1982 and the my second semester arrived at PCA after a lengthy winter break. The second semester wasn’t as bad as the first. It was still the Foundation program that all freshmen had to go through, but it wasn’t as baffling or mind numbing. We continued drawing from models in drawing class; started doing actual figure sculpting in 3-D, and moved into color theory in 2-D which was fascinating. God help me, I was starting to enjoy it.
I didn’t live on campus and took a bus into Philly from my parents’ home in NJ. There were people I hadn’t seen in a month and it was nice being reunited. I soon found myself back on the 13th floor seeing what the Ducks were doing.
Of course, if I did live on campus, I may have met my wife, Tina Garceau. She was in her second year there at the time, and although we had probably passed each other in the hallways a thousand times, I never met her. She claims she remembers me, but I don’t really remember meeting and speaking with her until we were both out of school. Like two ships passing in the night.
Hapless nerd in Zombie Makeup
There was a pretty good chance that she would have run away screaming if she did meet me back in PCA. I guess things all worked out for the best.
So what about a new issue of DUCKWORK? We kicked around some ideas. Gerry Giovinco wanted another unifying theme similar to the previous issue. At the time, EC comics were being reproduced in expensive hardbound volumes. Some of them were circulating around the DUCKWORK office and we all marveled at the work of Jack Davis, Wally Wood, Graham Ingels, Jack Kamen, Bernard Krigstein, etc. This gave us the idea of doing a spoof of the old EC horror and crime comics. Being a big horror fan, I loved the idea. We kicked around some more ideas and decided that the unifying theme would be The Philly T-Square Massacre!
DUCKWORK No. 6 jettisoned the notion that it was a school newspaper and the majority of its 12 pages was filled with funnies most of which all tied into the T-Square Massacre theme! Gerry Giovinco’s Star Duck spoofed The Empire Strikes Back; Bill Cucinotta’s Punk Duck taunted the mysterious T-Square murderer: Matt Wagner spoofed Death Wish; John Rondeau did Tales of Suspense; Nickie Boston’s and Anna Miyaji’s Spineless Wonder was offered a good deal on a T-Square by a street vendor; Andrew Maltz was Thinking; William Bryan’s Cat Man was menaced by T-Square-Headed Sharks.
…and, of course, The Brady’s Last Vacation came to a gratuitously violent and tasteless conclusion. It was a two-parter.
Sheesh! All I can say is thank God for digital lettering!
Well, it wasn’t the greatest work I’ve ever done, but I had TWO installments in that issue of DUCKWORK, and I was a full fledged Duck! If they had a private crapper, I would have had a key! I had ideas for future strips that were going to be bigger and certainly better drawn. DUCKWORK was going to be bigger and better. It was going to be great!
But sadly it was not to be. Issue No. 6 was Duckwork’s Swan Song.
Next Time: Epilogue
