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News Release


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Date:
Contact: Linda Radke
Five Star Legends
P.O. Box 6698, Chandler AZ 85246
Phone: 480-940-8182 / toll free: 866-471-0777
E-mail: Radke@FiveStarPublications.com

Inside the world of the Lone Ranger
The artist who created the legendary comic book series
talks about his life behind the drawing board

The Lone Ranger comic books fueled the imaginations of generations of youngsters. In The Misadventures of a Roving Cartoonist, Tom Gill, the man whose artistry brought alive the Lone Ranger's daring exploits, offers a rare insight into the world of syndicated comics.

In his own words, Gill describes what he called the "misadventures of a roving cartoonist" as he recounts how he and colleagues Milt Caniff (Terry and the Pirates and Steve Canyon), Mort Walker (Beetle Bailey and Hi and Lois), Rube Goldberg, and others entertained U.S. troops around the world.

A self-taught cartoonist who started as an office boy at the New York Daily News and worked his way up to staff artist, Tom writes, "One Sunday afternoon, always a dull time in the editorial room, all hell broke loose and I found myself making the map which broke the news of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor." After the war, he went to work for the New York Herald-Tribune where, for the next three years, he drew Flower Potts, a comic book about a cab driver. He went on to draw more than 135 Lone Ranger comic books, one of the longest records of any cartoonist on any comic book series.

Gill, who died in 2005 at the age of 92, asked longtime friend Tim Lasiuta to publish his manuscript. "I loved the Lone Ranger when I was a youngster," says Lasiuta. "The opportunity to get to know Tom, one of the legends of the industry, was a gift. And to be entrusted with the publication of his book is indeed an honor."

A member of the National Cartoonists Society, Gill traveled with USO tours from the early 1950s to 1987 bringing smiles to U.S. service men and women around the world.

The Misadventures of a Roving Cartoonist (ISBN 978-1-58985-021-7, non-fiction) will be published by Five Star Legends, and will be available through Ingram, Baker & Taylor and Amazon.com. To request a review copy and/or to schedule an interview with Tim Lasiuta, please contact Linda Radke at Five Star Legends. Five Star Legends is the Western-themed publishing division of Five Star Publications, Inc. and focuses on books about the American West.