Jeff Millar was a twice-a-week humor columnist and film critic for the Houston Chronicle. He decided he should share his wit with a national audience. Eliminating the humor columnist route, due to high traffic, he landed on the comics page. There was a new show in town — Doonesbury. That was the type of humor Jeff wanted to write, but the niche he saw to pursue was sports. He was ready to go, except for that whole drawing thing. That’s where I stumbled into the story.
The features editor of the Houston Post, who had been using my work on a freelance basis, called me in for a meeting with the managing editor one day. They wanted to hire me as an editorial cartoonist when their present guy, Bill Saylor, retired. I remember the editor who knew me bolstered my case by saying I would draw whichever viewpoint they wanted. It didn’t work out (did Saylor ever retire?) but I would have been a terrible editorial cartoonist.
I kept showing my portfolio and waiting for Bill Saylor to go fishing. One of the people I showed it to was the Houston Chronicle cartoonist, Clyde Peterson, pen name C. P. Houston. He introduced me to the features editor, Jack Loftis.
One day Jeff Millar walked into Clyde’s office and asked if he would be interested in drawing a comic strip. Clyde wanted to create his own comic strip, not draw someone else’s, but he knew this 23-year-old kid who might do it. That’s how Jeff and I met.
While we were working to develop a comic strip about sports, Jack Loftis hired me as a staff artist for the Chronicle. I loved the Chronicle job. People would bring me articles, which I would read and draw a cartoon to go along – in any style I chose.
When we were ready to show the comic strip, Jocks, to a syndicate, we had three weeks of samples. Only one strip featured the character who would become Tank McNamara. Jack introduced us to a fellow with a connection to Universal Press Syndicate who submitted the samples for us. I knew there would probably be many rejections by many syndicates. I explained to Jeff that we should be prepared for some disappoint — THE SYNDICATE BOUGHT IT!
As we developed the strip, we were told that the name Jocks would never do. Also, they wanted to build the strip off of one character, the big ex-jock sportscaster. Credit for the name Tank McNamara has been claimed by a number of people. Tank has been running in as many as 350 newspapers for four decades. There is always fresh material supplied by the world of sports, but today Tank is competing with sports commentary that doesn’t have a week-plus lag time between creation and publication. So, I am concentrating on themes instead of events. I say I because Jeff Millar passed away in 2012 and I have been writing Tank since. I had 38 years of tutoring by Jeff, so it was a smooth transition.
This week Tank McNamara celebrates its 50th year on comics pages across the nation.
What has been your favorite part about creating this strip and these characters?
I have always enjoyed drawing, but I have really enjoyed writing for the past 12 years.
Do you have a favorite strip that you’ve created? If yes, what one?
Yes—many. I liked the November 25, 2012, Sunday strip where the devil appears in a puff of smoke in the stands of a football game to offer a comeback win in exchange for the souls of the fans. In another puff of smoke, Danny Morton, the team’s VP of season ticket sales, appears to say they have already sold their souls for the season tickets. The frustrated devil disappears. One guy steps up and says, “Jokes on him, I’m in my uncle’s seats.” It was one of the first strips I wrote.
>>Tank McNamara was one of the first dozen comics distributed by the new(ish) Universal Press Syndicate.<<
In the Olympian spirit of championship-level nitpicking, I count 15 comics from UPS that predate TM. — Allan
My guess for the other UPS strips that predate Tank M.: Doonesbury, Kelly (and Duke), Ziggy, Herman, Basil, and Trim’s Arena.
And did UPS also distribute at the time Betty Debham’s weekend The Mini Page?
Allan, howzabout if I change that to “the first dozen comic STRIPS”