Jim Scancarelli, Class of 1959 in Wakefield High School's Hall of Fame

Reprinted with permission from Warrior News, Fall 2017. For information on alumni from Wakefield High School (Arlington,VA) and the scholarship program, click here.

2017 Inductees into the Hall of Fame

Jim Scancarelli, Class of 1959

Provided by David Mitchell '65,
Hall of Fame Committee, Chair
 

Jim is a cartoonist who writes and draws the syndicated comic strip "Gasoline Alley". He is also a well-known and prize-winning bluegrass fiddler.

Jim's cartoon career started at Wakefield. The student newspaper and literary magazine of his era are filled with his drawings. The student newspaper featured a cartoon "Gus Todian", about a Wakefield custodian. Fifty years later, Jim revived Gus, the custodian at Wakefield, in "Gasoline Alley". During his time at Wakefield, Jim says "Comics were my escape ... The characters became my friends." He says he wasn't a good student and it was the work of several teachers who channeled his desire to draw and taught him the skills he needed to be successful.

From the November 10, 1955 Signal, Wakefield's Student Newspaper

Jim has been a freelance magazine illustrator, wrote and acted in radio programs, and was even the Art Director for "The Johnny Cash Show" in the early 1960s. Jim began his work on Gasoline Alley in 1986, and has collaborated on the Mutt and Jeff comic strip, as well.

From the December 7, 1955 Signal, Wakefield's Student Newspaper

His comic strip often has social and community meanings. Through his comic strip, he brought attention to the construction of the World War II Memorial and the National Museum of the United States Army. In 1988, he received the National Cartoonists Society's Story Comic Strip Award. As a bluegrass fiddler, he founded the Kilocycle Kowboys and was a prizewinner at the Old Fiddlers Convention. The American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress has his fiddle recordings. He jokingly says "I've been playing the fiddle too long to be bad at it."

Jim donated the original boards for the Gasoline Alley Gus Todian strips he did in 2015 and they are on display at school.  Photo courtesy of  Conchita.