Scott Shaw: "Neal Adams Told Me to 'Give It Up'"

Scott Shaw! adds a new autobiographical tale of his cartooning travails in his ongoing Now It Can Be Told! series at Act-iv-ate.

There has to be a kind of obstinance in wanting to be a cartoonist. Cartooning offers no secure roadmap to fame and fortune -- or, at least, just eeking out a decent living to put meat (or Boca Burgers) on the table. You can't just go and get a degree and then get placed in a nice 9 to 5 cartooning job with salary and percs. You have to hustle, try new stuff, get your work out there.

And what do you do when a cartooning icon looks at your hard work and tells you to (as we say in Brooklyn) fuggedaboutit!?!

Scott Shaw explains -- and that's what I mean when I say there has to be a certain amount of wrong headedness in your reactions to the lemons life gives you. Stop reading and go look.