Fred Lasswell - Looking Back at Age 79

Looking Back At Age 79

In 1996, Lasswell reflected on the increase of social commentary into comic strips:

Now you have all these little messages all over the page. I feel like saying, "If they'll keep this stuff off the comics page, I promise to stay off the editorial page." I just try to do what tickles me. You can't go to school and take a course in sense of humor, and if you don't love this stuff, it gets to be just like chopping wood. It can be a real chore. I've always believed that creative talent gravitates to the marketplace. Someone told me once to always remember that there's never room at the bottom. But there's always room at the top.

Lasswell lived for many years in Tampa, Florida. When he died in 2001, he was survived by his wife, Shirley, three sons and a daughter. Editorial cartoonist John R. Rose, who began as Lasswell's inking assistant in 1998, became the Snuffy Smith artist after Lasswell's death. Margaret Shulock is one of the strip's uncredited writers.