Campbell's 9-Year-Old Comic Strip Illustrator

"Well then, what do you want to be when you grow up?

A man."

This is what a comic strip first published in the Campbell Press in 1964 said. The creator? A 9 year old boy named Eric Washington.

"He's been drawing since he was 2 years old," says his mother Mary Washington.

Eric Washington's comic strip earned a place in the commemorating the city of Campbell's 60th anniversary of incorporation, alongside images of the local Campbell High School, local government officials and the .

The comic strip, "Ernie" was described by the Campbell Historical Museum as "a young teen trying to navigate through life."

Washington did the cartoons for the Campbell Press for two years and in 1963 won a first place award for his work in the Santa Clara County Fair.