After more than 11 years in The Light, this
week Tomales cartoonist Kathryn LeMieux’s comic strip, Feral
West, is appearing in the paper for the last time.
Explaining her decision to move on, LeMieux said,
"Feral West is going strong now. It’s a good time to
wrap it up."
LeMieux alluded to a moment in the old television
sit-com, "Happy Days," in which the lead character –
skimming over ocean swells on water skis – jumped over a shark.
The episode was a watershed moment for the series, after which its popularity
began to decline. She said she didn’t want to jump the shark.
While admitting she’ll miss having a voice as
West Marin’s cartoonist, LeMieux will continue working as one of
six artists with an all-woman cartooning team that creates Six Chix
for the King Features Syndicate. Also a fine artist, she intends to
devote more time to her painting. Her work can be seen at Bodega Landmark
Gallery in Bodega Bay.
The Light’s new owner wanted to make clear
that the decision to end Feral West was made by LeMieux. "We’ll
miss Kathryn LeMieux’s contribution – people love Feral
West," said The Light’s publisher Robert
Plotkin.
"We wish she wouldn’t stop the cartoon and
would welcome her back at any time she feels reinvigorated."
Good-natured fun
Asked if Feral West might be resurrected with
another media outlet some day, the artist offered a thoughtful, "I
don’t know."
Among the comic strip’s characters are a pastry-loving
dairy cow and her pal – a raincoat-wearing skunk; two voluptuous,
hedonistic mermaids clad in starfish brassieres; and an awkward, harassed
park ranger.
In recent months, the strip has poked good-natured
fun at the royal visit to West Marin from Prince Charles and his bride,
Camilla; The Light’s annual Heavy Zucchini Contest; and
wild turkeys that caused a power outage in Tomales, ruffling locals’
feathers.
Her only regret is that in the early days she "may
have picked on the park service too much."
Like Doonesbury
Kathryn LeMieux enjoyed her professional relationship
with Light editor and publisher emeritus, Dave Mitchell. "He
treated me as a journalist," she said.
In an e-mail message, Mitchell offered his reflections
on LeMieux’s years with The Light: "Some of Kathryn’s
cartoons were indeed comic strips, but often they were wry commentaries
on West Marin events, encapsulating the many ironies of public controversies
here. In that respect she was like Doonesbury cartoonist Gary Trudeau,
whose comic strip in 1975 won a Pulitzer for ‘Editorial Cartooning.’
In the annual judging of the state’s newspapers by the California
Newspaper Publishers’ Association, Kathryn likewise won repeated
awards for editorial cartooning even though Feral West appears
to be a comic strip."
Small-town cartooning
Continued Mitchell, "Editorial cartooning in
a small-town newspaper is far more difficult than at a metropolitan
daily. It’s easy to draw a man who looks vaguely like a monkey
with a long nose and then have people around the world recognize the
caricature of George Bush. Kathryn couldn’t do that in West Marin,
where her subjects have been the denizens of 14 small towns."
The trick, he suggested, was to portray local people in
an amusing yet kindly way.
"Kathryn had to be clever if her subjects were
to be recognizable, and their deportment, rather than the way they looked,
is what identified them," Mitchell said.
"Like editorial cartoonists such as Herb Block,
Bill Mauldin, Paul Conrad, and Pat Oliphant, Kathryn was so successful
because she took time to thoroughly background herself on topics in
the news. Often she would call the newsroom to discuss West Marin events
with editors or reporters.
Fera and Lana
"I, like most Light readers, have always
been enchanted by Mavis the cow and Ted the skunk, the Candide and Dr.
Pangloss of our coastal countryside. And I’m so fond of the California
Mermaids that I have a 2-foot by 3-foot oil painting on my bedroom wall
of Fera and her pet shark Fluffy, and Lana with her cigar and cocktail
glass.
"It would merely be fun to have a nationally
syndicated cartoonist living in Tomales, but to have had one drawing
a special cartoon for The Light each week for 11 years has been
extraordinary."