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Real men read out loud

<p>PINE GROVE &#8212; As the proprietor of an historic movie theater in the quaint little Schuylkill County town of Pine Grove, Louise Miller hardly ever answers her office phone.</p><p>&#8220;It&#8217;s usually someone who doesn&#8217;t want to talk to me; they just want to hear the movie times,&#8221; she said.</p><p>But earlier this year she happened to pick up a call from an artist with an intriguing request. Bob Heim from Wilkes-Barre wanted to conduct a 24-hour &#8220;Cartoonathon&#8221; and he dreamed of doing it onstage.</p><p>&#8220;I didn&#8217;t quite grasp what he wanted to do,&#8221; Miller said.</p><p>Nevertheless, she&#8217;s in the business of making dreams come true &#8212; whether it&#8217;s her own dream of renovating a vintage movie house, a Pine Grove resident&#8217;s dream of seeing the new James Bond movie without driving 25 miles to Frackville, or an artist&#8217;s idea for a different kind of show.</p><p>&#8220;Whoever approaches me with an idea, I always try to run with it,&#8221; she said with a laugh. &#8220;Also, I like to give my patrons something besides movies.&#8221;</p><p>So if patrons make their way to the Pine Grove Theatre, 213 South Tulpehocken St. by 7:15 p.m. Nov. 6, they will see the beginning of Heim&#8217;s interactive Cartoonathon and if they come back at 7:15 p.m. Nov. 7 they&#8217;ll catch his closing &#8220;stand-up&#8221; act.</p><p>In between, he&#8217;ll spend some time (between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m.) at the Pine Grove Truck Stop at exit 100 off Route 81, followed by BG&#8217;s Value Market at 24 Pleasant Valley Road from about 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. and Werner&#8217;s Lumber, 29 South Tulpehocken St., from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. Later stops will include Dominick&#8217;s Pizzeria, 117 E. Pottsville St. and the Red Lion Cafe, 697 Deturksville Road for a couple hours at each location before he returns to the theater.</p><p>&#8220;We needed places where he could interact with people,&#8221; Miller said.</p><p>That&#8217;s what Heim really likes to do. He claims he can turn anyone into a cartoonist in less than a minute, which he recently demonstrated by drawing a few circles and &#8220;upside down carrots&#8221; to create cartoon faces with large noses.</p><p>&#8220;I have a 37-second cartoon class,&#8221; he said, pen flying as he spoke. &#8220;And don&#8217;t you know once some guy standing there with a watch told me it took 48 seconds. I said, &#8216;I dozed off.&#8217; It&#8217;s 37 seconds unless you&#8217;re on your lunch break. Then I can do it in 27 seconds.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;People say I was born with a pencil in my hand,&#8221; he continued. &#8220;Now, I know it was a difficult birth, but I didn&#8217;t pick up the pencil until shortly afterward.&#8221;</p><p>In less than a minute, Heim had drawn two faces. One looked like a dog; one like an older woman with a bun.</p><p>&#8220;It can be whatever you want it to be,&#8221; he said cheerfully.</p><p>An imaginative author and artist who sees animals in clouds and enjoys feeding squirrels in his Wilkes-Barre neighborhood, Heim believes his Cartoonathon will be an adventure. He did something similar in a Wilkes-Barre hotel lobby in 2013, but not many people visited in the middle of the night. He&#8217;s hoping it will be different at the all-night truck stop; maybe travelers will stop by and he can show them how to use dollops of his paint to create abstract art.</p><p>&#8220;This one is good for couples,&#8221; he said, sandwiching paint between two pieces of cardboard and pressing them together to create two colorful circles, one for each person to give to the other.</p><p>Whether he&#8217;s at the Pine Grove Theatre, where &#8220;Spectre&#8221; starring Daniel Craig as James Bond opens this weekend, or any of the other locations, Heim will accept donations to help the theater purchase new digital equipment.</p><p>&#8220;I can&#8217;t predict how this will turn out,&#8221; Miller said. &#8220;He&#8217;s very entertaining, very witty. He always has a comeback or a one-liner. Once you meet him you want more.&#8221;</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Cartoonist Bob Heim sets up an easel to start sketching at his home in Wilkes-Barre. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/web1_TTL110615cartoonist3.jpg</photo0><caption0>Cartoonist Bob Heim sets up an easel to start sketching at his home in Wilkes-Barre. </caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/web1_TTL110615cartoonist1.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Cartoonist Bob Heim gives a demonstration on how to draw a portrait &#8216;in 37 seconds&#8217; at his home in Wilkes-Barre on Monday. Heim is going to put on a 24-hour Cartoonathon to raise money for the Pine Grove Theatre in Pine Grove, Schuylkill County. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/web1_TTL110615cartoonist1.jpg</photo1><caption1>Cartoonist Bob Heim gives a demonstration on how to draw a portrait &#8216;in 37 seconds&#8217; at his home in Wilkes-Barre on Monday. Heim is going to put on a 24-hour Cartoonathon to raise money for the Pine Grove Theatre in Pine Grove, Schuylkill County. </caption1><photoCredit1></photoCredit1></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/web1_TTL110615cartoonist2.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Cartoonist Bob Heim creates abstract art by sandwiching colorful drops of paint between two cardboard squares at his home on Monday. He&#8217;ll help other people create this kind of art during a 24-hour Cartoonathon that will take place Nov. 6-7. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo2>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/web1_TTL110615cartoonist2.jpg</photo2><caption2>Cartoonist Bob Heim creates abstract art by sandwiching colorful drops of paint between two cardboard squares at his home on Monday. He&#8217;ll help other people create this kind of art during a 24-hour Cartoonathon that will take place Nov. 6-7. </caption2><photoCredit2></photoCredit2></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p><strong>By Mary Therese Biebel</strong></p><p>mbiebel@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Mary Therese Biebel at 570-991-6109 or on Twitter @BiebelMT</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Wilkes-Barre cartoonist Bob Heim will hold ‘Cartoonathon’ to benefit Pine Grove Theatre