Russell Myers Exposes ‘The Grandmother Conspiracy!’

gasp65

« Egad! » — Irwin Troll

In the spirit of saluting our heroes while they’re still around to get a boost from it…

A few weeks ago, I got wind of a delightful bit of news: that local favourite Russell Kommer Myers now holds, according to Guinness, the world record for Longest running daily cartoon strip by a single author. Perhaps because of his chug-along consistency, the prodigious Myers is generally taken for granted. Well — I’m happy to say — not in these parts: see our tribute post from a while back, Growing Old Gracelessly With Broom-Hilda, for further, abundantly illustrated praise.

Here’s some of what the folks at Guinness (not the Dublin ones) had to say:

« The longest running daily cartoon strip by a single author is “Broom-Hilda” by Russell Myers (USA), which has been in continuous publication for 53 years 292 days since first published by the Chicago Tribune Syndicate on 19 April 1970, as of 5 February 2024.

Russell was born “BT” (before television) and fell in love with comics and cartooning as a child. He started a collection of over 2,000 comic books, which he still has.

After years of having other comic strips rejected, Russell sold “Broom-Hilda,” which became an overnight success. He is a “one-man shop,” writing and drawing every strip himself, over 19,710 as of the 54th anniversary. »

For a little perspective, here’s what Lambiek had to say on the subject:

« He leaves previous record holders behind, like Frank Dickens (‘Bristow’, 51 years), Charles M. Schulz (‘Peanuts’, 49 years)  and Marc Sleen (‘Nero’, 45 years). Yet Myers is still behind Ed Payne (‘Billy the Boy Artist’,  56 years), Fred Lasswell (‘Barney Google & Snuffy Smith’, 59 years), Jim Russell (‘The Potts’, 62 years) and Russ Johnson (‘Mr. Oswald’, 62 years, though this was a monthly comic). » Honestly, one is inclined to gently bring up the touchy, controversial issue of, ahem… assistants.

Having already dealt with Broom Hilda, let’s dig a little deeper. In 1974, early in his strip’s run, he contributed illustrations to California paediatrician Lewis A. Coffin’s book, The Grandmother Conspiracy Exposed (Good Nutrition for the Growing Child)… and did a lovely job. Given the ever-fickle nature of the dietary business — to say nearly nothing of its oft-political ramifications — Coffin’s book now seems of its time and place, but he was pretty progressive, and put forth a lot of sound notions. Here are some of Mr. Myers’ fun chapter illustrations:

« The best way to get vitamins is to eat foods which contain them. »
« The advantages of breast feeding are well known: lack of preparation, sterility, natural warmth, ready availability, proper nutritional balance of ingredients, prevention of anemia, attractiveness of container design, transfer of protective factors against disease, apparent lower incidence of allergic disease, relative absence of intolerance to milk, and all the emotional gain for both mother and child. »
« Unless you live in a semi-tropical area or are a heavy manual labourer who sweats profusely for long periods, you probably require no salt beyond that found naturally in food stuffs. »
« I believe that a person who has felt a sun-warmed, firm but ripe tomato in his hand, lifted it up to his nose and savoured the deep, earthy aroma, and tasted the full, tart-sweet taste, juice and seeds dripping down his chin, will never forget the look, feel, smell or taste of that real tomato, and will know how to pick out the best tomatoes in the supermarket, because he will have that supreme standard to measure them against. »
« My children love raw vegetables. They dislike many cooked vegetables, often the same ones they like raw. While I’m not saying you should sell the stove, it seems they sense that something’s missing after cooking. »
« For many years Americans felt secure in the belief that the government and, more specifically, the Food and Drug Administration was constantly screening all processed food for harmful additives. It has finally become evident that this is not the case. »
« Most school systems have completely abdicated the responsibility for nutritional education and have totally misused their most potent teaching tool, example, in the name of economy. »
« Your children will sneak around your back and gorge at the neighbour’s house, or will slither down to the local store and furtively cram candy-bars and soft-drinks down their deprived throats. »
« It wasn’t until television came along that the finely honed art of brain-washing children came to full flower. »
« … we know that the majority of peoples in the world not only don’t drink milk, but they would be quite ill if they did. »
« You would naturally assume that your local school’s lunch program was nutritionally a good one. »
And here’s my durably bound copy of this lovely tome, discarded early this century from the library of Alma College, a private Presbyterian liberal arts college in Alma, Michigan.

And since I’ve touched upon Mr. Myers’ Broom Hilda achievement, I would be remiss in not giving our readers a look at what he’s been up to lately. After all, an endurance record means little if the work itself has scant remaining merit. If you ask me, his timeless charm has weathered the years admirably well.

A Sunday strip from June 9, 2024.
And a daily from June 15, 2024. Pretty sharp for a guy in his mid-eighties!

-RG

5 thoughts on “Russell Myers Exposes ‘The Grandmother Conspiracy!’”

  1. Connor Freff Cochran June 21, 2024 / 23:34

    I am thrilled to learn that Russell Myers is still alive and active.

    In 1969 Mr. Wolfe’s 9th Grade Unified class was infamous at Meadowbrook Junior High School, in Prairie Village, KS, because his students were required to do a huge “Careers Notebook” project which was basically a doctoral dissertation scaled down for 14 year-olds. Mr. Wolfe required that you pick three different possible future careers for yourself, research them in detail, describe them at length, and write a game plan for how you would approach preparing for said career and excelling at it. The presentation also had to include interviews with adults were working in these chosen fields.

    I chose professional musician, professional fine artist, and professional…cartoonist. For my cartoonist interview I chose Bruce Cochran, who was no relation but also happened to live in Prairie Village, KS. He was a great guy and very encouraging.

    After I graduated from Meadowbrook my family moved from Kansas to southern California, but a year later, in the summer of 1970, I came back to visit my old friends. As part of that trip I decided to get together with Bruce Cochran again. He had a new studio space just off Wornall Road, and when I dropped in I met the new young artist he was sharing the space with.

    Russell Myers.

    Broom-Hilda was, at that point, just two months into syndication. But everything that has made it last so long was already there in Russell’s wonderful linework and amazingly inventive mind.

    Thanks for bringing back all the memories!\

    Liked by 2 people

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    • gasp65 June 27, 2024 / 21:36

      What a fantastic account! I’m so glad my post triggered its recollection. And I must say that your assessment of Mr. Myers’ skill and creativity betrays your discerning taste. Thanks for sharing, Connor!

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  2. deteremineddespitewp June 22, 2024 / 03:45

    Thanks for opening my eyes and reminding me about this strip which I had seen briefly some years ago (when you get past 70 many things are ‘some years ago’0. Hunted down a copy of ‘Growing Old Gracelessly ‘ on e-bay- Amazon are allowing price gouging – will purchase.

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    • gasp65 June 27, 2024 / 21:33

      My pleasure! I really miss those days when Fawcett was issuing all those wonderful Broom Hilda paperbacks (in the same format as their Peanuts collections); fortunately, I picked up everything I could get my hands on at the time and the low cover price, so it turned out I was only missing a handful of titles when the urge hit me — with the advent of eBay, a couple of decades later — to complete my set. At this point, it would be really nice to have a deluxe anthology… and not a posthumous one.

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      • deteremineddespitewp June 28, 2024 / 03:14

        My copy of ‘Growing Old Gracelessly’ arrived on Wednesday and it was a joy to read, I loved those surrealistic back grounds, such as the vaguely umbrella shaped trees, and the concept of plugging a fan into a socket in a tree. Something of Krazy Kat there.
        Quite a lot of the old collections have shot up in price these past few years, I often have to rely on on-line sites. Not quite the same though.

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