Leslie Turner

For the Australian footballer, seeLes Turner (footballer).

Leslie Turner(December 25, 1899 – March 2, 1988) was an American cartoonist and writer who producedCaptain Easyfor more than three decades.

Leslie Turner
Born	(1899-12-25)December 25, 1899 Cisco, Texas,U.S.
Died	March 2, 1988(1988-03-02)(aged 88) Orlando, Florida,U.S.
Nationality	American
Area(s)	Cartoonist
Notable works	Captain Easy

Biography

Early life and education

Born inCisco, Texas,Turner grew up from age eight inWichita Falls, Texas,where he started drawing while in high school. His grandfather was the courthouse architect and builder A. C. Swinburne, responsible for numerous courthouses across West Texas.

After serving briefly in the U.S. Army near the end ofWorld War I,Turner began profiting from his art talent while a freshman atSouthern Methodist University.He dropped out of college for one term to attend theChicago Academy of Fine Arts.While a student at SMU, Turner and his college pals would make vagabond treks around the United States during the summer months. He edited SMU's 1922 yearbook, and after his graduation that same year with an English degree, he worked at a Dallas engraving plant.

Newlyweds in New York

While freelancing from Dallas, he sold a cartoon toJudge.He then married Bethel Burson ofSilverton, Texas,and the newlyweds headed for New York where he became a freelance illustrator with work published in a variety of magazines, includingRedbook,Pictorial Review,Ladies' Home JournalandBoys' Life.It took him two years to crack the major market,The Saturday Evening Post,work that included illustrating the popular "Plupy" stories ofHenry Shute.

Jim Ivey, curator of the Cartoon Museum inOrlando, Florida,stated, "He was one of the best magazine illustrators in the 1920s and 1930s—the Golden Age of magazine illustrating. He was a superb artist."After six years in New York, the couple and their two daughters moved in 1929 to Colorado where they ran a small sheep ranch while living in a two-story stone house constructed by Turner. Unfortunately, the freelance assignments from New York soon slowed, but their Colorado claim required them to spend three years on the ranch. After four years in Colorado, they returned to New York, where Turner found work doing advertising illustrations.

Comic strips

A friend of fellow TexanRoy Crane,Turner began in comics in 1937 as an assistant on Crane'sWash Tubbsstrip. Crane recalled their youthful adventures:

Les Turner, who later was my assistant on theWash Tubbsdaily strips, is from Wichita Falls. We were going on a sort of bumming trip together after we finished art school. There were no jobs for us, and we went riding freight trains and hitching rides. I missed him by one day when he got a ride to California. I went to Galveston and got a job as ordinary seaman on a tramp steamer to Europe. When we returned and landed at New York, I got my first art job on theNew York World.I startedWash Tubbsin 1924.

When Crane moved to Orlando, the Turner family followed in 1938, living at 1218 Conway Road, where Turner designed and built all the furniture in the house.

Turner takes over

Leslie Turner'sCaptain Easy(April 12, 1953)

In 1943, when Crane left to doBuz Sawyer,Turner took over the dailyWash Tubbs,and his signature first appeared on the strip May 31, 1943. In January 1944, Turner made comic strip history when he observed a fighter plane flying over his home in Orlando. He drew it intoWash Tubbs,surprising the War Department. The aircraft was theNorthrop P-61 Black Widow,and Turner's drawing of it appeared two days before the Army's official announcement.

In the late 1940s, Turner changed the title toCaptain Easy,taking on Walt Scott (1894–1970) as aSunday pageassistant during the 1940s and 1950s. At its peak, the strip was carried in 600 newspapers. It was noted for its scientific accuracy, and the Captain explained the binary system to readers when computers were in their infancy. In 1949, Turner did extensive research into alcoholism in order to write a strip sequence on the rehabilitation of drunkard Gig Wilty. The story arc brought Turner praise from many members of Alcoholics Anonymous.Ten years later, he researched hypnotism for a sequence timed to coincide with publicity for the movieThe Hypnotic Eye(1960).

The Sunday strip was drawn byMel Graffduring the 1960s. In late 1969–70, Turner's assistant Bill Crooks took over the art and Jim Lawrence scripted. At the time of Turner's death in Orlando in 1988, Crooks commented, "Everything I learned about the comic strip business I learned from him."

Turner had three daughters, Ann, Joy and Toby.Ann Turner Cookfound fame as the model for theGerber Baby,trademarked art reproduced from a 1928 charcoal sketch by the Turner family's neighbor, artist Dorothy Hope Smith. Cook, who taught literature and creative writing inTampa, Floridafor 26 years, wrote the Brandy O'Bannon mystery novels, includingTrace Their ShadowsandShadow over Cedar Key,set on Florida's Gulf Coast.

Awards

In 1965, Turner was honored by 60 Florida cartoonists during their annual Daytona Beach gathering with a plaque presented by cartoonist Dick Hodkins, regional chairman of theNational Cartoonists Society.

Further reading

• American Comic Archive: Leslie Turner'sCaptain Easy

External links

• Syracuse University: Leslie Turner Cartoons
• Ann Turner Cook official site