JAMES STURM ON SATCHEL PAIGE: STRIKING OUT JIM CROW

[MattBrady]

by Mike Lorah

July 7, 1948, Leroy Robert “Satchel” Paige signed a contract to pitch for the Cleveland Indians baseball team. He was a 41-year-old rookie, who managed two All-Star appearances and compiled a career 3.29 ERA in the ensuing five years. Of course, that’s only a fraction Paige’s story.

He was elected to Major League Baseball’s Hall of Fame in 1971, and the 28 wins he amassed for Cleveland and the St. Louis Browns had little to do with his ballot showing. Paige was one of the shining lights of the Negro Leagues, one of the first players considered when integration was suggested. Pitching for teams such as the Pittsburgh Crawfords and the Kansas City Monarchs, Paige’s talent and showmanship made him a major gate attraction, and a formidable on-field talent. That his talent went overlooked by most baseball fans for two full decades remains one of the great crimes of American history.

Joe DiMaggio called him “the best I ever faced,” and famously Yankee scouts decided Joltin’ Joe was ready to for the major leagues when the then-minor league player managed a 1-4 day against Paige in an exhibition. Paige named his pitches: bee ball, trouble ball, hesitation ball. He was quoted to say, “If a man can beat you, walk him,” Don't look back. Something might be gaining on you," and "Age is a question of mind over matter. If you don't mind, it doesn't matter." He played baseball professionally into his 60s, and never once failed to entertain a paying customer.

But, honestly, James Sturm tells the story much better than I do. So I asked him about his upcoming book Satchel Paige: Striking Out Jim Crow.



Newsarama: Satchel Paige… I’ve gotta admit, I’m a big baseball fan, so I’m very jazzed for this one for my own reasons. But what do you think makes Paige a compelling figure and a fitting subject for a biographical graphic novel?

James Sturm: Paige is arguably the greatest pitcher the game has ever seen. Baseball is a game of myths and nobody was able to cultivate his own myth like Satchel Paige. He was both the Babe Ruth and Satchel and Michael Jordan of his day (which lasted decades!). He was a larger than life character who is arguably the greatest pitcher ever to throw a baseball. Even after his arm started going south, his showmanship, guile, and charisma made him a compelling figure.

NRAMA: Are you focusing on a particular aspect or era of his career, as with you did with Houdini?

JS: Whereas Houdini takes place over the course of a given day, the Paige book takes place over the course of decades. The story itself was inspired by the writer Hamlin Garland, who was writing in the late 1800s. He wrote a short story about a man returning to his family farm. He had met with success in New York but his bother and his mother were beat down by the demands of the farm. In the Satchel Paige book, I created a fictional character, about the same age of Paige who also seems to be a rising start. Except he hurts his knee and can’t play any more and returns rural Alabama to work as a sharecropper. So Paige’s accomplishments, the myth he creates for himself, are seen through the experiences of sharecropper in the Jim Crow era south.

NRAMA: Okay. On that subject, will you focus on the Negro Leagues or the Major Leagues?

[b]JS: There are mentions of major league teams but there are two games that occur in Satchel Paige: Striking Out Jim Crow. One is very early in his career with the Birmingham Black Barons and the other one is a barnstorming gig later in Paige’s career in a rural Alabama town. I tried, based on pictures, newspaper descriptions, and old footage, to get Satchel Paige as a player right. His herky jerky delivery, the high leg kick, all that stuff. I also tried to show how Paige could basically take over a game with his charisma.



NRAMA: They’re clearly different books, but how does this book compare to your last baseball foray, The Golem’s Mighty Swing?

JS: The both deal with racism through baseball. Paige deals with the brutal years of Jim Crow, and I think the Golem dealt more with the way the media recklessly amplifies stereotypes.

[b]NRAMA: What does Striking Out Jim Crow artist Rich Tommaso bring to the book?

JS: Beautiful artwork to start with. I worked with Rich in a similar manner that I did with Guy Davis on the Fantastic Four book Unstable Molecules. I would actually give them drawn layouts, and in both cases Guy David and Rich would take the layouts and they would alter them, often improving them.

NRAMA: I was just about to ask, how is the creative process split between you both? So you actually gave him layouts to work from.

JS: Yeah, I actually draw very detailed layouts. It’s almost like a little mini-book in a way. The way I work, as a cartoonist, I have to see the whole thing, and when I write comics – I can’t just write a script. I feel that the best comics are actually writing with pictures.

NRAMA: This is the second biographical comic your school, in conjunction with Disney’s Hyperion Books, has commissioned, right?



JS: Yes.

NRAMA: What’s the long-term goal with these volumes?

JS: First and foremost, the goal was to make the best book that we could make. History is basically a collection of stories, and these books should offer a story as compelling story of each of these notable Americans. Too often these amazing historical figures get the bland “bio-pic” treatment. It’s too broad. I also wanted these books to explore the times these notable Americans lived in as much as the various cartoonists delved into the characters themselves. All of the people we’re covering – Henry David Thoreau, Houdini, Satchel Paige, Amelia Earhart and Helen Keller –lived amazing lives but they did not live them in a vacuum.

NRAMA: How did you choose the subjects for each volume?

JS: some of them were chosen with a specific author in mind, some of them were suggested by Hyperion. It was also important that the books could be used as part of a middle and high school curriculum.

NRAMA: How did you hook up with Hyperion Books for Children as your publisher?

JS: I made contact with them at a San Diego Comic-con several years back.

NRAMA: Last I read, Henry David Thoreau is next on the Hyperion/CCA biography publishing schedule. Is that still the case?

JS: Yeah, that’s in the spring.

NRAMA: Who’s working on that one?

JS: John Porcellino. John is the perfect artist to do a Thoreau book. I was thrilled when John agreed to work on it and the finished book is pretty breathtaking.

NRAMA: I wanted to ask, as far as your personal schedule works, how difficult is it to find time to work on these comics while running your school, the Center for Cartoon Studies .

JS: It’s part of my job. Part of the reason for doing these books, besides getting to work with many amazing cartoonists, is to increase CCS’s profile. I still work on my own comics, and that allows me to do everything else I suppose. I would be so fiercely miserable if I didn’t keep working on my comics.

NRAMA: Is there anything else on your schedule, either for the school or this line, or your own work that you’d like to mention?

JS: I’m working on a how-to-cartoon for early readers called Adventures in Cartooning, First Second is going to be putting that out. My collaborators are Alexis Frederick-Frost and Irons Andrew who were part of CCS first graduating class.. They are both gifted cartoonists and it’s really fun working with them.

NRAMA: Anything else you’d like to pass along to your fans?

JS: I have fans? I’m always grateful for any interest in my work and appreciate your interest.

Satchel Paige: Striking Out Jim Crow arrives in comics shops in December.

[OM]

(I'm definitely putting this on my pull list, as this deals with Baseball back when it was actually worth a s'hit!)

[Equinox]

This looks great. I can't wait to read it.

[Skinshark]

Wow...this looks excellent. I'm not a baseball fan, but how can anyone ignore good entertainment?

=s=

[j.vinson]

This will make a nice companion to Sturm's "The Golumn's Mighty Swing".
James Sturm is one of the most under-appreciated cartoonist out there. His work is always rich in detail, with interesting characters.
I can't wait for this.

www.theapplicants.com

[Muppety Odin]

I will be all over this like a cheap suit when it's released!

[King Ghidora]

What a great idea for a book. I'll be picking this up for sure.

[ANGELDOGGIE]

This one's a keeper!!!!!

[Cray_ws]

Consider this already on my "must buy" list. We need more sports-related comics, I would love to see some classic football stories.

[aacomix]

There is a website all about Satchel Paige: Striking Out Jim Crow at the CCS website.
http://www.cartoonstudies.org/books/paige/

It includes a preview, teacher's guide, draft pages and ordering links.