NY's Comic's Creators History on the walls of its pubs
[url]https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/11/nyregion/the-sistine-chapel-of-comic-strip-art.html[/url]
The wall wasn’t destined to become an artifact when it was drawn in 1976. Instead, it was created spontaneously in under 30 minutes. Although Costello’s opened on the corner of 44th and 3rd, it would relocate three times mostly within the span of a block, before settling at its final address, 225 East 44th Street, in 1974. It was here that the bar’s owner, Timothy Costello, wanted new art to accompany the Thurber murals, which had become famous showpieces of the saloon, so he enlisted the help of Bill Gallo, a Daily News cartoonist. But Mr. Gallo didn’t want to compete with Thurber’s simple, witty cartoons drawn on beaverboard panels. So he proposed to Mr. Costello something of a stunt: “You close this place up for 24 hours and offer up free drinks and food, and I’ll get the best cartoonists in the country to paint your wall,” he said. Thus, that spring, 30 or so of America’s best-known cartoonists gathered to doodle their signature creations in what later became the Overlook.
