By Steve Crum

The first “Crummy Art” was “Sammy Shoe.” I started drawing these single panel cartoonies of a little guy with huge shoes during my elementary school years. They were distributed among childhood friends in my semi-rural Kansas City, Kansas neighborhood…around 1953-54, when I was 6 or 7. Incidentally, the Crum on Showbiz angle here surfaces soon enough. Trust me.

Influenced by comic books (Batman, Superman, Little Lulu, Herbie, Henry, and many others), I kept sketching. Yet I never took an art class in or out of school. Then came Wyandotte High School, and enrollment in journalism during my junior and senior years. On the Pantograph student newspaper, I was staff photographer, feature writer…and CARTOONIST! I later drew cartoons for my Emporia State University newspaper, “The Bulletin”; and for years created my own Crummy Christmas Cards. That led me to illustrating two textbooks, teaching posters, and a teacher’s tote bag at The University of Kansas. 

For a decade while teaching journalism in high school (35 years), I wrote a weekly entertainment column for “The Kansas City Kansan.” I would sometimes embellish my writing with cartoons. Samples follow. (You will probably need to enlarge your view.) 

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ON THE SAD OCCASION OF MILTON BERLE’S DEATH, I DREW HIM AS A WISP OF CIGAR SMOKE.

I PAID HOMAGE TO ONE OF THE BEST HOLIDAY MOVIES, A CHRISTMAS STORY, VIA THIS TWISTED RALPHIE IMAGE. 

THIS IS THE ORIGINAL PRE-PUBLICATION PASTE-UP FOR MY TAKE ON E.T.—WHICH MADE FUN OF A THEN POPULAR COMMERCIAL.

REFERENCING DAVID LEAN’S GREAT MOVIE IN CARTOONIE FORM…

I HAVE BEEN A MEMBER OF THE SONS OF THE DESERT, THE INTERNATIONAL LAUREL AND HARDY FAN CLUB, FOR DECADES. MY TAKE OF THE BOYS…

THE “TRUTH” ABOUT GROUCHO MARX AND JAMES STEWART!? (I REGRET THE MISTAKE OF NOT SHOWING GROUCHO IN A BOW TIE.)

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Thanks for perusing the Crum Gallery!