Article by Becky Fillinger, photos provided
Jim Keefe at work over the years.
Our neighbor Jim Keefe is the illustrator and colorist for the Sally Forth comic strip. He frequently references places in the Twin Cities in the strip – keep reading for fun examples. We talked to Jim about cartooning as a career (he’s had a great one!), typical workdays, social media influences and saying no to the laziness and theft of artificial intelligence. If you haven’t read Sally Forth in a while, give it a look!
Q: What first drew you to cartooning as a career?
A: I’ve always loved to draw. Growing up I was big into comic books – Spider-Man, Batman, and the like. I know I’m dating myself, but this was back in the days where you could just go to a drugstore or a 7-Eleven and there would be a spinner rack full of comics. Four for a dollar. That’s what got me hooked.
After that, the trick was finding a school that taught what I needed to know to enter the field. A couple years after graduating High School, I discovered the Joe Kubert School of Cartoon in Dover, New Jersey. It was the only school in the country at that time that specialized in cartooning and was taught by professionals working in the field. It’s still around. It just moved from Dover to Madison, New Jersey.
Q: You’ve been the illustrator for Sally Forth since 2013. For the comic strip, you supply the art, lettering and color guides. Francesco Marciuliano is the writer. Can you please describe the creative process between the two of you.
A: Francesco lives in New York, so he’ll email me scripts with panel description and dialogue, and I take it from there. It’s a good working relationship because if I wanna change stuff in regard to how it would work visually, he has no problem with it. I actually think he sometimes runs with crazier ideas for the strip just because he knows I’m game for illustrating it.
Q: What does a typical workday look like for you as a cartoonist?
• Wake up.
• Do some correspondence and social media posts.
• Get to the drawing table.
• Take a break around lunch – work again – then dinner time.
• Hang out with my wife Deb – then back to the drawing board to prepare for the next day.
• Bed and blessed sleep.
Q: How do deadlines shape creativity – do they help sharpen ideas or add pressure?
A: A relentless deadline means when you feel burnt out you just have to power through. Deadlines are great in that they give you a definitive time that you have to produce finished work. The downside being that time constaints mean you can only give as much time to a drawing as the deadline allows. Lastly, working as a cartoonist is also very labor intensive which doesn’t give you a lot of down time, so a work/life balance can be very elusive at times.
Q: You’ve drawn many Minneapolis buildings and locations as backgrounds in the Sally Forth strip – fun! Tell us more about why this is important to you.
A: Being that Sally Forth is a homegrown original – launched in 1982 by Minnesotan Greg Howard – I like to use the Twin Cities’ locales as a nod to its roots. I also think the reference shots I take around the Twin Cities helps ground the strip in reality. That suspension of belief that these are real characters living in a real place.
Above, Jim’s father, Lt. Richard Keefe, in Nuremberg, Germany. Below, Jim’s illustration of his father. Here is another family tribute unrelated to the Company I project. Beautiful!
Q: I read about your Company I project – a tribute to your father Richard Keefe, and specifically his WWII service in Patton’s Third Army. What’s the current status of this project – I think it’s very interesting.
A: That’s one of those projects I’ve had on the back burner for far too many years. I’ve been researching it literally for decades, which has included talking to veterans who served with my Dad, and a trip to the National Archives at College Park, Maryland. I also recently acquired a ton of letters my Dad sent home during his time in the Army in the 1940s that my aunt Pat had saved. With regard to the actual artwork, I’m using watercolor to do the illustrations and have a number of pages worked up.
Q: How has your drawing style evolved over the years, and what influenced those changes?
A: As with anyone in this field, I think it evolves with the work and influences you’re exposed to. I started out at The Kubert School surrounded by teachers and students with a wealth of knowledge and love for the art form. My first job in the field was at King Features as a colorist which opened up the world of comic strip art to me. Then there’s lettering manga for Viz Publications, teaching comic art at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, working as the writer/artist on Flash Gordon, then working as an assistant to Craig MacIntosh on Sally Forth until taking over the art chores when he decided to retire… Every knew experience you have you end up learning from and inspired by. I also keep up on my skill set with classes at The Atelier Studio Program of Fine Arts in Minneapolis.
Q: You mentioned social posting during your work day. How do you think social media has altered the way cartoons are consumed and interpreted?
A: For social media it’s about simplification to get the message across quickly and simply. Generally, comics are published online so small that any detailed line work ends up being lost. For Sally Forth I work hard to create a drawing that gets the pertinent info across needed for the reader with an image that can survive the multiple formats that comic strip art is cut up and digested for.
Then you have the added headache of AI slop on social media platforms. I dislike AI photography and AI art immensely. It’s hack mimicry strip-mines the hard work of creatives with no compensation or acknowledgement, not to mention the endless copyright issues it tries to skirt with the legalese rhetoric its proponents vomit forth. Using Al to create drawings means never acquiring the skills to draw yourself – or recognizing what makes your Al drawing bad. Add to that you’re turning a blind eye to the swiping of an artist’s signature style that he worked a lifetime to create, to vomit forth a third-rate facsimile. Just – say – no to AI slop.
Q: What advice do you give to young artists at MCAD who want to pursue cartooning today?
A: First off get a good education, the fundamentals of how to draw. For me, that involved trying out three different local art schools before picking up and moving out east to go to the Joe Kubert School. There’s a number of schools out there that teach comic art, like the Minneapolis College of Art and Design for instance. On the flip side, whereas I went to an art school to get an education, you do not need a degree or diploma to get into this field. What you do need is the skill set, whether acquired online and/or by jobs working with professionals who can show you the ropes.
Second is networking. I found this to be the key to getting work in the art field. If you’re just out of art school, you have teachers and peers to draw on. Social media can give you an online community.
After that it’s getting your work out there. I know this seems basic, but if an employer is not familiar with you and your work, then they won’t hire you. You should have an online presence where your work can be seen and is easily accessible. Research what’s needed with regard to the work you want to get. The Graphic Artists Guild Handbook is a good place to start. Then check out companies you’re interested in to see if submission guidelines are available.
And when submitting work, make sure your samples suit the client’s need. What I mean by that is if you’re looking for comic book work, a bunch of pin-ups, no matter how good, are not going to show that you can do sequential art. You need to draw up some comic book pages showing you can tell a story effectively. Another example of suiting the client’s need is if you wanted to work for DC Comics, you need to create pages showing that you know how to draw their characters.
Q: How may we follow your news or attend a live lecture by you?
A: Most lectures or interviews I give of late have been podcasts. If interested, I have a number of them posted for free on Patreon. Click on “Collections” and then go to the folder “Interviews & Lectures.”
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If you’re interested in purchasing original Jim Keefe art:
Jim has an original Sally Forth Sunday comic for sale on eBay. His wife Deb works for the Minneapolis school district, and all net proceeds of this sale will go to the following GoFundMe that the Early Childhood Special Education (ECSE) in Minneapolis set up to aid families in crisis during the recent ICE surge: Aid for Families Facing Crisis. The original art for sale includes the drop panel, color guide, and the Sunday page clipped from the StarTibune. Artwork will be signed and can be personalized upon request.
Original Jim Keefe art is available for sale here: https://www.jimkeefe.com/archives/14642
