Jim Scancarelli
Encyclopedia
James Scancarelli known professionally as Jim Scancarelli, is an American cartoonist
who has been writing and drawing the syndicated comic strip Gasoline Alley
for Tribune Media Services
since 1986. In this role, his predecessors were Frank King, Bill Perry
and Dick Moores
.
After serving in the U.S. Navy, he went into radio and television, including a position as art director
for The Johnny Cash Show
, creating scenery and writing cue cards. Scancarelli had a successful career as a freelance magazine illustrator, and he did slide transparency
art until computers made that job obsolete.
Scancarelli spoke about EC Comics
and his other early influences in a 1997 interview with Jeffrey Lindenblatt:
Scancarelli began his professional association with Gasoline Alley as an assistant to Dick Moores
in 1979. Moores sent him the strips fully penciled with the faces inked, and Scancarelli would finish the inking. Although other artists had auditioned for the role, Scancarelli claims his advantage was that he was "the only one who read the strip and knew the characters."
When Moores died in 1986, Scancarelli succeeded him as creator. In 1988, Scancarelli created a sequence wherein Walt Wallet made copies of the Wallet Family Tree. Walt then broke the fourth wall
and offered a copy to each reader who sent a self-addressed stamped envelope
. It was Scancarelli himself who had to fulfill the requests, which numbered almost 100,000, with copies printed at his personal expense.
The strip's lettering is unique in that it uses upper and lower case, although almost all strips follow the tradition of using only upper case letters. Scancarelli also takes the unusual approach of combining continuity storylines with daily gags. He is the strip's sole creator, as he explained to Lindenblatt:
Having also collaborated with NCS
president George Breisacher on Mutt and Jeff
, Scancarelli became the only cartoonist to be involved with two strips on their 75th anniversaries.
fiddler and founder of the Kilocycle Kowboys. Recordings of his fiddle and banjo playing reside in the American Folklife Center
at the Library of Congress
. He was a prizewinner at the Old Fiddler's Convention, an event held annually in Galax, Virginia
.
and model builder. His HO scale
Cliffside Railroad
is a detailed tribute to the North Carolina railroad of the 1930s-40s.
's Story Comic Strip Award. Since the "Newspaper Comic Strips (Humor)" Category (created in 1957) and the "Newspaper Comic Strips (Story)" Category (created in 1960) were combined in 1989, Scancarelli was the last winner of the separate story strip awards.
Scancarelli felt that Skeezix Wallet's fictional past as a veteran, with Army service from 1942-45, was good reason to support military memorials in the daily strip
. In 2000, Scancarelli brought attention to construction of the World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C. by having the characters Skeezix and Nina laud the project in the strip. Beginning January 11 2010, he increased awareness of the proposed National Museum of the United States Army
with seven weeks of continuity based on the topic. The Foundation responded by compiling a “Sgt. Wallet” entry in the Museum’s Registry of the American Soldier.
Hogan's Alley
hailed Scancarelli's "passionate devotion to his craft, and to the heritage of cartooning" in "one of the comics’ most venerable institutions." Comics historian Maurice Horn praised him as "very capable and creative" and credited him with "some of the prettiest artwork in semi-straight humorous cartooning," while also noting Scancarelli's efforts to include more minorities in the strip.
Cartoonist
A cartoonist is a person who specializes in drawing cartoons. This work is usually humorous, mainly created for entertainment, political commentary or advertising...
who has been writing and drawing the syndicated comic strip Gasoline Alley
Gasoline Alley
Gasoline Alley is a comic strip created by Frank King and currently distributed by Tribune Media Services. First published November 24, 1918, it is the second longest running comic strip in the US and has received critical accolades for its influential innovations...
for Tribune Media Services
Tribune Media Services
Tribune Media Services is a syndication company owned by the Tribune Company.The company has two divisions, "News and Features" and "Entertainment Products"...
since 1986. In this role, his predecessors were Frank King, Bill Perry
Bill Perry (comics)
William M. Perry was best known as an assistant on, and later a primary artist for, the Gasoline Alley comic strip. He was born in Chicago....
and Dick Moores
Dick Moores
Richard Arnold Moores was an American cartoonist whose best known work was the comic strip Gasoline Alley, which he worked on for nearly three decades.-Early Life:...
.
Early life
Born in New York City, Scancarelli is the son of an archivist for the Italian embassy. When he was still an infant, his family moved to his mother's home state of North Carolina.After serving in the U.S. Navy, he went into radio and television, including a position as art director
Art director
The art director is a person who supervise the creative process of a design.The term 'art director' is a blanket title for a variety of similar job functions in advertising, publishing, film and television, the Internet, and video games....
for The Johnny Cash Show
The Johnny Cash Show (TV series)
The Johnny Cash Show was an American television music variety show hosted by Johnny Cash. The Screen Gems 58-episode series ran from June 7, 1969 to March 31, 1971 on ABC; it was taped at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, Tennessee. The show reached No...
, creating scenery and writing cue cards. Scancarelli had a successful career as a freelance magazine illustrator, and he did slide transparency
Transparency (photography)
In photography, a reversal film is a type of photographic film that produces a positive image on a transparent base. Also known as dias or slide. The film is processed to produce transparencies or diapositives instead of negatives and prints...
art until computers made that job obsolete.
Gasoline Alley
Scancarelli says his deep appreciation for comics was cultivated during childhood visits to his grandfather's house. His grandfather read the strips to him and pointed out details in each panel. His earliest comic strip recollection is of Gasoline Alley. He now lives in that same house and notes, "Little did I know that 50 years later I’d be working on the comic strip in the next room."Scancarelli spoke about EC Comics
EC Comics
Entertaining Comics, more commonly known as EC Comics, was an American publisher of comic books specializing in horror fiction, crime fiction, satire, military fiction and science fiction from the 1940s through the mid-1950s, notably the Tales from the Crypt series...
and his other early influences in a 1997 interview with Jeffrey Lindenblatt:
- The first things I really got enamored with were Foster’s Prince ValiantPrince ValiantPrince Valiant in the Days of King Arthur, or simply Prince Valiant, is a long-run comic strip created by Hal Foster in 1937. It is an epic adventure that has told a continuous story during its entire history, and the full stretch of that story now totals more than 3700 Sunday strips...
, Li’l Abner, Roy CraneRoy CraneRoyston Campbell Crane , who signed his work Roy Crane, was an influential American cartoonist who created the comic strip characters Wash Tubbs, Captain Easy and Buz Sawyer. He pioneered the adventure comic strip, establishing the conventions and artistic approach of that genre. Comics historian...
. Crane still sticks with me a lot. But the guys who hit me over the head hardest, when I got to be 13 years old, were Wally WoodWally WoodWallace Allan Wood was an American comic book writer, artist and independent publisher, best known for his work in EC Comics and Mad. He was one of Mads founding cartoonists in 1952. Although much of his early professional artwork is signed Wallace Wood, he became known as Wally Wood, a name he...
, Jack DavisJack Davis (cartoonist)Jack Davis is an American cartoonist and illustrator, known for his advertising art, magazine covers, film posters, record album art and numerous comic book stories...
and Bill Elder on MadMad (magazine)Mad is an American humor magazine founded by editor Harvey Kurtzman and publisher William Gaines in 1952. Launched as a comic book before it became a magazine, it was widely imitated and influential, impacting not only satirical media but the entire cultural landscape of the 20th century.The last...
. They were phenomenal! I couldn’t believe anyone could draw like that!... I remember picking up an EC comic, Weird ScienceWeird ScienceWeird Science is the name of:* Weird Science , a 1985 film directed by John Hughes** Weird Science , a television series based on the film** "Weird Science" , the theme song to the film and the TV series by Oingo Boingo...
or Weird FantasyWeird FantasyWeird Fantasy is a science fiction anthology comic that was part of the EC Comics line in the early 1950s. The companion comic for Weird Fantasy was Weird Science...
, and Wally Wood drew some of the most beautiful women I’d ever seen—in spacesuits, or almost spacesuits—I couldn’t believe anyone could render planets and moons and space vehicles with this degree of realism! It drove me crazy, and I would sit around and try to draw stuff like that. I think then my mother prohibited me from reading EC for a while. Then Mad came along, and I would try to copy that stuff. A little bit of Davis rolled off, a little bit of Wood.
Dick Moores
Richard Arnold Moores was an American cartoonist whose best known work was the comic strip Gasoline Alley, which he worked on for nearly three decades.-Early Life:...
in 1979. Moores sent him the strips fully penciled with the faces inked, and Scancarelli would finish the inking. Although other artists had auditioned for the role, Scancarelli claims his advantage was that he was "the only one who read the strip and knew the characters."
When Moores died in 1986, Scancarelli succeeded him as creator. In 1988, Scancarelli created a sequence wherein Walt Wallet made copies of the Wallet Family Tree. Walt then broke the fourth wall
Fourth wall
The fourth wall is the imaginary "wall" at the front of the stage in a traditional three-walled box set in a proscenium theatre, through which the audience sees the action in the world of the play...
and offered a copy to each reader who sent a self-addressed stamped envelope
Self-addressed stamped envelope
A self-addressed stamped envelope , stamped self-addressed envelope , or just self addressed envelope in the UK, is an envelope with the sender's name and address on it, with affixed paid postage and mailed to a company or private individual...
. It was Scancarelli himself who had to fulfill the requests, which numbered almost 100,000, with copies printed at his personal expense.
The strip's lettering is unique in that it uses upper and lower case, although almost all strips follow the tradition of using only upper case letters. Scancarelli also takes the unusual approach of combining continuity storylines with daily gags. He is the strip's sole creator, as he explained to Lindenblatt:
- I do love it. The deadlines are the only thing I don’t love about it... Dick Moores used to say that if he didn’t have the strip, he’d be dead. The bad thing is, he did have the strip, and he did die... Once in a while, Mark CohenMark J. CohenMark J. Cohen was a realtor and a collector of comic books and comic book art, and a prominent cartoonists' agent and dealer in original comics art. He was an occasional contributor to the Gasoline Alley comic strip....
will write a poem or give me an idea for a Sunday pageSunday stripA Sunday strip is a newspaper comic strip format, where comic strips are printed in the Sunday newspaper, usually in a special section called the Sunday comics, and virtually always in color. Some readers called these sections the Sunday funnies...
, but I do the rest of it. I stare at a blank sheet of paper and come up with it. Cohen died in 1999. Scancarelli remembered Cohen with a 2009 Sunday page tribute.
Having also collaborated with NCS
National Cartoonists Society
The National Cartoonists Society is an organization of professional cartoonists in the United States. It presents the National Cartoonists Society Awards. The Society was born in 1946 when groups of cartoonists got together to entertain the troops...
president George Breisacher on Mutt and Jeff
Mutt and Jeff
Mutt and Jeff was a long-popular American newspaper comic strip created by cartoonist Bud Fisher in 1907 about "two mismatched tinhorns." It is commonly regarded as the first daily comic strip. The concept of a newspaper strip featuring recurring characters in multiple panels on a six-day-a-week...
, Scancarelli became the only cartoonist to be involved with two strips on their 75th anniversaries.
Bluegrass musician
Scancarelli is a well-known bluegrassBluegrass music
Bluegrass music is a form of American roots music, and a sub-genre of country music. It has mixed roots in Scottish, English, Welsh and Irish traditional music...
fiddler and founder of the Kilocycle Kowboys. Recordings of his fiddle and banjo playing reside in the American Folklife Center
American Folklife Center
The American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC was created by Congress in 1976 "to preserve and present American Folklife" . The center includes the Archive of Folk Culture, established at the Library in 1928 as a repository for American folk music...
at the Library of Congress
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...
. He was a prizewinner at the Old Fiddler's Convention, an event held annually in Galax, Virginia
Galax, Virginia
Galax is an independent city in the southwestern part of the Commonwealth of Virginia. It is bounded to the northeast by Carroll County and to the southwest by Grayson County. The population was 7,042 as of 2010...
.
Model railroader
Scancarelli is an accomplished model railroaderModel Railroader
Model Railroader is an American magazine specializing in the hobby of model railroading. It was founded in 1934 by Al C. Kalmbach and is based in Waukesha, Wisconsin. It is published monthly by Kalmbach Publishing...
and model builder. His HO scale
HO scale
HO or H0 is the most popular scale of model railway in the world.According to the NMRA standard S-1.2 predominantly used in North America, in HO scale, represents 1 real foot ; this ratio works out to about 1:87.1. According to the MOROP standard NEM 010 predominantly used in Europe, the scale is...
Cliffside Railroad
Cliffside Railroad
Cliffside Railroad was a Class III railroad operating freight service in southwestern North Carolina from 1905 until service ended in 1987. The line was formally abandoned in 1992.- History :...
is a detailed tribute to the North Carolina railroad of the 1930s-40s.
Awards, service and recognition
Scancarelli received the 1988 National Cartoonists SocietyNational Cartoonists Society
The National Cartoonists Society is an organization of professional cartoonists in the United States. It presents the National Cartoonists Society Awards. The Society was born in 1946 when groups of cartoonists got together to entertain the troops...
's Story Comic Strip Award. Since the "Newspaper Comic Strips (Humor)" Category (created in 1957) and the "Newspaper Comic Strips (Story)" Category (created in 1960) were combined in 1989, Scancarelli was the last winner of the separate story strip awards.
Daily strip
A daily strip is a newspaper comic strip format, appearing on weekdays, Monday through Saturday, as contrasted with a Sunday strip, which typically only appears on Sundays....
. In 2000, Scancarelli brought attention to construction of the World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C. by having the characters Skeezix and Nina laud the project in the strip. Beginning January 11 2010, he increased awareness of the proposed National Museum of the United States Army
National Museum of the United States Army
The National Museum of the United States Army will be dedicated to telling the complete story of the U.S. Army, from 1775 to present. The museum, to be built at Fort Belvoir, Virginia in 2015, is destined to become the Army’s national landmark, celebrating the Army’s contributions to the nation and...
with seven weeks of continuity based on the topic. The Foundation responded by compiling a “Sgt. Wallet” entry in the Museum’s Registry of the American Soldier.
Hogan's Alley
Hogan's Alley (magazine)
Hogan's Alley, a publication devoted to comic art, is subtitled the magazine of the cartoon arts. It has been published on an irregular schedule since 1994 by Bull Moose Publishing in Atlanta. Covering comic strips, comic books, cartoons and animation, each hefty issue contains at least 144 pages...
hailed Scancarelli's "passionate devotion to his craft, and to the heritage of cartooning" in "one of the comics’ most venerable institutions." Comics historian Maurice Horn praised him as "very capable and creative" and credited him with "some of the prettiest artwork in semi-straight humorous cartooning," while also noting Scancarelli's efforts to include more minorities in the strip.