Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1963-07-29
ON THE SIDE
From 'MeI' to 'MeII'
In One Easy Lazarus
BY PHILIP II. LOVE
Feature Editor Of the Star

~ may COI1le rs b surprise
to you that wee Women, "
a tiny one-column, cartoon
that appears most weekdays
In the Society-home section,
and Miss Peach" q recent
addition to the daily and
Sunday comics pages, are
drawn by the same artist for
two different newspaper syn
dicates.
The cartooniSt draws Wee
Women under his real name,
Mel Lazarus, for General
Features Corp, and Miss
Peach for the New York Her
ald-Tribune division Of the
Publishers Newspaper Syndi-
cate under the nom de plume,
Nell" For his recently pub
lished first novel. THE Boss
Is Crazy, Too" he borrowed
the extra 81" from his Miss
Peach signature and became
Nell Lazarus. Now he's talking
about writing d play, and q
friend has suggested - kid
dinghy, of course - that he
use the monicker Lem Sura-
zal"-which is his real name
spelled backward.
Lazarus Is q dark, hand
some man of SO who was
born in Brooklyn and never
moved away. He has been a
cartoonist for more than 20
years and takes pride in de-
scribing himself as self
taught"
81 started q couple of cor
respondence courses, but
never finished them" he
says. II even flunked art in
high school,"
Mel - Nell? - well, Laz-
arus started his cartooning
career as q free-lance con-
tributor to magazines. 1t was
q precarious existence, but
his published drawings served
as samples which enabled
him to land a job on the
art staff Of a newspaper. Be-
tween art department chores,
he originated Wee Women
and, a bit later, another
half pint cartoon entitled
LII One" both of which,
the syndicate reports, are
published Gin dozens Of news
papers throughout the United
States and Canada and many
foreign countries" Ui1 One
does not appear locally)
Miss Peach and her Kelly
School," which came along
considerably later, is carried
by nearly 200 papers and has
been published in book form.
"As a kid, I hated school,"
the cartoonist says. at his
strip is my way Of getting
even."
Except for going over to
Manhattan to deliver his car
toons and going out on &C.
casional chalk talk tours,
Lazarus stays pretty close to
home. His wife Horty is
beautiful" he'll tell you, and
their daughters Marjorie, IL,
Susan, 8, and Cathy. not
quite 2, are wonderful" I
haven't seen the children, but
he brought Horty into The
Star office once, and I'll con-
cede that - despite the ugly
little monsters he draws -
he does have an eye for
beauty. His favorite pastime is
relaxing around the house."
which ties In neatly with his
explanation Of why he be-
came q cartoonist::
Its a nice lazy way to
make q living"
The Stars second ost
popular comic panel, MAR
maduke," is half-produced in
Washington. That Is to say,
the gags are dreamed up by
Mrs. Dorothy Leeming, who
lives here, and mailed to the
artist, Brad Anderson, in an
other part Of the country.
("Mr. Tweedy" is our No. /
panelO Says Mrs. Leeming:
II live four blocks from the
White House, which probably
is why President Kennedy has
never written q letter to me,
since we are such close neigh
bors. He has never invited me
to his home, either, which !
think is not very neighborly
of him."
Readers are quick to detect
errors in comics-and quick
to phone or write in about
them. Roy Crane, who draws
"Buz Sawyer" once received
hundreds Of letters pointing
out that the jacket worn by
q Navy officer in one Of his
strips had one too many
buttons. More recently, Mrs.
Nellie Baker, 2l16 r street
NV, wrote in to point out
that a woman in "On Stage"
not only wore a necklace in
some panels and was with
out 1t in others, but changed
from round white earrings to
square black ones between