WW2 CARTOON....THE GREAT ELMER SQUEE

 published in 1942 by the Mcmillan company,Elmer Squee  is the story of a timid "average joe",that joins the Navy after the attack on Pearl Harbor. The book follows him from being a civilian to being a hero. ....

Richard Lakeman Brooks aka "Brooksie'',then author of this little cartoon character, was born in 1917 in Gloucester Ma. While at college,he began selling paintings.It was during World War II ,while serving in the Navy that he created Elmer's caracter. He was torpedoed off East Africa, served on three destroyer escorts as a Gunnery Officer and Executive Officer, barely making it through the worst typhoon in Naval history and emerged as a Lieutenant Commander. After the war, he studied illustration at Pratt Institute, sold his Naval character as a Sunday comic strip, and then sold the Jackson Twins another cartoon he created , as a Sunday and daily comic strip which he did for 25 years.

R. L. Brooks died in 2002.....