I got started with cartooning, some might say, rather late in life. It was something that was never on my radar, and it stayed off the radar as I was busy with my day job and raising a family. Add to that my lack of drawing skills. Drawing was something that my father did. He was a Graphic Artist. His brother was a Graphic Artist / Illustrator. Their father was an architect.
My studies were in Computer Science and I spent my professional career in that field.
In 2019, however, two things happened...
The first of the 2 things was a podcast. I forget the podcast series, but in this episode, a guy who did stand-up comedy, talked about his multi-year quest to become a New Yorker cartoonist. (and he did it). That was the first "thing". I just filed it away.
The other "thing" was a visit to my folks in South Carolina to ring in the new year of 2019. My father, Stan, who was 91 years old at the time, was cleaning up his studio and he had brought out some manilla envelopes. Large and small envelopes with artwork. One particular envelope was filled with original cartoons that he created in the early 1950's.
Huh? I never saw these. Ever.
As he told us, he dabbled in cartoons as a little side-hustle while working his day job as a graphic artist. He had some early success too, selling one to the Saturday Evening Post, then another to 'An American Magazine'. He thought, "heck, that was easy", so he created more. But those didn't sell, and being busy with the day job and a growing family, his cartooning was set aside... By the way, now I know where the humor came from as continued to created the most amazing custom cards and other things throughout our lives.
But here it was, a manilla envelope full of cartoons, each on an 8-1/2 x 11" sheet of paper. Some color, some black and white. and two newspaper clippings of the published ones. I was in awe. They were so professional looking, just like New Yorker cartoons. Here are the two published cartoons:
By the way, none of us kids knew of his cartooning side-hustle. I said to Dad, "Where have these been? You never mentioned cartooning and you never showed us these." He just shrugged. He went on to tell the stories but only because we were asking. Talk about modesty! So, for almost seventy years these cartoons lay dormant.
The artistry. The humor - From my Dad ! It really stayed with me. If he had an interest in cartooning, would I ?
I can go on about my other early influences like the comics I read as a kid and things that appealed to me - perhaps in another post. But I'll stay on this thread...
Here are a few more: ( BTW I since had him sign all of these)
The cartoons were also a snapshot of the times. Mid Century America in the early 1950's. Family life, technology, things like door-to-door vacuum salesmen. (Draft cartoon here).
As for me, I couldn't draw like that and I never tried to conceive of a single-panel cartoon, (called a gag cartoon). I did, however, have a quirky sense about me, and now I know where I inherited that from. I've had created things like quirky first-person video vignettes. (it would take too long to explain those so maybe I will in a future blog). When my dad saw those videos, he loved them (again, DNA at work). He suggested they were a little like the humor of Jacques Tati, who was a French actor, comedian, and creator of several films. He excelled in humor and action that didn't require much dialogue. Kind of like what "Mr. Bean" did later.
Dad also turned me on to a French artist, André Francois, who did much work in the graphic art space, and was a cartoonist and cover artist for The New Yorker. Dad gave me Andre's book of cartoons called "The Tattooed Sailor". In particular, I was amazed at André's masterful work with non-captioned cartoons. To me, they were sublime. I later collected several books by Andre Francois, like "Half-Naked Knight".
A few months after coming home from that trip, I was out on my bike and thought, if I were to make a cartoon, what would it be? I saw some birds sitting on the overhead telephone lines and thought that perhaps the birds could eavesdrop on telephone conversations and hear gossip. Why not ? We had just dropped our landline in favor of using our cellphones, so maybe others were doing the same and gossip was somehow drying up for the birds.
I used an app on my iPad called "Paper" and scribbled this together.
Sure, it may not be great, but there was something so rewarding about thinking of and creating it. A thought was now a tangible "thing". Creating the scene, the characters, the dialogue. I could have them do or say literally anything.
After that first cartoon, I started writing down ideas in a notebook, and whoosh, the floodgates opened with more and more ideas. I couldn't keep up. It was as if the muses swarmed me. I was hooked. Compelled to do these.
But the most rewarding gift, was a deeper connection with my father. It was a whole new chapter in our relationship, and one that I was forever grateful for. We would spend hours on the phone talking about cartooning, artists, influences. Getting his advice, hearing stories. He encouraged me, and of course it was fulfilling when he truly liked one of my cartoons. I was also proud to share the experience with him when my first cartoon was published in 2021.
I came to realize that we should pay attention to the likes and hobbies of our parents and grandparents. Maybe take a look at your ancestry. Were they drawn to jazz, gardening, architecture, humor, art, woodworking, tropical fish? (By the way, all of these are things my dad liked, and go figure, so do I). The affinity for certain things "could" be passed along to you, and if you never dabble in those things, they might remain domant. But if you do, there's a good chance at an "AHA!" moment. Everyone has a voice.
Cheers,
Dave
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