Cartoonist wagers on wit with a comic book on casinos

Bob Shemeligian

Tuesday, Sept. 9, 1997 | 10:16 a.m.

If it's true that an artist must suffer to gain recognition, then cartoonist Mark Lewis certainly has chosen the right subject for his artwork.

"I'm an gambling artist," said Lewis, 44, author of "Casino Comics" (Gollehon Books, $6.99), "and I suffer when I gamble."

"Casino Comics" is available at Barnes & Noble Booksellers, B. Dalton and Waldenbooks, as well as several local casino gift shops.

Lewis, who makes his home with his wife, Fiorenza, in Burbank, Calif., has been sketching and painting since he was a teenager.

Over the years he has illustrated for the Toshiba Corporation, but his true love is creating gaming cartoons to illustrate the pain every gamer knows only too well.

For instance, one of his cartoons shows a gambler who has collapsed in front of a slot machine because he played only two coins and then hit a three-coin jackpot.

The caption: "The agony of the cheap."

"A few years ago I noticed a woman leaning against a machine at Circus Circus, and although she had hit a jackpot, you could tell she was also a loser, because she had only two coins in and the second coin pay-out is so much less than the maximum coin pay-out."

Another shows a gambler with a wild look in his eyes holding a sledgehammer and standing over a battered slot machine.

The caption reads: "There are good losers, there are bad losers, and then there's Fred."

The last cartoon shows two gamblers playing penny slots.

Lewis is only too familiar with that scenerio.

"During one of our first trips to Las Vegas years ago, my wife and I ran out of money," Lewis said. "Eventually, we ended up at the penny slots. I'll tell you, Las Vegas is the last place to be when you're broke."

Lewis and his wife, who enjoy keno, slots and a little table action, have made numerous trips to Las Vegas over the past two decades.

"Over the years I think I've joined every slot club in Las Vegas," Lewis said. "I've also acquired several keno accounts in this town.

Lewis' casino experiences date back to the 1960s when he was a teenager living with his family in Lake Tahoe.

"My father, Chuck Lewis, was the sound director of the High Sierra Room at the Sahara Tahoe, and I got to see some shows, and I became familiar with the goings-on in a casino."

One cartoon depicts two hikers walking past a bear dressed like a change girl standing next to a slot machine affixed to a tree, and notes, "Something tells me we're getting close to Lake Tahoe."

In the early 1980s, Lewis began selling illustrations with gaming themes to Gambling Times, at one time the nation's most popular gaming publication.

"I started by selling a single frame to the Gambling Times in 1983, and later I did a mock-up of four cartoons on a page," Lewis said. "They liked the idea, and eventually my work was appearing in every issue."

After the magazine ceased publication several years ago, Lewis thought of putting his favorite gaming cartoons in a book.

"There has never been a book of cartoons with a gambling theme, and so I asked, 'Why not?' " Lewis said. "After all, I certainly am familiar with the subject."

Many of the cartoons touch on subjects familiar to anyone who frequents casinos: the player wearing his frayed and tattered "lucky shirt," or picking up the wrong drink -- the one with the cigarette butt in it -- and taking a sip.

Now that the book has been published, Lewis is concentrating on other projects.

He and partner Len Miller, former editor of Gambling Times, have developed jigsaw puzzles with gaming themes.

Lewis hopes to convince casino executives to sell the puzzles in gift shops or to use them as promotional material.

"They could give them away to slot club members," Lewis said. "You wouldn't believe how popular jigsaw puzzles are today. People love them, and the people who would be interested in these puzzles are casino players, so they like games."

Each puzzle accents logos and familiar interior and exterior scenarios of many area hotels.

Lewis also is coming out with a line of limited edition pen and ink drawings of gaming scenes suitable for framing.

During his most recent trip to Las Vegas in August, Lewis spent some of his free time jotting down ideas and doing some preliminary sketches.

And did he win?

"We didn't quite break even," Lewis said. "Next time we'll do better."

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