Freelance Cartooning

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Now look, Gang, don't get us wrong: We're most certainly not suggesting that half the readers of TMEN are gonna run out and become freelance cartoonists immediately after reading the following articles. A few, yes. The great majority, no. We've gone pretty deeply into the HOW of this particular work-at-home. dodge, though, for several reasons: (1) It's a fascinating field, (2) It's part of the communications/persuasion industry which plays an increasingly important (ask Spiro T.) part in our lives, (3) Like writing, commercial art and various other skills and crafts, cartooning does offer a way out of the 9-to-5 rap for a certain number of talented and determined individuals, (4) It's mainly a mail-order operation which means it neatly sidesteps race, color, creed and most other excuses we all use for putting bad trips on each other and (5) Successful freelancing - whether as plumber, cartoonist, cake baker, baby sitter, candle maker or whatever - depends on a certain life style . . . a way of looking at things . . . all its own. The products (skill, drawings, pastry, mere presence, decorator items, etc.) may differ but the ground rules are always the same: You're either your own man, work when, where and at what you like and successfully exchange your output for what you need and want . . . or you go back to pumping gas on the corner.

So, even if you think you have no drawing ability and you couldn't care less about trying to sell funny pictures to magazines, come on along. You're going to learn how to get a highly specialized art - or other - education for very little money (maybe even free), you'll find a definite step-by-step drop-out-and-do-your-own-thing plan used by one successful cartoonist and Carl Kohler's section, in particular, should (a) turn you on to some immediate money-making angles if you are, or want to be, a cartoonist or (b) just generally turn you on if you're not a tooner but need some inspiration from a sassy, successful practitioner of an alternate life style. 

So you wanna be a cartoonist? . . . Great! But why?

Why?

Yes, why . . . because if you're just looking for an easy way out, this probably isn't it. Cartooning, like most other endeavors, can be brutally hard work . . . and, like most other endeavors, it can be deliriously wonderful play that you just happen to get paid for. Let's stop and lay down some ground rules right in front: We presently live in a society that puts a price tag on virtually everything, right? Right. And that can be a real drag, right? Right. Because you always wind up having to put in your time on a job you hate just to get the necessities of life, right? Wrong!

It doesn't have to be that way, gang. It's all in how you look at it. Remember, we said, "The society puts a price tag on virtually everything". OK. There's no reason why you can't make that work for, rather than against, you.

It's easy. First, decide what you really want to do; second, start doing it (as long as you're not putting a bad trip on someone or something else) and third, figure out some way to exchange what you do for what you want and need.

If you're hung up on horses and hate office work, in other words, you'd be damn foolish to work all week as a secretary just so you could pay the rent, put food on the table and-maybehave enough left over to ride an hour or two each weekend at some expensive stable . . . yet that's exactly what an awful lot of babes do. But not my clever little wife. She loves horses so she teaches riding, trains, shows and judges horses . . . and, incidentally, makes twice what any desk job would pay her.

Rule Number One in Successful Living, then, goes something like this: Get yourself together, find out where the action is for you, go there . . . and start making it happen. As Thoreau said, "Build your castles in the air . . . and then put foundations under them".

So, for the sake of argument, let's say that cartooning is your thing. You're fascinated by the idea of communicating with handdrawn pictures, you dig the Ego trip of being a successful artist or cartooning just appeals to some artsy craftsy element in your nature. It doesn't matter. Don't analyse it. All you have to know is that cartooning is Your Thing.

Fine. Now, how are you going to start? With ten years of art school or an expensive home study course and a fancy studio with all the trimmings? Not on your life . . . or, I should say, not with your life. You haven't got that much time. You're interested in beginning right here and now. And, just so you can walk away from that factory job (work) and start cartooning (play) any time you feel like it, you're gonna want to make it begin paying off just as soon as possible. Here's HOW:

Every field of endeavor, every sport, every industry, every special interest group - it seems - in the country has one or two or 7 or 12 or more magazines, papers or newsletters published just for it. If the publication covers the field, it's called a trade journal. If it's put out by one company or subgroup within the field for "their own", it's called a house organ. TJs and HOs are what you look for whenever you want to get inside a field or a special interest group, quickly and easily. As a cartoonist, these publications should doubly interest you because a couple are going to teach you How and the others are going to buy a lot of your finished work.

Forget the shysters who exaggerate the opportunities in the field while selling you an overpriced art course or a truckload of fancy equipment. Forget the dilettantes who always flutter about the edges of the action. Go right to the heart of whatever field interests you by getting your hands on current copies of the working trade journals of that field.

There's no faster, easier, better way to pick up inside language, check out the economics, get filled in on the latest methods, spot developing trends and learn "who's who" in the particular establishment or power structure that interests you.

When I decided to break into cartooning - back in the mid-50s -Don Ulsh's NEW YORK CARTOON NEWS and George Hartman's INFORMATION GUIDE were the two "bibles" that showed me the way. Through them, I learned very quickly that, while my cartooning was less than professional, there was definitely a market for the gags I was writing. So I switched to writing for other cartoonists (who I often found listed in NYCN and IG), and used the money I earned that way to finance the improvement of my drawing. Within six months (while I was still an ignorant 16 year old Indiana farm boy) I had had gags, drawn by other artists, published in Collier's, True and lesser markets and I was selling cartoons of my own. I had never had (still haven't) an art lesson, I owned no expensive drawing equipment and I definitely wasn't a genius. I had just used the cartooning papers as a magic carpet to get me where I wanted to go.

I've since used my cartoon experience as a springboard into some nice public relations and writing jobs and I've kind of drifted away from the field. If I wanted to get back to the drawing board today (or if I was just starting out), however, my first move would be to get my name on the mailing list for the IG. It's now called CARTOON WORLD and is published from P.O. Box 30367, Lincoln, Nebraska 68570 for $15.00 a year. NEW YORK CARTOON NEWS is no longer around but, for an annual $17.00, GAG RE-CAP PUBLICATIONS puts out a regular cartoon sheet from P.O. Box 86, East Meadow, N.Y. 11554 . . . and I'd get it.

I'd also, maybe, invest $3.50 in CAREERS IN CARTOONING by Lawrence Lariar and $4.95 for Jack Markow's CARTOONIST'S AND GAG WRITER'S HANDBOOK if I couldn't find them in a library. That, plus the following articles by Kohler, would give me (and should give you) enough marketing information to Make It.

And remember, whether you're trying to make it inside or outside the present establishment, the key to success is mar keting. If you don't somehow swap what you have too much of (beans, fence posts, cartoons, ripe fruit or enthusiasm) for what you need (shoes, bananas and automobiles), you ain't gonna make it.

But what about drawing . . . isn't that important too? Yes, but not as important as you may think. A poorly drawn cartoon with a strong gag that hits the readers of a particular magazine right between the eyes will always sell before the beautiful rendering that isn't really relevant. This is no excuse for lousy artwork, understand, but it does explain why, contrary to what most cartoon course peddlers tell you, you don't need to go to any art school or take any course on the market to become a cartoonist.

As a matter of fact, I feel very strongly that - unless you're really a lazy lout who needs to be pushed, and pushed hard, to start a gag or finish a drawing (and what are you doing in cartooning, in that case?) - you'll find most instruction in the field (and most other fields, too) vastly overpriced and largely irrelevant.

You don't really want all those pre-packaged assignments, penpal letters and a $500.00 diploma to hang on the wall, do you? Maybe so, maybe not. As for me, I was more interested in kicking the 9-to-5 job . . . and that meant selling cartoons.

If you're determined to squander your hard earned loot on a cartoon or commercial - or even fine arts - course, I will give one company a left-handed recommendation: Any of the Famous Artists courses is a bargain . . . at about one-sixth the current asking price of, I believe, over $500.00 each. I made the rounds, one week, with a Famous Schools salesman and I know about what everything from the salesmen's commission and district manager's override right through the triple-page ads in the glossy magazines costs the company. After all the hype, there isn't much left for art instruction. No worse than other firms in the field, you understand, but not a lot better either.

Besides, there's literally tens and tens of thousands of courses from that one company (and as many, if not more, from each of the others) gathering dust on bookshelves throughout this country. A two line classified ad in any big city paper should get you a lot of answers and at least one course for $75.00 - which is what I paid for mine - or less.

A good course, used as a reference, can be valuable to you but it's only worth what you take out of it. The most important thing for you to do if you want to be a cartoonist, is to draw every chance you get. And don't take the lazy man's way out and only draw the things that are easy for you. You're only fooling yourself if you do. Draw, and keep on drawing . . . from life, from memory, from imagination.

You don't need fancy drawing pencils and pads either. Ordinary note books and regular pencils (whatever number you prefer) are plenty good enough. The really important thing is the developing coordination between your hand and eye.

And here's a fact that should surprise you . . . the best teachers in the world are all set to help you for FREE. That's right, the cartoonists who sell their work for the highest prices today are ready to teach you to draw.

All you have to do is leaf through any magazine or newspaper that prints cartoons. If you don't have any lying around, go out and ask the neighbors for back issues . . . or make a trip down to the nearest waste paper firm. Get yourself a big stack of magazines with cartoons in them.

Then go through all the publications and clip out all the cartoons you find. Keep it up until you've got drawings by every artist whose work you can get your hands on. These cartoonists are the best teachers in the world. Why? Because these are the guys who are selling their work, right now, today.

Forget all the two-bit teachers who never sold a drawing in their life. Forget all the dated artwork in the cartoon courses. Study what the selling artists are doing. They're the ones who really know what cartooning is all about.

Notice how they place their characters. See how they vary the lines in their drawings. Study their methods of shading. Compare the different ways they draw people. Look at the way they sketch the backgrounds. Soak up every detail of every drawing you can get into your file.

Then try to draw that way yourself. Use every trick you can steal to make your drawings sparkle just like the professionals. Gradually, you'll pick up one idea from one artist, something else from a second and another wrinkle from a third. Pretty soon, you'll be cranking out clean cartoons in a style all your own.

If you don't think you can learn about drawing this way, let me tell you something: The pros do this all the time . . . it's the way it's done. So go to it.

Some skills, such as learning to draw perspective, you'll probably have to learn from regular art books because it is hard to acquire such knowledge merely by looking at finished art work. In the main, however, you will find that the best cartoon instruction in the world is only as far away as the nearest printed cartoon.

THE TOOLS OF THE TRADE

As for supplies needed to begin cartooning . . . here again you can forget the sharpsters who want to sell you everything from hand-engraved sketch pads to chromed drawing tables.

Essential, of course, is a pencil. Ordinary every day pencils are plenty good enough for a start. When you think you need something better, you will probably want a few real drawing pencils since you can specify their lead hardness much more exactly. They're graded from 7H (a very hard lead that makes a light line) through F (medium) to 7B (the softest, blackest lead). I usually wind up using a 2H and 4H most of the time. You may find other grades more suitable to your touch.

Paper is another primary must. Professional cartoonists use regular typing paper for the most part and there is no reason for you to buy anything any more expensive. For rough drawing and just doodling, use a cheap 16 pound paper. Inked cartoons that are submitted to editors should be done on a good grade of 20 or 24 pound, 25% rag content paper.

Only a few artists who regularly do complicated cartoons with tints and washes (colored or black ink mixed with water and used like water colors on a finished drawing) for the top-paying markets (Esquire, Playboy, etc.) ever use expensive drawing papers or illustration boards . . . and, then, only after submitting a rough idea on typing paper, usually.

Another essential tool (at least for me) is a good eraser. Again, you can start with pencil erasers. But sooner or later you'll want a good "Artgum"and a kneaded rubber eraser.

Cartoons used to always be done in ink, but that is changing rapidly now and it's not at all uncommon for a drawing done in black pencil and spray-fixed to be bought and reproduced in a middle or minor (or even major) magazine. Still, you should learn to handle ink . . . because you will be called on to produce an "inker" once in a while. As a matter of fact, while you're starting you'll make a much better impression on editors if you submit all your cartoons in ink. Later, when you're "in" with a few magazines, you can start sending in penciled roughs (rough drawings) or even typers (typed gags for an editor to read so that you only have to draw the particular cartoons he wants to buy). At any rate, black is the only color ink you'll need and most artists seem to prefer Higgins brand.

Some artists use only brushes, other like pens and still others prefer to use a combination of the two for inking. You'll just have to find what is best for you. I've heard of cartoonists using brushes from no. 00 to no. 7. A few popular pen points are Esterbrook 356 and 358 and Gillot's 290, 303 and 404. Gaining in favor are some of the new mechanical pens, particularly the Rapidograph, which are made in various sizes.
A drawing board is pretty much standard equipment. Here again, you can save a lot of money by using a standard bread board or a piece of plywood for a starter. Prop it up on a table and you're in business. Later, when you have the loot rolling in, you can buy a regular drawing table (there's some great bargains in used tables floating around) or make one from a flush door.

Fancy light boards (which make tracing finished cartoons from a penciled rough much easier) are expensive so I made my first one from an old window pane and some scrap lumber. A mimeograph stencil light board also works well for less bread.

A ruler, some paper clips, a few thumbtacks and a small piece of cloth for a pen wiper come in handy. For correcting ink mistakes, some opaque white is useful. Your local stationer's store probably has "Showcard" or "poster" white.

As you progress you can pick up all kinds of stuff such as paste, T squares, a compass, triangles, blotting paper, colored ink, etc. but paper, pencil, black ink, ruler, drawing surface and eraser are all you really need to start.

Remember, it's the finished cartoon you get paid for. . .not the equipment you used while drawing it.

WRITING THE CARTOON IDEA

Now that you're all set to draw, where will the ideas come from? Well, you can use one or more gag writers who will mail typed cartoon ideas to you. You then return the ones you don't like and draw up the others. When you sell one of the finished cartoons, you pay the gag writer 25% of the price you received for the drawing.

Let's save the gag writers for your first dry spell: Here's how you'll think up your own gags:

Start a morgue. All cartoonists have one and it's not as gruesome as it sounds. An artist's morgue is just a collection of pictures , cartoons, funny remarks, jokes, sketches, and a thousand and one other things. A cartoonist generally keeps two morgues: One of cartoons and drawings to refer to whenever he needs help while drawing and a separate collection of jokes, gags, etc. to primp the pump when he's writing gags.

Organize your morgues any way you like . . . in old shoe boxes, cardboard cartons, filing cabinets, albums, notebooks or whatever. But do use a system so you can find what you want when you want it. Add new material constantly. Your morgue is your most valuable tool.

Whenever you need fresh material, you'll start digging in the morgue and letting your imagination wander as you filter various bits of material through your brain. Pretty soon you'll come up with a combination you think is funny. You'll even begin to surprise yourself by suddenly thinking of a situation entirely different from the original idea you used to prime your creative process.

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