Sid Couchey

For his first job after art school, Couchey assisted John Lehti on the comic strips Tommy of the Big Top and Tales from the Great Book.

In his home, Sid displayed an original piece from Tales from the Great Book, in which he appears as the census taker and scribe for the Pharaoh.

In the early 1950s, Couchey worked on backgrounds for the Lassie, Big Town and Howdy Doody TV tie-in books.

Around that time, Jim Heltz of Green Mountain Video worked with Couchey to create the “Drinking Dog/Cool Cat” series as part of an alcohol-awareness program for the State of Vermont.

The last cartoon of Rascal showed him with terminal rabies being helped to walk at his retirement party by Drinking Dog & Cool Cat.

(Source: Harveyville Fun Times Vol.12, #47, 2002) Calvin Castine, writer and videographer of Hometown Cable in Champlain, New York, invited Couchey, along with famed cartoonist Arto Monaco, creator of the Land of Makebelieve amusement park, to join him in the production of a comic book honoring the memory of Tom Tyler, a B-movie hero and matinee idol who was born in Port Henry, New York.

Couchey and his wife Ruth made appearances at book signings and comic-book conventions, in addition to visiting cartoon museums and libraries.

Couchey completed a series of paintings that echo his professional training, Champy in the Style of the Old Masters, which has been on display in Plattsburgh and at the Ticonderoga Cartoon Museum.

[1] The Heritage Society of Willsboro, New York, invited Couchey to use part of their newly renovated facility as a permanent home for the display of his paintings and drawings.