Posted By Dan Greenfield on Sep 9, 2024 | 4 comments

MORRISON MONDAYS!

By BILL MORRISON

I received some sad news this week when it was announced that the Comic Art Professional Society (more commonly known as CAPS) is disbanding. CAPS was founded in Los Angeles, initially as a social club for comic book professionals, in June of 1977 by Mark Evanier, Don Rico, and Sergio Aragonés. Charter members of the club also included Scott Shaw!, Jack Kirby, and William Stout, to name a few.

I joined CAPS in the mid-1990s and it was at the monthly meetings in Burbank that I met some of my dearest friends. Since hearing the news about the demise of CAPS, I’ve been reminiscing about the great times I had in the group, from listening to memorable guest speakers like Stan Lee, Bernie Wrightson, and Drew Struzan, to paying tribute to annual banquet honorees such as Gene Colan, Jack Davis, Al Jaffee, Jerry Robinson, and Ray Bradbury.

And I really miss the periodic art auctions we had to raise money to help with the club’s expenses and to assist cartoonists in financial need. Sergio himself served as the auctioneer for these rollicking live events, and original comic art pieces were donated by local CAPS members as well as associate members who lived outside of Southern California. Among the many exquisite works we were able to bid on were drawings by Joe Kubert, Drew Struzan, Will Eisner, Dave Stevens, Kelly Freas, Ralph Reese, Russ Heath, on and on! I still can’t believe I came away from one of those auctions with a gorgeous portrait of Marilyn Monroe by Drew!

I created this “Famous Bunnies” piece for one such auction, though this one was very special and held on eBay rather than in Burbank. Here’s why:

Twenty years ago, Sharon Sakai, the lovely wife of longtime CAPS member Stan Sakai, developed a brain tumor. At first it was diagnosed as benign, but over time it began to grow. You can read the details in Mark Evanier’s foreword to the 2014 book The Sakai Project, which I’ll get to in a minute. But suffice to say that by 2010 it was obvious to all of us in the group that Sharon was suffering from a devastating illness. Eventually she required in-home hospice care, and there were certain expenses that the medical insurance of a freelance cartoonist just didn’t cover. Somebody in the group caught wind of this and it became a topic of great concern for us. When somebody you care about is in need, you just can’t help worrying and wondering about what you can do to help.

Inked version

One of those wondering worriers was CAPS then-Vice President, Tone Rodriguez. Tone was about to attend a small comic book convention and decided to see if he could solicit some art donations from the residents of artist’s alley for a possible auction fundraiser. He received a few nice drawings of Stan’s character, Usagi Yojimbo, and that gave him an idea. “Wouldn’t it be cool to have artists submit their own interpretations of Stan’s characters, and make that the theme of the auction?” Tone mentioned this idea to a writer friend of his, which lead to a Bleeding Cool article, and as Tone said “That, my friends, is when the love began to pour out for Stan and Sharon.”

I remember a pre-CAPS meeting dinner we had at the Coral Café in Burbank where Tone shared some of the great pieces of art he’d received so far, many from high-profile comics artists. In addition to the auction, Tone talked about the possibility of putting together a book that could be sold at conventions and online to raise money. Something like a high quality, color sketch book that we could publish ourselves.

Evanier and Aragonés

I suggested going to Stan’s publisher, Mike Richardson at Dark Horse, to see if he would be interested in publishing such a book. I felt the quality of the submissions Tone had in hand warranted a nice hardcover treatment, and with Dark Horse’s resources I knew we could reach the biggest names in the business.

So, with Tone’s blessing I phoned Mike, and before I could even finish my pitch he blurted out an emphatic “Yes!” Mike said he would open his Rolodex to me (if you’re under 40, look it up!) and would pay for everything — advertising, full-color printing, distribution, storage, the works! The only things he couldn’t offer was an editor, a designer, and a production person to put the book together. So, if we could deliver a print-ready book, Dark Horse would take it from there.

I took on the role of editor and enlisted Bongo’s Serban Cristescu to design and produce the book. Then, with the contacts Mike gave me access to I reached out to a who’s who of creators for submissions. For several weeks, every day at Bongo was like Christmas morning as I opened package after package of beautiful drawings and paintings.

The book was dubbed The Sakai Project (as I mentioned earlier,) and though it’s long out of print, you can still purchase copies of it online for as low as $55. (And I recommend that you do!)

Besides the editorial chores, my contribution to the book and auction was “Famous Bunnies,” an obvious homage to Frank Frazetta’s cover to Famous Funnies #211 with Space Usagi standing in for Buck Rogers!

Through the book and auction we raised a lot of money for Stan and Sharon, but tragically, they lost their battle when Sharon passed away in November of 2014.

With the demise of CAPS and the memory of that sad time 10 years ago when we had to say goodbye to Sharon Sakai, it’s been a real week of reflection. But as usual when you spend time remembering and mourning the people and things in your life that have passed, you can’t help but recall the good times as well. And that’s what I’m doing on this fine Morrison Monday.

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