Hugh MacLeod
Cartoons drawn on the back of business cards
I’m Hugh MacLeod. I’m a cartoonist. Occasionally I write books.
gapingvoid is interested in start-up culture, because changing business for the better is what we’re about; that’s what Social Object Factory is about. We live and breathe it; we help everyone from lone entrepreneurs, to mid-sizers, to Fortune 500’s do the same. Check out our work here.
We create art that helps companies kick ass, end of story.
We also have a daily cartoon newsletter that makes a lot of people happy.
If you just want to say ‘Hello’, feel free to email me, anytime.
If you want to talk business, then it’s probably best to please contact my business partner, gapingvoid CEO Jason Korman, here. We look forward to working with you. Thanks!
Prints |
Opening | Current |
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NY NY |
$275 |
February 4, 2013
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Tapestry, a wonderful little picture-storytelling app from NYC did a lovely job of capturing the backstory of my “I don’t have friends” piece, one of my all-time favorites.…
[To read the entire original backstory, go here.]
November 9, 2012
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As you all know, gapingvoid’s New York connections run deep. So of course, we wanted to help make a difference in the utterly horrifying wake of Hurricane Sandy…
We made a video to help out the American Red Cross, a truly amazing organization, that YEAH, needs our help. Badly.
Please donate what you can, as soon as you can. And feel free to share/use the video as you see fit, to help out/help spread the word. Thank you.
P.S. The video is a positive message of Hope, partially inspired by The Smiths/Johnny Marr song, “There Is A Light That Never Goes Out”.
A totally appropriate thought for “The City That Never Sleeps”, sure, but it’s also applies to the human spirit, something that blesses New York in abundance. As long as New York endures, as long as the light shines bright there, I have hope in humanity. It’s that simple.
I realize that Sandy hit more than New York City, but the lights going out in our old neighborhoods really affected us personally. (Jason grew up in Long Island and was there for five days, in darkness, after it hit; I used to live in Manhattan as well) .
For my friends in New York and nearby, this is for you. Godbless.
October 30, 2012
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#sandy. Wow. I’m stunned. It’s been quite an eventful 24 hours, to say the least. My prayers go out to everybody.
I drew these three cartoons this morning, and posted them on Instagram [username: @gapingvoid]. Though they won’t dry out the land any quicker, I hope they’ll make somebody suffering through this first-hand feel better for a little while, at least.
[P.S. As you know, New York City and I have this very intense long-distance love affair– I used to live there, so I’m particularly upset about what happened to my old West Village neighborhood. I visit frequently, though not NEARLY often enough. Boo.]
Time to be strong…
February 17, 2011
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I took this photograph when I was in New York last week, back in my old neighborhood…
The Corner Bistro was my regular watering hole, back when I lived in the West Village in the late 1990s, back when I was first drawing my trademark “cartoons on the back of business cards”.
I’d stumble in there late-at-night a few times a week. Great hamburgers.
Jeff would pour me a drink. Maker’s Mark on the rocks.
Jeff was a photographer. Nice guy. Great bartender. He liked my cartoons. I’d show him the new ones. He’d tell me which ones he liked.
I liked Jeff. We had a rapport. This was before I was ever published. This was long before blogging or Web 2.0.
This was when I was still unknown. A nobody. A goofball nobody in a tweed jacket, who would sit at the end of the bar for hours on end, doodling on the back of business cards for no reason.
So the Saturday I was in New York last week, I walk into The Corner Bistro, again.
Jeff was working; he’s still there. He’s married and has a kid now. He’s got a regular job doing something, but tends bar once a week for the hell of it.
He remembered me!
I give him a signed copy of Ignore Everybody [I had brought one with me, with the express intention of giving it to him], the book that was inspired by my days when I lived in New York– my lazy weekends in the West Village, my Saturday afternoons at the Corner Bistro, enjoying a drink, watching the cabs through the window, driving up Hudson, as Charlie Parker played on the best jukebox in Manhattan.
It as really good to see Jeff again. It had been over a decade. It felt like coming home. It was nice to be able to say to somebody from the old ‘hood, “Yeah. I made it. Finally.”
“This is an awesome New York story,” he said.
He’s right. It is.
Thank you, Jeff. Thank you, New York. Seriously…
August 5, 2010
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[Originally posted Sept., 2004]
There are a lot of great marketing books and blogs out there. That being said, I still think the best marketing stories come from personal, first-hand experience.
Here’s a favorite one of mine:
Back when I lived in New York there was this fabulous, crazy-ass juice bar on West Houston called Lucky’s Juice Joint. I think it’s no longer there. I hear it’s moved.
It was the most out-of-place business south of 14th Street. Hard to descibe, except as a “hardcore hippie haven”. Just had this weird, crazy, psychedelic-rainforest vibe. But damn, it had the best juice in town. It was amazing stuff. Tasted like the fruits and vegetables were picked that morning. Fresher than anything else I found in New York. And yes, I had searched high and low for even better alternatives, but never found one. In New York, this was really it.
The boss was this crazy looking tie-dye wearing guy who looked and talked like he had done too many drugs back in the ’sixties. A big ol’ middle aged, acid-head teddy bear. One day we struck up a brief conversation. I complimented the hell out of his product. “Wow,” I quietly gushed, “Your stuff is the best. It really is…”
“Sure it is,” said the guy. “That’s because we make it with reverence.”
You don’t have to get a job with a famous company or hot-shot industry in order to have a spectacular career. You just have to do what you do with reverence.
July 16, 2010
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I’ll be in New York next week, speaking at Supergenius, the Word-Of-Mouth conference organized by Andy Sernovitz and his team.
I designed two prints for the event, based on Andy’s two favorite WOM lines.
My take on Word-Of-Mouth? Two thoughts:
1. Would anybody tell a friend? If it’s a social object, yes.
2. Advertising is the cost of not being a social object.
I’ll let you figure the rest out on your own…
Thanks to Andy for putting on such a swell show. Can’t wait!
[Commission your own gapingvoid print etc.]
January 26, 2010
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I came across this old cartoon of mine today– I drew it when I was still living in New York, back in the late 1990s.
Back then, the whole urban boho artist crap was a lot more interesting to me than it is now.
Now it just makes me cringe…
[About Hugh. Cartoon Archive. Commission Hugh. Sign up for Hugh’s “Daily Cartoon” Newsletter.]
December 27, 2009
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I drew this when I was living in New York, in the late ‘nineties.
If you actually listen to me speak, if you actually read my prose writing, you’ll find I don’t swear very often. But somehow it works in cartoons. Especially ones created in New York.
This print is one of four prints in the “Portfolio Series Number Two”, but you may purchase it here individually.
[About Hugh. Cartoon Archive. Sign up for my “Daily Cartoon” Newsletter.]
December 7, 2009
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November 25, 2009
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[About Hugh. E-mail Hugh. Hire Hugh. Buy Hugh’s Art. Cartoon Archive.]
November 8, 2009
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When I set up gapingvoid.com back in May, 2001, I drew this cartoon for the FAQ page.
As you can see, I still wasn’t quite over my crazy-ass New York life yet… even if that had ended over a year before.
I foresee my work getting quieter and more lyrical over the next few years. Less rock and roll, more Phillip Glass, to use a musical allegory.
Yes, I’m really looking forward to it. Can’t wait!
[Backstory: About Hugh. E-mail Hugh. Twitter. Limited Edition Prints. Cartoon Archive. Newsletter. Book. Interview. Essential Reading: “Everything You Always Wanted To Know About ‘Cube Grenades’ But Were Afraid To Ask.”]
November 5, 2009
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I drew this one in early 1998, during my first months of living in Manhattan.
I liked all those intense, late-night random conversations with all sorts of equally random Manhattan people– especially at first– but of course, after a while they all start to sound the same.
This is the kind of drawing one does sitting on a New York barstool, when one is not liking one’s day job nearly well enough. That was my situation at the time, anyway.
If today I met my younger self from back then, I’d say to him, “You’re just paying your dues, Kiddo. Frickin’ get over yourself…”
[Backstory: About Hugh. E-mail Hugh. Twitter. Limited Edition Prints. Cartoon Archive. Newsletter. Book. Interview. Essential Reading: “Everything You Always Wanted To Know About ‘Cube Grenades’ But Were Afraid To Ask.”]
October 3, 2009
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Somebody just emailed me to ask, why did I use red and gray for the New York print?
Besides aesthetic reasons [Red & Gray gives the piece a sort of retro-hipster Ben Shahn vibe, which I like], here’s a little more insight.
I have a thing I call “The Red Zone”. The Red Zone is the state of consciousness when you are fully alive– when you are creating something, making art, making love, watching the sun set, whatever. When all your synapses are firing.
I have a thing I call “The Gray Zone”. The Gray Zone is the state of consciousness when you are NOT fully alive– when you’re just bumbling along, half-awake, sleepwalking through life. We’ve all been there, probably a lot more often than we’d care to admit.
“New York” is not just a geographical place to me. It is also a metaphor for the archetypal urban experience.
And I find with this archetypal experience, the battle between the Red Zone and The Gray Zone to dominate one’s mind is at its most intense.
Art Class over for today, Kiddies! Rock on.
[Backstory: About Hugh. E-mail Hugh. Work with Hugh. Twitter. Cartoon Archive. Newsletter. Book. Interview One. Interview Two. EVIL PLANS. Limited Edition Prints. Essential Reading: “Everything You Always Wanted To Know About ‘Cube Grenades’ But Were Afraid To Ask.”]
September 20, 2009
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[photo credit: Steve Woolf.]
I’ve made a lot of t-shirts in my life. The one for blip.tv is without question one of my all-time favorites. The shirt had an interesting genesis. I met up with blip.tv’s Charles Hope for lunch the last time I was in New York. While we were waiting for the coffee to arrive, I drew him the cartoon, right there at the table. Within a few weeks Charles had taken the design and turned it into a t-shirt. The rest is history etc. Hmmmm… Maybe I should be doing more of these.…. [Charles blogged both the lunch and the cartoon here.]
Just thinking outloud…
AFTERTHOUGHT: I don’t think I’d want to be in the shirt business per se. That being said, a fun t-shirt now and again for my hardcore blog readers wouldn’t be a bad thing. Again, just thinking outloud…
[Backstory: About Hugh. E-mail Hugh. Twitter. Newsletter. Book. Interview One. Interview Two. EVIL PLANS. Limited Edition Prints. Private Commissions. Cube Grenades.]
September 10, 2009
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[Click on image to enlarge etc.]
CONFIRMED: The print party will be held at Ilili, where I had my last #NYCtweetup, 6pm-Late, on 8th October. [Click here for more details.]
Between 27th & 28th
236 5th Avenue, New York, NY 10001, USA
(212) 683‑2929
ililinyc.com
The restaurant will be supplying food, Stormhoek will be supplying wine. Plus there will be a cash bar, if you’d rather have beer or liquor. It’ll be a fun evening. Rock on.
August 27, 2009
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[Click on image to enlarge etc.]
Greetings from Alpine, Texas. I left here two days ago, and flew to New York City from El Paso [a 220 mile drive to the airport], in order to sign the the Ignore Everybody prints.
Yes, it was actually cheaper and easier to fly up there and sign them, than to ship them down here. Go figure.
After a few hours signing them at the printer’s, I rushed off the Island of Manhattan yesterday afternoon, to catch a flight back to El Paso via DFW.
I was in my bed at the hotel in El Paso by midnight. Slept like a log. This morning I went to buy some art supplies in downtown El Paso, had a bit of lunch at Rudy’s, then drove 220 miles back home to Alpine.
A quick visit, to say the least. “Welcome To The Over-Extended Class” etc.
Among my purchases this morning was a big roll of canvas. The plan is to make a series of large, 48“x48” [4 foot-by-4 foot] canvases, i.e. exactly the same height, and one-half the width of desertmanhattan. The wee sketch above should give you an idea what I’m talking about.
I’m thinking of calling these “The Marfa Series”, named after Marfa, the next town over from Alpine, 26 miles away. I drive there and back about three or four times a week; it’s one of my favorite drives in the world. The drive inspired the idea for the the series in a SERIOUSLY big way.
Some will be cranked out in a couple of days. Some will take a lot longer, even a couple of months. I have no idea where this is taking me, other than I think I’ll end up somewhere pretty interesting. Look for them for sale over on the gallery over the next few months or so, or feel free to e-mail me if you’re looking to commission one. Thanks.
[Backstory: About Hugh. Twitter. Newsletter. Book. Interview One. Interview Two. EVIL PLANS. Limited Edition Prints. Private Commissions. Cube Grenades.]
August 23, 2009
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[The Purple Cow Print. Click on image to enlarge etc.]
[UPDATE:] CONFIRMED: The print party will be held at Ilili, 6pm-Late, on 8th October, 2009.
Between 27th & 28th
236 5th Avenue, New York, NY 10001, USA
(212) 683‑2929
ililinyc.comThe restaurant will be supplying food, Stormhoek will be supplying wine. Plus there will be a cash bar, if you’d rather have beer or liquor. It’ll be a fun evening. Rock on.
For those of you still in the dark re. The Purple Cow Print that I worked on with Seth Godin, one of the greatest marketing thinkers in the world, this is just a note to say I’ve set up an archive of all the blog posts about it here
Seth blogs about it here as well…
And of course, it’s for sale on the gapingvoid gallery
The other bit of news is, Seth and I will be throwing an official launch party for the print in New York City on the evening of October 8th, 2009. A chance for friends of both gapingvoid and Seth to hang out and meet n’ greet. A bit belated, maybe, but we both had very busy summers.
We’re throwing the party in a Lebanese restaurant in Chelsea, I’ll also have some of my other works on display– both prints AND original drawings. And yes, they’ll be for sale. So it’ll be a bit like an art opening, with perhaps more emphasis than usual on the people attending [not to mention, food and drink], than the actual art itself. Stormhoek, naturally, will be supplying the wine.
Details to follow shortly. Watch this space etc.
Anyway, I hope if you’re in the area, you’ll be able to make it. Thanks.
[NOTE TO SELF: What a crazy adventure this has all been so far…]
[Backstory: About Hugh. Twitter. Newsletter. Book. Interview One. Interview Two. EVIL PLANS. Limited Edition Prints. Private Commissions. Cube Grenades.]
July 16, 2009
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[Me and Seth signing the silkscreen…]
Got back to West Texas last night after almost a week on the road. A quick visit to Silicon Valley for the Techcrunch Party, then an equally brief visit to New York.
I was on the East Coast mostly to co-sign the Purple Cow print with Seth Godin.
That was a great afternoon, visiting his office in Westchester County. He’s a seriously interesting guy. We talked a lot about all sorts of things…
Other highlights were the #NYCtweetup- about 50 people came. Secondly, I got to meet my editing team at Penguin/Portfolio for the first time. They seem very happy with how the book is doing, so it was all good.
[Update: Galleycat, the publishing blog, also covered the print signing:]
Hugh MacLeod (right) became Internet-famous by drawing cartoons on the back of business cards and publishing them online at his Gaping Void blog. Along the way, he gained some valuable insights into marketing and creativity which he also happily shared with readers; that was enough to attract the attention of the Portfolio imprint at Penguin Group, which recently published MacLeod’s first book, Ignore Everybody.
Now, one of MacLeod’s friends (and inspirations) happens to be Seth Godin — if you’ve been reading GalleyCat long enough, you know we’re right there with him on that — and back in April, MacLeod drew a version of the cover to Godin’s Purple Cow (on a much bigger surface than a business card). “To me the book, as a totem, as an icon, represents a huge shift in thinking that came along, almost uninvited, back in the early 2000’s,” MacLeod emailed Godin shortly after. “The drawing represents [to me] my own ability to internalize it.” By the end of the month, he was taking orders for limited-edition prints which he flew into New York City earlier this week to sign alongside Godin. The pre-order price for the prints was $495, but if you want one now, it’ll set you back $1,100.
[Backstory: About Hugh. Twitter. Newsletter. Book. Interview One. Interview Two. Limited Edition Prints. Private Commissions. Cube Grenades.“EVIL PLANS”.]
June 23, 2009
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[“Confused”. Click on image to enlarge etc.]
I drew this cartoon earlier this evening.
It’s conveys the state I found myself in, back in New York a decade ago, when I was doing what I consider to be my best, or at least, my most formative work.
No artist wants their best work behind them. No human being wants their best days behind them. Yet my my Inner Doubting Thomas keeps telling me, I’ll never be that young again; I’ll never have my work be that fresh & new again. Nor, sadly, will the world, at least to me.
To Hell with it. I’ll carry on, regardless.
And of course, so will you, at whatever insanely impractical path you chose for yourself. We knew what we were doing, when we signed up for this tour of duty.
We still have a few tricks up our sleeves, don’t we?
Doubting Thomas can go fuck himself…
[etc: About Hugh. Interview. Newsletter. Book. Limited Edition Prints. Private Commissions. Cube Grenades. Hughtrain.]
January 26, 2009
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If you’ve spent a lot of time around the New York literary party circuit in the last couple of decades, chances are you would’ve run into a very old friend of mine, the author and playwrite, Mark O’Donnell.
I met Mark at summer camp back when I was a kid. He was a camp councilor. Back then he was attending Harvard, where he and his twin brother, Steve, were heavily involved in the Harvard Lampoon, the great, old college humor magazine that spawned offshoots like National Lampoon, Spy Magazine and The Onion.
Mark’s specialty at camp was writing skits, which he’d get the kids to perform around th campfire. And damn, they were good. Funny and smart as hell. I still remember how much fun they were to put on. I still remember how much people loved them, both old and young.
Fast forward ten years. I’m in college at UT Austin, though now I’m now back up East in Boston for a week, visiting family. I’m in the offices of the Harvard Lampoon, just hanging around the campus. The Lampoon was HQ’d in this really curious little building, that was donated to the college by William Randolph Hearst. Talking to the young president of the Lampoon and some other student staffers, I ask if they knew of Mark and Steve. Very much so, it turns out. Though they graduated a decade before, their names were still very much revered by folks there. I was told that Mark was off writing novels and plays, and Steve was now working as head writer for David Letterman. Both were living in New York.
So a few days later I phoned up the NBC Letterman office, asked for Steve, got put through, introduced myself, told him who I was and that I was looking for Mark etc. We talked for a bit, Steve gave me Mark’s number, I called him up, we talked for a whie, the next time I was in New York we hooked up and hung out; we’ve been friends ever since.
Ten Questions For Mark O’Donnell
1. After years of struggling as a classic New York humorist, you finally landed your first really big hit: Co-writer of “Hairspray, The Musical”, based on the John Waters film. The play won you a Tony Award, it now tours the world and has been made into a movie with John Travolta. I remember writing to congratulating you, and you wrote back, “And Hairspray is like only one per cent of what I’m proud of.” Perhaps, but it’s still pretty impressive stuff nonetheless. I also know you are still living in the same apartment you had when you first moved to New York in the late 1970s. Has your life really changed that much since Hairspray conquered the world?
It hasn’t changed at all, except I now have some security for my free-lancer old age. I’m certainly not famous, except to my friends. When I walked the red carpet at the Tony Awards, photographers kept asking me to get out of the way. Except one Japanese paparazzo, who said, “Over here, Mr. Dennehy!” He thought I was Brian Dennehy.
2. For the benefit of gapingvoid readers, let’s talk about the remaining 99% percent of your work. What else have you done that you’re proud of?
I joke that I’m obscure in many fields, but I am proud that I’ve published poetry, cartoons, plays, novels, essays and songs, even if I’m not well known as any one of those things. The diversity has been fulfilling. That Knopf and The New Yorker and Playwrights Horizons, the best in their respective arenas, have sponsored me — It makes me feel good, even if it’s our little secret.
3. I remember when your book, Vertigo Park came out. Basically, it was a collection of short humor pieces. One piece I remember in particular, “Marred Bliss”, actually got me to laugh out loud, something that rarely happens when I’m reading. It’s perhaps one of the top ten funniest things I have ever read in my life. Once you told me “Marred Bliss” was your “Party Trick”. Care to elaborate?
Basically, it’s characters talking in revealing Freudian slips: “I heard you were engorged, and I just slopped by to pave my regrets.” “Where is the strong, stabled man I’m taking to be altered?” It’s very funny, but only for ten minutes. It would get wearying after that.That’s why I call it a parlor trick. Also, it’s probably my most produced play, brief as it is.
4. You were also one of the first contributors to SPY, the famous satirical magazine. What was that like to work for, back in the early days?
It was wonderful, because my old Lampoon friend, Kurt Andersen, was the editor, so there was no “fear of teacher.” It was like a secret treehouse. He generously published a lot of my cartoons when other places weren’t biting, and when SPY became the capital of Hip, it was fun to go to its black-tie parties.
5. About a decade ago, I was living in New York when your novel, “Let Nothing You Dismay” came out. I remember hearing you being interviewed on New York Public Radio about it. One of those “Hey, I know that guy” moments. I really enjoyed the book. Though I’m straight, I remember really identifying with the main character, a gay, thirtysomething Manhattan guy whose life, shall we say, is going nowhere fast. The book chronicles his adventures during New York Christmas Holidays Party Season. He’s a guy who wants the same warm-and-fuzzy stuff we all do, but all he seems to have to show for his years living in “The Greatest City In The World” is underemployment, loneliness and alienation. You’re gay yourself, and as I’ve known you for a while, I did see some autobiography embedded in the story, however I didn’t see this book as “gay fiction”. There was something to it that captured the quintessential New York experience that transcends sex or sexuality– the high emotional price you pay for living there. You’ve lived in New York for over three decades, and I’m guessing, like all New Yorkers, you will have had plenty of painful, personal experiences similar to the main character. Was writing this book your way of working through those experiences?
GETTING OVER HOMER was my personal working-through-heartbreak novel. LET NOTHING YOU DISMAY is sheer imaginative speculation: the hero is five two, and I’m six two in height. I got the idea one Christmas season, when I went to two radically different parties in one day — an off-Broadway theatre’s, which had potato chips and wine in a box, and FORBES Magazine’s party, which had a live orchestra, tuxedoed waiters with hot hors d’oeuvres, and a glittering buffet. I thought you could paint a picture of all mankind in just a few strokes if you did it right. Also, the main character, because he’s short, aspires to higher things.
6. I remember meeting your twin brother, Steve, when he came up to the summer camp in New Hampshire to visit you for a few days. I remember seeing him wearing a tweed jacket, tie and slacks, and thinking, “Why is Mark all dressed up?” You guys were extremely identical in the twin department. And then yes, soon after you both graduated from Harvard and got jobs writing funny stuff for a living. Steve had his first big break writing for David Letterman [before that he wrote funny lines for a greeting card company]. Though you both have had nothing but love and mutual respect for each other over the years, your career took longer than Steve’s to reach the big time. Was that difficult for you, or did it not really matter?
We’ve never been competitors, we’re colleagues. His success is mine and vice versa. Does one doctor resent it when another doctor saves a life? Actually, it’s been up and down for us both, so no one’s ever “ahead.” We each believe in the other’s funniness, so the outside world’s response is beside the point.
7. Your humor, cartoons, and poetry have appeared in The New Yorker, Spy, Atlantic Monthly, the New York Times Magazine, you’ve published books, and your plays have been produced both on and off Broadway. I know you had a brief stint writing TV for Saturday Night Live, but if I were to sum up your oeuvre in three words, it would be “The Printed Page”. Your bother, however, opted for television, not just with Letterman, but also folk like Chris Rock and Seinfeld. I’m guessing you’re talented enough to have also gone down that road, had it appealed to you. But I’m guessing it didn’t. Thoughts?
I did write for SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE, and wrote assorted scripts that never got made. I’m a bit more bookish, I guess. Steve has thrived in TV, whereas I preferred books and plays. I joke that he’s the world’s most artistic comic and I’m the world’s most comic artist.
8. Wen you first started getting your name around New York, the world wide web didn’t exist. And now it does, very much so. Has the web affected your career? Has it made it harder? Easier? How has the world changed, from the perspective of the industry you’re in?
I’m techno-tarded, so the Web or whatever hardly affects me. The HAIRSPRAY screenplay had to be filed as an online attached document, that was, to me, a challenge. I expect I’ll have to handle it eventually.
9. This story really tickled me: After the success of Hairspray, you’re were working on a new John Waters musical, “CryBaby”, based on his film. A few months ago I sent you a note, telling you about how my “How To Be Creative” manifesto was going to be published as a book. I had no idea if you had yet come across it, at that point. And you wrote back, “One of our actors was browsing your website as we rehearsed CRYBABY, and was impressed I knew you. Qui peut savoir?” It seems to me, that when something you make gets successful [My most conservative estimate of how many people have read HTBC so far: Two million], it really takes on a life of its own. The author pretty much ceases to matter. You’ve got the author, you’ve got the piece of work, and suddenly you’ve got his THIRD THING that the work becomes, after it’s been seen and digested by enough people. Since Hairspray’s success, have you noticed this phenomenon?
Well, there’s a lot of HAIRSPRAY merchandise — Bloomingdale’s even did a fashion line — and high school kids everywhhere sing the score, but it was a collaboration between six people, and John Waters is the ultimate progenitor. I don’t take it personally, as you can with your strip. It’s how people introduce me now, though.
10. As your long-time fanboy, it’s really gratifying for me to see your work FINALLY getting the recognition it deserves. But as we both learned the hard way, “It don’t come easy”. Knowing what you know now, what advice would you have given yourself, years ago, when you first moved to New York as a young, aspiring writer just out of college?
Basically, don’t look down. I didn’t realize that the odds are against the struggling artist, but I assume talent, patience and work will vindicate those meant for whatever the dream may be.
And, as Yeats suggests, “Be secret and exult.” Take joy in what you do, even if as yet it goes unseen.
[The “Ten Questions” series archive is here.]
May 19, 2008
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This is a re-working of a very old cartoon of mine, drawn back in my New York days, which also borrows heavily from another New York-era cartoon. Unlike its predecessors, it’s now available in high-resolution, so if you want, you can download it and print it out, or whatever. Rock on.
