep showing up. And so for every single month since then, except for once when my email was acting up and I didn’t receive a cartoon, he’s been in every single issue.

I’m a big fan of cartooning, I still have my high school looseleaf book which is full of my doodlings of Spiderman and Captain America. I even created a character which I called the Crimson Cockroach.

When I first began the paper I was lucky enough to have two cartoonists. I became friends with Harold Shapiro when he was already an octegenarian. Starting in the 1930’s he was a pro cartoonist for a myriad of national magazines. He was very supportive of my idea to start a paper. Long retired from the craft, he doodle a cartoon on a napkin, which I published. Afterwards I reprinted a bunch of his older one.

Marc leading the kids at the Greenpoint Library

Of course, someone that will always be extra special in my heart is Vincent Musacchia. I knew Vinny back in the 1970’s, when I used to come to 395 Atlantic Avenue once a week on press nights at the old Brooklyn Phoenix.  He was part of the production staff and when necessary would whip together illustrations for ads and articles, as well as laying out the paper, which in those days was done by hand.

He left the Phoenix for a successful career drawing for Disney and Warner Brothers out on the West Coast.  We met again completely by accident as he showed up with friends at my jam space on Union Street that I started along with the paper, back in 2010. Like many great artists, he was a musician as well.

Tragically, Vincent died young from cancer, still a bitter loss for many.

But we are again back at two, as Sophie Furman joined Marc last year.

Jackson was in NY on a short visit, and I met him as he was leading a drawing class for kids at the Greenpoint Library. Together with a comics publisher, and Mrs. Jackson, we all went to have pizza nearby, topping off a great visit.

Share:

Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn

Comments are closed.

On Key

Related Posts

Gilbert Gonzalez honored at Rec Center Christmas event, by Nathan Weiser

The Red Hook Rec Center was in the spirit of giving last month, hosting their annual holiday bash with food, music and presents for children. It was organized by Isiah Forde of the Center and Andre Richey of New Leader Hoops. The first holiday party hosted by the Rec Center in 2015. There was pizza from Mark’s on Van Brunt

Cautious optimism on the Gowanus smell front, by Oscar Fock

In December, The New York City Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), overseen by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), began the second phase of construction of Gowanus’s two Combined Sewer Overflow (CSO) tanks after pausing work since August. Because of the design of the much of New York’s sewer system, where stormwater and sewage water both go through the same pipe,

A great day at PS 676, by Nathan Weiser

Red Hook’s Harbor Middle School held their holiday spectacular showcase the last day before winter break. It began in the auditorium with performances and videos from the school year so far. After that was finished, there were beverages, snacks, holiday crafts and photos. The YMCA after-school program showed their holiday video titled “Mischief at 676, the Red Hook story.” Next