Monday, January 30, 2012

Wednesday, January 30th, 1974


Today was a good day at school and everywhere else. Miss Williams was back, the weather was nicer, I read AMBLER in the GAZETTE and when I got home I destroyed the few pics I had kept yesterday so there's just no way I will be tempted now! If I haven't solved the problem now then I never can!

NOTES: Miss Williams was my home room teacher in the 9th Grade. She had been my music teacher in the 7th Grade under her married name but had since gotten a divorce. My friend from grade school, Artie, was in my class for the first time in a couple of years and we had become sort of her unofficial aides and sidekicks this school year. Since our homeroom was the Music Room, it was huge compared to all the other, normal sized and cluttered classrooms. WE even had a piano we could noodle around on before the bell! When I think of my Junior High School experiences, there were few positive highlights but having Miss Williams for homeroom that year was definitely one.


AMBLER was a short-lived newspaper comic strip by an artist named Doug Wildey. It had never been in out local newspapers so it was new to me in THE MENOMONEE FALLS GAZETTE. It was about a sensitive rock star trying to find himself in "today's" world. The art was the highlight. Wildey, credited with creating TV's JONNY QUEST, had a wonderful realistic style that clearly used lots of real-life photo-reference but better than most who did so. He would later be known for his painted western graphic novels.

2 comments:

Raj said...

This post had me go through newspapers.com and download every strip (weekdays and Sundays) in the Ambler series. All 1 year and couple months complete. (Let me know if you want a copy when I put together in document (cbr) form.)

Booksteve said...

Thanks, Raj, but I'm way ahead of you on AMBLER. My wife subscribed to the online newspaper archives for her genealogy work a few years back and I went through and clipped and made CBRs of a number of my favorite uncollected strips! Including AMBLER!