HANK KETCHAM - ORIGINAL ART SIGNED CO-SIGNED BY: MORT WALKER, BIL KEANE, GARRY TRUDEAU, JEFF MacNELLY, TOM WILSON, DEAN YOUNG, BRAD ANDERSON - HFSID 277422

CARTOONISTS: BIL KEANE, HANK KETCHAM, GARY TRUDEAU, TOM WILSON, BRAD ANDERSON, DEAN YOUNG, JEFF MACNELLY and MORT WALKER

All eight cartoonists have signed this First Day cover. Keane and Ketcham have also drawn their beloved characters.
Original Cartoon Sketches and signatures on First Day Cover signed: "Hank Ketcham", "Bil Keane" , "Gary Trudeau", "Tom Wilson", "Brad/Anderson", "Dean Young", "Jeff MacNelly" and "Mort/Walker", 6½x3½. FDC bearing 8-cent Wildlife Conservation stamp postmarked Warm Springs, OR, September 20, 1972 FIRST DAY OF ISSUE. Bil Keane (1922-2011) who drew Billy, debuted his first "Family Circus" cartoon, based on Keane's own family, in February 1960. The strip, which was originally called "The Family Circle", still uses circles around the characters to denote their closeness. The comic strip is distributed to over 1500 newspapers by The King Features Syndicate, making it the most widely syndicated panel in the U.S., and the "Family Circus" characters have appeared in TV holiday specials and in paperback book compilations (some 14 million in print). Keane, who was named Cartoonist of the Year in 1983, has passed his legacy along to his family. His son Glen, a leading animator at Disney, created the starring characters Ariel (The Little Mermaid), the Beast (Beauty and the Beast), Pocahontas and Tarzan. HANK KETCHAM  (1920-2001), a former cartoonist for Lantz Productions at Universal Studios, created the Dennis the Menace comic strip in 1951, it was distributed in over 1,000 newspapers in 48 countries (in 19 languages) when he stopped drawing it in 1994 but continued to oversee a team of artists and writers who still produce it. He frequently featured such sports as baseball and golf in his cartoons and was 81 when he died on June 1, 2001. GARY TRUDEAU (b. 1948), is probably best known as the cartoonist behind Doonebury, a highly political comic strip. Trudeau has drawn the strip for United Press Syndiate since 1970. In 1975, he became the first comic strip cartoonist to be awarded the Pulitzer Prize in Editorial Cartooning. TOM WILSON (1931-2011) created the popular cartoon character Ziggy, who appears in over 600 newspapers and on many licensed products. Wilson earned an Emmy Award for the animated special, Ziggy's Gift. In 1987, he relinquished daily operation of the cartoon to his son, Tom II. Wilson has served for more than 35 years as creative head of American Greetings card company. BRAD ANDERSON (1924-2015) was published in the "Saturday Evening Post" and "Collier's" before he created Marmaduke in 1954. The fun-loving Great Dane has appeared not just in the syndicated comic, but also in more than two dozen books that have sold over ten million copies worldwide. In 1976, Anderson won the National Cartoonists Society's Reuben Award for Best Panel. DEAN YOUNG (b. 1938) began assisting his father, Blondie, creator Murat B. "Chic" Young, who first published Blondie on Sept. 8, 1930. After Chic Young died in 1973, Dean continued producing the strip, first working with Chic's long-time artist Jim Raymond until 1981, then with Mike Gersher (1981-1984), Stan Drake (1984 until Drake's death in 1997), Denis Lebrun (1997-2005) and currently with John Marshall. Blondie is featured in 2,000 newspapers in 55 countries (in 35 languages), and Young has also published several Blondie compilations and created a Blondie presence in cyberspace. JEFF MACNELLY (1947-2000) earned his first cartoonist position while attending the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill for the Chapel Hill Weekly; his three years there had an enormous impact due to his mentor, editor Jim "Shu" Shumaker whom he would later create his most famous character after. His works started to be picked up regionally and it was after being hired with The Richmond News Leader in Richmond Virginia that he won his first Pulitzer Prize in 1972, putting the small paper on the map. In 1977 he launched the comic strip "Shoe" which became an immediate success, and he eventually left for the Chicago Tribune to work on the strip full-time. McNeely's editorial cartoons were widespread and very often extremely controversial, which earned him both protests as well as two more Pulitzer Prizes in 1978 and 1985.. He also won two Reuben Awards in 1978 and 1979, a George Polk Award, "Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year" from the National Cartoonist Society in 1978 and 1979, and was the first cartoonist inducted into the UNC School of Journalism Hall of Fame in 1985. MORT WALKER (1923-2018) sold his first cartoon at the age of 12, was regularly contributing cartoons to magazines by age 14 and was the comic strip artist for a daily metropolitan newspaper when he was 15. In 1950, he introduced Beetle Bailey, who first came to life as a college cut-up before accidentally stumbling onto an Army recruiting post in 1951, resulting in soaring popularity. "Beetle Bailey", which first appeared in 50 newspapers, was picked up by King Features in 1950 and is now seen in 1,800 newspapers, making it the third most widely distributed comic strip. Beetle and his army buddies also appear in 92 compilations of the strip. Walker is also the co-creator, with Dik Browne of "Hi and Lois" (1954), a spin-off of "Beetle Bailey" (Lois is Beetle's sister), and a number of other comic strips. He was named Cartoonist of the Year in 1953 and has won numerous other awards for his work.Fine condition.