![\"MP](\"http:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/dearoldwabash\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2015\/06\/MP-Dooty003-LORES.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0Last month\u2019s post about the creator of Wally Wabash promised a look at Don Cole\u2019s good work after leaving Wabash. Cole has a talent for finding the heart of the matter and bringing that out in his cartoons. Cole and his creation which he called the \u201cCaveman\u201d \u00a0went off to the army together. What resulted is a witty look at army life through the eyes of a private.<\/p>\n Drafted just following Commencement, Cole was inducted into the Army in September of 1952. In no time at all Cole made his mark on the army, as an illustrator in the visual aids section of the MP Board. He created a new character, MP Dooty, which was featured in many training pamphlets and in a regular monthly cartoon panel in the Military Police Journal<\/i>, circulation 20,000. This is a photo of Cole at his desk in the army.<\/p>\n From the Wabash Bulletin<\/i> of June, 1953 we have the following interaction between Dick Banta, the Editor and Don Cole. The exchange starts with Banta\u2019s description of Cole\u2019s work at Wabash:<\/p>\n \u00a0For his contributions to college publications he created a \u201cCaveman\u201d figure which was accepted by his contemporaries as the true rendering of the typical Wabash Man \u2013 a character in no way reminiscent of the Man of Distinction \u2013 who is now, as Cole will tell us, in the army too.<\/em><\/p>\n Cole\u2019s Uncle Sam gave him the nod soon after Commencement. Wondering what might have resulted from the impact of a union between the Armed Services and a Phi Beta Kappa cartoonist, we wrote to ask him for a BULLETIN contribution which would report on Cole in the Army. This is his reply:<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em>Dear Editor:<\/em><\/p>\n So they finally found something for you to do around Wabash \u2013 besides drinking coffee in the Scarlet Inn. I\u2019m sending you some drawings I whipped up in my spare time. And I hope they are what you wanted. You might be interested to know that I am now an illustrator in the Visual Aids Section of the MP Board. The Board handles the doctrine and training of the Military Police Corps.<\/em><\/p>\n As you can see by one of the drawings I sent \u2013 I am doing a monthly comic panel featuring one MP Dooty who is none other than the old CAVEMAN with an MP uniform. Happily enough this character caught the eye of some top brass in the MP corps and they are planning to feature him in film strips and pamphlets for training Military Policemen. I am working on one of these pamphlets at the present \u2013 it\u2019s called ON PATROL WITH MP DOOTY. The comic panel appears, as I said, monthly in the Military Police Journal (circulation 20,000), and the guy seems to be getting popular.<\/em><\/p>\n I was inducted Sept. 2, 1952 and took my basic training with an MP company. And just after Christmas and after some fancy talking I got a permanent assignment with the Board. I consider myself quite lucky and I\u2019m well satisfied with my present lot. I\u2019ll be even more satisfied after May 23rd<\/sup> for on that date I am to be wed to Miss Sonja Hartzell, (my last year\u2019s Pan date).<\/em><\/p>\n Best regards,<\/em><\/p>\n Pvt. Don Cole.<\/em><\/p>\n These images are Cole\u2019s report as printed in the Wabash Bulletin of June, 1953.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n