Beginnings

I'm always a bit nervous when I'm sent work by an aspiring cartoonist.

I mean...who am I to judge?

Sometimes the art is lovely, so well-executed, clearly an artist at work. But the gags... lag. Will the art carry the lukewarm jokes?  Or the opposite, more common— simple, almost crude artwork with funny bits. Lettering that runs on a slant and looks like a 4 year old did it. Made me laugh, but oh so hard to look at. Will the humor carry the cringe-worthy art?

Two things have helped me put this all in perspective recently. First, I came across this cartoon by Judy Horacek, an Australian cartoonist—

We all start somewhere, at our own beginning. This was brought home to me VERY clearly by the second thing... one of my early pieces being included in a Library of Congress exhibition of new acquisitions, "Timely and Timeless". 

The Library of Congress Prints and Photographs division has about 30 Stone Soup comic strips in its collection, something that I'm extremely honored by. But my vanity suffered for a minute when I saw the strip they chose for this show:

This strip appeared on January 12, 1996, just a couple of months after Stone Soup debuted in 25 papers. Val and the rest of the crew have evolved a lot since then... going from weekly production to daily production of a comic strip improves the look of the work very quickly. I've spent the last 16 years studying cartoons and cartoonists I admire, always hoping to improve the quality of what I produce.

BUT... looking back at the early work, despite the awkward drawings, I love the ideas I pursued, and my willingness to be bold since I had little to lose when I only had one, rather liberal, newspaper. This strip was written when I was still doing just one strip a week (Universal used the best from that period, plus new work, to put together the first 6 weeks of strips for my launch). Once syndicated, it's possible to feel intimidated by public opinion, be terrified of losing a paper, and these fears might lead a cartoonist to be overly cautious in what they produce— and that would be unfortunate. Unlike Web cartoonists, who have a lot of editorial freedom, and no real editors, we newspaper cartoonists reside in, and sometimes bristle against, a rather conservative landscape.

I mean, you still can't use the now ubiquitous word "sucks", as in "this sucks". Which it does.

Next week I'll be visiting DC, and will tour the Library of Congress and the exhibition with Martha Kennedy, who first approached me a few years ago with a request to collect my work. (Thanks to the amazing Ann Telnaes, a true cartoon goddess, for mentioning me to Martha). It will be amazing to see this cartoon up on the wall. Warts and all.

So, cartoonist hopefuls out there... embrace your beginnings. March past the doubters, if you love cartooning (and only if you really really really love cartooning) and keep the faith. And try printing better, OK?

 

 

 

PS. New Stone Soup books published this year— available at online booksellers, or from this site. Happy Reading!

Comments

[Denise C]

I am very disappointed in your recent MSNBC-influenced strips. You should not bring politics into the comics, but at least tell the truth; don't just parrot liberal baloney.