Interview with
Joe Wehrle Jr.
Part 1
Christmas Spirit in a Speakeasy
Cartoonist Spotlights
Bob Vojtko
Zinographies
Hunt Emerson
Brad W. Foster
Doug Holverson
Richard Krauss
Rick McCollum
DC McNamara
Dave Miller
John Porcellino
Poopsheet Foundation
King-Cat
Michael Roden
Dave Sim's Cerebus
Bob Vojtko
Joe Wehrle Jr.
Interview with Joe Wehrle Jr. Part 3 of 4 > Part 1
In addition to the Cauliflower Catnip BLB, what other illustrated fiction or comics projects have you done?
My first professional work involved doing spot illustrations for Galaxy and If digest science fiction magazines. I had done comics and other stuff for fanzines, and I sent some clips to Frederik Pohl around 1967, asking if I could get some work from his magazines. He replied that he liked what I had sent, but could I show him something a little more subdued? So I worked up a small folio of illustrations that I felt were more in keeping with the style of those two magazines. Fred said "OK!" and directed his staff to begin sending me galley proofs of stories slated for upcoming issues. They would also indicate how much space I had for the illos (title spot, half page, full page, two-page spread).
Some of the authors I illustrated were Larry Niven, James Tiptree, R.A. Lafferty, Ross Rocklynne, Mack Reynolds, etc., etc.
The galleys were arriving regularly in the mail. I was really on my way! Then Galaxy Publications was sold, and the new editors sent me nothing more. Soon, though, I was recommended to the head of a concern that marketed hunting and fishing accessories. He had just taken over another company's line, and needed someone to design new packaging for those items. That kept me busy for a while, and the money wasn't too bad. I think he was a bit exasperated that while I wasn't interested in hunting or fishing, I still managed to give him what he had in mind.
After that, one of the partners in a new waterless cookware company hired me to profusely illustrate the sales-promotion manual their agents showed to prospective customers.
Around that time I also illustrated one script for Warren Publications' Vampirella, and wrote one for them which was beautifully delineated by Esteban Maroto. I found Warren Pubs hard to deal with, though, slow with the money and critical of the work, although I thought I did a fairly good job for my first pro comics work (you decide, I believe it was in Vampirella #14). They ran the Wehrle/Maroto story over and over, but I never saw a nickel after the $12.00 or so they originally paid for the script.
In the early 1970s I got to do some book jackets for Mirage Press. These seem to be the things that older fans remember to this day, and still mention in letters and e-mail. This work led to jackets for Arkham House publishers, and record jacket art for Lava Mountain (Lovecraft portraits for spoken-word recordings. I also did Nixon for them when they released his resignation speech on vinyl, but I had a very tough time forcing myself to draw that face!).
For thirty-six weeks I drew a Sunday page for the all-comic paper, The Menomonee Falls Gazette, based on my earlier fanzine character, Fawn the Dark-Eyed. This character also appears in a short story published in the first anthology from the famous Clarion Science Fiction Writers' Workshop. I think there was some good art in those pages, and the story was coming along, but I'm sure the strip suffered to some extent from my difficulty in doing finely-detailed work in any quantity to tight deadlines. It's also true that most strips need time to become what they might, and the Gazette went out of business too soon for that.
I've done company trademarks for the sides of trucks, rock band logos, newspaper and magazine ads, detailed black and white portraits and animal drawings. Changing conditions seem to have reduced the market for much of this kind of work, but I'll stay with it. Maybe if I became adept at digital art some new doors would open, but I still like the feeling I get when the instrument under my hand applies pigment to the paper.
Probably the most effort I've put into a project with no appreciable return was for a comic called Stovepipe. Stovey is a tall, skinny kid who has a series of hair-raising adventures with his friend, Zekey. They encounter gun-runners, kidnappers and the like, and they also happen to be young comic collectors. I have about a hundred pages of Stovey's exploits, comprising two complete stories. Kitchen Sink publishers said it had "heart," and really hoped to see it published somewhere, but they didn't see any way they could profit, releasing it in the current market. I produced a small run to be sold by a bookstore chain at their local outlet, but my book, along with the rest of their stock went under water in the great Punxsutawney flood of 1996! So there remain about six people in the known universe who hold a copy of Stovepipe. I may get some new copies run off in the future, though, if I get the least hint that anybody's interested.
Something I still do have available is a $12.00 book I call Drawn by Wehrle, showcasing a lot of my art over a thirty-year period, from the simplest cartoons to the most detailed portraits and animal drawings. It's not a graphic novel, and it's not a convention sketch book, so it's kind of hard to classify, but the people who have it seem to like it. I guess it's sort of my portfolio in a nutshell.
Part 4: Concluding remarks and ordering information on a few items like Drawn by Wehrle that are available in limited quantities directly from the artist himself!
Stovepipe features two crime stories about best friends Stovey and Zekey and their adventures in their hometown.
Stovey and Zekey stumble upon a murder on a trip to meet Hermit Harp, deep in the woods.
Hermit Harp helps the boys and shows them his collection of golden age comic books.
In the second adventure, Stovey and Zekey investigate the mysterious behavior of their next door neighbor.
Drawn by Wehrle is an
8.5" x 5.5", perfect-, hand-bound, b&w book
Contents
19 pages of portraits of
family and pets
13 pages of misc.
illustrations
13 pages of fantasy/science
fiction illos
5 pages of Cauliflower Catnip illos
9 pages of excerpts from
Cauliflower Investigates
comic strip
2 pages of Beware of the
Cat gags
2 pages of a convict cartoon
character
5 pages of portaits of
artists, writers, and
musicians
6 pages of excerpts from
Fawn
3 pages of excerpts from
Arkahvah
5 pages of excerpts from
Groundhog Files
3 pages of Night Radio
comic strips
2 pages of Cat Burglar
comic strips
13 pages of excerpts
from Stovepipe
.