000018 - Morrie Turner, Creator of "Wee Pals" Comic Strip

Morris "Morrie" Turner (December 11, 1923 – January 25, 2014) was an African-American syndicated cartoonist, and the creator of the comic strip Wee Pals. Turner was the first nationally syndicated African-American cartoonist.

Raised in Oakland, California. Turner grew up in West Oakland and attended McClymonds High School. However, in his senior year, he moved to Berkeley to finish his high school years at Berkeley High School. 

Turner received his first training in cartooning via the Art Instruction, Inc. home study correspondence course. During World War II, his illustrations appeared in the newspaper Stars and Stripes.  After the war, while working for the Oakland Police Department, he created the comic strip Baker's Helper.

When Turner began questioning why there were no minorities in cartoons, his mentor, Charles M. Schulz of Peanuts fame, suggested he create one.  In 1965, the strip Wee Pals became the first comic strip syndicated in the United States to have a cast of diverse ethnicity. Although the strip was only originally carried by five newspapers, after Martin Luther King's assassination in 1968, it was picked up by more than 100 papers. By the early 1970s, Turner's "integrated" comic strip "Wee Pals" was followed on a daily basis by nearly 25,000,000 readers.

In 1970 Turner became a co-chairman of the 1970 White House Conference on Youth.

Turner appeared as a guest on the May 14, 1973 episode of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, where he showed the host pictures he had drawn of several of his neighbors, as well as presented a clip from his Kid Power animated series, which was airing Saturday mornings on ABC at the time.

During the 1972-73 television season, the monolithic and monoethnic nature of American television began to change, and Morrie Turner and his artistic talent were instrumental in this change. Turner's comic strip became televised in two different ways. The show Kid Power became a popular Saturday morning cartoon that aired throughout the United States. All of Turner's characters were featured, and they were united through the coalition the characters themselves dubbed as "Rainbow Power". During the same season, Wee Pals on the Go was aired by ABC's owned and operated station in San Francisco, KGO-TV.  This Sunday morning show featured child actors who portrayed the main characters of Turner's comic strip: Nipper, Randy, Sybil, Connie and Oliver. With and through the kids, Turner explored all kinds of venues and activities that were of interest to child viewers of the time, from a candy factory to a train locomotive. After a successful pilot, this project was filmed and aired for an entire television season (also 1972-73). This exposure helped increase Turner's popularity.

As the Wee Pals comic strip's popularity grew, Turner added characters. He included children of more and more ethnicities, as well as a child with a physical disability. The all-inclusive nature of the comic strip and the relevance to everyday people were part of Turner's formula for success.

During the Vietnam War, Turner and five other members of the National Cartoonist Society traveled to Vietnam, where they spent a month drawing more than 3,000 caricatures of service people.

Turner was impressively knowledgeable about African American history and combined his artistic talent with historical facts to publish books, calendars and other materials that were educational, esthetically pleasing and humorous.

He had the original copy of the book Wee Pals, which was burned in a fire at his home in Berkeley in the late 1980s.  The house was later rebuilt.

Turner preferred being called "Morrie" and contributed his talents to concerts by the Bay Area Little Symphony of Oakland, California. He drew pictures to the music and of the children in the audience.

On May 25, 2009, Turner visited Westlake Middle School in Oakland to give a lesson to the OASES Comic Book Preachers Class of drawing. Turner collaborated with the class's students to create the book Wee the Kids from Oakland, which gave a chance for students to express their challenges, successes, and pride as youth in Oakland.

Turner married Letha Mae Harvey on April 6, 1946.  They collaborated on the strip Soul Corner.  Morrie and Letha had one son, Morrie Jr. Letha died in 1994. Late in life, Turner's companion was Karol Trachtenburg of Sacramento.

Turner was an active member of the Center for Spiritual Awareness, a Science of Mind church in West Sacramento, California. 

The Family Circus character of Morrie, a playmate of Billy — and the only recurring black character in the strip — is based on Turner. Family Circus creator Bil Keane created the character in 1967 as a tribute to his close friend.

In 2003, the National Cartoonists Society recognized Turner for his work on Wee Pals and others with the Milton Caniff Lifetime Achievement Award.

Throughout his career, Turner was showered with awards and community distinctions. For example, he received the Brotherhood Award from the National Conference of Christians and Jews and the Inter-Group Relations Award from the Anti-Defamation League of Bnai Brith. In 1971, he received the Alameda County (California) Education Association Layman's Annual Award.

In 2000, the Cartoon Art Museum presented Turner with the Sparky Award, named in honor of Charles Schulz. 

Turner was honored a number of times at the San Diego Comic-Con.  In 1981, he was given an Inkpot Award.  In 2012, he was given the Bob Clampett Humanitarian Award.

Turner died on January 25, 2014, at age 90.

The works of Morrie Turner include:

Wee Pals collections

• Wee Pals That "Kid Power" Gang in Rainbow Power (Signet Books, 1968) 
• Wee Pals (Signet Books, 1969)  — introduction by Charles M. Schulz
• Kid Power (Signet Books, 1970)
• Nipper (Westminster Press, 1971)
• Nipper's Secret Power (Westminster Press, 1971)
• Wee Pals: Rainbow Power (Signet Books, 1973) 
• Wee Pals: Doing Their Thing (Signet Books, 1973)
• Wee Pals' Nipper and Nipper's Secret Power (Signet Books, 1974)
• Wee Pals: Book of Knowledge (Signet Books, 1974)
• Wee Pals: Staying Cool (Signet Books, 1974)
• Wee Pals: Funky Tales (New American Library, 1975)
• Wee Pals: Welcome to the Club (Rainbow Power Club Books, 1978)
• Choosing a Health Career: Featuring Wee Pals, the Kid Power Gang (Dept. of Health, Education, and Welfare, Public Health Service, Health Resources Administration, 1979)
• Wee Pals: A Full-Length Musical Comedy for Children or Young Teenagers (The Dramatic Publishing Company, 1981)
• Wee Pals Make Friends with Music and Musical Instruments: Coloring Book (Stockton Symphony Association, 1982) 
• Wee Pals, the Kid Power Gang: Thinking Well (Ingham County Health Department, 1983)
• Wee Pals Doing the Right Thing Coloring Book (Oakland Police Department, 1991)
• Explore Black History with Wee Pals (Just us Books, 1998)
• The Kid Power Gang Salutes African-Americans in the Military Past and Present (Conway B. Jones, Jr., 2000)

Willis and his Friends

• Ser un Hombre (Lear Siegler/Fearon Publishers, 1972) 
• Prejudice (Fearon, 1972) 
• The Vandals (Fearon, 1974) 

Other books

• A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Freedom (Ross Simmons, 1967) 
• Black and White Coloring Book (Troubadour Press, 1969) — written with Letha Turner
• Right On (Signet Books, 1969)
• Getting It All Together (Signet Books, 1972)
• Where's Herbie? A Sickle Cell Anemia Story and Coloring Book (Sickle Cell Anemia Workshop, 1972)
• Famous Black Americans (Judson Press, 1973)
• Happy Birthday America (Signet Book, 1975)
• All God's Chillun Got Soul (Judson Press, 1980)
• Thinking Well (Wisconsin Clearing House, 1983)
• Black History Trivia: Quiz and Game Book (News America Syndicate, 1986)
• What About Gangs? Just Say No! (Oakland Police Department, 1994) 
• Babcock (Scholastic, 1996) — by John Cottonwood and Morrie Turner
• Mom Come Quick (Wright Pub Co., 1997) — by Joy Crawford and Morrie Turner
• Super Sistahs: Featuring the Accomplishments of African-American Women Past and Present (Bye Publishing Services, 2005)