by Russell Myers
When cartoonist Russell Myers first crafted his witch, Broom-Hilda, doubters
wondered: Would she fly in the notoriously turbulent skies of the comic
strip world? She did, and Broom-Hilda is still flying at full throttle
after 30 years.
How did a nice boy from Pittsburg, Kansas, get mixed up in this crazy business of creating comic strips that poke fun at anything and everything? Nothing in his background provides a clue to the aberration. He led the usual small-town kid's life, although he was “different” in that he was always a dreamer and loved to draw.
Away from the drawing board, Myers is businesslike in his affairs. He sets a rigid schedule for himself, neither drinks nor smokes, exercises regularly, keeps his own books, deals in real estate, and counts his change carefully. “Contrary to popular opinion,” he once told a magazine writer, “to quote Gaylord Buzzard who quoted me, I do not have the first dollar I ever owned. However, I do have the name and address of the second owner.”
Myers' first exposure to the outside world was at the University of Tulsa, where his father taught business administration. He was bent on producing a comic strip even then, an ambition that requires the patience and resolve of an insurance salesman.
Success eluded him, so Myers took a job writing and illustrating cards for Hallmark Greeting Cards Co. in Kansas City, Missouri. Nights, he conceived and worked up comic strips that were rejected with impressive regularity until Broom-Hilda was accepted for syndication.
Since the day of Broom-Hilda's takeoff (April 19,1970), Myers' life has become a different story, however -- this time, a story of success. He has been responsible for the pleasure of millions of newspaper readers each day through his clever and imaginative work.
Myers lives high
on a bluff above Zane Grey's fabled Rogue River in Oregon with his wife,
Marina, and their son and daughter