Crockett Johnson's High School Cartoons

I missed this until now.

Crockett Johnson (David Leisk), the guy who not only drew the HAROLD AND THE PURPLE CRAYON series of childrens books, but also BARKUS and a revered comic strip, BARNABY, has several rare examples of his high school drawings over at Philip Nel's Nine Kinds of Pie blog. These drawings are from the Newtown (Long Island) High School Lantern.

"Leisk wrote under the name 'Crockett Johnson' because, he said, 'Crockett is my childhood nickname. My real name is David Johnson Leisk. Leisk was too hard to pronounce -- so -- I am now Crockett Johnson!'"
- from Dr. Nel's Crockett Johnson bio page

Dr. Nel is a Professor of English at Kansas State University. He is also the director of their Program in Children's Literature. And he has the best site on Crockett Johnson ever.

He's currently writing The Purple Crayon and a Hole to Dig: The Lives of Crockett Johnson and Ruth Krauss, which will be published in 2012.