Livestock Procurement
Geo. A. Honnel & Company, a Fortune 2(X) fcxxi processor,
is seeking highly motivated individuals who are interested
in livestock procurement positions in the Midwest. Qualified
candidates will possess a degree in Agricultural Sciences
and have strong leadership abilities and excellent
communication skills.
I By Lisa Maul
Staff Reporter
A rt Butt’s comic strip charac
ters don’t resemble Calvin
^ and Hobbes, Opus and Steve
Dallas, or Batman. In Butt’s world,
humans and humanoid figures are
the villains. His work bears a strong
environmental message. The Earth
is a dirty, dying place, but only
animals, dragons and mutants seem
to care.
In a recent interview, Butt talked
about the way he works and his
evolution as an artist. He said he
had coloring books as a child, but
he could never stay in the lines. In
kindergarten, he remembers a
teacher who taught the class to
draw birds as elongated ‘‘m’s.” He
was upset about it, until he realized
(that it didn’t have to apply to him.
Butt drew caricatures of friends
and teachers in high school. These,
he said, probably were his first
comics. At the University of Ne
braska-Lincoln, Butt enrolled in art
classes. “They helped because they
had eouipment, but they hurt be
cause they had instructors,” he said.
A look at one of Butt’s sketch
books reveals a wide variety of
drawings, border designs and intri
cate doodles, as well as comics. He
usually works in pen and ink. He
said he feels as though the ideas for
his work develop as he draws. He
seldom has a concrete concept when
he picks up his pen.
As far as the messages in his
work, he said, “I try to keep mes
sages out of it. When you have
something to say, you just say it. It
just comes out.”
Will the things he has to say in
his comics raise anyone’s conscious
ness?
“I think the people who already
care about environmental things
will say, ‘yeah, that’s great,’ but I
don’t think it will change anything,”
he said. “I wonder, for example,
how many people will drop tneir
copy of the Daily Nebraskan on the
ground after they read this.”
Art Butt’s comics are both funny
and disturbing. They don’t have
happy endings and the heroes aren’t
easy to identify. Who are Butt’s
heroes?
“They change from hour to hour,”
he said. ‘‘Right now, my heroes are
probably the beer in front of me
and the people who do commer
cials for constipation or hemor
rhoid medicine. They amaze me.
But that’s just for now.”
Can art and the printed word
save the world? Butt doesn’t think
so.
“But,” he said, “They can sure
make going down
the tubes a lot
more enjoyable.”
By Mick Dyer
Senior Editor
Warning! Exposure to zany,
subversive underground
comics as a child may lead
to drawing zany, subversive car
toons as an adult. Just look at Rand
Paul’s work.
Paul, a Lincoln nativeandgradu
ate of the Colorado Institute of Art,
said after seeing the risque, taboo
breaking comics by S. Clay Wilson
and RobertCrumb i n Za p and Freak
Brothers comics, he was hooked
on sarcastic comics with mature
themes.
“I started out in the little Walt
Disney school of copying Mickey
Mouse, Donald and Goofy,” he
said. “Then once I drew a cartoon
of Minnie giving Mickey a b. . .”
Paul said intellectuals in Europe
read comics. And everyone from
grade school students to high-power
Business executives in Japan read
sophisticated comics. But for some
reason, in the United Slates, “com
ics are equated with trash.”
“A lot of people think comics
are for kids,” Paul said. “I’d rather
deal with political issues or social
issues.”
Paul compared underground
comics to other literary vehicles,
such as the play or the novel, for
telling substantial adult-oriented
stories.
“I don’t see much difference be
tween avant gardecomicsand liter
ary- fiction,” he said. “But you’ve
got to know where to look - you’re
^A
not going to find that in Archie
comics."
Besides the artwork and the sar
castic tone of the stories, Paul said
underground comics offer more in
tellectual stimulation than the aver
age comic.
"It’s one step beyond political
cartoons,” Paul said. “They are
something you can lake a little
more seriously than Beetle Bailey
or Family Circus.”
And Paul said underground com
ics have an unconventional ap
peal.
“You can do anything with words
and pictures,” he said. “They’re
government breakers, they are. just
ask the Russians,
I bet they have an
opinion about that.” |
By Mick Dyer
Senior Editor
Over the last year, local illus
trator Jeff Mason has made a
macabre discovery. After
taking cartoon assignments and
getting positive reactions to his
work on them, he decided he en
joys drawing horror cartoons
That’s a startling revelation to a
dyed-in-the-wool commercial art
ist.
It takes almost no effort for the
Omaha Studio Academy School of
Commercial Art and Graphic De
sign graduate to produce a whole
stack of twisted, poignant and
humorous horror cartoons I le draws
two cartoons a month for “Afraid,”
a monthly horror writers newslet
ter, as well ascontributing cartoons
to other small press horror maga
zines, such as “October Dreams”
and “Gauntlet.”
\
He isn’t entirely sure where his
inspiration to draw these cartoons
comas from, but most of his car
toons deal with social or political
issues. And his cartoons tend to be
a bit irreverent.
“A lot of it (inspiration), 1 sup
pose, is subconscious, whatever
makes me laugh or angry,” he said.
‘‘To get my views
across 1 use a rj^j
cartoon.” I iJ
The successful candidates will become an integral part of a
Hormel production facility, supplying the processing plant
with the best possible raw material needed to produce top
quality Hormel products.
The Hormel Company is a progressive organization offering
a highly competitive salary and bonus, comprehensive
benefits and profit sharing. If you meet the requirements
and would like to be considered for this exciting career
opportunity, please send a cover letter and resume to:
Michael D. Malone, Personnel Representative,
Geo. A. Hormel & Co., P.O. Box 8(X), Austin, MN 55912.
I i
I
\
Equal Opportunity Employer
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