SAFFORD — The Friends of the Safford Library are hosting a special event Thursday evening, focusing on the work of artist Hal Empie.
Empie served as the pharmacist for Safford and Duncan, but it was his art that spread his name across the Southwest and the nation.
Thursday discussion will be led by Empie’s daughter, Ann Groves, who will focus on her father’s cartooning.
“In ’34, when he was looking around the drugstore one day, he saw some curled up postcards. And he thought, ‘You know, I can do better than that,’ so that’s when Empie Kartoon Kards were born,” Groves said.
Empie’s one-panel cartoons were printed in dozens of newspapers across the Southwest, as well as in Arizona Highways magazine. His cartooning is also featured in the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum at Ohio State University, and in the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History.
Groves’ presentation will take place Thursday, Oct. 21, at 5:30 p.m., in the Safford City-Graham County Library program room. Admission is free and the Friends of the Library will have books on Empie’s art available for purchase.
