In many ways Cullen Murphy was a normal Eisenhower-era American kid—except that dad and all of dad’s friends were cartoonists, many of them drawing for the Sunday funnies. In his highly entertaining and endearing memoir, Murphy recounts life in 1950s Connecticut as a haven for cartoonists and illustrators for its proximity to the New York publishing mecca and its relaxing distance from the bustle. His father, John Cullen Murphy, was Norman Rockwell’s neighbor in boyhood and posed for some of that artist’s characteristic baseball-loving boys. As an adult, dad was responsible for drawing Prince Valiant and other strips. Chock-full of anecdotes on the publishing world, Cartoon County also includes many of John Cullen Murphy’s drawings and watercolors, showing how solidly grounded cartoonists of his era were in verities of art school training.
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