Stephen Bentley
Cartoonist Profile: Stephen Bentley
Stephen Bentley is an African-American comic strip writer, best known for his comic “Herb and Jamaal.” Bentley was born in 1954 in Los Angeles California. He moved to Pasadena as a teenager and attended John Muir High School. He graduated high school in 1972, and he joined the United States Navy shortly after. This is where Bentley found his love of creating comics. He began drawing comics while he was in the Navy, and he actually used his talents working on newspapers on the base where he was stationed. “After the navy, Bentley attended Pasadena City College and Rio Hondo College majoring in art, English, and fire sciences, before beginning work in advertising.” (“Stephen Bentley”). Bentley also became a deacon in the Episcopal Church. After college, he worked in advertising for a little while but ultimately ended up switching to comics. His most well-known comic is called “Herb and Jamaal.” He wrote the first comic strip for this series in 1989, and it is still going today as a daily comic and a Sunday strip. Bentley spoke about his comic to help people better understand the meaning and reasoning behind the ongoing comic strip and he said “I use the kids in my cartoon [Herb and Jamaal] in order to relate difficult and controversial issues in a very tactful and poignant way.” (“Stephen Bentley – Illustration History”). This really stands out from a lot of the popular comic strips because he uses a sense of humor and lightheartedness to speak about ongoing issues in our world. Bentley is also a part of the Creators Syndicate, and he retrieved his syndicate on September 13, 2013. “Herb and Jamaal” is about these two title characters Herb who is a former quality control technician, and Jamaal who is a former NBA center. These two friends run a diner together, and it shows their experiences whilst they run it. They are two very different people from two very different backgrounds, so it is very unique to see how they interact with one another on the page. In the most recent strip (9/17/2023) there was a panel that stood out to me. It was very interesting to see in the second panel of this strip how Bentley created an entire atmosphere based off of facial expressions. Herb sees Jamaal and already knows that Jamaal has been thinking, and then he uses a slight bit of humor essentially saying that when Jamaal is alone with his thoughts it’s never a good thing. He uses pastel-type colors in this panel that stand out, but they are also not overpowering the context of the strip. “The artist can also decide to include visual correspondences to link various images through the tier.” (“How to Study Comics & Graphic Novels: A Graphic Introduction to Comics Studies by Oxford Comics Network – Issuu”). “How to Study Comics and Graphic Novels” describes the artist’s uses of color and visual correspondence in their work which connects directly to the use of color and facial expressions in “Herb and Jamaal.” Bentley uses these pastel-like colors to capture his audience visually, and in the second tier of the comic, he changes the angle at which the characters are perceived multiple times. By changing the view of the panels it is giving the reader the feeling that the characters are moving in the way in which they are drawn. He also does a good job of putting the text bubbles in the exact right place so that the reader can scan across each panel and see things in the order they are meant to be seen. For example, the reader would scan across the panel and see Herb saying something to Jamaal, and then after that, the reader would see Jamaal’s reaction to what Herb had just said.
Comic Strip Profile: “Herb and Jamaal”
“Herb and Jamaal” is a lighthearted comic strip story told through the eyes of Stephen Bentley. He began writing this comic strip after meeting an old friend at a high school reunion and rekindling their old friendship. This experience of meeting an old friend and becoming a new friend once again inspired Bentley. The comic can be seen as a sort of tribute to these long-lasting connections that people can form in their lives. The strip also symbolizes that we should live life to the fullest and create relationships because that is what makes life worth living. Throughout the years of this lighthearted comic, there are many jokes and laughs, but at the end of the day, the main characters Herb and Jamaal are always there for one another no matter what. In the strip above the two friends are trying to remember why they stopped playing billiards, and they allude to Jamaal being hit in the head because they talk about how Herb used to hit him with a golf ball whenever they played. This use of allusion sets up the perfect scenario for a comedic ending when Herb ends up hitting Jamaal in the head with the billiards ball as well.
Wikidata Profile: Stephen Bentley
https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q16186149
Stephen Bentley’s Wikidata page shows a lot of biological content as you would expect, and it also has a lot of basic biographical information as well. It tells us where he is from, his occupation, ethnicity, etc. The first thing that I noticed when going through his data set is that there is absolutely no data on his education. Stephen Bentley was a highly educated man being that he graduated from college with three majors (English, Art, and Fire Sciences) in completely different subjects. There was also no mention of his time served in the United States Navy. This was a very impactful time in his life not only because he served our country as a young man, but also began his comic journey whilst in the Navy. The data set also has no mention of his major comic “Herb and Jamaal.” This is the greatest and most well-known work that he has created in his career, yet there is no mention of it. The best way to improve his Wikidata profile would be to go more into depth about his upbringing in society, including his journey of how he began to create the work that he is so well known for. It is a necessity to include data about his comic “Herb and Jamaal,” due to the fact that it is such a well-known comic and that it has been written since 1989.
Stephen Bentley.“Stephen Bentley.” About Stephen Bentley, 2023,
https://www.creators.com/author/stephen-bentleyAccessed 9/17/2023
Early Life
Stephen Bentley was born in 1954. He was born in Los Angeles California, but moved to Pasadena as a teenager. Bentley joined the United States Navy shortly after high school. This is where he began writing comics for the first time. Bentley wrote newspaper cartoons for the newspaper for the paper that the Naval base had where he was stationed. After a few years in the US Navy Bentley decided to attend college. He attended both Pasadena City College and Rio Hondo College. He majored in art, English, and fire sciences. After college he began working in the advertising business before moving on to creating comics full time.
Bentley’s Life and “Herb and Jamaal”
Stephen Bentley’s first professional gig was creating the “Herb and Jamaal” comic strip, which made its debut in 1989. Bentley was primarily known for “Herb and Jamaal” and didn’t have significant other comic strip projects during his career.The strip was syndicated by Creators Syndicate and published in numerous newspapers. Over the years, “Herb and Jamaal” remained a relatively consistent and character-driven comic strip, focusing on the lives and interactions of the two main characters, Herb and Jamaal. Bentley’s comic strip didn’t have any major plot or style changes, but it continued to explore different themes of friendship, humor, and everyday life. Stephen Bentley’s signature style in “Herb and Jamaal” was essentially just simple and clean line art. The strip had a distinctive humor and used the interactions between the two main characters to convey relatable and laughable situations. This comic strip received a lot of praise for its humor and relatability, but it did not receive any major awards or distinctions during its time. “Herb and Jamaal” focused on the lives and conversations of two African American friends, Herb and Jamaal. It explored a wide range of topics, from everyday observations and humor to discussions on friendship and relationships. “Herb and Jamaal” never ended up evolving into any other form of media such as a television show or film. Bentley was a fairly private person, so there is a bit of a lack of information on his personal life, but he was a deacon of a church, which was an accomplishment that he has been very proud of. Stephen Bentley decided to retire from creating “Herb and Jamaal” in 2008 after nearly two decades of producing the strip. His decision to retire was personal, and it marked the end of his comic strip’s regular publication.
Timeline Link
Exhibit VS. Timeline
The most major difference that I found in creating this digital exhibit versus the timeline was the layout. The timeline is sort of a short and sweet version of what this digital exhibit is supposed to be. Both of these different forms of digital representation work well to provide insight and information to outside viewers, but I think that the digital exhibit does a better job of getting its point across. The digital exhibit provides a lot more information about the actual author and their comic strip, whereas the timeline is more of a short summary and view into what the digital exhibit is showing.
Project #2 Rough Draft
Stephen Bentley is a comic writer who was very fortunate to have had pretty much his first work published. He began by doing single panel cartoons for the Navy, but his first major comic creation after that was “Herb and Jamaal.” Bentley became very successful with this comic strip, so successful that it was nationally syndicated. Bentley never created any other comic strips besides his series of “Herb and Jamaal.” This comic is very interesting to read since it is a humorous comic strip that includes underlying intentions. Bentley often used his comic to address ongoing issues within society. These issues could be small or large, but he was unafraid to get people talking about these social issues. He also wasn’t attempting to say anything that would be controversial, but he was simply attempting to address the social issues in which he deemed important. There are not a ton of comics that include humor and address real world issues. This is one of the things that made “Herb and Jamaal” so relatable and popular. It was the fact that Bentley wasn’t providing any sort of solution to a problem, but he was rather raising awareness of problems to allow people to try and figure them out. Bentley also used two black men as his main characters, which is something that is not often seen in comics. This held the value of diversity within comics as well. Most comics that have been created feature a mainly white cast, but Bentley broke that barrier when he created his most famous comic strip. Bentley also touched on social issues in the black community at times throughout his years of writing this comic.
TimelineJS: Stephen Bentley
Google Sheets Link
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1nzbdFh1nbhI1CedGE5wHE8RDeWOriOB6BhJcukB3YrM/edit#gid=0
Timeline Link
Timeline Essay
I created a timeline of the African American cartoonist Stephen Bentley’s life. Bentley was most well known for his comic strip “Herb and Jamaal.” In the timeline I include information about Bentley’s personal life, his life creating comics, and some information about “Herb and Jamaal.” Through this timeline you can see the values that Bentley holds within his life. Bentley was an educated man who attended two colleges and majored in three completely different things. He had a very well balanced education majoring in art, English, and fire sciences. Bentley valued education to a high extent. Bentley also served his country in the United States Navy. He served the country, and believed in the values that our country holds dear. He was willing to give up time in his life to serve something greater than himself. The largest value that can be found within the timeline is the love of helping others. Bentley created a non-profit bike service for underprivileged people, and he became a deacon in a Catholic church. He was loved by everyone, and was involved in his community doing whatever he could to help out. I honestly can’t say that there is one specific thing that viewers should look out for within this timeline because Bentley has been involved in so many different things in his lifetime. All of the things he has been involved in and accomplished are fascinating to read about and look at. Bentley has lived an extraordinary life being a leader of a church, creating his own organization, as well as accomplishing many things in the world of comics. He is a very successful man, and it is important to note that he is an African American man. This is important because in the world of comics there are not nearly as many authors or creators that are from minority groups as there are from majority groups. Through my research of Stephen Bentley I found out that he keeps his personal life very private, I couldn’t find anything that mentioned if he had a wife, girlfriend, or children. I also found that most every website had pretty much the exact same information as Wikipedia. I lucked out with a couple of websites that had actual quotes from Bentley, which provided a bit of insight into his thought process behind “Herb and Jamaal” and his lif and values. I hope that this timeline of Stephen Bentley will inspire the audience. I always thought of comic writers to only have the skill to write and draw comics, but this virtual presentation of Bentley provides proof that this is not the case at all. Bentley is a very hard working, caring, and involved person. I think that we can all learn from the extraordinary life that he continues to live to this day. I hope that the audience gains a better understanding of community and values that are important for people to have. Bentley is a very important figure in his community, and I think that we can all learn that thinking of others and being involved are amazing things that we can do to not only better our lives, but the lives of others as well.
About Stephen Bentley
Stephen Bentley is a fairly well known comics artist within the industry. His comic “Herb and Jamaal” is has a majority black cast, with pretty much all of the main characters being black. During the creation of my timeline project I discovered that Bentley is so much more than just a cartoonist. Within his community he is not necessarily as well known for being a comic strip writer, but more so that he is a very loving and giving man. Throughout my research I found just as much, if not more about how he helped his community than about his work in comics. Bentley is a person who does many things to help out his community, he is a deacon in the church, he started a non-profit bike service for underprivileged people, and he served in the United States Navy. Bentley has lived a life in the pursuit of happiness for others, he has served his country, community, and he has provided meaningful work to the comics industry. I found this to be the most interesting part of my research because I had never thought that a comic creator could do so much for so many people through comics and everyday life.
One major impact of Bentleys comic “Herb and Jamaal” is its impact on the comics community, as well as the comics community. Looking at the most popular comics throughout the world, most of them are using a predominantly white cast. Bentley does the opposite in his comic by using a mainly black cast. This is very important to his work being that he uses his comics to raise attention to some of the issues and controversies going on within the black community. His comic has made an impact in the industry of comics because he is giving representation to the black community through his comics unlike most of the main comics. This representation goes beyond the skin color of his character, but rather the greater impact he has are the political issues that he brings up. Bentley does not attempt to solve or persuade anyone, but he brings it to the attention of his readers. He is giving the black community a voice through comics, and not many others are doing this. His comics are meant to be humorous, but they also allow for a deeper connection to real world issues.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the life and work of Stephen Bentley and his comic “Herb and Jamaal,” showcase a unique blend of humor, social awareness, and personal values. Bentley’s journey through life from being in the Navy to a deacon in the Episcopal Church and a successful cartoonist is a testament to his passion and commitment to making a positive impact on comics and his community. Beyond his accomplishments in the comics industry, Bentley’s commitment to education, the military service, and community involvement supports his character. His decision to retire from “Herb and Jamaal” in 2008 marked the end of an era, but his legacy as a passionate and talented individual continues. In exploring Bentley’s life and work, it becomes evident that his impact extends beyond his comics. He has left an unforgettable mark on the industry, not only through his comics, but also through his dedication to serving others. He is a role model for aspiring comic artists and a pioneer for diversity in comics, Stephen Bentley’s legacy stands as a testament to the power of storytelling and the ability of comics to address and influence society as a whole. Stephen Bentley is still alive to this day, and although he is retired from comics, he is still living a full life. He is currently living in Northern California, and he is still a deacon in the episcopal church. He spends his days helping the community, whether it be working with the youth, or brewing beer for fundraisers that are held.
References
“How to Study Comics & Graphic Novels: A Graphic Introduction to Comics Studies by Oxford Comics Network – Issuu.” Issuu.com, issuu.com/oxfordcomicsnetwork/docs/how_to_study_comics___graphic_novels-a_graphic_int.
“Stephen Bentley.” Wikipedia, 22 Feb. 2022, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Bentley.
“Stephen Bentley – Illustration History.” Www.illustrationhistory.org, www.illustrationhistory.org/artists/stephen-bentley#:~:text=In%20a%20December%2014%2C%201999. Accessed 17 Sept. 2023.
“About Herb and Jamaal Comic Strips – GoComics.” Www.gocomics.com, www.gocomics.com/herbandjamaal/about. Accessed 24 Sept. 2023
“Stephen Bentley.” Round Rock Public Library, discovery.roundrocktexas.gov/Author/Home?author=%22Bentley%2C+Stephen%22. Accessed 29 Oct. 2023
“GCD :: Creator :: Stephen Bentley (B. 1954).” Www.comics.org, www.comics.org/creator/20956/. Accessed 30 Oct. 2023.
“Stephen Bentley.” Lambiek.net, www.lambiek.net/artists/b/bentley_stephen.htm. Accessed 30 Oct. 2023.
“About Stephen Bentley | Creators Syndicate.” n.d. Www.creators.com. Accessed December 15, 2023. https://www.creators.com/author/stephen-bentley#.
Created By: Zach Vigue
I am a senior at the University of Richmond, from Apex, North Carolina. I’m majoring in Rhetoric and Communications with a minor in Entrepreneurship, and I am also a lacrosse player at the university
Comments
One response to “Zach Vigue — “Stephen Bentley””
Really liked the format of the writing and how you went through his life into his work and how to two crossed. I think it was really cool learning how he uses kids and jokes to tackle on going worldly issues. I would love to learn more about how he uses facial expressions and how they have evolved over time. I think one thing to work on is explaining the quotes more throughout the piece