Cartoon Art

Believing in Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy and many other "make believe" characters was a great enjoyment which nourished my already vivid imagination and has given to me decades of enjoyment. Notice that I didn't say,"as a child!" For me, the jury is still out concerning their existence. I choke up every time I hear or read Francis Church's famous editorial, "Dear Virginia," which was an editorial that replied to a question from a little girl, "Does Santa Claus really exist?" I still have embers burning in my imagination that spark and conjure up images every season when these characters again cavort about in the hearts of many, especially mine. Being childlike in this particular area is a badge of pride that I wear... and feel sad for so many who have completely lost that quality.

I did have one additional character that I thought of... imagined... and dreamed of being.... a professional cartoonist. While not an imaginary character, it was almost too much to believe that I could actually become one, so in some ways it loosely fit into the realm of the other characters. Unfortunately, that dream was not shared by my dad, a very practical man who encouraged me to pursue more "realistic" careers. It wasn't that easy to quash that dream in me however: It never left... which, unless someone is particularly lucky and things fall into their lap, is what it takes to even think of being a cartoonist, or actually an artist of any kind; Feeling that life would be incomplete without it.

I watched every daily episode of Tom Hatton drawing on the Popeye Cartoon Show. I faithfully tuned into Walt Disney and his cartoonists on TV in black and white, and was fully entranced when it became "Disney's Wonderful World of Color!" Daily, I went to the newspaper editorial page to see what Karl Hubenthal had drawn and how he drew it, although, as a child I didn't always understand the politics behind them. One of my prized possessions is a signed drawing of Karl's inscribed to ME when I had the chance to meet him! I never missed Mad Magazine, being in awe at every drawing, especially those drawn by Jack Davis, whose shadow I and almost all other cartoonists I know are still under. I must have bought every Foster book on how to cartoon... and practiced every day.

Fast forward to today! As a professional cartoonist, I'm very happy to say that I haven't outgrown cartoons, that they are not just a business They have remained a real part of who I am The characters and the fantasy worlds that I create still pull me into them as I create and walk their roads and paths for brief periods of time. The major difference is that now I have the ability to create the places and their inhabitants that even I don't know are there until they become visible. At times, and perhaps you have to be an artist to understand this, I sometimes watch my hand drawing and it's almost as if I'm watching another person creating the images. I sometimes find myself thinking, "Where did THAT come from?"

As Church wrote in his editorial, "Just because something can't be seen is not proof that it does not exist." Love and our other emotions certainly do exist... and are physically embodied in art... specifically and sometimes especially cartoons since they're almost the only way of seeing worlds and characters whose address is in our imagination.

Let your imagination take you into this world. In addition to my mind, it's in the July edition of Trailblazer Magazine.