Creig Flessel Round Up

Above: a caricature of Creig as The Sandman, by my friend and Berndt Toast Gang chair, Adrian Sinnott.

Here are a few unseen photos of Creig, as well as (at the bottom of the page) a round up of links saluting this artist of the Golden Age.

Creig Flessel drew comic books, comic strips, magazine illustration .... He was an active guy. Heck, he even went on camping trips with the kids and grandkids until he was 92 years old!

One of the many things that he did in addition to all of the above was to run the National Cartoonists Society Long Island chapter (the "Berndt Toast Gang"), a (non-paying, volunteer) job he only stopped doing when he moved to the West Coast to be nearer his grown children. (My late friend Bill Seay took over the Gang when he left, I chaired from 2003 to mid-2007, when Adrian Sinnott took over as ringleader.)


Above: a 1989 BTG visit to Mort Walker's Connecticut studio. I think that's Adrian there, behind Creig. Creig presents Mort with a BTG sweatshirt. Will it fit?

No problem, Creig.

I happened to find some photos from 1989, scanned in from an old album. Here are a few with Mr. Flessel. They are, so far as I know, unseen until now.


Above: Christmas 1989: Mrs. Gill, Creig Flessel, Tom Gill and photographer Jerry Jurman. Jerry took all of the photos (well, except this one, arguably).


Above: Creig in action at the Huntington Township Art League.


Creig drawing Jerry Jurman.

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OK, here's a round up of links:

Ger Apeldoorn shares some DAVID CRANE comic strips and much more art (more every week now).

Video: 2007 Sparky Award to Honor Creig Flessel (hosted by Andrew Farago)

Interview in Marin County Journal from March 17, 2007

Andrew Farago Remembers Creig Flessel from The Comics Reporter

Michael Jantze Remembers Creig Flessel from The Comics Reporter.

Mark Evanier on the life of Creig Flessel.

Tom Spurgeon writes about Creig Flessel

The Comics Journal Journalista! on the passing of Creig Flessel

UPDATE: The Comics Journal has posted a career-encompassing interview conducted by Gary Groth online. This giant 2002 interview originally appeared in the print edition of TCJ #245. A big hat tip to Dirk Deppey for letting me know about this as soon as it was up. All my thanks, Dirk!