PR: Gasoline Alley comic series features Army Coins and National Army Museum

[Fundraising in comics for a local museum]

For Immediate Release: October 4, 2011

Contact: COL David R. Fabian (USA-Ret.)

(703) 562-4162

 

New Gasoline Alley Comic Series Features Army Commemorative Coins and the National Army Museum

 

Continuing his long-time support of the military, award-winning cartoonist Jim Scancarelli has penned a series of Gasoline Alley comic strips featuring the 2011 Army Commemorative Coins.  These special syndicated comics will run between Wednesday, October 5 and Tuesday, October 18, 2011. Scancarelli first volunteered the character Skeezix Wallet, a fictional Veteran who had served in the U.S. Army between 1942-45, as a spokesperson for the National Museum of the United States Army in January 2010 in a seven week series of the Gasoline Alley comics.  Now, while continuing to raise awareness of the National Army Museum, Skeezix will also bring attention to the Army Commemorative Coins benefitting the Museum's construction, on sale until December 16 through the US Mint.

 

The Army Commemorative Coin series contains three coins– the $5 gold coin, silver dollar, and copper clad half-dollar. A portion of the proceeds of these coins goes toward constructing the National Army Museum.  The Museum is scheduled to open in Fort Belvoir, Va., outside Washington, DC, in 2015, and will honor America's Soldiers, preserve the history of America's oldest military branch, and educate Americans about the Army's role in our nation's development. At present, the US Army is the only service branch without its own museum.

 

Gasoline Alley is a long-running comic strip first published on November 24, 1918. Widely recognized as an innovative pioneering strip, Gasoline Alley was the first to depict its characters aging through generations as the decades progressed.  In appreciation for Scancarelli's support, the Army Historical Foundation created a profile for "Sergeant Wallet" the Foundation's Registry of the American Solider by piecing together his wartime adventures from old copies of the Gasoline Alley comic strip; Sergeant Wallet's entry can be found  here.  The Registry of the American Solider provides an opportunity for anyone who served in the U.S. Army to have his or her name and service history placed on record at the National Army Museum.

 

Jim Scancarelli, recipient of the 1988 National Cartoonists Society's Story Comic Strip Award, says, "Skeezix went to war just like our real-life servicemen and women, and the comic strip captured his fictive adventures from enlistment through discharge and transition back to civilian life. His fictional status as an Army veteran is what prompted me to volunteer him as a spokesperson for the…National Army Campaign."

 

"The Army Historical Foundation is thankful for the continued support of Jim Scancarelli and Gasoline Alley comic strip," said COL David R. Fabian (USA-Ret.), Communications Director, Army Historical Foundation. "Sgt. Wallet and the rest of the Gasoline Alley characters are icons that Americans have grown to love and continue to identify with over time. Jim's help in spreading the word about the Museum and the Army Commemorative Coins is simply another in the long line of contributions he has made, and for which the Army Historical Foundation is profoundly grateful."

 

The Gasoline Alley comic strip featuring the Army Commemorative Coins and the National Army Museum can be found here beginning October 5, 2011, and Army Commemorative Coins can be purchased from the US Mint here.

 

About the Army Historical Foundation

 

The Army Historical Foundation establishes, assists, and promotes programs and projects which preserve the history of the American Soldier and promote public understanding of and appreciation for the contributions by all components of the U.S. Army and its members.  The Foundation serves as the Army's official fundraising entity for the Capital Campaign for the National Museum of the United States Army.  The Museum will be constructed at Fort Belvoir, Va., to honor the service and sacrifice of all American Soldiers who have served since the Army's inception in 1775.  For more information on the Foundation, the National Museum of the United States Army and the Army Commemorative Coins, visit www.armyhistory.org.

 

 

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