A cartoonist's 'Sick' outlook

with it polit Buy Dora Diego awar anim resid of the Okefenoke Swamp; New Yorker cartoonist such as Saul Steinberg and William Steig; and especi Eisner,Feiff is quick to acknowledg hi influences: Walt Kelly' Pogo. the Spirit creator for whom Feiffer work in the late '40 and under whom he drew hi own strip, Clifford.

it subject matter wa even scarier: Neurosis. Conformity. Politics. Oppressiv mothersIn the Eisenhow era..

as he recal in hi new memoir,Much to cartoonist Jule Feiffer' surprise. "Back into Forward," the strip -- a weekli featur in a then-new "alternative" newspap call the Villag Voic -- caught on. And Feiffer found himself a spokesman for intellectu and misfits, all those peopl who dare to question the statu quo.

" said Feiffer,"It wa an accid of timing. 81. "I happen to come along at what wa consid at the time the veri bland, conformist '50s. Nobodi understood -- mayb I didn't -- that underground, beyond all that conformity, all these thing were happening."

FEIFFER CA RTOON: How to heighten your feel

a Pulitz Prize winner for hi long-run artist commentaries. Doonesbury,He becam on of the most influenti cartoonist of the latter half of the 20th century. in particular, ow Feiffer a debt -- on Doonesburi cartoonist Garri Trudeau ha frequent acknowledg -- and so do ani number of other cartoonists.

" Mutt cartoonist Patrick McDonnel said,"I think hi work wa groundbreaking. ad that on of hi earliest memori wa perus the book compil of Sick Sick Sick. "I think he wa the first cartoonist who realli did sophisticated, more adult-ori theme [that were] kind of autobiographical. And today, I think the whole underground and altern graphic novel come from Jules."

Jul Feiffer' comic strip and outlook influenc a number of cartoonist who came after.

curat of the Billi Ireland Cartoon Librari and Museum at The Ohio State University,Luci Shelton Caswell. echo McDonnell. "He studi at the feet of a coupl of the master -- Milton Caniff and Will Eisner -- and he took what he learn from them and made it hi own," she said. "In term of artist style and content, he realli made a difference."