Q&A with Maranee Landau

Q&A with Maranee Landau, author of The Wonderful Comic Books of Kenneth Landau 

1- Q- What inspired you to write about your fathers career?

A- When my father passed away in July 2012, I came across artwork, letters, comic strips, and collectibles I’ve never seen before. I found diaries of my grandfather's who is a concert violinist for MGM studios, and a diary of my fathers. It took me about a year to realize that there was a story here that needed to be told. One that many people would be very interested in. When someone by the name of Shaun Clancy contacted me because he had interviewed my father and wanted to do an article for Alter Ego magazine, he told me to contact Mark Evanier which I did. Turns out he grew up down the street from me and knew my older brother very well, and my dad. I think that’s when I wanted to start writing a story about my father and what he had to go through to become a cartoonist and comic book artist.

2- Q- What are your memories growing up surrounded by comics and cartoons your father drew?

A- Honestly, it was just what my dad did. Other fathers worked at the electric company or sold real estate, my father was a comic book / animation artist. Of course his comic books were way before I was born and prior to working at Disney. I do remember when he worked at Hanna-Barbera doing multiple cartoons like the Jetsons, Smurfs, Flintstones etc. One memory that sticks out in my head when  I was maybe 6 years old, he was working on a Flintstones layout scene, he sat me on his lap and showed me how he was going to have Fred go through the living room past Dino the dinosaur, to the kitchen and talk to Wilma about something. He flipped through the pages as I watched Fred running. This was how it was done back then.  I was slightly amused. Another time early on a Saturday morning, he told me “Honey we need to watch the Oddball Couple this morning, (a new cartoon he worked on that only lasted one season with Hannah/Barbera) I penciled your name in the background and it says 'Maranee- Fortune Teller' in the background at a booth, as they run onto the pier“As I was sitting there watching it, there it was “Maranee- Fortune Teller“ I got a kick out of it but really didn’t give it much thought.

3- Q- How did your father Ken begin his career? A-The answer to this one is very long and detailed, but in short my grandfather Otto Landau was a violinist in the orchestra for Disney studios, MGM studios, and RKO and worked on films & musicals. He worked at Disney for a long time in the orchestra for all of the Disney movies & shorts. When my father Ken turned 15 Disney was working on Bambi. Walt was a friend of my grandfather and asked him if he knew anyone that can just do basic background work so the other animators that work for Disney could concentrate on the more detailed part of the project. Without hesitation my grandfather Otto said his son can draw anything although he’s only 15. Disney said bring him in the studio. My father was so excited to actually be doing artwork professionally for Walt Disney, he dropped out of high school, took on the project and worked with Disney full-time. Disney seeing Ken’s potential, quickly moved him upstairs where he started working with the other seasoned animators doing Walt Disney shorts. Ken was asked to draw Goofy and Pluto. Which he did for many years until he got drafted at age 18.

4-Was your father always artistic or did he go to art school to learn?

A- When Ken was just a child he began drawing. I’ve come across some artwork that he did when he was just a kid. After he worked for Disney for three years drawing cartoons and he knew he wanted to be a “famous comic strip artist“ just like Charles Schulz. That was his dream. However after he got out of the army, and had married my mother, he drew for catalogs and newspapers for advertisements but he couldn’t figure out how to get into what he really wanted to do, 'comic books.' So he decided to go to the Los Angeles art institute, and learn how to perfect body. Men and women, but mostly women. He loved the womens body and made it a passion to perfect it. He also concentrated on faces and detailed shading. That was his specialty and what he ended up being known for later on.

5-Q- What path did he follow artistically after his comic book career ended?

A- Ken never stopped creating comic strips. A syndicated comic strip is what he dreamed of and he never stopped. I have a collection of over 22 comic strips that he presented to multiple newspapers to get into syndication. One strip he did take over for the artist was Dragnet. That was published as well as a couple of other smaller comic strips for the Army newspaper that Ken created and drew. While Ken was working on all of these comic strips he was also working for Hanna-Barbera doing animation. He figured he needed to keep drawing, that was his passion so he took the job which was very good at the time.

6- Q- Is there a secret project that not many know about that was published?

A- Well, yes. 1973 when comic X-rated drawings got popular after Fritz the Cat, Ken decided to do his own series of books. After a year of trying to get them published he finally found a publisher- Greenleaf publishing. Interesting enough he ended up publishing three books under a pseudonym Vern Kent. The books were called Cuthbert Crotchpheasant, each with different subtitles. They were very dirty X-rated cartoon-books, yet very funny. He also published two other books through the same company under different titles, but Cuthbert seemed to be the one that was taking off. Making millions on sales around the world, the publishers ended up being dishonest and withheld a fortune from Ken that he was never able to recover. Then out of nowhere the publishers were arrested and charged with 'soliciting porn through the mail' which at that time was a felony. They were sentenced to three years in prison and once again Ken was out of work searching for a new publisher to pick up where he left off.

7- Q- What are you hoping to accomplish by publishing his art work and following Biography on his life?

A- Oh, thats very easy. The sky is the limit in my mind. I see my father’s biography, which will hopefully be published in the next year, being written into a time period piece for either film or a Netflix mini series. Possibly a documentary on showing the struggles for this comic book artist back in the 40s and 50s. I have so much information that has never been told that nobody knows about, I have letters from famous people to my father that were comic book creators, I have original images too. A plethora of information, that I think would be a interesting story to be told.

8- Q- How has writing this first book affected your life?

A-I feel like the ball is finally rolling. I began working on this project about 10 -12 years ago. Writing on the computer here and there, finding more information about my father online and through people who inadvertently contacted me. I found so much information stored in boxes in the garage I never knew about, and so many items that he kept I never knew existed. I created a T-shirt line with some of his images on them and they did pretty well in a couple of shops locally, but what I really want is to get his story out.

9- Q- as What are your next plans with this project?

A-Same answers earlier.  Get the biography of my father’s life story which is incredibly interesting, published, and do a feature film about his life and what it was like to grow up as an artist in the 1940s & 1950s.

10- Q- Besides social media, do you have other ways to get information on Ken's legacy?

A- Yes I have a website www.kennethlandau.com. I have a LinkedIn site T-shirts that I was selling, of course there’s also an Instagram page and Facebook that is updated weekly with all of his information. Any questions can also be emailed to KennethLandauArtist@gmail.com