Above: The cartoon was originally bought by the New York Daily News. This was a few years back, when the city-wide smoking ban was first signed into law by Mayor Bloomberg. The cartoon was killed and never saw the light of day because those fellows with the guns looked a little too Middle Eastern.
My point of reference for the brave guy getting shot by the firing squad is Sergio Aragones and he always draws Mexicans, and that's what they are: a Mexican firing squad like you'd see in an old movie or an Aragones cartoon. Anyway, the good people at the Daily News decided not to run it, but, being good people, they paid me for it. The cartoon still works for me.
Above: I like the sour look on the fellow's face. I was thinking of that character from Robert McCloskey's book Lentil; a fellow called Old Sneep, who was a real sourpuss and sucked on lemons. Every company has to have a swoosh in its logo now.
Really, isn't this what more than half of businesspeak is about?
Above: an offensive, multi-rejected cartoon. It had done all the rounds and been rejected. However, Matt Diffee wrote a note to me saying how much he liked it. Again, a colleague taking a moment to tell you they like your work really takes the sting out of not being able to peddle a cartoon successfully. But, like I said, it was offensive.
Above: This cartoon was in a business mag. I can't recall which one. When I was in my 20s I had this problem. I learned since then.
Above: an edgy cartoon that was turned down by US markets, but a UK mag ran it. The visual is based on my stoop in Brooklyn. The only thing that's wrong about it the fact that the garbage can lids are not chained to the wrought iron fence. A must in Brooklyn! I wish all the cartoons I posted today came in as big as this. Hmm.
Above: a very early sale to the Chronicle of Higher Education. Click on the thing (reproduced here way too small -- sorry) and you can see the writing on the cart is "See Yourself as Others See You."
Above: If I was Batman, I would be forever stuffing junk into my Batbelt and not being able to find anything when I needed to. As you can see, this was my charcoal and wash period.
Above: here I am, reworking the swoosh idea for a cartoon. Now, if I was editing a book of my cartoons, I would not show you 2 similar cartoons. But, honestly, I do go back and see if I can milk one or two or three gags out of the same particular subjects. This was published in the Funny Times.
Above: more charcoal and more wash and it's all come out a bit muddy.There is a story behind this one. I had drawn a (different) cartoon previous to the above one. The visual was a destitute boss encouraging a couple of employees to turn to a life of crime. The boss was holding up a couple of black caps and those black eyemasks for them to use, traditional crook attire.
I went to the New Yorker offices like I did every Tuesday back then, and took my turn sitting down with Bob Mankoff while he looked at my batch of cartoon submissions that week. He looked at that boss cartoon and said, We (meaning the NYer mag) don't really go for this retro iconography. He was pointing at the black caps and eyemasks.
The phrase stuck with me, and I came up with the above cartoon which I brought in the following week.
Bob held the cartoon; meaning that mmmmmmaaaaaaybe they'll buy it.
Well, they didn't. But the Chronicle of Higher Education snatched it up.
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