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Craig MacIntosh Greg Howard Sally Forth

Meeting Greg Howard

 Cut to the Minikahda Country Club the summer of 1982 where a high school age Jim Keefe is busy bussing tables. The goal is to someday become a comic book artist, but there’s no clear path for that pipe dream.

The buzz Keefe overhears from the ritzy club members is about a local lawyer who had quit his well paying profession to become – of all the crazy things – a cartoonist.

The lawyer/cartoonist’s name was Greg Howard.

Greg Howard 1982
Pic by Alan Light
1982 Mpls Comic Con

The comic strip, Sally Forth.

With the cartoon landscape of the early 1980s showing woman only in the role of housewives, Sally Forth would become part of a new generation of comic strips – along with Lynn Johnston’s For Better or For Worse and Cathy Guisewite’s, Cathy – that showed woman taking center stage in a more modern setting.

Strips from the inaugural first week of Sally Forth.

Because of this, and the fact that the strips were original and funny, success in newspaper syndication followed.

Minneapolis Star – January 8, 1982

Jump ahead to 1998 and I would be working on staff as a colorist at King Features Syndicate when Greg Howard would decide to retire from his writing chores on Sally (now drawn by Craig MacIntosh). I sent him a letter relaying the Minikahda Country Club story along with a Sally Forth collection from the early days that King had in-house.

His reply:

Thanks for your nice letter and the copy of the first “Sally Forth” book. It was very thoughtful of you to pass it along.

It’s true that I sold Sally to King Features and have skulked off into the sunset. I’ve spent the summer enjoying the relief from the inexorable deadlines. You’re familiar with those. I’m not sure what comes next but haven’t grown overly anxious about it yet.

I enjoyed your story about the Minikahda club gossip revolving around my career change 20 years ago. Thanks for sharing it with me.

Greg Howard


I got to meet Greg Howard just once in 2012 before I took over the drawing chores on Sally Forth. Francesco Marciuliano was writing Sally by this time and I had been working as an assistant to Craig MacIntosh for a couple years. Craig suggested we meet with Greg in regards to working out me signing on with King as the new artist.

It was truly memorable as Craig hadn’t seen Greg for awhile and I got to watch two comic strip greats catch up and just shoot the sh*t over lunch. I had brought along a King Features sales kit of Sally Forth from back in the day and took the following pic.

Greg Howard and Craig MacIntosh circa 2012

Sally Forth is 40 years old as of January 2022 with Francesco Marciuliano at the helm writing and myself drawing. It’s a different comic strip than when Greg Howard and Craig MacIntosh were steering the ship, but Francesco and I wouldn’t have this gig if not for the bedrock of success Greg Howard’s original Sally Forth had. To that I say, many thanks – and hope Mr. Howard is still “enjoying the relief from the inexorable deadlines”

-Jim Keefe

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King Features

Coloring the Sunday Comics

From 1989-98 I was on staff at King as the head (and only) colorist for the King Features Comic Art Department. From 1999 on I did coloring for them freelance.

Jim Keefe - Portrait of a young colorist.
Jim Keefe – Portrait of a young colorist.

Pic from Funny Papers – Behind the Scenes of the Comics.


For my entire run coloring for King I worked “old school.”
Here’s the process…

King Features down in Florida does the color separations, so my job was to provide them with a color guide.

Here’s the color palette I used.

Using watercolor, I colored the black and white art and then put in the color indications using the numbers from the color palette. The actual watercolors didn’t have to be exact, that’s what the numbering was for.

Color guide for Blondie 7/1/2012.

And here’s what the finished version looked like.

Blondie 7/1/2012

It’s a very conscious decision to keep the coloring simple and not over render so the color is not competing with the clean line of the artwork. Here’s some more examples of my work…

Beetle 6/10
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Popeye 7/22/2012
Hagar 7/1/2012

And as of November of 2021, a little over 30 years total, I’m calling it a day. It’s been a good run, but time commitments with my current work schedule just made it impossible to continue.

Wrapping up with a pic the great Dick Hodgins Jr. (1931-2016) sent me awhile back. Something I’ll always treasure.

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Drawings

Pen and Ink Drawings

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Comics Revue Drawings

Comics Revue Covers

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Keefe Family

Keefe’s Men’s Wear

Miracle Mile History
In 1950 the firm of Sheldon-Thomas, Inc. bought the land from W.M. Livingston (Minneapolis) and S.F. Carmean (St. Louis Park) and requested a permit to build a 14-store shopping center, estimated to cost around $1 million. The plan was presented to the Village Council by a Phillip Neville. Despite a petition against the plan signed by 425 residents presented to the Village Council by attorney Hyman Edelman, the permit was granted on July 20, 1950. The subject of the objection was a 50-ft. driveway into Wooddale Avenue that was originally supposed to be part of a 100-ft. buffer strip between commercial and residential zoning. The President of Sheldon-Thomas was identified as Charles M. Redman (d. November 1, 1959).

Excerpt from Miracle Mile History


Keefe’s Men’s (and Students) Wear
5301 Miracle Mile: 1951-67.
This store (with W.T. Grant) was the second to open after Warner Hardware in June 1951. It was originally called John Keefe, Inc. Mr. Keefe, a graduate of the U of M, was described as having 20 years in the clothing business, the most recent at the New York office of the Dayton Company. He had also been associated with the Varsity Shop and Maurice L. Rothschild. The store was 20 ft. wide and 100 ft. deep, the last 40 ft. being storeroom space. The interior was decorated by Weidt Associates in white and pastels. In 1958 you could rent a tux for prom.

Excerpt from Miracle Mile Tenants.


Photos from about 1952
1955 photo courtesy Minnesota Historical Society, colorized by Emory Anderson
Interior of Keefe’s Men’s Wear. Left to right: Unknown, Byrne, Hugo, John

I remember going with my Dad and Mom on shopping trips to the store. While it was open, it was the only store my Dad bought his clothes at. I remember being very proud to see the Keefe name on the sign.

-Dinah Keefe


Our family visited the store on our visit in 1958, the first I can remember. The time before that was 1951 when I was only two years old. When we visited in 1958 it was called Keefe’s Men’s Wear. Byrne and John were both there. That was also the visit when your dad took the three of us and at least a couple kids from your family on a boat ride in a motorboat heborrowed from a friend. That was our first time in a motorboat so it was pretty exciting!  My parents were probably delighted to get a few hours of free time without the kids!

-Peter Whittredge


I remember the store and the display window. I was born in 1950. We moved from 51st and Sheridan to Ashley Road in 1956. The drive from Ashley to the store, on Excelsior Blvd was single laned and canopied by elm trees on both sides of the road. The phosphates at the counter in Snyder’s were tasty. Later I “manned” the floor at the store, worked for both my Dad and Uncle Byrne, bought cigarettes at Snyders for 27 cents a pack, and found that girls my age tended to work at the dry cleaner’s a couple of doors down.

-Danny Keefe


Ahh, memories!  I worked in the store, too.  Father’s Day was especially fun -all those ties!  And wrapping them in paper.  I don’t think I worked there after Byrne joined.  I think I was living in Washington.

-Mary J Keefe


Facebook post from 2014