Pieces of World's Largest Comic Strip To Be Auctioned On eBay Wednesday, April 21

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CYBERWORLD  (04/19/2004) — Now you can own a section of what was recently proclaimed by Guinness World Records to be the World’s Largest Cartoon Strip.

More than 600 pieces of Mark Pett's "Lucky Cow" cartoon strip, assembled in June 2003 by high school students in the town of Indianola, Miss., and now dismantled, will be auctioned on e-Bay beginning April 21, 2004, in honor of the cartoon feature’s first anniversary of syndication. Proceeds will benefit Gentry High School’s art department. Buyers will also receive the same complete cartoon strip signed by the cartoonist and suitable for framing.

Syndicated in newspapers across the United States such as The Rocky Mountain News, The Detroit News and The Minneapolis Star-Tribune, “Lucky Cow” is a fresh new cartoon strip about the behind-the-scenes antics of a fast-food restaurant of the same name.

The giant "Lucky Cow" comic strip measured 135 feet wide and 47 feet, 9 1/2 inches high -- big enough to cover 35 school buses. The students successfully assembled the "World's Largest Comic Strip" in their high school's parking lot and photographed an aerial view of the strip. Guinness World Records Limited of London sent a letter and certificate documenting the feat as a world's record on Feb. 27, 2004.

Longtime friends Norm Suchar of Maryland and cartoonist Pett of Indianola, Miss., developed the idea for setting the record and quickly enlisted Gentry High art teacher Sarah Miller. By the end of the project, 135 students, nine teachers, a hot-air balloon operator, a pilot, a city utility worker and several local businesses had contributed.

Gentry High students reviewed from four different selections that Pett had drawn and chose a strip wherein his irascible character Clare blows bubbles into a cup of soda that a customer complains is flat. Pett and Miller's students separated the strip into 1,508 fragments. With Miller's help, the students enlarged the fragments onto 1,508 sheets of poster board donated by the local Dollar General distribution center. Finally, a core group of students taped the rows of poster board together into 17 sections and sketched and painted in Pett’s design. Students playing notable roles in finishing the comic strip included Reginald Williams, Jamaal Reece, Sheronda Howard, Lazerrick Turner, Marquetta Beckworth, Corlandus Sibley and Elana Tiggs.

Photographing the record-setting comic strip proved challenging, especially considering Indianola’s lack of hills or tall buildings. Photos were taken using a hot air balloon, a city utility truck, an airplane and a weather balloon using a timer-equipped camera with hopes that at least one method would yield a good photograph.

"This was truly a collaborative effort. None of it would have been possible without the hard work and creativity of Gentry's students," remarked Pett.

After work on the strip was completed, student Elana Tiggs summed up what participants were feeling: “I’m really glad we did all that work. It was hard, but I’m really glad we did it. This is tight!”

Some facts about the World’s Largest Comic Strip:

• The giant comic strip was more than 67,000 times the typical size of a newspaper comic strip.

• If you were to lay the 1,508 sheets of poster board end to end, they would stretch two-thirds of a mile.

• 4,293 feet of packing tape were used to connect the sheets of poster board.

• More than 200 bricks were used to weigh down the comic strip and keep it from blowing away.