Wilder Award Acceptance Speech
his whole thing started when I “So, you really want to be an artist?” I was only four years old. Some rel- answered, “Yes.” He grabbed the Sunday Tatives came to visit us in Meriden, comics that were lying around and said, Connecticut, where we lived. “Can you copy the Katzenjammer Kids?” My older brother, Joseph Jr., who was “Uncle Charles,” I answered, “Franny nicknamed Buddy, was the firstborn. So and Fuffy [my Irish twin cousins who he was “super child,” the heir apparent. were artists and had recently graduated I, four years younger, was “the mistake.” from Pratt Institute] told me to practice, practice, practice and never copy. Ask My brother was asked, “Buddy, what do me to draw something else and I will.” you want to be when you grow up?” After I finished my drawing, Uncle Wilder Award “I want to be Dick Tracy, Joe Palooka, Charles took it into the kitchen, and I and Buck Rogers,” Buddy answered. could hear him talking to my mother. “He’s good. We have to do something Acceptance Great, I thought. He wants to be a comic about this,” he said. strip. Speech ***** Even though no one asked me, I announced, “When I grow up, I am going Segue to Christmas morning, 1945, Portrait of a Young to be an artist. I’m going to write stories when I was eleven. Boy . and His and draw pictures for books, and I’m going to sing and tap dance on the stage.” Because I had two younger sisters, Santa Dreams Come True Claus still came to our house.
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