Success story in progress

Maybe someday, you can say you witnessed the birth of a star.

In the summer of 2011, a 15-year-old area resident came to The Press with an idea for a comic strip. In August that year we began publishing, every Sunday in the Lifestyles section, "Owen & Logan," the story of a boy and his dog.

The strip's creator, Cameron Morris, has worked energetically on Owen & Logan without ever missing a deadline. He hopes that after high school he can get into a good program that will help him hone his cartooning skills. That's his unwavering career ambition: To do this for a living. For Owen & Logan, Cameron isn't paid anything, but he did receive a nice reward last week.

The Press forwarded several samples of Cameron's comics to a friend who works for a comic strip distributor in the Midwest. The friend was asked to please convince someone who edits syndicated comic strips to give Cameron's samples a look and perhaps provide a suggestion or two on how it could be improved. What came back was astonishing.

In the newspaper comic strip business, no name is bigger than Lee Salem. Mr. Salem is the president of Universal UClick, formerly known as Universal Press Syndicate. Mr. Salem is the person who "discovered" Bill Watterson (Calvin and Hobbes), Garry Trudeau (Doonesbury), Gary Larson (The Far Side) and many others.

To young Cameron's delight, Mr. Salem examined four Owen & Logan panels and wrote this to The Press:

"Please tell Cameron that I think he is off to a terrific start. Based on these four, I think he has a good sense of humor and character, and that is the key to any successful strip."

After offering suggestions for improvement, Mr. Salem concluded:

"I'd be happy to take an occasional look at his work as it develops. We see 'professional' submissions that do not show the promise this man's work does."

Cameron isn't a man - yet. He and his family have faced tremendous challenges on several fronts the past couple of years, and we've watched him grow in the face of that adversity. Like the rest of his family, Cameron doesn't complain; he perseveres. The Morris family takes care of one another, and no matter how difficult things get, they keep smiling.

Just like Owen & Logan keep us smiling.