Interview With Alton Langford

Written by Adam

Perhaps you're wondering why Radical Raccoon is on this page instead of Ranger Rick? Read on to find out why I put him up instead of the more famous raccoon!

One August morning, I discovered that former Ranger Rick artist, Alton Langford had put up his own website, detailing his life, showcasing some of his freelance artwork for current and former clients, and artwork for sale. To see all the great stuff from Alton, please visit http://www.altonlangford.com

Alton's website was awesome, showcasing another side to Ranger Rick's artist that we didn't know about. However, it did not really tell us, fans of Ranger Rick much about what it was like to be an illustrator for Ranger Rick. Thus, I worded Alton and email and we set up a time to talk together. During this interview, I was able to learn much more about the freelance artist, who surprisingly, never intended to become the artist of Ranger Rick! Our question and answer session is reprinted below with permission.

Q: How did you get involved with Ranger Rick?

Alton: I decided to work for Ranger Rick because I had always been a fan of the magazine, the photography, and that they were teaching conservation to kids. I thought I would be lucky to get a freelance artist job with the magazine. I sent a portfolio to Donna Miller, and she wanted me to do an adventure of Ranger Rick as an audition piece, and I said sure I’d do it. Come to find out, they were looking for a new Ranger Rick artist, and they really liked how I interpreted the story and the artwork I drew with it. They wanted to meet me, and soon after they gave me the position. I was just looking for freelance work, so I was delighted with the opportunity to be Ranger Rick's artist. The best part of working there was the people I worked with, like Donna Miller. They were very professional. I felt good that we were reaching a lot of children in the United States and Canada with each issue. We were reaching hundreds of thousands of kids, and I was always happy to help them spread the importance of conservation of wildlife.

Q: Did any character give you trouble when drawing the character?

Alton: No, not really. I remember one time when an image gave me trouble. It was one of Boomer. Boomer was the most difficult to draw because of the structure of his face and the color of his face. Sometimes when you’re painting an image that small, and having that many colors in the face, it can be difficult for it to read without looking like a warbled mess.

Q: Did you have a favorite character that was fun to draw?

Alton: I really liked Scarlett Fox, largely because I created the character. She was a southern belle, and I was a southern boy. I also really liked Boomer. If I was drawing him (Boomer) today, I would probably draw him differently. With Ranger Rick, when I got the job, I was told to draw Ranger Rick differently than what was previously done. I wanted to do more naturalistic colors (e.g. gray) but they wanted it more like the previous drawing so he’d be recognizable so that is why he's brown and yellow. One of the changes I made when I started doing the character, was I started with the Smoky the Bear hat and later changed it to the hat you’re more familiar with. The newer hat was a tribute to my grandfather. He was a Texas rancher. My grandmother always had his hat hanging in the kitchen and I always was looking at that hat. I never got to meet him, and I always heard about how wonderful a person he was. So I gave Ranger Rick my grandfather’s hat. [Now you know why I put Radical at the top and not Rick...sort of a tribute to what Alton originally wanted Ranger Rick to look like.]

Q: How long did it take you to create the illustrations for Ranger Rick (e.g. one adventure story)?

Alton: It is truly hard to say, because I always had more projects going at the same time, so I was always going back and forth. I would say at least a week, but it largely depended on the complexity of the story. Some were much simpler to do than others.

Q: Did you have any second thoughts about a drawing once the magazine was published?

Alton: Most of the time, the story pretty much dictated what I would illustrate. They would leave spaces within the story when they sent me a story so I knew what space I had to put a picture into. I also knew what paragraph I would be illustrating. What I enjoyed the most was instances where I used my own imagination rather than dictating what the story said. One of my favorite parts was the one where the animals were writing letters addressed to Ranger Rick’s readers outside his tree house, and it allowed me to show the animals having fun as it wasn’t a big part of the story. The happy pictures within the stories were my favorites. My only regret is not enough happy pictures were given for me to illustrate. A lot of the situations were sad and depressing.

Q: Why is it that some of your older drawings look duller than the newer ones?

Alton: It could have been just a natural evolution of the colors or it could have been a color reproduction issue. This change didn’t happen overnight. I would say the printing has gotten so much better than it was in the 1980s so the colors are closer to the painting. [This goes against what I had said previously for about three years now, and it was not by design that the colors changed in the issues. I've removed all mention of color changes as a result of learning this.]

Q: All the drawings were actually paintings?

Alton: Yes, all the images were painted with watercolors and gouache.

Q: What and who do you draw for today?

Alton: I do freelance illustrations for other magazines such as Texas Parks and Wildlife and Highlights magazine. I still work for the National Wildlife Federation and publish illustrations in their Your Big Backyard magazine.

Q: Any other things you'd like to share with fans of Ranger Rick that want to know more about you?

Alton: I had a pet hare when I was younger that I bought at a flea market. I painted it so many times, I thought it would be on my tombstone that I was an artist that painted hares. It sold very well, and this hare paid my rent many times. I also had a pet alligator at that time. The reason I gave up on the alligator was because he was looking for a mate, and was bellowing at night for a mate. The neighbors were hearing it and had no idea I had an alligator in my backyard in a pond out back, so I decided to do something about it. I drove it to the zoo. He was already six feet long but I could pick him up without much trouble. I went to the lady to the desk and said I would like to make a contribution. She thought I meant money, but then I told her I wanted to donate an alligator. She gave me a paper bag and told me to put it in there because she thought I had captured one of those small foot-long ones. I went back out to the van and I walked in with this six foot alligator in my hands. She looks at me and calls on the intercom “Help help” and every zookeeper must have thought one of the cobras escaped. {Laughs} I would not recommend any wild animal as a pet. The alligator is still at the Fort Worth zoo today.

Once again I thank Alton Langford for taking the time to sit down with me and talk about his work with Ranger Rick. If you haven't already, please visit his webiste at http://www.altonlangford.com to learn more and see more samples of artwork.