MotherTown -

To leave Who's that girl on cover of this month's MotherTown?

Meet Laurel, a fourth grader at Worcester's Benchley School, who, even at the young age of 10, seems to has discovered Jack Benny's art of remaining forever timeless. She's the creation of longtime Worcester resident Brian Nelson.

Whether fishing with a friend on Worcester's Indian Lake, feeding the turkeys a Thanksgiving meal at the city's Barnyard Zoo at Green Hill Park or dressing up as women's rights pioneer Lucy Stone for a Halloween, "Laurel" will leave you grinning, and perhaps remind you of your own childhood hell-raising.

The original "Laurel" drawing was made of Nelson's then 10-year-old niece Laura just after she had gotten her first pair of glasses. When it became obvious he wanted to take the idea further, he combined the names of his two nieces - Rachel and Laura - into Laurel; the character's spirit is based on Elena Seymour, the daughter of a family friend. "She's an amalgam of the three," he says.

And forever timeless.

"She will always be in the fourth grade and 10 years old," says Nelson, who just turned 49.

Asked about rumors that Laurel's MotherTown appearance concurs with a possible move to the Fitchburg area, Nelson says, "She's open for any address but right now she's still living in a three-decker in South Worcester."

Which is where Nelson roamed as a child. "I grew up on the Worcester-Auburn line on South Ludlow Street near the factories and neighborhood spas," he explains. "It used to be an annual event that the cardboard factory would catch fire. Those mills are now gone. Now we've just got a country and western club [the Dance Ranch and Saloon on James Street] where we played in the wire factory."

Most of his strips have recognizable locations - "I like to work in the landmarks," Nelson says - which means you'll find Laurel sunbathing in front of a Worcester Art Museum painting, dancing at the Latin American Festival or flying a kite at the somewhat quiet Worcester Airport. But she's also at home mourning the loss of a neighborhood tree house, playing impishly at the school library, or teaching a local pigeon to bring her lunch bag to the park.

Two of Nelson's hardest-hitting cartoons were based at the site of the Worcester Warehouse Fire where six firefighters lost their lives in 1999. Laurel is viewing the large number of t-shirts that had been left by members of fire departments from across the country as her friend notes, "A lot of people came a long way to be here." "They must feel this is a part of their neighborhood," Laurel answers, capturing the intensity of the outpouring of human emotion the deaths brought.

The inspiration for Nelson using his immediate surroundings as artistic fodder came from long time Worcester Evening Gazette illustrator Al Banx.

"He based his cartoons on events in the area -[things like] turkeys chasing a cat down the street - real Jean Shepherd stuff," Nelson says, opening up a portfolio briefcase containing a series of his drawings past, present and future, and books by his influences - all of whom he intends to give proper credit in his artistic development.

The experiences of "New Yorker" and "Metropolis" illustrator Ben Katchor encouraged him to market himself in unlikely places. "Before he was hired, Katchor would display his work at the Papaya Bar Hot Dog Stand in Manhattan," says Nelson. That gave him the inspiration to call Worcester Cultural Development Officer Erin Williams to see if he might be able to display an ongoing series of Laurel cartoons as part of the Worcester Windows series featured at various downtown locations in the city.

That led to a half-year plus engagement in the window of the Windsor Building across from the Worcester Common where Nelson would put a new cartoon up every two weeks. "I would see someone looking at it and laughing and I would go 'aaahhh' [with satisfaction]." The space was recently rented so Nelson's hoping a new one opens up.

A lot of the gags he uses are rooted in the works of Virgil Parch, whose 1940s book "Water in the Brain" he's proud to produce a copy of.

"He had wonderful gags I loved," Nelson says. "He could distort the physical world. That's what I try to do with my own cartoons." It's where he learned how to put movement into a one-frame cartoon with only one or two characters. "You can play with time and space with cartoons. It's like the silent comedy films like 'Laurel and Hardy.'"

In 2000, Nelson took a cartoon course with Lennie Peterson ("The Big Picture") at the Worcester Art Museum. "Brian was one of the most promising students there and I knew he would go further with his cartooning," recalls Peterson, who'll have a new comic strip coming out this fall.

"The guy is not only a natural but wanted to grow beyond the gift he already has ... asking questions out of a natural curiosity and the desire to get it 'right,'" Peterson says. "He would really take the answers and problem solving to heart - layouts, concepts, timing, word usage - everything that's important in a good cartoon. Even back then he had the concept for 'Laurel' in his head and was already aware that the humor of 'Laurel' and the writing, his sense of humor, were a great match. [That's] probably the most important thing in a good strip."

It was Peterson who encouraged Nelson to send his strips to Classic Images, an Ohio-based magazine that caters to vintage film buffs. Nelson was pleasantly surprised when he was given a regular half-page space in the publication and "Duean Dwan, Film Fan!" was born. Looking at those strips that ran from 2000 to 2002, whether featuring "The Three Stooges" or B-Movies, you can see the roots of "Laurel." In fact, she made her debut as a secondary character in the pages of Classic Images.

She truly became a Worcester-central girl in 2002 when "Laurel" was given her own strip in the city's bi-weekly "InCity Times," where it ran for three years.

"She's very upbeat and wide-eyed," Nelson says. "She just seems to be taking in everything around her."

Just like Nelson with his influences. "If I could come to the periphery of their talent, I'd be happy," he says. "I'm still learning as I go." After studying with Peterson, he took a second class at WAM with Andy Fish ("Adam Bomb") who has his own line, Blue Monkey Comics.

"His paintings of jazz musicians are outstanding, ditto the comics - he's [currently] at work on a 'Batman' graphic novel," Nelson says.

He's also found guidance in the work of Mike Peters, creator of "Mother Goose and Grimm," and going back in time, Milt Gross from the 1920s and 1930s.

"He drew in a very excitable style," Nelson says. "He loaded up his pen and went for it. You're along for the ride - and it's quite a ride." And who amongst us didn't grow up with Bil Keene?

"The whole Family Circus routine," says Nelson. "I can't say he's a great stylistic influence, it's more the creative process."

Another favorite is "Mutts" illustrator Patrick McDonnell, who he met at a book signing at That's Entertainment a few years back.

"Besides being an ace artist and an enthusiast of early comics, his "Krazy Kat" book is highly recommended," Nelson says.

You probably won't be surprised to learn that Nelson drew comics as a kid. While none of them exist today, he does fondly remember "Jackson Ornphby," a baseball players whose batting average went to the negative numbers. "Of course, he played for the worst team - the Washington Senators," he says. "I gave him my face - the Andy Capp face."

After seeing "2001: A Space Odyssey," he tried his hand at science fiction cartoons. "I was no Jack Kirby, obviously," Nelson says, noting the legendary Marvel Comics illustrator known as "The King of Comics."

So what makes a cartoonist become a cartoonist? "My ceilings are too low for trapeze works," Nelson responds with a giggle, before clarifying it was his enjoyment of comedy that inspired him to develop his own art. "Trying to come up with a gag, it just clicked, the fun of it all."

He brings "Laurel" to life with a No. 7 architectural pencil, carefully tracing over the initial sketch. Then, on a sheet of two-ply Strathmore Bristol paper, he draws the cartoon in India ink with a Windsor and Newton watercolor brush, using drafting pens for finer lines to give them variation.

"From start to finish, it takes two hours," he says. "Sometimes coming up with an idea takes longer." He shows a work-in-progress featuring a player on Worcester Tornadoes baseball team. "I tried to come up with something unique," he says of the strip which has the words, "He's the only outfielder ever who doesn't need a glove" of the player shown catching a ball in a huge wad of gum.

While he typically works alone in his home studio, Nelson sometimes gets a little bit of unexpected help from his cats Meah and Bookie. "Meah's an art critic," he says. "When I open a bottle of ink, she hops right up on the table onto the fresh ink and I'll instantly have a Jackson Pollock cartoon. So I try to work when she's sleeping."

That can be tough, as Nelson works nights as a "Telegram & Gazette" copy editor and sometimes would prefer to sleep till noon. His cats regularly have other ideas. "Bookie gets up at 8 a.m. and has been known to be my ideal alarm clock, singing in her Bettie Davis voice and playing my lip like it's a jawbone," he says. The two felines almost got their own strip as well. "Before 'Laurel,' I was going to do a cat strip. I sent some into 'Cat Fancy' but they already had a cat cartoonist."

Asked for the challenges that await Nelson in bringing "Laurel" to a wider audience, Peterson says, "It's the same old same old - there's one thing that hasn't changed about the industry and that's how to get syndicated." The first would be to send samples of the strip to all six of the large international syndicates and pray that they like it.

"It's a long shot but it can happen," says Peterson, living proof, before mentioning a longer, but "safer" process Nelson or any other budding cartoonist can take towards securing national distribution. "Accumulate as many newspapers and websites on your own as you possibly can by selling yourself to those markets and then, when you have a bunch, approach the syndicates with the ammunition that you already have," Peterson says. "Get your own buzz going."

Which is exactly what Nelson's trying to do.

"I've got a batch of cartoons I'm going to try to sell," Nelson says. One of his targets is the "Saturday Evening Post." "Yes, they're still in business," he says, before claiming he occasionally even gets pleasure - and helpful advice - from the rejection letters he sometimes receives.

"Your cartoons are funny and there are a lot of professionals out there whose work isn't as good as yours," wrote Bill White, who along with Mat Brown, creates those great Building 19 flyers that are an essential part of Sunday morning newspaper reading.

"It's my haberdasher of choice," the appropriately Hawaiian shirt outfitted Nelson says of the quirky chain store. "And it's great for art supplies too."

Before heading out to his paying gig, Nelson, who hopes to complete his second "Laurel" book in time to sell at his booth at this year's stART on the Street festival on Park Avenue in Worcester on Sept. 17, shares a bit of wisdom passed down by yet another mentor. "R. Crumb's advice to all cartoonists was 'Keep your day job.'"

Brian Nelson can be reached at sunspott@msn.com; Brian Goslow can be reached at bgoslow@yahoo.com.

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