Aquaman creator tested cartooning waters at Midland

For decades, Paul Norris lived in a world of superheroes, secret agents and a time traveler.

He created Aquaman in 1942 and drew other familiar comic book figures including Flash Gordon and Tarzan. Norris also served his country in a unique way during World War II - drawing cartoons for leaflets that encouraged Japanese soldiers to surrender.

A former student at Midland Lutheran College, Norris is now 91 and lives in California. But the internationally known cartoonist is returning to Fremont to launch a showing of his works in Musbach Art Center on the college campus.

The public is invited to a reception in Norris' honor from 4-7 p.m. Friday in Kimmel Gallery at Eighth and Irving streets. An exhibit of his art called, “A Tribute to Paul Norris,” will be on display through Feb. 24.

Norris' ties to Midland date back to 1934 when he came from Greenville, Ohio, to the college where his cousin, Emerson Reck, was professor of journalism. While here, Norris drew caricatures of each senior for the Warrior yearbook.

“It's always fun to do a caricature - just to see how far you can go with it and still make it recognizable,” said Norris, then the yearbook's art director.

He also stayed busy painting signs for movie theaters on weekdays and selling shoes for Buck's Bootery in downtown Fremont on Saturdays. He remembers one particular Saturday - the day a train carrying President Franklin D. Roosevelt stopped at the Fremont depot. A cane-carrying Roosevelt stood to make his speech with wife Eleanor nearby.

“Fremont was alive with people,” Norris said, adding, “It was part of history that I was very happy to be a witness to.”

It was also a lucrative day for Norris who made good money selling shoes to people who came to town.

Another unique opportunity came via Reck's brother, Myron, who developed a script called “Hobo Cupboard.” Myron wanted Norris to draw the comic strip for that script, which he'd sold to a syndicate in Ohio.

Norris knew he couldn't draw the strip and keep up with his college coursework, so he left Midland. It was a tough decision, but Norris was determined to become a cartoonist.

That dream would be sidelined.

“I went back to Ohio, but by that time the syndicate had folded. It was very disappointing. For a year, I struggled from one thing to another. I was out of college and out of a job,” he said.

Norris worked on his grandmother's farm before getting hired at an electric motor assembly plant in Dayton, Ohio. In the meantime, he started classes at the Dayton Art Institute.

He still recalls his first day of class. Late for school and wearing a heavy coat, he caught the edge of his drawing board on a heavy wooden door. He dropped all his art supplies and suddenly found himself looking up at a nude model. Amid the laughter of classmates, Norris found a seat next to a young woman.

Her name was Ann.

Norris not only fell in front of Ann - he fell for her. They wed in 1939 and were married 󈬭 years and 15 days” before she died in 2000.

He cherishes memories of her.

“She was wonderful. She was so capable of doing so many things. She was an excellent seamstress, a gourmet cook and good artist. She'd fill in, inking strips when I was very busy,” he said.

Norrises had two sons, Michael and Paul.

Norris also finished art school and became an illustrator and cartoonist for the Dayton Daily News. In 1940, the couple moved to New York City where Norris worked with Prize Publications, creating Yank and Doodle. He was working for DC Comics when asked to create a new character “who lives in the sea and can swim like a fish.”

Norris drew and named Aquaman and Mort Weisinger wrote the stories. The cover of the first Aquaman comic book features a muscular blond-haired hero deflecting the shell of a Nazi gun - all while saving a pretty woman.

The cartoonist enjoyed this new assignment.

“He (Aquaman) was an easy character to draw and I liked the idea. It was something new. I was very happy with it,” he said.

Norris later was recommended for a job when the original artist went into the U.S. Marine Corps. This job involved drawing a comic strip about a fictional American, Vic Jordan, who worked in the French Underground.

Neither Norris nor his lawyer read the contract for that job very well. The contract stipulated that Norris had to work exclusively for that comic strip's Newspaper PM Syndicate - meaning he had to stop drawing Aquaman.

A year later, Norris landed a job with King Features Syndicate and started drawing Secret Agent X9 - a story about an FBI agent. He drew that strip just three months before he was drafted into the U.S. Army.

As a tech sergeant, he drew a couple cartoons for a ship's newspaper when contacted by the Joint Intelligence Center and asked to make drawings for propaganda leaflets. Norris' drawings depicting Japanese soldiers giving themselves up and being treated well by Allied forces were printed on the leaflets and dropped by airplane over Okinawa. Japanese soldiers surrendered, carrying handfuls of the leaflets.

Norris was transferred to the Joint Intelligence Pacific Ocean Area. He worked with a Japanese prisoner of war, George Totari, who as a civilian had been a reporter for an English newspaper in that country. Totari, who'd lost a leg in the war, was in a prison camp when Norris met him.

“He spoke English better than I did,” Norris said, laughing.

The two worked together to create an elaborate pamphlet that would look like a comic book page, but the atomic bomb was dropped and the project never got into print.

After the war, Norris returned to King Features. In 1948, he started work on Jungle Jim and in 1952 took over the Brick Bradford daily strip. Bradford was the time traveler.

“I wrote and drew it for 35 years. It was great. I really didn't have any limits. My limit was my imagination and how far I could go with it,” Norris said. “You only need one spark and the story usually will build itself.”

When Norris retired in 1987, Brick Bradford retired, too.

Of all the characters he's created, Norris finds it difficult to pick a favorite. He likes Scoop Lenz, a newspaper man character he drew for the Dayton Daily News in the late 1930s. Norris still laughs at the name he originally had for that character - Clicker Pix.

Looking back over his work, Norris marvels at Aquaman's success. He points out a TV episode of “Smallville” in which a segment featuring a young Aquaman proved to be one of the series' most successful shows. He said “Smallville” writers are working on a script for a television movie of Aquaman. He's pleased with the character's success.

“I think it's great,” he said. “When I created Aquaman, I didn't think he'd be running for this length of time - and it looks like he still has a future.”

Norris admits he isn't a fan of a comic book that showed Aquaman and Superman fighting.

“I think they took that a little too far, but that's not my business. That's up to the editors,” he said. “They've kept the thing going so I haven't any reason to complain.”

These days, the grandfather of six looks forward to his Nebraska trip.

He has good memories of the college.

“I just like Midland,” he said.

The Norris exhibit is being offered in partnership with The Cartoon Research Library of Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio.

Workshop

A free cartoon drawing workshop will be hosted by Paul Fell, editorial cartoonist for Lincoln Journal Star, and Bob Hall, freelance cartoonist for DC Comics and Marvel Comics.

The workshop, which is open to the public, starts at 1:45 p.m. Friday in Kimmel Theater, Eighth and Irving streets. If they wish, attendees may bring a sketchpad and draw along with the artists.