Leslie Turner, the artist who draws "Captain Easy," in early 1949 did something which 600 American newspapers and a good part of the public acclaimed. He created, in an expert manner, a tremendously successful episode on Alcoholics Anonymous in "Captain Easy."
He did exhaustive research to get authentic material and the response was terrific. Today we have asked Leslie Turner to give us a ten-minute slide presentation of that alcoholic episode which demonstrates, rather powerfully, that a comic strip can be a potent instrument for the public good.
Mr. Turner: (Slide pictures of continuity.) The continuity ran 16 weeks in the newspapers. I'd like to point out that this was written in the spring of 1949, when mounting objections to certain comic books had many of the newspaper comic strip artists on the defensive. I wanted a human interest story with a strong appeal to women that would help answer this criticism. Obviously, my problem was to unite Cathy with her father and bring about his rehabilitation. But so far, I had not committed myself definitely on what Gig Wilty's weakness was to be. If he had been just a bum or a weakling, it would have been hard to make his sudden rehabilitation convincing, and would have lacked novelty. An alcoholic, on the other hand, could be a fine person, basically, who was temporarily down. I had known several cases intimately, and I thought I saw dramatic and human interest possibilities, as well as opportunities for a really constructive effort, so I made my decision at this point.
At first I was afraid only of the taboo on liquor as a subject for comic strip narration. Later, after I had studied my material, I feared the presentation of certain facts, necessary to understand the character, might make dull reading. And while I was thoroughly sold on the good that Alcoholics Anonymous was doing and felt it was an uncontroversial subject that deserved publicizing, I knew that first of all I had to get an interesting story together.
Problem of Alcoholic
Another problem I had was to avoid offending either wets or dry’s, and to create sympathy for an alcoholic even on the part of those whose natural inclination is anything but sympathetic to anyone who uses liquor. So I had to make it clear that the alcoholic (in contrast to the average drinker) does not always drink from choice, and thus cannot quit on his own initiative without the right kind of help. And this information had to be put across without the sacrifice of narrative interest.
When it came to gathering my material, I first went to the secretary of an AA group in my home town of Orlando, Florida, and got an armful of pamphlets and books, pamphlets from the Yale Plan on Alcoholism, from the Yale Laboratory of Applied Psychology, from the Alcoholic Foundation, from doctors and ministers. Later I interviewed a number of AA members.
I soon saw that the subject was too complex to boil down for a comic strip without sacrificing much that should be said for a clear understanding. But there was a possibility that the smattering I used might create sufficient interest in a few to make them dig deeper for themselves. And the greatest compliment that I had on the handling of the chief character, Gig Wilty, was the large number of AA members who wrote to me asking if I weren't a member, too.