Ed's earliest exposure to pop art and pop culture images did not begin as a starving artist in New York in the 1960s. He became immersed in comic strips and drawing very early in his life. It was a Sunday morning ritual to listen to his dad reading the comics out loud while lying on the living room floor. Later, Ed devoured the Sunday Chicago Tribune and Sun Times comics on his own, not so much for the story lines themselves, but because he was particularly attracted to the drawing styles used in Prince Valiant and Tarzan of the Apes. Ed himself began to show signs of promise as a draftsman at this time. He was a fan of Burne Hogarth's drawings, then, and throughout his life. (It is an interesting coincidence that Hogarth began his career at the Chicago Art Institute as a preteen and was a skilled draftsman at a very young age).

During Ed's early formative years he also had access to art materials not typically found in a blue collar home. These were the post depression years of WWII and money was short for the family of a bakery truck driver. Therefore, it was fortuitous that art materials such as good camel's hair brushes, pans of watercolor pigments, and books on cartooning appeared in the Paschke household. His paternal uncle had taken art classes as a young boy and passed his art materials on for his nephews to play with.

In more than one interview as a mature artist, Ed referred to his memory of cartoon figures his dad (Ed Paschke Sr.) had painted on a wooden toy chest somewhere during the early '40s. The visual "magic" of these painted figures (several of Snow White's Dwarfs) impressed Ed for the rest of his life.

By fourth grade, Ed began drawing his own "in- house" comic strip about football players. These strips were rendered in bright colors and combined the knowledge he had gained from the funnies about how to draw people engaged in dynamic physical activity (i.e. Prince Valiant and Tarzan) with his emerging love of football.

Drawing comics eventually gave way to drawing of other things following the family's move to rural Wisconsin. Ed drew horses, deer running through the forest, and -chickens. Ed had a pet chicken named "Cheepy" back then (circa 1948-500. Cheepy spent a lot of time sitting on Ed's shoulder and no one else's. The Lyndon Station farm had a very large population of less tame chickens, turkeys, and ducks. (Note the frequent appearances of chicken and other "bird" images in Ed's later paintings, prints, and posters). The chickens produced eight dozen, or so, eggs per week, which had to be hand washed and sold in town at one of the two general stores. Ed hated the job of washing the eggs, but kept at it with "guidance". Turkeys and ducks were slaughtered, on-site, and sold in town for meat. The poultry "sacrifices" were usually somewhat festive occasions in which the Paschke family was joined by friends who helped with "bleed-outs" and feather plucking. Beer was always involved in these events and young Ed always enjoyed sipping beer offered to him (in secret) by the adults.

Around the time the Paschke family moved to Wisconsin (Ed was in the 3rd grade) the boys looked a lot at the "Johnson Smith" Catalog with some it's strange and exotic products, always accompanied by comic book-like line drawings. Money still in short supply but some things were ordered by mail order from the "Johnson Smith"catalog like a wax mouse to scare people with, and a little book explaining how to do Ju Jitsu. The drawings in the ju-jitsu manual were simple black and white line drawing of people involved in dynamic physical activity. They were studied intensely for clues about positions, leverage and pressure points, and how to effectively carry out the moves. Ju Jitsu was pacticed in the front yard in Lyndon Station during the summer. An old mattress was allowed out of the house to practice on. Later, in more affluent times back in Chicago, two pairs of boxing gloves were received as gifts and used in "boxing matches" between the Paschke boys. It is interesting that boxers were a favored design element in some of Ed's early prints, and re-emerged in some of the last paintings Ed was working on.

Ed looked at a lot of "Mad Magazine" Comic books as a teenager. Again, the way certain artists drew their characters attracted Ed.