(RIGHT:) Former President Ronald Reagan holds a 'Crock' cartoon during a Rose Garden press conference to honor the artists for their efforts to promote automobile safety. The seat belt cartoon says 'Let the Gripper win one for you.' Courtesy of BILL RECHIN View More Images from this story Visit the Photo Place

Between a CROCK & a HarD Place Cartoonists crank out the jokes

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'Crock' cartoonists Bill Rechin and Don Wilder combine humor and courage under pressure to keep comic strip going under trying circumstances in a changing world. By Michael Zitz

Date published: 3/11/2006

By MICHAEL ZITZ

POTSYLVANIA COUNTY residents Don Wilder and Bill Rechin are developing a new character for their syndicated comic strip "Crock," which appears in newspapers in 10 countries--including The Free Lance-Star.

It's a young woman named Megan.

Soon she'll be joining "Crock's" French Foreign Legion, becoming the first woman soldier in the history of the three-decade-old strip based on the film "Beau Geste."

When "Crock" began in 1972--with gags like soldiers lost in the desert crying "Deodorant!" instead of "Water!"--women weren't put on the front lines in real life.

Things have changed.

And women are not only risking their lives in combat in the desert--which has always been the setting for "Crock"--but have too often had to battle sexual harassment while doing it.

That makes it difficult to stay current and be cute at the same time.

Wilder said gags he wrote years ago, before the war in Iraq, now seem too sadly on the mark.

One had a trooper being kidnapped by the enemy, and Commander Vermin P. Crock saying he'd send a $5 bill as ransom, but wanted change back.

One idea that writer Wilder and artist Rechin are kicking around has Crock, the crusty commander, questioning whether Megan is up to it.

"You realize you'll encounter all types of undesirable situations," Crock says in the strip idea.

Megan replies, "I've experienced those."

Crock says, "I doubt that."

"Obviously," Megan responds, "you've never been to a frat party."

In another idea, the vain Capt. Preppie counsels Megan, "Being a sex symbol is difficult to overcome."

"I can do it," Megan says.

"Not you," Preppie says. "I was talking about myself."

The 71-year-old Wilder and the 75-year-old Rechin--pronounced "WRECK-in"--are under the gun to keep "Crock" relevant in a changing culture and make it funny during a time of war.

It's a difficult balancing act, especially considering what they've been through in their personal lives since the turn of the 21st century.

This is pressure: paying the mortgage by being funny.

This is more pressure: paying the mortgage by being funny on deadline.

Date published: 3/11/2006