Morrie Turner

Morris "Morrie" Turner (December 11, 1923 â€" January 25, 2014) was an African American cartoonist, creator of the strip Wee Pals, the first American syndicated strip with an integrated cast of characters.

Biography

Raised in Oakland, California, Turner grew up in West Oakland and attended McClymonds High School; in his senior year, he moved to Berkeley to finish his high school years at Berkeley High School.

Turner got his first training in cartooning via the Art Instruction, Inc. home study correspondence course. During World War II (where he served as a mechanic with Tuskegee Airmen) his illustrations appeared in the newspaper Stars and Stripes. After the war, while working for the Oakland Police Department, he created the comic strip Baker's Helper.

When Turner began questioning why there were no minorities in cartoons, his mentor, Charles M. Schulz of Peanutsi> fame, suggested he create one. Morris' first attempt, Dinky Fellas, featured an all-black cast, but found publication in only one newspaper, the Chicago Defender. Turner integrated the strip, renaming it Wee Pals, and in 1965 it became the first American syndicated comic strip to have a cast of diverse ethnicity. Although the strip was only originally carried by five newspapers, after Martin Luther King's assassination in 1968, it was picked up by more than 100 papers.

In 1970 Turner became a co-chairman of the White House Conference on Youth.

Turner appeared as a guest on the May 14, 1973, episode of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, where he showed the host pictures he had drawn of several of his neighbors, as well as presented a clip from his Kid Power animated series, which was airing Saturday mornings on ABC at the time.

During the 1972-73 television season, the monolithic and monoethnic nature of American television began to change, and Morrie Turner and his artistic talent were instrumental in this change. Turner's comic strip became televised in two different ways. The show Kid Power became a popular Saturday morning cartoon that aired throughout the United States. All of Turner's characters were featured, and they were united through the coalition the characters themselves dubbed as "Rainbow Power". During the same season, Wee Pals on the Go was aired by ABC's owned-and-operated station in San Francisco, KGO-TV. This Sunday morning show featured child actors who portrayed the main characters of Turner's comic strip: Nipper, Randy, Sybil, Connie and Oliver. With and through the kids, Turner explored all kinds of venues and activities that were of interest to child viewers of the time, from a candy factory to a train locomotive. After a successful pilot, this project was filmed and aired for an entire television season (also 1972-73). This exposure helped increase Turner's popularity exponentially.

As the comic strip's popularity grew, Turner added characters. He included children of more and more ethnicities, as well as a child with a physical disability.

During the Vietnam War, Turner and five other members of the National Cartoonist Society traveled to Vietnam, where they spent a month drawing more than 3,000 caricatures of service people.

Turner contributed his talents to concerts by the Bay Area Little Symphony of Oakland, California. He drew pictures to the music and of children in the audience.

On May 25, 2009, Turner visited Westlake Middle School in Oakland to give a lesson to the OASES Comic Book Preachers Class of drawing. Turner collaborated with the class's students to create the book Wee the Kids from Oakland.

Turner died on January 25, 2014, at age 90.

Personal life

Turner married Letha Mae Harvey on April 6, 1946; they collaborated on "Soul Corner," the weekly supplement to Wee Pals. Morrie and Letha had one son, Morrie Jr; Letha died in 1994. Late in life, Turner's companion was Karol Trachtenburg of Sacramento.

Turner was an active member of the Center for Spiritual Awareness, a Science of Mind church in West Sacramento, California.

Tributes

The Family Circus character of Morrie, a playmate of Billy â€" and the only recurring black character in the strip â€" is based on Turner. Family Circus creator Bil Keane created the character in 1967 as a tribute to his close friend.

Awards

In 2003, the National Cartoonists Society recognized Turner for his work on Wee Pals and others with the Milton Caniff Lifetime Achievement Award.

Throughout his career, Turner was showered with awards and community distinctions. For example, he received the Brotherhood Award from the National Conference of Christians and Jews and the Inter-Group Relations Award from the Anti-Defamation League of Bnai Brith. In 1971, he received the Alameda County (California) Education Association Layman's Annual Award.

In 2000, the Cartoon Art Museum presented Turner with the Sparky Award, named in honor of Charles Schulz.

Turner was honored a number of times at the San Diego Comic-Con: in 1981, he was given an Inkpot Award; and in 2012 he was given the Bob Clampett Humanitarian Award.

Bibliography

Wee Pals collections

• Wee Pals That "Kid Power" Gang in Rainbow Power (Signet Books, 1968) ASIN B002T6NAOG
• Wee Pals (Signet Books, 1969) ASIN B003ZUKTLW â€" introduction by Charles M. Schulz
• Kid Power (Signet Books, 1970), ASIN B001IKPRM2
• Nipper (Westminster Press, 1971), ASIN B002IY2XOM
• Nipper's Secret Power (Westminster Press, 1971) ISBN 0-664-32498-3-0325
• Wee Pals: Rainbow Power (Signet Books, 1973) ASIN B000M8UYII
• Wee Pals: Doing Their Thing (Signet Books, 1973) ASIN B00129HWKO
• Wee Pals' Nipper and Nipper's Secret Power (Signet Books, 1974) ASIN B001M5GOOS
• Wee Pals: Book of Knowledge (Signet Books, 1974) ISBN 0451058003
• Wee Pals: Staying Cool (Signet Books, 1974) ISBN 0451060768
• Wee Pals: Funky Tales (New American Library, 1975) ASIN B00072KLVE
• Wee Pals: Welcome to the Club (Rainbow Power Club Books, 1978) ASIN B003VC7JQW
• Choosing a Health Career: Featuring Wee Pals, the Kid Power Gang (Dept. of Health, Education, and Welfare, Public Health Service, Health Resources Administration, 1979), ASIN B0006XCLLC
• Wee Pals: A Full-Length Musical Comedy for Children or Young Teenagers (The Dramatic Publishing Company, 1981) ASIN B0006XW1I0
• Wee Pals Make Friends with Music and Musical Instruments: Coloring Book (Stockton Symphony Association, 1982) ASIN B00072YGD8
• Wee Pals, the Kid Power Gang: Thinking Well (Ingham County Health Department, 1983) ASIN B0007259DY
• Wee Pals Doing the Right Thing Coloring Book (Oakland Police Department, 1991) ASIN B0006R4G98
• Explore Black History with Wee Pals (Just us Books, 1998) ISBN 0940975793
• The Kid Power Gang Salutes African-Americans in the Military Past and Present (Conway B. Jones, Jr., 2000), ASIN B0006RSDC4

Willis and his Friends

• Ser un Hombre (Lear Siegler/Fearon Publishers, 1972) ISBN 0822474271
• Prejudice (Fearon, 1972) ASIN B00071EIOG
• The Vandals (Fearon, 1974) ASIN B0006WJ9JU

Other books

• A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Freedom (Ross Simmons, 1967) ASIN B0007HK27W
• Black and White Coloring Book (Troubadour Press, 1969) â€" written with Letha Turner
• Right On (Signet Books, 1969)
• Getting It All Together (Signet Books, 1972)
• Where's Herbie? A Sickle Cell Anemia Story and Coloring Book (Sickle Cell Anemia Workshop, 1972) ASIN B00BKQ85LE
• Famous Black Americans (Judson Press, 1973) ISBN 0817005919
• Happy Birthday America (Signet Book, 1975) ASIN B000RB1SGM
• All God's Chillun Got Soul (Judson Press, 1980) ISBN 0817008926
• Thinking Well (Wisconsin Clearing House, 1983), ASIN B00072F9E8
• Black History Trivia: Quiz and Game Book (News America Syndicate, 1986) ASIN B000727N5Q
• What About Gangs? Just Say No! (Oakland Police Department, 1994) ASIN B0006R58TA
• Babcock (Scholastic, 1996) â€" by John Cottonwood and Morrie Turner, ISBN 059022221X
• Mom Come Quick (Wright Pub Co., 1997) â€" by Joy Crawford and Morrie Turner, ISBN 0965236838
• Super Sistahs: Featuring the Accomplishments of African-American Women Past and Present (Bye Publishing Services, 2005), ISBN 0965673952

References

External links

• Morrie Turner Collection â€" original artwork
• Bernstein, Adam (January 28, 2014). "Morrie Turner dies at 90; pioneering ‘Wee Pals’ cartoonist". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on May 1, 2014. Retrieved 2014-05-01. 
• Harvey, R.C. (February 10, 2014). "Morrie Turner: To Say the Name Is Both Eulogy and Tribute". The Comics Journal (Fantagraphics). Archived from the original on February 22, 2014. Retrieved 2014-05-01.