Sunday mornings with the funny pages spread everywhere, remember giggling at Garfield’s enormous stomach?
Today, your attention may be drawn to more serious newspaper sections, but cartoons and cartoonists do still exist, and here’s a secret: meto Detroit is home to one of the best. Birget Keil is creator of “Just Bea,” a socially and environmentally conscious golden-haired gal, who, with her sidekick Buster the dog, seeks to make a difference in every way she can.
“I love to help make people aware of important issues and realize that with a blog and a cartoon, it’s easier for people to be engaged. I can offer factoids about what they can do to be involved and it makes it a little more fun,” says Keil, who lives in Troy with her 10 year old Scottish Terrier, Piper.
At San Diego’s Comic-Con in July, Just Bea stood proudly with Calvin and Hobbes, Doonesbury, Beetle Baily and many others as author Chris Sparks won an Eisner Award for Team Cul de Sac: Cartoonits Draw the Line at Parkinson’s. The anthology, which has raised more than $100,000 for the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s research and is available at local bookshops and through Amazon.com, honors Cul de Sac creator Richard Thomson, who has the disesase.
The cause is personal for Keil. “My mom has Parkinson’s, so this is close to my heart. On summer vacations, my mom would teach me to draw, and cartooning has been in my blood forever. It’s just what I do,” says Keil.
And Keil is as busy as her character’s name implies. Through her work, she has actively supported the National Statue of Liberty Foundation, the Brides Project and the Michigan Humane Society. As local sales are important to Keil, she currently is negotiating with local retailers to carry her Just Bea Michigan-themed greeting cards, of which she donates a portion to Pets for Patriots a non-profit that places adult homeless dogs and cats with U.S. military families.
Keil’s passion for the environment partners her with Green Living Science, a non-profit that teaches schoolchildren about recycling. “I created buttons and T-shirts for their events, and developed their curriculum,” she says.
A favorite project is Happy Trails Michigan, a book and mitten map loaded with Michigan history and quizzes that Keil co-created, now available at ACO, Meijer and Yellow Door Art Market in Berkley. “The kit’s cotent follows Michigan grade school curriculum and offers tips on how to gravel green, too,” says Keil, who is working solo on TravelUggs USA, a atravel kit that also includes the other 49 states. “It’s a keepsake with travel tips, decals and a pocket on each page for coins and rocks that you have found.”
Keil, a former advertising creative director, is working toward editorial blogging and national newspaper syndication for Just Bea. “This is something I’ve always aspired to, and I’m thrilled to bring my talent to my work. Editorial cartoons reallymake people stop and think, and show them how they can make a difference inthe world.” Find Birget Keil’s “Just Bea” at justbecartoon.com
Source: Styleline Magazine / by Claire Charlton, Photo curtesy of Nicole Reno
